NSB Logo Warren Macdonald Warren Macdonald

Warren Macdonald

Speaker

Canmore, Alberta, Canada

Helping you Shift your Perception on Change

Challenging times call for a powerful message. A message of hope and inspiration filled with the perspective, lessons and tools required when we are faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Warren Macdonald knows what it means to face adversity, to wake up to a whole new reality. In 1997 he lost both legs above the knee in a horrific backcountry accident; spending two days trapped beneath a one ton boulder.

Performance & Productivity Health Environment & Science Innovation & Change Management Sports & Adventurers Motivation & Inspiration

In the News

Keynote Speeches

The Power of Perception: Building a Breakthrough Mindset

If we can’t see where it is we need to go, what are our chances of getting there? If your team or your members can’t see where you’re going, what are the chances they’ll get onboard? In navigating change, and overcoming the challenges that come with it, we need to address the foundation; the root cause of why we often get stuck or disengaged, and that is, how we perceive change in the first place.

Return on Resilience: Bouncing Back is Just the Beginning

If there’s one certainty, in business and in life, it’s that we will all face challenges; that we will all, at some point be faced with a seeming insurmountable obstacle or obstacles. When that happens, our greatest ally is found in our ability to endure; to adapt. When that happens, it pays to have banked some resilience. This keynote presentation focuses on what we can do to prepare for our challenges in advance. On how we can fortify ourselves against the curveballs and roadblocks before they happen by practicing resilience.

Next Level Quality of Care: A Patients Perspective

The big picture aim of this presentation is to validate the importance of the work you do; whether you’re a front line practitioner or clinician; a caregiver or caseworker or a hospital administrator. Second to that is to share an example of the results we can achieve in our quality of care when we adopt a client centred (or patient centred) approach or model. When we partner with our patients to achieve a common goal.

One Step Beyond - Setting and Reaching Impossible Goals

This presentation is designed to provide you with three outcomes: Reinforced understanding of the power of purpose, the ability to see obstacles as stepping stones towards our goals, A clear understanding of the importance of preparation in reaching your goals.

Challenge of Change – Finding Opportunity in Adversity
This presentation will help your group realize that challenges brought on by change hold endless opportunities for innovation and personal and professional growth. That it is possible to not just survive, but to thrive despite adversity.

Challenge of Change - Finding Opportunity in Adversity

This presentation will help your group realize that challenges brought on by change hold endless opportunities for innovation and personal and professional growth. That it is possible to not just survive, but to thrive despite adversity.

Audience reviews:

  • I had the highest of expectations after booking you and completing the pre-event call yet you absolutely blew those expectations out of the water. I believe you received the only standing ovation of our three day event because you went out of your way to customize the message not only based on the details I’d given you earlier but also on the information you gleaned from attending several sessions earlier in the day. I have never seen a more captivated and inspired audience or a more dedicated speaker.

    - Manager, People Department, 1 800 Got Junk
  • Warren was AMAZING!!! We all loved him and his presentation! He was very ‘real’ and truly did captivate the crowd. Our event was very successful and this was definitely partly due to Warren.

    - Administrative Lead, Cavalier Agrow Ltd.
  • Warren's ability to force us to step back and look at 'how' we view our current challenges was powerful. He has already helped us to start to tackle some of these challenges that we simply complained about prior. We now have a renewed sense of our own ability to view them differently and dismantle them 'one step, one peak, one wave' at a time!

    - GM Southern Alberta, Wolseley Canada
  • Warren’s is not only a touching and inspiring story, he does a masterful job of making it all relevant to today’s business environment. At a time when it’s easy to be discouraged and disheartened about business or life, it’s tough to come away from Warren’s presentation,
    without feeling more gratitude, more committed and more resolved to change the way we perceive life, business and adversity.

    - Director, UFA Petroleum Operations
  • Warren was, once again, a perfect keynote speaker for our day. The audience was definitely captivated and inspired by his story. I have nothing but positive things to say about Warren, his presentation, and your organization of the booking.

    - Healthcare Marketing Specialist, Sysco Canada

Speaker Books

A Test of Will by Warren MacDonald

Speaker Biography

Warren Macdonald’s life’s boundaries were redefined in April 1997 with his accident on North Queensland’s (Australia) Hinchinbrook Island. Climbing to the Island’s tallest peak, he became trapped beneath a one-ton slab boulder in a freak rock fall. Two days later he was rescued, only to undergo the amputation of both legs at mid-thigh. Just ten months later, he climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain using a modified wheelchair and the seat of his pants.

Warren became the first double above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro (19,222ft), and more recently, in a spectacular effort requiring more than 2,800 pull-ups over 4 days, created history once again in an ascent of America’s tallest cliff face, El Capitan. He is also the only above knee amputee to make an ascent of Canada’s landmark frozen waterfall, the 600 ft “Weeping Wall” in Alberta.

Warren’s bestselling book, A Test of Will is the subject of the “Trapped under a Boulder” episode of Discovery’s I Shouldn’t Be Alive series. His documentary film The Second Step has been acclaimed worldwide, screening on National Geographic Television and winning eight international awards.

Warren has appeared on Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. He has written articles for CNN World Edition, Australian Geographic, Speaking of Impact and Professional Speaker. Warren is a visionary who lives and breathes change management every day, He is routinely sought out as a keynote speaker and motivator by innovative, forward thinking organizations looking to foster “out of the box” thinking. A powerful catalyst for change, Warren’s presentation challenges the status quo by telling audiences what they need hear, not what they necessarily want to hear… Warren’s mission is to help you change the way you see the world, and your place in it.

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