Available to book
Transform leadership and team dynamics with Captain Sandy Yawn, speaker and maritime leadership expert. Sandy works with organizations to develop resilience and overcome barriers, delivering powerful insights from her bestselling book and three decades of yachting industry experience.
Captain Sandy Yawn is a highly experienced and accomplished yacht captain renowned for her captivating stories and exceptional leadership style.
Throughout her career, she has encountered various challenges, including encounters with pirates and collaborating with influential individuals, all of which have contributed to shaping her distinctive approach to leadership.
Her best-selling book, Be the Storm or Be the Calm, provides engaging and insightful guidance on becoming a better leader in both personal and professional life.
With over three decades of experience in the yachting industry, Captain Sandy is widely respected within her field. She is available for bookings as a celebrity speaker for private events, public speaking engagements, and virtual appearances worldwide.
Despite operating in a male-dominated industry, Captain Sandy's bravery and resilience shine through, making her an ideal keynote speaker for events related to boating, perseverance, women in leadership, travel, and ocean life.
Audiences describe her public speaking style as courageous and inspiring, as she imparts valuable advice on breaking barriers and never succumbing to defeat.
Captain Sandy's speech topics encompass a range of leadership lessons, overcoming obstacles, and the significance of teamwork. Her extensive experience in the maritime industry has instilled in her timeless leadership principles, such as inspiring and empowering one's team.
Despite the challenges she has faced, Captain Sandy approaches her work with unwavering determination, encapsulated by her mantra, "Wake up, Show up, Kick Ass, Repeat!"
Her journey of triumphing over addiction and cancer to achieve success in a male-dominated field serves as both an inspiring and entertaining narrative.
Captain Sandy delves into the unique leadership and teamwork challenges she encounters in her role, where her crew changes weekly. She shares valuable lessons from her extensive yachting experience, from the inception of a voyage to its final destination.
Captain Sandy's works, including her book Be the Calm or Be the Storm, provide invaluable insights into leadership from a woman at the helm.
Topics, sessions and talks
Leadership, diversity, overcoming obstacles: hear top leadership lessons from Captain Sandy of Bravo’s Below Deck.
Leadership, diversity, overcoming obstacles: hear top leadership lessons from Captain Sandy of Bravo’s Below Deck.
Leadership, diversity, overcoming obstacles: hear top leadership lessons from Captain Sandy of Bravo’s Below Deck.
Leadership, diversity, overcoming obstacles: hear top leadership lessons from Captain Sandy of Bravo’s Below Deck.
Sandy brings over three decades of unparalleled maritime leadership experience, offering your team unique insights into overcoming adversity and fostering resilience. Her captivating stories and proven leadership strategies will inspire and empower your team to break barriers and excel in challenging environments. Booking Sandy as a speaker guarantees an engaging and transformative experience that will leave a lasting impact on your team's approach to leadership and teamwork.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Sandy Yawn, email sandy.yawn@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Sandy's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Sandy Yawn draws on first-person accounts from her yachting career — including encounters with pirates and working alongside high-profile individuals — to illustrate leadership principles, structuring her talk around the arc of a voyage from departure to destination.
Sandy Yawn's sessions cover leadership under pressure, teamwork dynamics, and navigating adversity and change. She brings over 30 years of experience as a professional yacht captain and is the author of Be The Calm Or Be The Storm, a bestselling book on leadership.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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