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The Tempest Two
Tom Caulfield and James Whittle, The Tempest Two, help teams perform under pressure and adapt to change. These resilience speakers and mindset experts have worked with Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1.
Tom Caulfield and James Whittle, known as The Tempest Two, are adventurers and keynote speakers who help organisations perform under pressure, adapt to change, and build resilient teams. Their talks turn real expeditions into practical tools for work.
They've delivered keynotes and offsites for Google, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Nike, Airbnb, Amazon, Sky, and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team. They've shared the BizX stage with Gareth Southgate and Mo Gawdat, opened Gymshark's annual conference, and joined the High Performance Podcast Live tour.
Their story started when two friends in marketing jobs, with no rowing experience, rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in 54 days. Since then they've completed a world-first ultra-triathlon across Patagonia, a winter ascent of Mont Blanc, and a climb of El Capitan in Yosemite, learning each discipline from scratch. Without Olympic medals, elite sporting careers or military backgrounds behind them, they're living proof that ordinary people can take on extraordinary challenges, and audiences see themselves in the story. Each expedition becomes a case study in decision-making, trust, and adaptability when the stakes are real.
Tom and James pair cinematic storytelling and plenty of humour with research from psychology and neuroscience, so the room laughs as often as it takes notes. Audiences leave with habits for performing under pressure, a clearer way to respond to change, including AI adoption, and the confidence to take on hard things. Sessions run as keynotes, half-day workshops, or full-day leadership offsites.
They're a strong fit for sales kick-offs, leadership summits, and team offsites where an audience needs energy and ideas it can use the next morning.
Topics, sessions and talks
Most people decide what they can't do long before they try. Tom Caulfield and James Whittle unpick that habit using the story of two friends with no rowing experience who crossed the Atlantic, then climbed El Capitan having never climbed before. Drawing on psychology and neuroscience, they show how limiting beliefs form and how to challenge them. Teams come away with a practical approach to removing 'can't' and taking on goals that once looked out of reach.
The biggest challenge in AI transformation is human. Tools change faster than people's confidence to use them, and resistance quietly stalls progress. Tom Caulfield and James Whittle draw on expeditions where the plan fell apart within days, from Atlantic storms to impassable routes in Patagonia, to show how people learn, adjust, and keep moving. Organisations rolling out AI gain teams that approach new technology with curiosity and the confidence to learn fast.
Fifty-four days at sea taught Tom Caulfield and James Whittle to make good calls while exhausted, short on information, and facing real consequences, including a capsize and a near miss with a cargo ship. They translate those moments into a clear approach for deciding fast when the stakes are high and the plan has gone. Drawing on psychology, the session gives teams a shared way to stay calm, prioritise, and act under pressure.
When the path changes faster than the plan, leaders set the tone for everyone else. Tom Caulfield and James Whittle share how they led each other through expeditions with no playbook, making bold decisions with incomplete information and adjusting when conditions turned. They connect those lessons to restructures, new strategies, and market shifts. Leaders leave with practical ways to communicate clearly, keep teams aligned, and move forward with confidence when certainty isn't available.
Growth happens in the moments most people avoid. Tom Caulfield and James Whittle have built a decade of expeditions around that idea, choosing challenges they had no qualifications for, from ocean rowing to big-wall climbing. They explain why leaning into difficulty builds resilience faster than comfort, and how teams can make hard things a regular habit. The session leaves people more willing to stretch themselves, try, fail, and try again.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Tom Caulfield and James Whittle present as a two-handed act, trading first-person stories from the Atlantic and El Capitan over cinematic visuals, with plenty of humour along the way, then breaking each decision down with research from psychology and neuroscience.
The Tempest Two specialise in mental toughness and mindset, adaptability in the age of AI, performing under pressure, and leading through change and uncertainty. Their headline credential is rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in 54 days with no prior experience, which underpins keynotes and offsites for Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1.
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