Helen Butters Keynote Speaker

Guinness World Record ocean rower (Yorkshire Rows, 2016)
Top 10 Sunday Times bestseller; Sports Book Awards shortlist
International Women’s Day speaker at Mercedes-AMG F1 (2024)

Helen Butters's Biography

Helen Butters is a record-breaking ocean rower, motivational speaker, and performance life coach based in the UK. Helen’s story begins not with comfort, but with courage. In 2016, she sat in a small rowing boat on the open ocean as part of Yorkshire Rows, an all-female team who would go on to make history.

Together, they became the first women to row across the North Sea to Holland and then across the Atlantic in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, widely regarded as the world’s toughest rowing race. Battling exhaustion, fear, and towering waves, Helen helped secure a Guinness World Record and proved what’s possible when ordinary people choose extraordinary belief.

That same spirit now defines Helen’s work off the water. A powerful and sought-after motivational speaker, she has spent more than a decade inspiring audiences around the world, from corporate leaders at Mercedes F1 and EY to explorers, creatives, and changemakers. She is co-author of the Sunday Times bestseller Four Mums in a Boat, a story so compelling it became an award-winning National Geographic documentary, celebrated at the international film festival stage in New York.

At the heart of everything Helen does is transformation. As a qualified performance life coach with NLP, she works deeply and compassionately with individuals to help them move from knowing what they want to change to understanding how to make it happen. Her coaching ethos is rooted in empowerment, guiding people to uncover their own answers and turn belief into reality.

Whether speaking on global stages, appearing on national television, or cycling 1,200 miles across Europe to raise funds as an ambassador for Maggie’s Yorkshire, Helen lives the message she shares: resilience is built, limits are learned, and they can be rewritten.

Building Trust Through Communication

Successful teamwork in extreme environments relies on honest and open communication, which fosters creativity, social interaction, and productive conversations. Deliberative thinking techniques helped maintain harmony and achieve objectives, turning the team into friends by journey’s end.

Leadership

Although the team was collegiate, the presence of a skipper was essential. Leadership involves understanding personal values, challenges, and styles.

Planning and Preparation

Thorough planning and preparation were crucial to reach the start line and ultimately row 3000 miles across the Atlantic. This involved understanding team dynamics, leveraging strengths, fostering resilience, and maintaining a positive mindset to handle difficult situations

Embracing Failure

Failures and setbacks were viewed as valuable learning opportunities that strengthened the team. The experience inspired creative projects such as a book, and the team cultivated mental resilience by not being discouraged when things went wrong, instead seeking alternative solutions

Courage to Face the Unknown

Trust and mutual respect enabled the team to venture beyond their comfort zones into the unknown. Commitment to a shared goal of reaching Antigua as friends unified the team, with everyone contributing according to their strengths and maintaining a positive attitude

Resilience and Persistence

Progress was made through small, consistent steps despite challenges. The team maintained motivation by viewing problems as adventures, which helped sustain their perseverance and resilience.

She brings boardroom-level lessons from a Guinness World Record Atlantic row, showing leaders how to sustain performance under pressure through preparation, mindset, and shared purpose.
She translates extreme-team realities into practical tools for building trust, improving communication, and strengthening cohesion when stakes and stress are high.
She draws on the team’s ship’s log from Four Mums in a Boat to deliver vivid, evidence-backed reflections that make resilience and leadership immediately relatable for modern organisations.
She combines keynote storytelling with performance coaching and NLP to help individuals move from knowing what must change to understanding how to change it.
She leaves audiences with clear behaviours to apply the next day, from leading with values to embracing setbacks and maintaining momentum through small, consistent steps.

Videos of Helen Butters

The Fearless Woman Who Rowed 3,000 Miles Across the Atlantic

Helen Butters - Motivational Speaker and Performance Coach

Books by Helen Butters

Four Mums in a Boat

Comments & Testimonials

“To listen to Helen telling the incredible story was both humbling and inspirational and is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when you have a goal, the determination to achieve it, the resilience to keep chasing it, the willingness to ask for help and the support and trust of those around you. Not only is the story a fantastic inspiration for all women, but it is also a story that will inspire anyone. It showed me that Breaking the Bias is not just about changing people’s perceptions, behaviours and mind sets; it’s also about not allowing people’s perceptions, behaviours and mind sets stop you from achieving your potential, your goals and your ambitions.”

James Green Plant Manager, McCain

On behalf of the entire organisation, I want to offer my sincere thanks for your invaluable contribution to the Thrive Conference, held on 15 May 2025 at Cedar Court in Bradford. Your presence as a keynote speaker brought depth, insight, and inspiration to the day. You brought your unique voice and perspective to our theme of belonging, and in doing so, helped spark meaningful reflection and conversation that continued well beyond your time on stage. Our aim was to create a space where people could connect more deeply to themselves, to each other, and to a shared purpose. Your messages played a central role in achieving that. You challenged, encouraged, and uplifted the audience in ways that only authentic, thoughtful storytelling and experience-sharing can. We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the conference, and your session has been consistently highlighted as a stand-out moment. Thank you for the time, energy, and generosity you brought to the day. Your contribution helped make the Thrive Leadership Conference not just an event, but a powerful experience of learning, connection, and, most importantly, belonging.

Prof Mel Pickup Chief Executive| Trust Headquarters | BRI Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

“I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of our Women & Money Team for your wonderful presentations on Friday as our guest speakers. The takeaways about not being able to learn resilience only experience it, taking note of the smaller pleasures in life (pineapples) and the importance of teamwork and many more nuggets, you shared with us when exposed to extreme challenges. Your story, "Four Mums in a Boat," is not only incredibly inspiring but was also the perfect narrative to share on such a significant day. Your experiences, challenges, and triumphs resonated deeply with all who attended, sparking conversations and reflections that went far beyond the event itself. Everyone left the room feeling they could do something more than they are doing! The feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing how motivated and inspired they felt after hearing from you. Your story was exactly what we needed to commemorate International Women's Day, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. You hit the spot!”

Jane Gow Clear Cut Financial Planning

First of all, throughout the organisation of the event Helen was extremely responsive and happy to meet more than once prior, to ensure a smooth run on the day. On the day there were no technical difficulties and Helen was prompt, professional and prepared with slides and Video clips to support the story. When it came to the story and its delivery, our audience was captivated, and any language barriers were broken down by Helen’s down to earth, honest narrative and the visuals she had prepared. We always survey our attendees for these sessions, and the response was 100% positive. The common themes in our feedback were “Motivation, Inspiration, Positivity, Teamwork and Resilience” and of course, a “fantastic event”. For many people this was their favourite Speaker yet and many were inspired to go away, learn more about the adventure and think about what their metaphorical ocean might be.

Helen Bleasdale Project Engineer| Services Solutions