Nikki Stone

Olympic Gold Medalist and Bestselling Author who delivers a HIGHLY interactive, dynamic, and passionate presentation that takes audiences from laughter to tears, to all-out cheers.

Expert on

Inspirational
Leadership
Sports / Athletics
Success
Olympic / Paralympic Heroes
Motivation

Fee Range

$10,000–$15,000

Travels from

UT, US

Biography

At the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Nikki Stone became America’s first-ever Olympic champion in the sport of inverted aerial skiing. What made Nikki Stone’s performance so unbelievable was the fact that less than two years earlier, a chronic injury prevented her from standing, much less walking or skiing down a slope at almost 40 miles per hour off a 12-foot wall of snow that launches aerialists 5 stories into the air.

Nikki Stone’s empowering book, When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How to Stick Their Necks Out, was an Amazon bestseller. When Turtles Fly includes inspirational stories from successful individuals from all different arenas (politicians, actors/actresses, Fortune 500 business executives, musicians, bestselling authors, athletes, Nobel Prize winners, etc).  In addition, Nikki Stone is a contributing author to the inspirational book Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America’s Greatest Olympic Motivators, and writes articles and columns for a number of magazines, newspapers and websites.

Ten different doctors told Nikki Stone that, due to the unrecoverable spinal disc damage, she would have to face the likelihood that she might never strap on a pair of skis again. Nikki Stone fought back against insurmountable odds to reach the sport’s highest acclaim atop the Olympic podium. Nikki’s tenacity and refusal to step down from a challenge also helped her earn 35 World Cup podiums, eleven World Cup titles, four national titles and two Overall World Grand Prix titles.

Recognized as an International Professional Speaker of the Year by the American Speakers Bureau Corporation, today Nikki Stone travels around the world working as a sought-after inspirational speaker, author, ski host, and sports psychology consultant sharing her secrets to success by encouraging and motivating her clients to “Spread their wings.”

Nikki Stone’s remarkable athletic achievements include: the 1998 Olympic gold medalist in aerial skiing, 35 World Cup medals, 11 World Cup titles, four national titles, two yearlong Aerial World Cup titles, a World Championship title and the first pure aerialist ever (male or female) to become the yearlong Overall Freestyle World Cup Champion. Nikki Stone also sits on five different Olympic and sports committees.

Nikki Stone’s contributions span far beyond her professional endeavors. She devotes time to charities such as Right To Play, the “Make-A-Wish” Foundation & the American Cancer Society. She also hosts group skiing adventures and participates in numerous sponsor promotions for major national and international companies.

In addition to her athletic accomplishments, Nikki Stone is also a Magna Cum Laude undergraduate of Union College in New York and a Summa Cum Laude Master’s graduate of the University of Utah in the field of Sports Psychology. With her incredible academic record and her remarkable presentation skills, Nikki Stone was asked to work as a Visiting Professor at the University of Utah.

Why Nikki Stone

  • Nikki has learned the tools for success and will share this in-depth knowledge, taking you on an emotional journey with exclusive, hand-on and relatable activities and tools that will teach you to be like an Olympic champion in an office setting. Nikki will teach you new and unique strategies to cultivate your professional and personal growth through a highly interactive, dynamic, and passionate presentation.
  • Learn inventive and inspired ways to find your drive, overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, develop laser focus, utilize teamwork, sustain your perseverance, build your confidence, and take risks you once thought impossible from an American hero who has studied and experienced all the unique ways of becoming a champion.
  • Be motivated and inspired like you’ve never been before with an Olympian story that will take you from tears to laughter to all-out cheers.

Speaker Videos

THE CHAMPION’S PATH TO LEADERSHIP AND DRIVE: The Strategies and Tools for Everyone to Be a Champion and Increase Productivity and the Bottom Line

As the old saying goes “champions aren’t born, they are made”. Olympic Gold Medalists have reached a level of success that very few people in the world have achieved.

The path to strong leadership starts by setting a culture of performance and excellence, particularly in high pressure moments. Olympians constantly look to understand their strengths and how they can improve their weaknesses.

Learn how to be at your best from someone who studied and lived this for decades. Nikki will help you:

• Learn how your business and employees can adapt to modern updates without slowing momentum
• Discover the alignment of 7 critical success factors of sport analogous to the alignment of business departments & divisions
• Acquire tools champions use to pick up and reenergize after defeat and setbacks
• Understanding how and why a strong mission statement can help increase profits
• Increase customer and employee retention through strong desires
• Learn skills for gaining empowerment so everyone takes ownership in the company’s success
• Develop tools for dealing with overwhelming stress so that you don’t fall apart when the company goes through high pressure moments
• Discover a philosophy that teaches you which competitors you need to fear and how you handle healthy competition to land on top
• Gaining the ability to chart clear paths and create new opportunities

The participants will recognize and be able to apply the skills it takes to be a champion in the workplace. Nikki will help guests increase output, become more productive and learn their true potential.

THE ART OF THE ADVERSITY COMEBACK: The Strategies and Secrets to Resilience, Revival and Renewal

The people who have risen to the top and stayed at the top have world-class resilience.  People with a vision and desire can overcome everyday challenges, just like when Champions overcome changing situations. We all possess the ability to be resilient and overcome life’s challenges when we have the proper tools.

Nikki did four things that anybody can learn to do:

  1. Develop a clear vision and focus on our goals
  2. Promote persistence in a path to reaching these goals
  3. Maintain the Never-Give-Up spirit and attitude of a winner.
  4. Create a plan that included a team of supporters.

Just 18 months before the Olympic Games, more than 10 doctors told Nikki she should quit and never ski again. If she did, she risked permanent spinal damage and much worse. With her four-step plan she overcame her challenges and won the gold.   

In this highly acclaimed program, Nikki gives everyone the insider, behind the scenes story and her clear strategies for success. Your personal leadership plan includes a clear vision and focus, path to persistency, a winning attitude and a strong team. She has learned that we need to determine where we are going and why it matters.  Nikki expresses the importance of setting the attitudes, mindsets, policies, practices and expectations for the culture of discipline.  Olympic champions have mastered world-class resilience and you can learn from one of the best.

BUILDING A WINNING TEAM: How To Create a Results-Driven Team With Purpose, Focus and Balanced Leader

The U.S. Team has always been a force to be reckoned with at the Olympic Games.  They have become a robust powerhouse because they have learned a clear understanding of developing strong communication, conflict resolution, trusty leaders, mutual compassion, cooperative goals and compelling buy-in.  These are the same skills that make a powerful AND proud business entity.

 

It is essential to figure out the ties and communication that will give everyone their greatest support and produce the strongest collective results. Just like employees in a business or organization, Nikki understands that an individual sport athlete sets personal goals but it takes everyone to help us succeed and the awards are won for the team. Let Nikki help your team:

  • Discover a unique way  of leading and following so it becomes a collaborative effort with strong communication between departments
  • Gain the ability to identify with those whom you are responsible
  • Helping others to better understand your vision
  • Finding ways to bring out the best in those your work with
  • Understanding and melding diverse backgrounds and talents to produce a more creative solution
  • Build a great level of trust and understanding with coworkers
  • Create a path forward where everyone has buy-in
  • Learn to respect people’s differences and use them to your advantage
  • Identify other’s strengths and weaknesses to contribute to the group’s overall success
  • Learn how to give and receive constructive criticism

Nikki’s program highlights the need for personal goals and milestones in order to drive the success of an organization. Every individual on the team needs to feel and recognize their own strengths to help contribute to the team.  But there needs to be an understanding of how these individual components fit together to develop a powerful organization in which they want to take ownership. 

Nikki will help you develop the skills to build a stronger group or company through trust, support and understanding in order to produce a team that is both productive and gratified.