Menu
Vicki Anstey is a two-time world record-holding adventurer, human performance coach, and one of the UK’s most compelling female motivational speakers. She rose to prominence as one of the first women to reach the final stages of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, capturing public attention with her raw courage, resilience, and emotional honesty. Her journey from emotional rock bottom to elite endurance athlete has become a powerful source for helping others confront fear, overcome self-doubt, and unlock their full potential.
Vicki began her career in advertising, working with Eurostar and IKEA, before founding her own fitness business, The Barre Collective. Yet behind this outward success, she was battling the effects of a long-term coercive relationship that left her confidence fractured and her self-esteem at its lowest. Just six months after walking away from that chapter, she stepped into one of the most demanding challenges of her life, SAS: Who Dares Wins. As one of the show’s first female finalists, Vicki proved not only her physical grit but her extraordinary emotional endurance. She is also the co-founder of Woodlark, a performance consultancy helping individuals and teams optimise well-being, build resilience, and thrive under pressure.
Her achievements since then are nothing short of phenomenal. Vicki holds two world records: rowing unsupported across the Pacific Ocean with Girls Who Dare in 2021 and cycling 3,000 miles across America as part of The World’s Toughest Bike Race. She has completed ultra-endurance races in the Arctic at –35°C and across the Kenyan savannah at +50°C. She is also a UK ambassador for Inspiring Girls, raising aspirations for young women in over 40 countries. Vicki sits on an elite advisory team, advising in Psychology of Human Performance at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Her talks are gripping, emotionally honest, and steeped in practical insight. She combines storytelling with science, drawing on her certifications in stress and resilience coaching and her deep knowledge of behavioural drivers, neuroscience, and performance psychology. Vicki’s TEDx talk, ‘Why Fear is a Choice’, has inspired audiences to rethink their relationship with fear and embrace discomfort as a path to growth. Whether she is speaking on fear, emotional endurance, team behaviours, or self-limiting beliefs, Vicki empowers audiences to find strength in vulnerability, embrace challenge, and unlock their hidden capabilities. Her keynotes offer both inspiration and actionable tools that translate across industries, cultures, and teams, making her a truly transformative voice on any stage. Vicki has attended various events as a keynote speaker, such as the Northampton Saints Business Club, AstraZeneca, St John’s School Leatherhead, and more. Most recently, she spoke to young girls at the Rylands School as part of Inspiring Girls’ partnership with The Barbie Dream Gap Project, discussing adventure and leadership.
Vicki Anstey is regularly booked to engage audiences at events, read their latest feedback below:
‘The entire audience found your message inspirational, engaging, challenging, vulnerable, empathetic, and raw in places, which made it so much more about your journey than about the outcome. Although the outcomes were inspirational in themselves. On behalf of the team across nearly 30 countries and 180 people represented, plus our CEO, we would welcome you back at any time. For a talk to leave such a diverse audience all feeling that it was part of their journey too, is testament to your open, engaging and erudite style, the message and the delivery.’
‘Gritty, determined, inspiring…all with a heap of practical advice and easy-to-implement mechanisms with which to face and perform during highly pressurised moments – applicable in both our personal and professional lives. Vicki’s talk on the power of applying the right mindset is something we can all benefit from hearing. Motivational and inspiring…thank you for sharing your story.’
‘Vicki is an accomplished speaker and an extraordinary adventurer. A fantastic addition to any speaking lineup or as a stand-out headline key note. I’m gripped every time I talk to her. I’ve never met anyone more ready to face their fears than Vicki, or more able to turn those fears into strengths. She truly is an incredible person.’
Copyright © 2026 The Female Motivational Speakers Agency. All rights reserved.
