Jim Davidson is a resilience expert and professional speaker who provides presentations about personal resilience, resilient teamwork and resilient leadership. He speaks to top-quality organizations like Marriott, National Geographic, US Army, Nokia, UPS, Nationwide Insurance, OppenheimerFunds, and more.
Jim shares stories, lessons and techniques for overcoming adversity and reaching high goals. Jim has presented inspirational keynotes and workshops at international sales conferences, leadership retreats, and corporate meetings for 14 years.
Jim co-authored the New York Times best-selling survival memoir, The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival. The Ledge was picked one of the Best Books of the Year by Amazon and it won the National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Literature.
The Ledge tells the epic story of how Jim escaped alone from being trapped 80 feet down inside a glacial crevasse. His survival story is so amazing that it was also made into a one-hour episode of the hit international TV show “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” on the Discovery Channel. Written with Kevin Vaughan, The Ledge is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook (narrated by Jim).
Jim summited Mount Everest in 2017. He has been a climber and expedition leader for over 37 years. Jim has climbed high peaks on five continents, from Argentina to Nepal, and from Tanzania to Tibet.
With his teammates, Jim has conducted multiple rescues of sick and injured climbers. Twice Jim has been recognized by the US National Park service for his successful volunteer rescue efforts.
Jim survived earthquakes and avalanches on Mt. Everest in 2015. He shared his incredible experiences and insights from that with National Geographic, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Smithsonian Channel, PBS and many other media. He is a member of The Explorers Club and the American Alpine Club.
Before becoming a professional keynote speaker, Jim worked 20 years as an environmental geologist (B.S. & M.S. degrees) cleaning up oil and gasoline spills. Jim facilitated scientific workshops and training sessions for Shell Oil, U.S. EPA, BP and many other corporations & governmental agencies.
Jim helped teach about 800 elementary school kids how to rock climb. He has co-led university students on ice climbing trips and international expeditions. Originally from Massachusetts, he worked there as an industrial painter of high-voltage electrical towers. He is fortunate to have two adventurous kids and an enthusiastic hiking partner named Jake the Wonder Dog. Jim lives in Colorado with his very tolerant wife!
During his first Everest attempt in 2015, Jim and his team were trapped at Camp 1 by massive earthquakes and avalanches. After recovering from this huge setback, he trained even harder and returned in 2017 to summit Mt. Everest.
Work, life and climbing always include change, challenge and uncertainty. Struggling up Mount Everest reveals how resilience allows you to overcome adversities and can reach high goals.
In this thrilling keynote, Jim shares hard-won resilience lessons on how you can:
Jim’s resilience was also tested by a tragic mountaineering accident that forced him to climb alone up an overhanging ice wall to escape from an 80-foot deep glacial crevasse. Jim’s survival epic was made into an episode of the hit TV series “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” (Discovery Channel), and it was shared in Jim’s New York Times best-selling book The Ledge. From his intense experiences, Jim distills how to:
This motivational keynote will captivate your audience and inspire them to reach their highest goals.
“Jim was truly an inspirational speaker. He was warm, engaging, and was able to focus his talk so that it was geared toward our organization’s mission. He was very professional and we would recommend his talk to any large group focused on resilience. Thank you from Donor Network West.”
“It is a rarity to find such a casual, yet professional presenter. It’s a great mix and I definitely look forward to working with you in the future. I can’t thank you enough for making my job so much easier…”
“The post-event surveys are in and, as I expected, you got top marks from everyone. The only complaints were that I didn’t schedule you for a longer session, earlier in the workshop. But that just means we’ll have to bring you back!”
“Jim Davidson’s keynote presentation and incredible personal stories of resiliency set the tone for our entire three-day National State Insurance Trade Association Conference. Our group of insurance association and company executives are in the business of dealing with adversity and Jim used his compelling life lessons to inspire our attendees to reach for new personal and professional heights. We all regularly hear from motivational speakers, but the feedback we received on Jim’s presentation was that it uniquely resonated because it was about taking real risks and surviving in the face of impossible odds.”
“Jim was very quick on the uptake during our pre-event meetings and showed from the beginning an understanding for the client’s strategic focus for the conference. From their main values and cue words, Jim connected his experiences with the purpose of the event. Inspiring, educational and very value-creating presentation!”
“After Jim Davidson spoke at our event, a participant later said to me, “The best speaker I’ve heard was at your conference. Jim had the most relevance to advising than all of the speakers I’ve heard.” Jim was very easy to work with, he was very organized, and made a lasting impression on the participants. We have since used his book, The Ledge, in our local literacy program; the students are on the edge of their seats while reading it.”
“This is the second time we have had Jim as a keynote speaker. Jim’s Resilience keynote tied right into the emphasis we wanted as a take away from our meeting. Jim’s ability to assimilate and shape the keynote to our business and provide methods/tools to help each of us moving forward was remarkable. We are grateful to Jim for providing both an inspirational message but more importantly, specific ideas and process that we can begin using immediately to improve ourselves and our business.”
“We will be facing challenges of a different nature in the coming year, challenges of new and dynamic growth. The key to our success will lie in our ability to execute: exactly the problem you had to deal with inside the glacier if you were going to survive. I will be stressing the importance of execution as we embark on these adventures; reminding them of the power of your talk and calling on them to reach inside and go beyond their perceived limits. I believe that they will rise to the occasion as never before. Many thanks for helping us to see beyond ourselves!”
“We had an inspiring, invigorating and very meaningful presentation from mountain climber Jim Davidson. Jim helped us with a great send off by using our challenges as analogies to correspond with his mountain climbing experiences. It worked wonderfully!”
“What an incredible story. You could hear a pin drop during his presentation.”
“Jim gave me the motivation to go forward with a project I have been struggling with for a year. Now I have inspiration to do it!”
