Professional Highliner, Endurance Athlete and Keynote Speaker on Resilience, Focus and Mental Strength
“The line moves, but it`s always under you.”
Ryan Robinson operates where concentration is critical: on a line just one inch wide, hundreds of metres above the ground. For more than 15 years, the professional highliner has walked lines in over 15 countries on six continents. His experiences reveal how people manage fear, remain effective under pressure and find the courage to take the next step amid uncertainty.
Yet Ryan Robinson was not always fearless. Before becoming an extreme athlete, he worked in door-to-door sales and was afraid of public speaking. Highlining taught him that fear does not automatically disappear with experience. What matters is preparation, reliable routines and a system that holds when the pressure rises.
As a speaker, he brings these lessons into the workplace. He explains why even highly capable people lose focus at critical moments – and how teams can create the conditions to think clearly and act confidently under pressure.
Ryan Robinson – Keynote Topics
- Everything on the Line – Staying Clear-Headed When It Counts
In his flagship keynote, Ryan Robinson introduces his four-part system for handling pressure: Rig, Leash, Line, Anchor. These principles encompass preparing with your team, training the safeguards that support you, focusing on the next step and deliberately pausing to regain your balance. Teams gain practical insights into staying focused, working together under pressure and navigating uncertainty.
- Dismantled & Rebuilt – Letting Go, Finding Direction and Moving Forward
In 2025, Ryan Robinson spent an entire year travelling alone by motorcycle through the wilderness of the western United States, sleeping under the stars. This experience became the foundation for his keynote “Dismantled & Rebuilt”. It explores the personal process of change and renewal: What continues to support us, what needs questioning and how do we find a new direction?
- The Architecture of Expansion – How to consciously grow beyond your limits
Ryan explains the conscious structure behind setting yourself goals that go beyond what you think you can manage – based on fifteen years’ experience of longer, higher and more challenging routes.
Ideal for: periods of growth, new areas of responsibility and teams setting themselves bigger goals.
- The Vertical Perspective
Look at your work, your team and your fears from a height of a thousand feet. What changes when you shift your perspective?
Ideal for: strategy off-sites and leadership retreats
More About Ryan Robinson
In 2019, Ryan Robinson set the bridge-to-bridge highline world record in his hometown of Folsom, California. He crossed a 1,919-foot line over the American River on his first attempt on that line, in front of approximately 10,000 spectators and during a live broadcast. In 2023, he walked a full mile on a single highline across the Southern California desert. In 2017, he completed a 704-foot crossing while blindfolded.
He built his athletic foundation in endurance sports, completing more than 100 races, including half and full Ironman events. He crossed the United States as part of an eight-person team in the Race Across America. He also competed four times on “American Ninja Warrior”, reaching the national finals twice.
Ryan Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Communication and Philosophy and speaks English and Portuguese. His work has been featured by National Geographic, CNN and Discovery, among others.
His keynote “Everything on the Line” can be complemented by a separately planned live highline performance, subject to a site survey and venue approval.
Ryan Robinson connects extraordinary athletic experiences with a practical question for the workplace: What helps people take their next step with purpose when the stakes are high?