Janine Shepherd
- Champion Cross Country Skier Who's World Changed in an Instant
- Motivating Audiences to Overcome Adversity
- Renowned Change Agent
In Person-Fee 🛈
Fee Range
$15,000 - $20,000
Virtual Fee:
$7,500 - $10,000
Travels From
Wyoming
Janine Shepherd Speaker Biography
Janine Shepherd is an inspirational speaker and writer whose books have become classics in the survivor genre. A champion cross-country skier in training for the 1988 winter Olympics, Janine’s life changed forever when she was hit by a truck during a bicycle training ride in the Blue Mountains of Australia.
Doctors warned her parents that—even if she somehow miraculously survived her massive injuries—Janine would almost certainly never walk again. After a risky procedure to rebuild her shattered vertebra, and almost six months flat on her back in a hospital spinal ward, Janine came home to heal. With the promise of a career as an elite athlete now gone forever, Janine faced a daunting recovery and an uncertain future.
Struggling to rehabilitate with permanent disabilities, Janine rekindled her defiant spirit in a dramatically improbable way. Sitting outside in her wheelchair one day and watching a small plane fly overhead, she declared, “That’s it! If I can’t walk, I’ll fly!”
Still encased in a full body cast, Janine had to be lifted into an aircraft for her introductory flight lesson. But within a year she had defied the odds and succeeded in gaining her private pilot’s license. Her talent and skill as a pilot subsequently earned Janine a commercial pilot license and ultimately, her flying instructor’s rating. She then decided to learn to fly upside down, and finally, to teach aerobatic flight to other pilots.
Janine went on to succeed not only as a professional pilot but also to attain her University degree, raise three children and author several best-selling books.
Her remarkable life story ultimately captured the interest of a prominent film company, which produced the feature-length movie, aptly titled Never Tell Me Never.
In recognition of her service to the community and her tireless efforts in raising awareness for spinal cord research, Janine was awarded the Order of Australia, her nation’s highest honor. She is an ambassador for Spinal Cure Australia and Red Bull’s “Wings for Life” and a contributor to Deepak Chopra’s workshops. Janine’s story has been featured on 60 Minutes, This is Your Life and CNN’s Turning Points with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Her inspirational and emotional TEDx talk, “A Broken Body Isn’t a Broken Person,” has been viewed almost 2 million times.
She was recently named as an “Architect of Change” in Maria Shriver’s “Sunday Paper” Her latest book, “Defiant: A Memoir” was published for worldwide distribution by SoundsTrue®.
Janine lives in Wyoming, USA but is frequently traveling the globe delivering keynotes and her inspirational message of “defiance.”
To book speaker Janine Shepherd call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.
“AMAZING…” “INSPIRATIONAL…” “REMARKABLE…”
These are just some of the words used to describe Janine’s presentation and why she is consistently voted the ‘best ever’ speaker conferences have ever had.
When she speaks, Janine Shepherd takes us on an amazing journey. A journey on a road with so many twists and turns, so many deep valleys and steep hills that it mirrors the road we travel in own lives every single day.
This is a story that takes us from the pinnacle of elite athletics competition to the pain and fear of being wheelchair-bound and facing the shattering reality of life-threatening and permanent injury; from the exhilaration of flight to the struggle of taking one difficult step at a time on a long road to recovery which continues to this day.
Too often something that is meant to inspire and motivate leaves us feeling that little bit inadequate; there is initial buzz, then reality envelops us and we go on, unchanged.
Janine had a point of difference. She leaves her audience not only awed, humbled, and uplifted, but causes them to think deeply about the way they live their own lives.
Through powerful and emotive storytelling, Janine provides the tools which connect to her 5 pillars of well-being, Passion, Purpose, Perseverance, Play and Presence. We are then able to harness our energy, take bold action, and transform whatever challenges we currently face into outstanding growth and change.
From the classroom to the kitchen to the boardroom, there is something for everyone in Janine’s message of hope. She believes such boundaries are in fact artificial; that all is one – what we incorporate into our personal life when we transform dreams into reality cannot help but influence our work, our relationships and our reality.
Janine is real. She is funny, interesting and inspirational. She laughs at herself, she helps us see the humour and beauty of every situation, even the hardest, most painful, and difficult we have to face.
She teaches us to love the hills, for they are how we learn to fly.
"Never is a word I don't accept! I was never meant to live, walk again or even have children, let alone ever lead a normal life. The only limits we face are the ones we construct ourselves." - Janine Shepherd
