Book IWD Speaker: Joanna Lohman

Elite athlete, keynote speaker & upcoming contestant on The Amazing Race 39

The Amazing (Human) Race: How Elite Performers Adapt, Subtract, and Connect to Win

What can elite sport and global adventure teach us about leadership, resilience, teamwork, adaptability, and human connection? Through stories from professional soccer and The Amazing Race, attendees learn how to navigate uncertainty, narrow their focus under pressure, and build the kind of partnership that wins when everything else falls apart.
Before racing across the globe with World Cup Champion Ali Krieger as her partner, Joanna spent 16 years as a professional athlete and member of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, where preparation was part of the uniform. On The Amazing Race, preparation only took her so far. No film to study, no scouting report, no home field advantage. Just a partner, a clock, and a plan that could expire the moment it was made. Joanna discovered that winning came down to three skills: adapting when the plan collapsed, subtracting what didn't matter, and connecting with the one person she needed most.

The first is adaptability. Winning depended on having a plan for when the plan changed, especially in the ninety seconds after it collapsed. Joanna and Ali faced that moment leg after leg. What Joanna calls the adaptability advantage is a trainable way of catching the exact moment a plan has failed and converting that failure into the next winning move, before panic or ego gets a vote.

The second is subtraction. In a race built on distraction, more effort and more options made Joanna and Ali slower, not sharper. The teams who lasted longest found the one thing that actually mattered and let everything else go. Joanna breaks down how to spot that priority under pressure, cut the noise around it, and act with precision when hesitation is the more dangerous choice.

The third is connection. Joanna and Ali became known as the Hulk and the Head, one running on instinct and force, the other on strategy and calm, and neither could have finished without the other. Alongside the Boss Lady Alliance, the network of women racers who chose to trust each other over competing alone, Joanna learned that performance under pressure is never a solo act.

Audiences Leave With:
- A trainable way to catch the exact moment a plan fails and convert it into the next move.
- A method for finding the one priority that matters and cutting the rest without hesitation
- A way to build the kind of trust a partnership needs before pressure ever arrives.

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