I spent 25 years asking the hard questions.
Now I prepare leaders for them.
12-Time Emmy Winner · Peabody and Murrow Award Winner · Former NBC News Correspondent
Coaching for board presentations, investor meetings, media interviews and crisis moments. Trusted by C-suite leaders at Fortune 500 companies.
Preparation for the rooms that decide everything.
Executive Coaching
Private, one-on-one preparation for C‑suite leaders before the moments that matter: board presentations, investor meetings, media interviews and crises.
Request a consultation →Keynotes
Keynotes on performing under pressure, drawn from 25 years in newsrooms, disaster zones and on Survivor.
Speaking →Communication Mastery for Teams
A 14-day program that brings the same approach to entire teams. Five minutes a day.
Explore the program →I ask the questions your board, investors and reporters will ask. Before they do.
For 25 years my job was to find the one question someone did not want to answer. Now I find it for you first, in private, on camera, with nothing at stake.
The interview
I research your situation the way I researched a story. Then I interview you on camera, the way a network investigative reporter would.
The playback
We watch it together. You see what the room sees: the pause, the hedge, the answer that sounds rehearsed.
The rebuild
We build your core messages and practice the bridge and the redirect until your answers hold under pressure.
By the time you walk into the real room, you have already answered the hardest question in it.
Request a Private Consultation →Tested where it counts.
Investigative reporting and network news. 12 Emmys, a Peabody and an Edward R. Murrow Award.
Plus an Ironman, a solo swim from Alcatraz and a skydive with the Army Golden Knights.
For board meetings, investor pitches, media interviews and FDA advisory committees.
“Tammy helped prepare me to present with my team to the FDA. She inspired me to have confidence in my expertise. I could see myself grow from week to week.”
“Not only was my half hour PBS interview a success, but her training dramatically improved all of my presentation skills.”
“We spent just an hour or two and it made a noticeable difference in the clarity of my communication.”
“Tammy’s personalized coaching for each participant was a standout element. The program delivered tangible benefits to the team.”
Your next high-stakes moment is already on the calendar.
Let’s prepare for it.
Request a Private ConsultationHere’s How TAMMY Can Help
Speaker
Tammy delivers powerful keynotes on adaptability, resilience, and performing under pressure, drawing from her experiences as an Emmy-winning journalist, extreme athlete, and Survivor contestant to help leaders thrive in high-stakes moments.
Strategist
Tammy partners with Fortune 500 companies and life sciences organizations to develop strategic communications that navigate complex regulatory environments, crisis communications, and critical stakeholder engagements.
Coach
Intensive executive coaching for C-suite leaders facing defining moments: board presentations, investor meetings, media interviews and crisis communications. Built to turn pressure into commanding presence.
Writer
#1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author and 12-time Emmy winner available for ghostwriting, executive speechwriting, and developing strategic narratives that drive organizational impact.
About
Whether racing Ironman, swimming alone from Alcatraz Island, skydiving, ice climbing, lasting 30 days on Survivor, following drug smugglers through sewage tunnels, confronting murderers, or spending years inside the cavernous mind of a serial rapist, Tamara "Tammy" Leitner knows how to adapt.
This one important trait has been pivotal to her success in business, extreme sports and in life—and now forms the foundation of her coaching practice, where she teaches others to harness the power of adaptation.
Constantly adapting, her career evolved from newspaper crime reporter, to reality TV personality, investigative journalist, documentarian, network correspondent, professor, motivational speaker and bestselling author. Not afraid to take risks and push boundaries — Her passion as a journalist, storyteller and photographer has led her all over the world.
Since her 2001 appearance on the hit reality TV show "Survivor" watched by more than 20 million viewers, Tammy has been in the public eye. As an investigative journalist in Phoenix, NYC and Chicago she's been a fixture on televisions in homes across America for decades. And while reporting as a national network correspondent on the Today Show, Nightly News and MSNBC, millions of viewers watched Tammy daily.
As seen on
AS SEEN IN
As seen on
AS SEEN IN
Speaker
Tammy is a motivational speaker with an international perspective on how to get what you want out of life and business by adapting to the evolving circumstances around you.
She draws on decades of experience as a national correspondent and investigative journalist, where she continually adapted to her ever-changing environment and situation, yet always staying true to her authentic self.
Tammy has developed a proven method of adaptability that builds longevity, empowerment and success. She creates each personal keynote for corporate clients that takes the audience on a journey of self-discovery, while providing tools to sustain their newfound awareness.
COACH
Tammy's not your typical executive coach. She's a 12x Emmy-winning former NBC News correspondent who survived reality TV, swam solo from Alcatraz, completed Ironman and wrote a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller.
She's coached 250+ pharmaceutical executives through FDA advisory committees and C-suite leaders from Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies to lead with unshakeable confidence - because when billions are on the line, you need someone tested under extreme pressure.
What sets Tammy apart: Every extreme challenge has taught her the same skills executives need most - how to stay calm when everyone's watching, think clearly under time pressure, and adapt quickly when plans fall apart. Whether it's a hostile interview, a grueling endurance race, or a high-stakes FDA meeting, the mental toolkit is the same. She teaches executives to access that same unshakeable composure when their biggest moments arrive.
COACH
Tammy's not your typical executive coach. She's a 12x Emmy-winning former NBC News correspondent who survived reality TV, swam solo from Alcatraz, completed Ironman and wrote a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller.
She's coached 250+ pharmaceutical executives through FDA advisory committees and C-suite leaders from Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies to lead with unshakeable confidence - because when billions are on the line, you need someone tested under extreme pressure.
What sets Tammy apart: Every extreme challenge has taught her the same skills executives need most - how to stay calm when everyone's watching, think clearly under time pressure, and adapt quickly when plans fall apart. Whether it's a hostile interview, a grueling endurance race, or a high-stakes FDA meeting, the mental toolkit is the same. She teaches executives to access that same unshakeable composure when their biggest moments arrive.
WRITER
When Tammy left the network in mid 2019 she realized it was time to once again adapt – to reinvent her career to allow her to move closer to family in Southern California and take a break from the never-ending cycle of breaking news. Tammy challenged herself to finish writing a book she started decades prior.  And she is now the author of the international bestselling true-crime memoir "Don't Say a Thing".
This investigative work explores the harrowing journey of women who survived a serial rapist. Tammy reveals the impact this crime had on the mental health of these women — painting an intimate, raw picture of the immediate and long-term effects of violence against women.
Journalist
Tammy’s journalism career started in newspapers, specializing in long-format investigations. After a few years she transitioned into television.
She has exposed the underworld of body brokering, spent years reporting on cyber security and the dark web, investigated Mexican drug cartels and reported as an inmate from inside Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City - which has since been shut down for inhumane treatment of inmates.
Tammy has been widely recognized for her investigations, writing, and her ability to influence change, receiving a dozen Emmys for her work.
Notably, she received a George Foster Peabody, an Edward R. Murrow and a Sigma Delta Chi award for her documentary that exposed a decades old government cover-up, where American soldiers were ordered to bury Agent Orange on a U.S. military base in South Korea.
While at NBC News she was honored with a national GLAAD media award for her investigation into the unreported and misreported violent deaths of transgender people here in the U.S.
She’s lived in London and worked internationally – reporting on human rights injustices from Syria to Russia, Venezuela to Mexico.
Leitner reporting for The Today Show in a refugee camp in Lebanon, two miles from the Syria border.
SURVIVOR
More than twenty years ago, the reality TV show Survivor was just becoming a part of pop culture, when Tammy was cast on the fourth season of the reality television show where 16 contestants are dropped on an island with no food, no water and no fire. The goal: Outwit, outplay and outlast.
Tammy adapted to the ever-changing mental game and used her athleticism to win three straight challenges and last 30 out of 39 days.
This ultimate stress test - performing under constant scrutiny while managing alliances, strategic communication, and high-stakes decision-making - mirrors the pressures CEOs face and directly shaped her understanding of executive presence and crisis leadership.
Athlete
Always the athlete and competitor, Tammy is constantly pushing her body and mind. Whether competing in Ironman, swimming from Alcatraz Island, ice climbing or lifting weights, she believes that an athletic state of mind gives her a mental edge - translating to success in both business and life.
She learned to box in Thailand, meditate in the Himalayas, studied yoga throughout India, and has run thousands of miles all over the world: in jungles, on beaches, through slums, and frenetic cities. Because when she travels – whether on assignment as a journalist or for pleasure, she always makes time for runs. It’s how she relaxes, sees a new place, and re-energizes after a long flight.
This athletic mindset of resilience, adaptability, and performing under extreme pressure is the foundation of her executive coaching approach - helping leaders develop the mental toughness needed when billions are on the line.
