speaking engagements.
I’m an introvert who loves talking on a stage. Connecting with a group of people through an authentic, meaningful and interesting talk is a unique and exhilarating experience.
I’m happy to customize an engagement that is ideal for you and your audience members or you can take a look at some of the topics I’ve already crafted and refined to see if they resonate. While I sometimes take on heavy issues, I smile a lot when I’m speaking and I want to make sure your audience smiles along with me.
Length. Most of the talks below are ideal for 30 minutes though they can be compressed to 20 or expanded to 45.
Audience. I’m pretty nimble onstage and am comfortable speaking at small informal gatherings of a dozen or fewer as well as large conferences of 500+ attendees. I can adjust length and content as needed to suit lunch-hour association meetings, employee retreats, professional conferences, or small community/social groups.
Travel. I love that this aspect of my work gives me opportunities to travel and meet wonderful people in wonderful places I might never otherwise get to visit. Please don’t hesitate to reach out regardless of your location.
Current Talks
Mind the Gap:
Recognizing assumptions and why they matter
Our brains are hardwired to fill in gaps of information; it’s part of our biology. In this talk, I draw on scientific research and current studies within the workplace that give us insight on how our personal assumptions can negatively impact our relationships with our coworkers and our performance — at work and in life. I’ll leave you with tools you can use to check-in with yourself to easily recognize your assumptions and how they might impact your thoughts and actions.
Dark Mode:
Changing things up is good for our brains
When iPhone introduced dark mode, I was ecstatic, just because it was new and different. Then I went a little crazy going dark mode on all my computer apps. Turns out that simple changes like this are actually good for our brains, particularly creativity. I’ll share some of the science behind why changing our physical and visual environments can lead to greater creativity, focus and enjoyment.
Sherpas, Firefighters and Recalibrating Your Normal
On my first day of Fire Academy in 2012, the chief led us to the basement of the firehouse, turned out the lights and, after several uncomfortable minutes of darkness and silence, said, “You’ll learn to be comfortable in darkness.” How is it that we are able to adjust our definition of normal — physically, mentally and emotionally? In this talk, we’ll look at the sherpas of Tibet, firefighters and everyday folks who have mastered the ability to recalibrate their “normal” and what that ability can teach all of us.
Rewind, Pause, Play:
How stealing time is actually a thing
Time seems to expand and contract depending on what we’re doing, doesn’t it? So let’s talk about how we can use this phenomenon to our advantage and make time work for us. We often just charge ahead with the movement of the clock without appreciating that we can rewind, press pause and decide when to hit play. In this talk, we’ll explore our relationship to time and how spending time in nature slows things down in our own lives, even when it feels like the hourglass is about empty.
Daybreak: Everything looks better in the morning
Do you ever wake up and wonder why you were so worked up about something the day before? Or why you couldn’t sleep because you couldn’t stop thinking about that thing that now doesn’t seem so impossibly daunting? In this lighthearted and humorous talk, we’ll take time to appreciate why we should all heed my mom’s advice: “Go to bed. Everything looks better in the morning.”
Always Under the Surface: Grief and loss
Grief is the only experience we share as humans that is both completely universal and deeply personal. It connects us as individuals and as members of the human race, yet we desperately struggle when we see others grieving or experience it ourselves. Whether supporting a coworker or dealing with our own grief, we are often conflicted between our need to share and our need to turn inward. In this candid talk, I'll share my experience with tragic loss and how living with grief is journey we all walk together.