i will never
bore your audience.
It's a promise!
Here's what I actually bring: real stories from building real things, told by someone who has been on enough stages to know that the best thing you can do for an audience is treat them like the intelligent adults they are. I don't do vague inspiration. I don't do motivational posters set to music. I do honest, specific, funny, and useful.
I've been told I'm the speaker people are still quoting three months later. Which is honestly the thing I'm most proud of - more than any Hall of Fame. (But I'm also very proud of the Hall of Fame. Let's be clear.)
Most keynotes are forgotten before people hit the parking lot.
You know this. I know this. We've all sat through them, quietly updating our grocery lists while someone on stage says "lean in" for the 400th time.
Let's Be Real About Something.
I haven't always been an early adopter. But in time, I learned that new stuff was fun to play with, and fun to teach.
When AI came around, I was an exhausted person planning a conference with an audience fresh out of a pandemic — and I started using AI tools because I desperately needed help.
What happened next surprised me. And it will surprise your audience too.
This talk breaks down what AI can actually do for real, busy, non-technical people in 2025 — and what it can't, because someone has to be honest about that — and the specific tools and decisions that separate the people quietly winning with AI from the people still arguing about whether it's going to take their jobs.
(Spoiler: it's not going to take your job. But someone who knows how to use it might.)
AI Didn't Take My Job. It Gave Me My Life Back.
For non-technical people who are tired of hearing about AI and just want to know what to actually do with it.
Great for: Corporations, associations, HR teams, marketing teams, entrepreneurs, and anyone who keeps saying "I need to figure out this AI thing" and then not doing it
Talk option #1
Why the people who figure this out now will have an enormous advantage
How to start using AI without feeling like an idiot
The specific AI tools that make the biggest difference for real, busy people
What they'll learn
That AI isn't here to replace them — it's here to give them their time back
How to create belonging at scale without losing what made it special
The actual difference between an audience and a community
Why most "community building" fails (and what worksinstead)
What they'll learn
We started She Podcasts with a Facebook group, a dream, and approximately zero dollars. No PR strategy. No deck. Just a genuine desire to build a place where women podcasters felt like they weren't going to be mansplained or made to feel stupid for asking tech questions..
That group became 21,000 people. The conference we eventually threw raised $50K, sold 800 tickets and was sponsored by NPR, iHeartRadio and SiriusXM. In 2025, I ended up in a Hall of Fame.
None of that happened because I was the loudest or the most polished. It happened because I figured out what it took to make people feel like they BELONG.
This talk is about that. And it applies whether you're building a community of customers, a company culture, or a team that doesn't quietly fantasize about working somewhere else.
On community, belonging, and what it actually takes to make people show up.
Great for: Marketing teams, brand conferences, HR, membership organizations, entrepreneurship events
What I got wrong along the way — which is honestly the useful part
Talk option #2
Build the Room
In 2016, my daughter died of a heroin overdose. I had just launched a podcasting ad agency. I had two other kids, a business that finally made six figures, and a whole community counting on me.
I just kept going and I showed up anyway. Not because I was strong. Because I didn't know what else to do.
This talk is about that - about what it really looks like to keep going when going feels genuinely impossible. It is not a grief talk. It's not a trauma dump. It's honest and it's funny in places it probably shouldn't be, and it will leave your audience with a completely different relationship to the word "resilience."
Spoiler: it's not a personality trait. It's a decision you make every single morning.
On resilience, reinvention, and what happens after the worst year of your life.
Great for: Healthcare, women's conferences, leadership retreats, DEI events, anyone going through change
Talk option #3
Show Up Anyway
Why humor isn't avoidance — it's survival
How to lead — and live — through uncertainty without having it all together
What resilience actually looks like from the inside
What they'll learn
The one thing I wish someone had told me in 2016
I've been in this industry since 2013. I have watched brands waste enormous amounts of money on podcast strategies that don't work. I have also watched scrappy creators build audiences that outlast and outperform companies with ten times the budget.
The difference is never the microphone. It's not the hosting company. It's always the strategy.
This talk breaks down what podcasting can actually do for your organization in 2026 — and what it can't, because someone has to be honest about that — and the specific decisions that separate the shows people love from the shows people forget about by Tuesday.
The Podcast Advantage
For brands, companies, and people who keep saying "we should start a podcast".
Talk option #4
How to build a show worth listening to
The exact mistakes that businesses make — and how not to make them
What podcasting can and can't do for your brand (no hype, just reality)
What they'll learn
Great for: Marketing teams, content teams, brands considering podcasting, media companies, entrepreneurs
Whether you should even bother
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Almost there!
Want to book me? Let's talk about your event and figure out if I'm the right fit. I'll tell you honestly if I'm not.
(See: "someone who tells the truth.")