When I started my career over 30 years ago I was truly a woman in a man’s world.  I chose to work in tech, although I would not consider myself technical. I have always worked in marketing, operations and consulting. I worked for tech companies that were dominated by men.  In fact, the founder of the first company I worked for was overheard saying that he saw no reason why a woman should make it to a senior management level.  Despite that I quickly rose through the ranks and when I was in my 20s was managing a group of 30 technical guys.  So I like to say that in addition to speaking English, French and Portuguese, my 4th language is tech!

I learned a great deal through the years on how to be taken seriously, but  although I made it to a senior leadership role, ultimately I heeded the call of becoming an entrepreneur.  I applied the lessons of what causes so many women to leave or minimize their role in Corporate America. I have built a successful marketing firm with strong core values of inclusiveness and flexibility.  In this talk, I share my lessons and advice to young men and women who wish for a more balanced corporate or entrepreneurial workplace to truly take advantage of the strengths each sex has to offer.  From 30-60 minutes depending upon available time.

Marketing is all about how we reach people.  This talk on how to apply the principles of strategy and neuromarketing to your small business or startup reveals some fascinating information about how humans think and how to break through the brain’s spam filter (yes we have one too).

This understanding of how we buy then allows us to craft messages targeted at each of our personas in order make them feel that “we get them” and our business has just what they need.  We’ll dive into how to create your target personas, define your value proposition, differentiate your business from your competitors and a methodology for building targeted brand messages.  From 20-60 minutes depending upon available time.

I’m really excited to see how big, expensive tools like CRM and artificial intelligence that were once only realistic for large, deep-pocketed corporations, are now well within reach of today’s small business and startups.  Marketing is both art and science and when a business can effectively blend the two, it can really grow to the next level.

For more on strategy and messaging, see my talk on Marketing Psychology, which may be combined with this one depending upon the length of the talk.

This topic goes deep into strategies for building an effective website that converts, what Google likes, writing compelling copy, getting attention on social media, when you need to advertise and where, and how much budget you should plan for depending upon your desired goals.  This talk can run from 20 to 60 minutes, including Q&A, depending upon the available time.

Leadership is by far one of the key factors that can make or break a startup or small business. Without a clear vision and strategy, a structure that allows employees to give their best, and a leader who models the desired culture, a business will fail. It’s no accident that VCs invest based on the leader more than the idea. A great leader can make a mediocre idea successful but a bad leader can kill a great idea.

We’ll cover leadership skills like motivation, conflict resolution and coaching, leadership styles and leading a lean startup. This talk can run from 20 to 60 minutes, including Q&A, depending upon the available time, or be delivered as a 2-4 hour workshop with exercises.