Let’s Connect, Communicate, & Collaborate Better… Together
Trusted by the World’s Leading Organizations
Speaking Topics
Brave Not Fearless
Emotional Intelligence for Courageous Leaders & Teams
Want to increase creativity, decrease stress and generate more innovative solutions? Then you need an evidence-based framework to provide strategies and understanding so you can move from reactive fear to courageous exploration. One of the traits that separates incredibly high performing leaders like Pixar’s Ed Catmull and Virgin’s Richard Branson from everyone else is their constant and blatant use of the F word: Fear. It’s one of our most basic human emotions and keeps us safe, but can really get in the way of our goals and desires. When we’re in the throes of even a mild fear response, the intellectual part of our brain where all our brilliant thoughts and ideas come from shuts down as we go into survival mode. Learn how to short circuit this response from the everyday stressors of life to cultivate a personal and organizational culture that supports a healthy relationship with fear for success.
Outcomes:
- Experience an intimate and holistic exploration of our most shared common fears that will build community & personal resilience
- Implement science based strategies to increase creativity & strength during high-pressure decision-making
- Learn the truth about stress and how your brain works in fear to help improve your responses
- Pull back the veil on the toxic messaging of fearlessness
- Move from inspiration to action with easy to remember, science-based tools and strategies for moving through everyday fear faster.
Build Your Better
FutureShift Your Clarity & Vision For What’s Next
How is your organization addressing the post-pandemic problem: Who do we want to be and what should that look like?
We get the future we design and a lack of clarity and vision for the future comes at a massive cost to diversity & inclusion, innovation, morale, and ultimately leads to dysfunctional teams and lost talent. Designing new solutions to complex problems while increasing effective communication and collaboration must be done in order to maximize on this unique time.
Outcomes:
- Identify and breakthrough your most urgent, success blocking challenges.
- Invoke the power of play to get to A-Ha moments quicker.
- Gain clarity and vision for the best next step that allows every attendee to feel seen and heard, resulting in a dramatic increase in buy-in
- Build deeper, authentic connections among team members
- Learn how to solve problems and collaborate better with LEGO Serious Play
Ready for more?
“Mary delivered insights for our team in a way that was engaging and emotive. She easily weaves stories together in a way that not only strongly delivers her message but also grabs and maintains her audience’s attention”
Olga Karanikos
Senior Marketing Director, JOVE – EdTech
“The feedback we received during the event and since has been nothing short of amazing. Your achievements and brilliant spirit are an inspiration to many, so we are honored to highlight you and your body of work. We appreciate your support of our shared mission, and you will always have allies in all of us.”
Sarah Yao Schutzman
CFA Managing Partner, Providence Heights Capital Management, LLC
“Your presentation was amazing! I loved the box breathing technique, and will be practicing it for sure.”
Victoria Prescott
CFA Associate Director, Capital Markets & Investor Relations, Realty Income Corporation
“Mary can make you laugh, cry and learn something new in the space of 15 minutes. Her powerful take-away message encouraged me to reflect on my own expectations of myself, and was a truly valuable experience.”
Kate Brownlie Smith
SparkLab Australia
“Discovering Mary Poffenroth fundamentally changed how we talk about fear with our clients. Her work combines the best of scientific knowledge with an incredibly effective, no-shame, nuts and bolts strategy. This empowering, human, funny, wise approach is game-changing for anyone who wants to make a real impact and show up with all of their humanity intact inside high-stakes moments.”
Casey Clark and Julie Fogh
Co-founders, Vital Voice Training
“Mary spoke during a training session with our Sales, Marketing and Customer Success teams. As a Director of more tenured Account Managers in Sales, it can sometimes be a challenge to provide learning opportunities of real value. We found Mary to be insightful, engaging and very realistic. The practical suggestions she shared have already led to more purposeful conversations with clients and resulted in sales opportunities progressing.”
Jen Ostrosky
Asst. Sales Director, JoVE – EdTech
“Mary stands out as one of the best public speakers I have come across. She is a natural on stage and truly engages her audience with unique approaches to her subject-matter and her warm and conversational delivery style.”
Lucy Timms-Davis
Imperial College London
“Very few speakers have the ability to engage, educate, and capture the full attention of an entire audience in a matter of minutes. Mary is one of those speakers.”
Brielan Smiecowski
BS Strategy
“Mary’s words were a wakeup call for me. I have been using the RIA method and I am starting to notice a change in my outlook in life.”
Vanisa Hayrapetionsfard
“Mary’s talks and workshops are always very insightful, and you can tell she’s had a great deal of experience in the field of communication. I was impressed with the way she delivers information, giving anecdotes that are both inspiring and relatable.”
Raquel Taylor
Imperial College London
“Fearology with Mary Poffenroth (from the Ologies Podcast) just changed by life.”
Ashley Hall
Marketing Coordinator, Nature Center at Shaker Lakes
“Mary is an engaging speaker who energized the room with vivid storytelling abilities. She’s poised on stage and her enthusiasm for science communication is infectious.”
Josh Silberg
Hakai Institute
“Mary is my anxiety-busting hero.”
Alie Ward
Host, Ologies Podcast
“We weren’t just learning about our fears and how to face them, we were bonding with each other in a way that wouldn’t have been possible for our group of executives had Mary not created a deeply engaging and entertaining event. The night was wildly successful and really set the stage for our entire event season.”
Michele Martell, Esq.
Media & Technology Attorney
“Mary’s ability to translate complex scientific concepts into anecdotes that the general public can appreciate is remarkable. The splashes of humor and intrigue that pepper her presentations engage diverse audiences and connect the public with science.”
Kristen Procko, PhD
University of Texas, Austin
“Mary actually made fear fun! Even more, she allowed me to have a larger vocabulary than “I’m stressed”. I’ve been carrying around the fear wheel she gave me ever since and breaking through the noise of a hectic day to ask myself, ” just what is going on here?”
Carolyn Thielman
Estee Lauder Companies
“Mary demystifies the complex concepts of fear with comprehensible examples and science that forever changes the way people will experience the world around them.”
Ryan Bond
Director of Digital, Britannica
