Charting Your Own Course: Mastering Meaningful Goals and Developing Action Plans to Achieve Them

Everyone has goals in life, be they personal or professional. Goals remind us of what we are working towards. Meeting goals can lead to increased happiness, self-worth, and overall well-being.

This inspiring and purposeful talk will explore strategies for setting goals, charting your own course and how to maintain focus on the desired outcome. The talk is an empowering experience that provides participants with 5 strategies for setting and achieving goals. It also explores the benefits of adjusting roadmaps when circumstances change and how to redefine success based on lessons learned.

The talk concludes with a call to action for individuals to unlock their full potential by creating a compelling vision for their future and turning that vision into actionable goals and milestones.

• Crystalize your vision: how to understand the importance of having a clear vision and purpose for setting goals.
• Maintain Motivation: how to use your vision to generate direction and motivation.
• Avoid feeling overwhelmed: how to break larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks and reinforce positive habits.
• Think Creatively: how to think outside the box, leverage creativity, embrace innovation and adopt a growth mindset.
• Reward Effort: track progress, recognize and reward effort, and celebrate past milestones to sustain momentum.

It Could Happen to You: The Devastating Implications of America’s “No Exemptions” Criminal Legal System

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. As of 2021, there were over 2 million people incarcerated in state and federal prisons and local jails. An estimated 4.5 million adults are on probation or parole.

This advocacy-oriented talk explores the failings of America’s criminal legal system and surfaces the implications these failings have for American society. Participants will learn how current conditions threaten our collective humanity.

The talk is an action-oriented experience that inspires participants to recognize why criminal justice reform is needed and the risks associated with failing to create that change. It prepares participants to make more informed decisions and identify ways to support returning citizens.

The talk concludes with a call to action to create a criminal legal system that is more fair, equitable and humane.

• Develop a more accurate understanding of how America’s criminal legal system works.
• Recognize that all human beings are likely to make mistakes and experience the power of second chances.
• Recognize the impacts of stereotypes and misconceptions about formerly incarcerated individuals and chose attitudes that end marginalization and discrimination.
• Identify the importance of values like compassion, empathy, continuous growth in society.
• Engage more fully in policy development and advocate for change.

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Collateral Consequences of Failed State of Public Education

Public education plays a crucial role in shaping the future of society and the quality of education has a direct impact on our individual and collective well-being.

This thought-provoking and revealing talk explores the state of public education in America post COVID. It explores the case of Puerto Rico and provides a first-hand account of the devastatingly harsh conditions that characterize public schools on the island of Puerto Rico. Participant will learn the root causes of these conditions and the impacts they have for the next generation. The link between failed education systems, poverty and involvement with the criminal justice system are explored.

Participants will gain a better understanding of the importance of advocating for high quality public education systems and identify the impacts of inequitable funding on marginalized communities.

The talk concludes with a call to action to assess the risks and opportunities for improvement within their local school systems and support education reform initiatives.

• Understand why the lack of access to high quality opportunities in poor and minority communities is an issue of social, racial, and economic equity.
• Identify the links between failed public schools and segregation, intergenerational poverty, and incarceration.
• Understand why high-functioning public education systems are essential for strong societies, economic prosperity, and global competitiveness.
• Identify ways to advocate for and raise awareness about the need to improve public education for all students.

Overcoming Adversity: Identifying the Innate Potential Navigate Challenges and Emerge Stronger

Everyone experiences some adversity in life – be it personal loss, health issues, financial setbacks, or relationship challenges. Overcoming adversity requires the ability to rebuild the emotionally, mentally, and physically.

This moving and empowering talk explores how adversity influences how we show up in the world. Participants will be invited to explore how they have traditionally responded to adversity and identify patterns in these responses. Participants will learn strategies for self-reflection that foster greater self-awareness increase the ability to be intentional in how they respond to adversity. The talk provides an opportunity to explore the benefits of self-compassion and identify ways to cultivate resilience.

This talk motivates individuals to recognize and embrace their full selves and be proactive in identifying how emotions influence their behavior. The talk concludes with a call to action to become more self-aware, challenge negative thinking patterns, and appreciate the opportunities for growth adversity offers.

• Understand the importance of taking care of one’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
• Experience the power that comes from greater self-awareness and understanding the patterns on how we to respond to adversity and difficulty.
• Draw inspiration from examples of how others have triumphed over adversity.
• Learn how to maintain perspective when facing adversity and understand the importance of being adaptive and flexible.
• How being kind and compassionate with yourself can further efforts to overcome adversity.

Eye of the Storm: Maintaining Calm Amid the Chaos

Everyone has had an experience where, despite the best of intentions, their actions led to unintended consequences. Simply doing what we think is right does not guarantee a positive outcome. Sometimes individuals face undeserved repercussions and experience adverse consequences.

This inspiring and emotional talk is based on Julia Keleher’s upcoming memoir: Eye of the Storm. Participants will learn how Julia’s efforts to make the world better came at great personal cost. The talk explores the importance of honoring personal convictions and keeping promises. It also highlights the importance of accepting negative consequences and letting go of anger.

Julia reveals what her process of self-discovery has been over the last six years and reveals how these hardships have provided invaluable opportunities for personal and professional growth. Participants will also gain insight into Julia’s process of healing and the strategies she used to reinvent herself and rebuild her life.

The talk concludes with a call to action for individuals to embrace the challenges in their life and see them as opportunities for growth that can lead them to their new and better selves.

• Learn strategies for cultivating intrinsic motivation and maintaining a positive mindset
• Experience the freeing power of letting go of anger and accepting undeserved negative consequences
• Explore how engaging in self-discovery and self-reflection leads to personal and professional growth
• Identify opportunities to realign one’s life and priorities with an evolving sense of self
• Explore techniques to overcome setbacks and persist despite challenges and obstacles

A Woman’s Journey: Embracing the Continuous Evolution of YOU

Women today face pressures on multiple fronts including overcoming societal expectations, navigating unequal treatment in the workplace, and balancing competing responsibilities. By midlife, many women find themselves in circumstances that no longer bring them fulfillment or happiness. Finding the pathway to fulfillment is not always easy, as transitioning lifestyles is filled with challenges.

This empowering talk explores how a growth mindset can assist women in transitioning lifestyles. Participants will be invited to explore the benefits of adopting a belief system based on continuous improvement of individual abilities and talents. This thought-provoking talk will challenge women to identify how cultivating qualities and skills over time makes it easier to shift goals, reset priorities and lead a more meaningful life.

Participants will learn strategies for responding to pressures to conform to traditional gender and age-based roles and how to identify learning opportunities and growth experiences. renegotiating boundaries and redefining roles and responsibilities. Participants will be encouraged to set new goals and expand existing support systems to include new perspectives.

The talk concludes with a call to action to articulate a vision for personal transformation and an action plan for expanding social support networks to support pursuit of this vision.

• Recognize the benefits of adopting a mindset of personal growth and continuous self-improvement.
• Awaken internal motivation and courage to pursue new pathways and break existing patterns.
• Identify new opportunities to invest in personal growth experiences that lead to meaningful living.
• Explore strategies for identifying individuals who have a growth mindset and developing authentic relationships with them.
• Experience the power of non-judgmental self-acceptance and honoring changes in one’s goals, priorities, and interests over time.