KEYNOTE SPEAKING

Engage audiences at your next event with valuable insights on life at the top of business.

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.

– DH Lawrence

Invite Rebecca to inspire your people with stories, science and tips…

Choosing the right guest speaker for your conference or event is key to its success. Rebecca has authentically shared her passion and leadership insights with global teams and audiences for over a decade. 

As a former executive and senior leader in both the public and private sectors in Australia and overseas, Rebecca has spoken at national and global events on topics including how to increase our self-awareness, how to shift our unhelpful thinking patterns, reducing our people pleasing tendencies, juggling intergenerational working styles and how to move through adversity. Armed with lived experience and a background in psychology, she has an acute, money-can’t-buy understanding of the complex people dynamics that underpin workplaces.

She inspires people to get curious about how shifting their mindset and behaviour can help them enact positive change at work or in their personal life. She shares practical tips (the same she uses in her own business and shares with clients) on how people can make changes based on psychological research and her lived experience.

All of her topics reference the relevant neuropsychology to enable leaders to better decipher their own cognitive, emotional and behavioural tendencies, as well as those of others. Rebecca regularly shares her expertise on podcasts, live stream sessions and panel discussions. Learn more about her signature topics below. Rebecca can create a bespoke talk around a specific request or context — just ask!

Keynote speaking topics

1. Women in leadership – unveiling my experiences

  • Rebecca spent her 30s being an executive and senior leader in the private and public sectors across the UK, Australia & Europe. She was frequently the youngest at the table and often the only woman.
  • Whilst she had countless amazing experiences, she also was consistently exposed to a range of disrespectful, dysfunctional and toxic behaviours from men over the years.
  • In this honest and inspiring talk, Rebecca shares her real life experiences to help leaders understand the challenges women in leadership positions frequently face. She also brings a psychological perspective to this important topic to better understand the negative impact disrespectful micro-behaviours have on people over time.
  • Your leaders will leave with an understanding of some of the barriers to gender equity within the workplace, especially in male dominated sectors. They will also be equipped with practical tips on how to increase an inclusive culture around them.

2. How to step out of the people pleasing cycle

  • We people pleasers have superpowers in empathy, reading the room, anticipating future problems and creating calm around us. Yet in overdrive these behaviours lead to us to suppress our feelings, or needs, and prioritise others over ourselves.
  • Rebecca is a recovering people pleaser and understands what it is like to seek approval from others and behave like a chameleon. These tendencies can leave us feeling frustrated, resentful and fatigued as we struggle to set boundaries. Yet there is a way out of this unhelpful cycle!
  • In this talk leaders will understand the science behind the people pleasing (fawning) stress response. They will learn how to shift their thinking, feeling and behaviour through evidence-based psychological strategies.
  • Rebecca balances sharing her real life experiences of being a people pleaser with the neuroscience to get the core of this critical topic. Your leaders will leave feeling understand and armed with practical tips on how to reduce their unhelpful tendencies.

3. How to increase our self-awareness – why knowing ourselves matters

  • If self-awareness is such a critical leadership trait, then why do so many leaders lack it?
  • This talk will equip your leaders to better understand the 4 enemies of self-awareness – blame, lack of curiosity, rigidity and acting on autopilot.
  • They will also understand the cognitive processes that impede self-awareness, hear the 10 common thinking errors we might hold and gather advice on how to reframe their internal dialogue to thrive at work and in life.
  • Rebecca balances funny stories with neuroscience to get the core of this critical topic and your leaders will leave with practical tips.

4. How to shift our unhelpful thinking patterns

  • We all feel moments of stress, frustration and overwhelm, however we can get stuck in unhelpful ways of relating to others. Understanding what presses our buttons is critical to our effectiveness and wellbeing.
  • This keynote talk will equip your leaders to understand the 10 common thinking patterns that can get in the way of our ability to understand ourselves, influence others and have high levels of self-efficacy.
  • Rebecca will share the psychology of how our thoughts impact our feelings and behaviour, what happens in our brain when we experience an emotional trigger and how important it is to take responsibility for our part in how we relate to others.
  • Rebecca balances her real life experiences with the neuroscience to get the core of this important topic. Your leaders will have the opportunity to map out an unhelpful relationship dynamic at work and will leave with practical, evidence-based tips to enact purposeful change.

5. How to move through adversity

  • Help equip your people to become more resilient by learning how to shift from a surviving to thriving mind-set.
  • We have all experienced challenges and adversity throughout our life. It can be easy to get stuck in survival mode and not know how to make changes to help ourselves. It can also be tricky to know how to best support those close to us experiencing life challenges.
  • In this talk, hear the 6 mind-set shifts that people can put into practice to help themselves, or others flourish in life. They are based on the surviving to thriving model developed by Rebecca after she had breast cancer. She will share how she used this challenging experience to learn more about herself and reset her life.
  • Leaders will leave with practical tips on how to shift their thinking and behaviour to thrive in life. Also how to better support those around them experiencing adversity. This talk can support organisation’s wellbeing, or R U OK Day initiatives.

6. How to lead & engage different generations within the workplace

  • When Rebecca was an Executive and senior leader, she was deemed the ‘generational whisper’ helping people of all ages collaborate better together.
  • As a self-described ‘geriatric millennial’, she now she shares the common traps leaders fall into when working with people from different generations.
  • She outlines common traits each generation hold to explain why they might value specific aspects at work. She highlights traits of Generation X / Millennial / Generation Zs that can be misinterpreted and helps leaders reframe their judgements about other cohorts.
  • People will leave with practical tips on how to effectively lead different ages using employee experience (EX) principles.

We were so blessed to have Rebecca join our community to speak on the importance of navigating conflict in the workplace. Rebecca supported our audience to reflect on their vulnerabilities and was able to provide them with actionable, relatable tips on how best to explore conflict with others. She assisted us in how to uncover our ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) and look for our solution cycle, instead of focusing on blaming the other person and getting stuck in the current state. We loved having her join us, and she provided such fantastic advice and direction. Thank you so much Rebecca!

– The She Mentors team 

Rebecca was a keynote speaker at an event we held for HR senior leaders. The feedback from attendees was that she was an incredibly engaging speaker, very knowledgeable and relatable. Her presentation was interactive and the insight Rebecca provided on the topic was extremely valuable to our clients.

– Director (Recruitment consultancy)

Rebecca was an excellent speaker at our conference, where the audience members were HR senior leaders and professionals. Rebecca’s passion for leadership, as the key cultural driver, is undeniable and she delivered her presentation in an engaging, authentic manner. The content she delivered was balanced, incorporating her wealth of knowledge and contemporary research with a practical, solutions focused approach that was further supported by a real-life case study. Her experience in supporting organisational cultural change using employee experience principles was clear.

– People & Culture Executive (Conference organiser)