How Will You Spend Your 28,000 Days?

Don't wait for a life-changing crisis to create the life and career that fulfills you most.  In this motivating session, illustrated by Gilda's experience of being near the path of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, you'll gain a vivid understanding of the importance of priorities in life and work.

Benefits:

• Being challenged to consider how you choose to spend time
• Understanding how to break out of your comfort zone
• Focusing on important priorities in life and work
• Avoiding career burnout by recommitting to your career or making a change

After this talk, you won't want to spend another thousand of your estimated 28,000 lifespan  days complaining and making others around you miserable  -- and you'll be on your way to making important changes happen so you can live a more inspired life. 

Powerful Presentation Skills: How to Communicate and Connect With Any Audience

Being knowledgeable about a topic is not enough - you have to be able to communicate that knowledge effectively to any audience, whether you are presenting to the board of directors, potential clients or industry colleagues.  In order to have the audience listen to you and take your ideas seriously, you have to present the right amount of information, with clear and focused organization, delivered in a credible and engaging manner.

Benefits:

• Develop and communicate self-confidence
• Express your message clearly and concisely
• Keep your audience's attention by relating relevant and engaging stories
• Determine what visual aids to employ (such as PowerPoint) to enhance your message
• Use powerful body language (voice, gestures, movement, eye contact) to engage your audience 

Developing Leadership Presence: Confidence, Competence and Composure

Great leaders are made, not born. In order to be successful as a leader, you have to know what you're talking about and come across as credible,  demonstrate confidence without being perceived as cocky and maintain your self-control, especially under pressure.  Whether you are managing change, dealing with people issues or setting strategic direction,  you have a greater chance of achieving your goals if you can calmly and confidently tap into your knowledge and expertise.

Benefits:

• Learn how to communicate like a leader and be authentic, engaging and focused
• Prevent your non-verbal communication from undermining your message
• Demonstrate your expertise and establish credibility
• Discover how to react quickly and effectively to the unexpected

Leading and Managing Change With Integrity, Imagination & Flexibility

Successful organizations are often hindered by their inability to deal effectively with change, whether in their market, customer base, internal systems or  employee needs.  In order to successfully lead your team and organization through change,  you have to communicate early, often and truthfully, encourage and welcome creative and contrary input from your employees and be willing to step out of your own comfort zone.

Benefits:

• Learn how your credible and authentic communication can help employees work through change
• Discover how to create an environment that engages and encourages employees  to develop inventive solutions
• Demonstrate your ability to lead by example and respond quickly and confidently to change

Bold Presentation Skills for Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners

Boldness means being confident, distinctive and imaginative.   And bold presentation skills are a key skill for entrepreneurial success, whether you are introducing yourself at networking events, speaking to potential clients or sharing your expertise at industry association meetings.

Benefits:

• Develop and communicate self-confidence
• Use powerful and engaging body language (voice, gestures, movement, eye contact) to connect to your audience and convey your expert content
• Step out of your comfort zone and overcome any anxieties you have about public speaking
• Create and practice relevant and memorable stories in order to stand out and build your unique brand

Watch Gilda's motivational speech at the National Speakers Association Convention in Phoenix, AZ on July 20, 2009.  

Her speech, "How Will You Spend Your 28,000 Days?" recounted her experience in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and how it gave her a vivid understanding of the importance of priorities in life and work. 

Why should you hire Gilda to speak at your next event?

• Tailors the message to your industry, organization or business environment so that people can apply what they've learned, resulting in stronger performance, happier customers and more engaged employees
• Conveys a keen understanding of the challenges that people in the audience are confronting, based on her real-world work experience in corporate, academic, government, nonprofit and entrepreneurial environments
• Knows how to connect with any audience -  has received accolades from audiences throughout North America and in Europe, China and India, and her popular biweekly electronic newsletter has subscribers in 45 countries
• Engages the audience with stories and interaction rather than putting them to sleep with boring PowerPoint slides
• Combines extensive real-world business experience with a background in improv comedy - one person described her as "a person with credentials and wisdom who is also funny"
• Provides practical tools and ideas which people can use immediately to make changes happen and which will continue to yield positive results long after your meeting or event is over
• Offers proven and pragmatic strategies and tactics for communication and leadership success that will help people leverage their existing skills and take them to the next level
• See below for what others have said about Gilda...

 
Email Gilda or call 203-406-0808 to inquire about Gilda's availability for a keynote speech, breakout session or panel, or if you'd like her to speak on other topics not listed here.  

 
Find out about Gilda's Training & Workshops and Individual Coaching. 
 

Testimonials

Gilda did a fantastic job

"Gilda spoke at our annual SNEC-PMI Conference this past April. She did a fantastic job at making the audience think about what is important to them, and how life is too short (~28,000 days) to delay goals. I highly recommend that you hire Gilda as a speaker, and/or for your organization’s training needs. She’s a very effective speaker."

Fred Johnson, Southern New England Chapter of PMI, Board of Directors

Dynamic and very knowledgeable

"I have had the pleasure of working with Gilda on the 6th Annual Women in Business Summit and by all reports she was outstanding! Comments received from workshop attendees included "excellent facilitator"; "dynamic and very knowledgeable"; "would attend another workshop from her". Gilda made my job easy; she was professional and made great recommendations to improve the effectiveness of her workshop. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with her again."

Kisha Samuels, President, Events of Joy

Passionate, powerful, erudite

"'Passionate, convincing, powerful' are the words that come to mind as you listen to Gilda Bonanno, the erudite speaker, on her recent talk titled "Bold Presentation Skills for Project Managers" given at the PMI Central MA chapter."

Suresh Nadig, Director of Meetings, PMI Central Mass

Provided actions the attendees could use - inventive and engrossing presentation

“I have heard Gilda speak several times and she is an extremely engaging and well prepared presenter. She winningly applies the guidelines that she recommends in her newsletters, blogs and coaching sessions. As the closing keynote speaker for the 2011 Conference of the Southern New England Chapter of PMI, Gilda demonstrated her best practices by showing her confidence, influence and successful methodology for her session on “How will you spend your 28,000 Days?” She provided real life experiences of techniques she has used and provided actions that the attendees could use. It was a very inventive and engrossing presentation.”

Laura Frank, Project Manager, Synapse Group

Valuable ideas - I walked away with insights I can use 

“I had the pleasure of attending Gilda's presentation, “Bold Presentation Skills for Project Managers.” She was very engaging and shared valuable ideas on business communication. I walked away with insights that I can use at my professional presentations. I really liked her examples and the fact that she didn’t use slides. She was very precise in sharing her ideas and I am sure the other attendees felt the same. I have a presentation coming up and plan to take her advice about not having verbose slides and instead use more images and graphs/charts that speak to the audience. I would love to have the opportunity to hear her speak again.”

Mafruha Haque, District Manager, Kelly IT Resources at Kelly Services

Smooth, professional, enlightening and entertaining

"I have attended Gilda's presentations for the past three years at the annual Southern New England Chapter of the Project Management Institute's conference. She is a polished speaker who always has an upbeat professional message to deliver.

This year's presentation, "Presenting with Power and Passion," was of particular importance and timing for me. We are currently training our newer Project Managers and technical staff to prepare and deliver presentations to Senior Management. I picked up some new tips from her presentation and also confirmed some of the things that I had been doing correctly. I was so impressed by her presentation that we invited her to speak at our company's next Project Manager's Forum. I highly recommend Gilda's presentations."

Eugene Kallaur, PE, PMP, Project Director, Transmission and Substation Projects, The United Illuminating Company

Effective and engaging, makes a real connection to the audience 

"Gilda is an effective and engaging speaker and trainer.  She has presented several workshops for the Women's Business Development Center over the past three years, including Public Speaking: How to Talk to Strangers, Presenting Your Best Self: Communicating & Advocating for Success, and Grow Your Career With Networking Savvy. Gilda is well organized and prepared for every workshop.  She does her homework on fine tuning her presentation for her audience.  She is easy to work with and very supportive to participants.

Whether she is helping aspiring women entrepreneurs learn how to speak effectively about their businesses or teaching Hispanic business owners how to network with their colleagues, Gilda provides practical exercises and techniques that empower people to build self-confidence and develop bold communication skills. Gilda cares about her audiences and is able to make a real connection with them.  I highly recommend her.

Marian Cicolello, State Director, Connecticut Women's Business Development Center (WBDC)

Engaging, entertaining and enlightening stories and exercises
"We had asked Gilda to provide an inspirational and motivational talk for our group of over 50 administrative associates on Administrative Associates Appreciation Day. Gilda did an outstanding job of engaging, entertaining, and enlightening the audience with stories and exercises regarding trust, fear, aspirations, and success stories. The audience was very appreciative of her talk and left feeling invigorated and motivated."
Jack A. Grebb, M.D., Vice President, Neuroscience Global Clinical Research Bristol-Myers Squibb Research & Development
 
 
Incredible ability to speak to, train and motivate a group
 “The exercises were fun and interactive while still delivering a very important message. Thank you for your time and energy in, once again, delivering a top notch presentation. If there ever is a time I can recommend you and your incredible ability to speak to, train and motivate a group, please feel free to have your client contact me. ”
Nancy Margiano, Asst. Vice President, Director of Sales Training & Development, Family Security Plan; Instructor, Southern CT State University Communications Department
 
 
Gilda was engaging, effective and enjoyable
"Gilda, A most sincere thanks for presenting to our MCAICT group on March 26th. I thought you did a great job engaging the audience. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and get something out of it! I borrowed your half-life idea and presented it with credit to you at our Toastmaster meeting that Friday. They enjoyed it, too. You have a nice easy style of presenting that is effective, yet friendly. I'll certainly keep you in mind to refer to others."
Diane Ploch, Media Communications Association of CT
 
 
Universal message needed by senior corporate audiences
"Gilda did an outstanding job in presenting to our administrative assistant staff.  She took on a potentially touchy subject, fear and empowerment in the workplace, with humor, energy and tact. She leveraged her experience as an administrative assistant optimally. I believe her messages are universal and would be welcome, and much needed, by other, more senior, audiences. Gilda is very entertaining and thought provoking."
Doug J. Manion, M.D., Vice President, Viral Diseases Global Clinical Research Bristol-Myers Squibb Research & Development

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