Speaker
| Ever since that first taste of the limelight at the age of six when I recited my poem, The Breeze Am I, to the class, I have enjoyed being on a stage. As a child I loved to act and started to teach word processing then creative writing classes in my 20s. It was not until I was in my mid-30s that I did my first speech.
It was 1996 and we had recently moved from the Middle East to Stavanger, Norway. I had been coerced by one of the board members to give a talk at the next meeting into sharing how I had managed to create and maintain a portable career despite moving between four countries in eight years and having two small boys. I was so nervous that I wore a tomato red and gold Omani Bedouin lady’s outfit, complete with headscarf, so that the audience would be too busy looking at my outfit to listen to my talk. In short, they liked what I said and laughed at both my jokes and my ridiculous outfit and I realised that speaking was actually rather fun. It was thanks to WIN that the idea for my best-selling book A Career in Your Suitcase was born. |
Fast forward to 1998 and I was invited to Paris to speak at a Women on the Move Conference on the subject of portable careers and it was here that I launched that book. It was in this same auditorium that I met my dear friend, fellow speaker, author and cheerleader, Robin Pascoe, and we travelled together to speaking engagements worldwide for more than ten years. I have been invited to speak at many international, corporate and non-profit conferences, including Global Living, Bloom Where You Are Planted, Expatica, WIN and Families in Global Transition (I’ve keynoted at the latter on two separate occasions).
I’ve spoken at schools and in church halls, to Procter and Gamble wives in Cincinnati and expat wives in Borneo, to the Women’s Institute in a small Rutland village in England and to the American Foreign Service in Washington via satellite link from London, in the days before weblinks.
I no longer wear fancy dress and no longer speak about portable careers. I stick to writing and publishing these days. I also stick to my time limit. I pride myself on being able to engage with the audience and make them laugh. Once, speaking at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Oman, I fell off the stage, but that was an accident.
Want to ask me to come and speak at your conference or run a writing workshop to a bunch of keen beans? Or perhaps you’d like me to come and give a talk to your group or colleagues? One to two-hour talks available on the following:
- Stories Connect Us
- Could You Be an Expat Writer?
- Bring Back Letter Writing
- A Book is Your Best Business Card
Just ask!
