When you engage a speaker, you want someone knowledgeable, credible, motivational, and fun. Thanks to Debra Snider’s lively and informal style and the empowering “suit yourself” theme that underlies all of her presentations, her audiences invariably leave inspired, enthusiastic, and energized to make positive differences in their careers and lives.
Debra uses examples and lessons learned from her highly successful 20-year business career to illustrate messages and make them more personal, more compelling, and easier for audiences to understand and follow. All of her talks are interactive and full of practical tools and tips for putting theory into action today and every day.
The most popular presentations are described in more detail below:
Other topics include:
Time Management, Client Development, Change Facilitation, Law Department Management, and Partnering for Win-Win Vendor Management. Click here to request more information on these.
Presentation Options
Debra’s favorite format is a 2-hour event, with 45 minutes of prepared remarks, 30-45 minutes of Q&A (there’s always at least this much), and 30-45 minutes for unstructured conversation, networking, and book-signing.
She is also happy to do shorter or longer presentations; her experience includes everything from keynote speaking (in person and via webinar) to facilitating Q&A or discussion after a brief introduction, running breakout sessions, and facilitating multi-day retreats. She has also served as both a panelist on and the moderator of several teleseminars and webinars.
Sometimes, you don’t need a speaker, but you do need an extra little something for a reception or workshop luncheon or networking event. A book-signing for a book like Lost Wyoming – which “examines the complexities of relationships, the challenges of communicating feelings, and the difficulties of discovering what one really wants” – or like A Merger of Equals – written by a businesswoman and heralded as “one of the most enlightening and true works of fiction about corporate life and love,” “a highly entertaining must-read” and “a fun, fast-paced love story chock-full of important and inspiring lessons about women, men, work, love and life” – might be just the thing.
Suit Yourself: How to Prioritize Personal Satisfaction & Become A Star
Premise
The business world is far more complex and soul-draining than it needs to be. Employee misery and corporate inefficiency are as prevalent as ever, despite years of focus on improvement strategies. Why? We need to do a better job of suiting ourselves. Suiting yourself leads to the only kind of success that matters – the kind that satisfies you.
Talking Points
Develop self-awareness
Articulate priorities
Focus time and energy on what matters most
Let goals, not outcomes, be your guide
Match your behavior to what you want to achieve
Trust makes sense – give it and deserve it
Always ask “Whose rules are these?”
Results
Inspired, energized audience armed with proven, practical tools for:
- Being better employees
- Being better employers and leaders
- Increased job satisfaction
- Greater control over their time
- Becoming leaders
- A strong, actionable awareness that their work can, must and does add meaning and impact to their lives and the lives of others
Alternate Titles
- Personal Satisfaction; Organizational Success
- Suit Yourself and Succeed
Leadership: The Real Key to Career Success
Premise
Leadership has very little to do with hierarchy, job position, age, experience or even personality. Everyone has frequent opportunities to make things better and more fun, to commit to the success of others, to fix processes and inspire others to want to come to work, and to contribute to strong culture, strong teamwork and strong organizations.
Talking Points
What is leadership?
–High-level
–Specific behaviors
Why is it worth the effort?
–Personally
–Organizationally
What happens when it flourishes throughout the ranks?
Results
Inspired audience motivated to step up to leadership, thus enhancing individual career development and organizational productivity
Alternate Titles
- Everyday Leadership
- Leadership – What’s In It For You?
Success Strategies for Professional and Business Women
Premise
The rules of the game weren’t written by and for women, so we’re not hardwired with them like men are. We have to realize that they exist, figure them out and make them work for us.
Talking Points
How to prioritize, get very comfortable with your choices, and get on with things
How to stay open to redefinition, be flexible, and give yourself a break
How to square personal priorities and organizational realities
How to identify and reliably see the forest and the trees – and then act accordingly
How to be a leader and make a difference – for yourself, your colleagues, your clients and your organization
Results
Inspired audience equipped with practical tools for achieving high impact performance, offering unique value, demonstrating leadership, and succeeding
Alternate Titles
- Focus on What Matters Most – Personally, Professionally & Organizationally
- Lessons From the Front – A Woman’s Gameplan for Success
- Little League v. Big Deal, Class Play v. Client Paperwork, PTA v. M&A –
- Work-Life Balance in the Real World
Strategic Productivity
Premise
Strategic productivity is about doing things better, not just less expensively. It’s about building a better model, emphasizing highest and best use of people and other resources vs. superhuman effort, burn-out and mere cost-cutting.
Talking Points
Mission and vision
Right people in right jobs
Process and resource efficiency
Intelligent, goal-oriented outsourcing and vendor management
Consistent focus on what matters most
–Personally
–Organizationally
Enduring results; continuous improvement
Results
New understanding of true productivity and how to create and sustain it via a proven approach that improves job satisfaction and the bottom line
Alternate Titles
- Real World Time Management – Focus on What Matters Most
- Do More With Less, Happily
Evolution of a Career – Differentiation, Leadership, Success
In this exclusive and very personal presentation, Debra describes how and why she became a writer, then shares the evolution of her highly successful legal and business career, with emphasis on the challenges she faced and the high level lessons she learned during her climb up the corporate ladder.
Debra can tailor this talk to a variety of lengths. Her prepared remarks last about 15 minutes when done at a very high, summary level, 30-40 minutes when done at a meatier, outline level, and 60 minutes when done at a full, training session level. In all cases, she offers practical takeaways that let her inspired audiences put her experience and advice to immediate use. Meeting planners are advised to schedule a minimum of 30 minutes for Q&A with this talk; it always generates a great deal of audience participation.
This is a particularly good program for groups of professional and business women, but it also works for mixed groups of younger men and women who are looking for role models and experience-based coaching as they build their careers.
Win the Career Game
Premise
Young people often enter the business world without all the tools they need to make their careers successful. Knowing how to prioritize, getting and staying organized, adding unique value, and developing leadership skills are essential to becoming the kind of employee who gets rewarded and promoted. This talk is for entry-level or other people who are new to the business world.
Talking Points
Articulate your priorities and define success for yourself
Build your leadership skills and become a high impact performer
Ask for the help you need and the rewards you deserve
Get and stay organized
Balance your work and your life by focusing on what matters most
Results
Inspired, energized audience armed with proven strategies and practical tools for making their careers successful.
Alternate Titles
- Career Success 101
- A Basic Toolkit for Career Success
- The Rules of the Game: Proven Strategies for Career Success
Feedback
Here are a few of the 100% positive post-event survey comments received by the event organizer on the content of this program when presented (on two separate occasions) as an online webinar to Kaplan University Arts and Sciences students:
“The speech was beneficial, informative, helpful and inspirational.”
“Very good key points and ideas that I can use at work and as a student.”
“It covered a lot of things that are important in the real world.”
“She gave us several different options towards success and how to make use of these in our day to day lives, personally and professionally. Every little detail given was very helpful, motivational, and inspirational.”
“It was full of very helpful information about how to break into the career world and how to handle some awkward situations that may arise while working your way to the top. Although some of the information provided was pretty basic, there are many that are unaware of how to succeed in the workplace. I found the seminar to be very enlightening.”
“It helped me get focused again on my work and studies. She is a great motivational speaker, with practical ideas and suggestions to incorporate immediately.”
“Powerpoints really defined what she was talking about. The whole presentation was very well organized.”
“Debra is an amazing speaker and has some of the best ideas I have heard recently.”
“Debra’s enthusiasm for what she believes in made me realize that a career isn’t a job, it’s a passion.”
“I learned a lot about prioritizing and time management. I learned how to have a more successful and fulfilling career. The information was simple and completely motivated me to make a change right then!“
“I was plastered to the screen and phone, totally oblivious to everything but what was going on in the seminar. What questions to ask yourself about if your career fits you and if you fit the workplace. How to make yourself invaluable to your employer. Being organized and developing stronger time management skills. Eveything about Debra Snider’s presentation was interesting and fun.“
“The fact that everything was down to earth was very helpful. I also liked the fact that she took time to answer individual’s questions.“
“This presentation was very helpful. The powerpoint presentation was really good and easy to follow.“
“Debra is so enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I really enjoyed her perspective.“
“A lot of what Ms. Snider spoke of reinforced what I learned in Academic Stratagies but also gave me a “living” example of those strategies in action. It was VERY informative..I loved it.“
“I think she is a great asset to new, older students, like myself. I think “Win the Career Game” should be part of the new student orientation criteria.“
“I would definitely attend another seminar by Debra Snider. She was great!“