About Gail Larsen

Gail Larsen is the founder of Real Speaking and the author of Transformational Speaking: If You Want to Change the World, Tell a Better Story.  An award-winning entrepreneur, she is a business leader and catalyst for life-affirming ventures.  She was named the U.S.  Small Business Administration 1981 Tennessee Small Business  Person of the Year and is a former executive vice president of the worldwide National  Speakers Association.

Gail is a communications coach, speaker and workshop  leader, group facilitator, and an originator of transformational  events.  She founded Real Speaking (formerly "Keynote  Camp") in 1991 to support her clients in mining the deep well of their life experience and self-expression to become powerful platform speakers.
She has been instrumental in the success of numerous prominent speakers serving as both marketing consultant and literary agent. For four years,  her monthly column Talk About Speakers appeared in Meeting  Professionals International's publication, The Meeting  Manager.

Gail was the founding partner of JourneyWell Center for Integrative  Health, an exploratory venture that conducted research and  program development for a retreat center to help people make  empowered health care choices. From 1992-2002 she studied with cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien to apply cross-cultural wisdom to contemporary life, team building, and conflict resolution.  She received her facilitation training at the Institute for  Cultural Affairs and received training and certification from Doreen Virtue,  Ph.D (psychology), to expand her capacity to access intuitive and spiritual guidance and support others in this process. She is the author of Madame Ovary: Midlife  As An Art Form, and her book Transformational Speaking: If You Want to Change the World, Tell a Better Story was released in April 2009 by Ten Speed Press/Celestial Arts and Brilliance Audio (unabridged).

A Personal Message from Gail Larsen
I believe we each have within us a powerful voice for change. That voice may come forth through the spoken or written word, our music or artistic expression, or perhaps in our capacity to sit in silence with a friend or stranger who simply needs the comfort and strength of our presence.

In my work as a coach and consultant with speakers since 1985, I remain in awe at what people hold within them and the power they express when they give voice to their deepest yearnings and learnings. It has demonstrated to me that each of us is an original, no where else duplicated. Just as our vocal chords have distinctive patterns, each of us has in our hearts a singular song. It is my joy and privilege to help you discover your heart song so that you can sing it with joy and bring value to those you whose lives you touch. If you do not bring it forward, we will never know the wondrous gift you bring to the planet and how that might impact our collective future.

There is likely no time in recorded history when people have not found themselves in a maelstrom of change and dysfunction. However, with today's instant communications, we are bombarded with negative images that can cause us to lose hope that what we do and say really matter. I find cause for great hope. Through the inspiration of my many teachers, speaker friends and clients over the years, I have witnessed the power of truth in making one's mark on the world. To all of you, I offer my gratitude. My inner world and what I believe is possible have changed because of your courageous examples.

No longer do I concern myself with watering down who I am and what I have to contribute because of my fear of being judged or dismissed. I have learned there is no art in speaking without heart, and heart is present only in what is real. It is the gift of authenticity - yours and mine - that affirms my trust in life's journey and our collective capacity to create the world to which we want to belong. Indeed, as Gandhi reminded us, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." Every day I am inspired to see people who have moved through their fears and have become the change that heralds a new way.

For more about how you can Learn the Art of Transformational Speaking, listen to my recent interview with Daniel Davis on Beyond 50 Radio Show.  Learn The Art of Transformational Speaking, May 28, 2009