Inspirational, Educational & Action-Oriented

Keyshops & Seminars for Growth-Minded Financial Advisors, Planners & Professionals Globally

Some speakers only give their set talk. Maria’s approach is a lot more personal, including providing coaching sessions after the event. As the conference organizer, I really enjoyed her preparation process; it showed me she really cared about making her workshop relevant to our members. I liked the interaction Maria had with the advisors; she has been in the financial services industry and understands how it works and the pressures financial advisors feel.

I would like to emphasize how practical she is. Financial advisors need to think about planning and how they’re going to grow their business. They want to have definite takeaways. You can always hear something at a conference that sounds good at the time, but if you don’t really get on it right away, you lose it. Maria’s simple worksheets were very valuable; they gave us a jump start on what she taught at the conference. Maria clearly said beforehand that she wouldn’t be a rah-rah motivational speaker—that that she was more practical—and that’s what I appreciated the most.

Joanne Woiteshek Partner, Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer at Interactive Financial Advisors

Maria's workshop for the CACPA/PFS Board on Banishing Burnout was an insightful and productive event. After speaking with a few members, she customized the program and hit the mark. She also provided us with simple tools to help us go from feeling burned out to energized. I enjoyed her no-excuses coaching style.

Brooke Salvini, CPA/PFS, CFP® , Principal, Salvini Financial Planning. President, CACPA/PFS

I was following Maria's blog for financial advisors and was impressed with the clarity of her articles. When we asked her to present at our conference in India, she was extremely approachable. She offered our participants even more value by providing one-on-one engagements after her presentation. We agreed that Maria would speak about profiting from change and conduct a 90-minute workshop on niche marketing.

I chose those topics because it’s important that advisors have steps to deal with change more quickly as the industry continues to reinvent itself. Niching is a relatively new area where Indian advisors need handholding and practical tools to differentiate themselves. To the delight of our audience, her sessions were full of actionable insights and she provided private access to her marketing articles and tools. We would certainly recommend Maria to speak to an audience full of advisors wanting to grow and scale their businesses.

Anita Sutrave Chief Executive Officer at Cafemutual & Co-founder & CBO at StreetsAhead

Maria's 5-Part Business & Marketing Plan Workshop brings a lot of value; it’s sure to be one of the biggest takeaways that conference participants will get for practice management. There were two exercises that I found particularly helpful. The 5 questions that every planner needs to answer made me very focused. I was off and running where I’d usually say, 'I don’t have time for this.’ Then, in five minutes, by answering a series of 11 questions and filling in the blanks, I had a whole Vision statement, which would have taken me days left on my own. That was worth the whole seminar!

Stephanie Genkin My Financial Planner, RIA & Chair NYC FPA Encore Committee

Maria's "Nail Your Niche" workshop received evaluations showing that her presentation was better than expectations in the area of knowledge of subject matter, presentation skills, relevancy, and usefulness of materials.

AICPA PFS Conference 2017 Las Vegas, Evaluation

Why Book Maria For Your Event?

When Maria speaks, the listens attentively and writes feverously.

This is because her presentations are not designed to temporarily hype up the audience with feel-good sentiments (though they will feel empowered)!

As a life and business coach who knows “life happens” as you grow a business, Maria develops workshops to transform both people AND processes, preparing attendees for overall success and satisfaction in business and life.

Maria’s presentations contain material that your audience will recognize as valuable, actionable advice. They know her strategies will take their business growth to the next level—leaving them excited and raving about their experience. Your audience will act now on the materials she provides -- even before leaving the workshop!

All of Maria’s courses are designed to bring attendees to a point of clarity within the chosen topic. Her proprietary templates make it easy for participants to record their thoughts, take specific action, and share what they’ve learned with their teams. Accountability is easy when you have clarity and a written plan to increase success. Maria’s workshop attendees leave with both.

Maria develops customized workshops (from 25 minutes to 5 days in length). They can be held at a conference, before the conference, for a retreat, for membership or staff, or held as a webinar, a series, or audio presentation.

Maria’s Most Popular Speaking & Training Programs

The following are four topics of the action-oriented presentations I'm asked to present the most often. My breakout workshops are customized to each audience and can be presented as keyshops, workshops, or webinars.

• Nailing Your Niche

• Envisioning Your Business Vision

• 8 Steps to Booking MORE Ideal Clients

• Business Growth Planning on a Single Page

• Profiting from Change

• Banishing Burnout

Is This You?

Often a meeting or event planner has a specific business development, marketing, or personal growth issue they're looking to cover at an event. When they contact me, if it's a topic I cover during the course of my business, I'll create a workshop around the topic. That's how many of the topics I've presented have come to be. But if it's not a topic for me to speak on, I can provide you the names of other financial industry speakers.

To give you an idea of the scope of the programs I've taught at colleges, conferences, webinars, etc., I'm including other type of topics to get your the ideas flowing.

Easy Ways to Integrate Online and Offline Marketing
10 WordPress Plugins to Improve Your Website Or Help You Be More Productive
LinkedIn Demystified
10 Business Productivity Tools
10 Tips To Help You Work Virtually With Clients
Marketing On A Shoestring Budget, Professionally
(Individual) MS Office Programs for Business Owners
Help, I Need A Website, Now What Do I Do
Your business management, marketing, or mindset topics here

Let Maria turn complex business processes into simple, doable actions. Her talks concentrate on important business growth and marketing topics.

Each workshop topic is customized to the audience or participants to ensure the highest benefit and implementation for attendees. Learn more about the process we use to customize here. Within ample time of the event, we provide you with handouts and an evaluation form. Ask us for one article on the topic that you can use in your newsletter or other marketing prior to the event.

Maria is also an excellent “filler-inner” when other speakers cancel.

Maria's presentation, at the MPI Conference, was inspiring and innovative, It provided me with new insights and tools that I used immediately. It's evident that she's passionate about helping small business owners succeed. Her company's email list and blog which contain excellent and helpful information to take me into the future.

Janet Graff, CMP JLG Event Management Solutions, Cleveland, OH,

In the Banishing Burnout workshop, Maria dug into real issues as opposed to talking about a control group or waxing on about a survey. She conducted a hands-on workshop that didn’t talk about hypotheticals—she put us to work on real issues that pertain to our lives. Her Life Full-Fillment Index gave me pause for thought. It was simple, but elegant. I knew I had to make some changes, but this exercise brought them more into my awareness. I found her presentation refreshing and different.

Gregory Desmond, CPA/PFS, CFP® President Desmond Financial, Practice Mgmt. Sub-Committe Chair CACPA/PFS

Maria, I got so much more out of your 1-hour program than I have gotten from multiple hours of reading and attending seminars on business planning. More programs like this would be excellent.

Monica Barnard, APA, CEBS Barnard & Associates, Pensacola, FL

Who Benefits the Most From Maria’s Training Programs?

Financial advisors, planners, managers, and teams
Benefits providers, insurance agents, CPAs, AEs, accountants, bookkeepers, QuickBooks consultants, etc,
Retail or institutional sales teams
Service-based small business owners who serve financial professionals or not
C-level executives from large or mid-sized financial firms ready to plan and work smarter

It is always a good sign of how engaged attendees are when they linger after the meeting and continue the discussion, which they did.

Patty Anderson, Executive Director Washington Society of Association Executives

Marial gave our Chapter Presidents and members, who met in Canada, all we needed to publish an ezine from the absolute beginning. And she provided us with a huge wealth of sources of information, a variety of choices and the knowledge of ongoing support.

Bronwyn Ritchie President, International Training in Communication, Australia

Maria’s Business Plan workshop aligned with our Small Business Center’s mission by providing a curriculum that supports their growth and success. She was very professional and personable. Maria interacted with each of the attendees to ensure they received high-quality information. She provided many examples of real-life experiences, which are highly valued by the attendees. During the presentation, the business owners were able to create their vision, navigate their goals and work towards creating a doable business plan through easy, guided steps. This process helped them reach for higher goals as entrepreneurs. I received unsolicited feedback from audience members who truly valued the information from this presentation and enjoyed Maria’s workshop. I have inveted her back again!

Mari-inetta Pavlic Triangle South Enterprise Center, Director

Thank you so much for your wonderful presentation to the Chamber. Your presentation on business and marketing planning was informative, fun and a must for all business owners.

Peggy Kahler Vice President Duvall (WA) Chamber of Commerce

I attended your workshop at the American Society of Women Accountant’s Conference on creating a one-page business plan. Several members and I were excited at the possibility of turning our lengthy Strategic Plan into a one-page document using your materials. We accomplished our goal and had the opportunity to share our plan with our Ukrainian counterparts who were looking to start an accounting organization.

Jana Helmuth President, America Society of Women Accountants, Seattle, WA