PROFILE
Dr Gemma Munro is an uplifting and award-winning speaker, facilitator and coach, with a PhD in performance psychology and a knack of sparking rapid and easeful change. Known as the Alchemist at Work, Gemma specialises in the science and art of courage, transformation and the creation of impossible dreams.
Gemma has ignited change in workplaces across the planet, and inspired over 77,000 people worldwide. She has spoken to global and national audiences at Google, Amazon, Qantas, Vodafone, PayPal and the NHS in London, and her keynote at Google headquarters in Silicon Valley was live-streamed to every Google office on the planet. She is a winner of the Duncan Trust Prize for speaking and a two-time Telstra Businesswoman of the Year finalist. As a classically trained singer, Gemma has performed in Westminster Abbey, Radio City Music Hall and, somewhat heart-stoppingly, to 53,000 screaming fans as a backing vocalist for the Rolling Stones.
Audience members call Gemma ‘a human alarm-clock’, ‘a lightning bolt of love’ and ‘a witch who gets in people’s heads and makes them think anything is possible’. She is known as a catalyst for immediate and sustained shifts in mindset, behaviours and results. She is also known for provoking laughter, a-ha moments and gentle wake-up calls that motivate people to make the changes they need to make (even if they’re scared of change, tired of uncertainty and gold-medal-winning procrastinators).
Gemma co-founded Inkling Group and was the founder of Inkling Women, known for its work across Australia, Asia and the UK in rapidly lifting the percentage of women at leadership level. Before that she was a tremendously serious management consultant and a recovering academic, having completed her PhD at a relatively young and impressionable age.
Gemma is passionate about forging a wild new way of working – where work feels like play, life feels in flow and exhaustion and overwhelm are things of the past.
She lives on five acres in the Adelaide Hills with her fiancé Ben Barnett and their exceptionally loving, sometimes exhausting and usually hungry blended tribe of one pre-teen, two teens and a farm dog called Lucie.
SPEAKING TOPICS
The Courage to Shine
Stop dimming your light. Start shining bright.
How to quieten your fears, doubts and self-sabotage, then harness the courage to fulfil your potential. Every single person has a bright spark within them made up of their unique gifts, preferences and purpose. And every single person – even the most outwardly successful – has fears, doubts and self-sabotaging behaviours that get in the way of them shining their light.
It doesn’t make us bad, stupid or lazy. It makes us human. We are simply wired that way.
There are many things that Dr Gemma Munro is terrible at (playing tennis, returning tupperware and following IKEA manuals are three on a long list). But what she does exceptionally well is to help people shed their fears, doubts and self-sabotaging behaviours, and find the courage to maximise their performance and shine their light out to the world.
In this keynote, Gemma will share the five main ways we can stop dimming and start shining our unique light. Audiences will leave with eight practical, evidence-based and fun tools that have helped tens of thousands around the world to let go of impostor syndrome, stop self-sabotage in its tracks, and achieve a level of success, spark and peace-of-mind they hadn’t thought was possible.
A Wild New Way or Working
Let go of exhaustion, hustle and overwhelm. Learn to perform at your peak while.
How to perform at your peak without sacrificing your peace.
Here is a typical day in the life of many of us. Does some of it ring true for you?
Wake up, feel tired, drink coffee, look at calendar, feel even more tired, check emails, feel overwhelmed, drink more coffee, attend a meeting, attend a meeting, put out a fire, attend a meeting, check emails, answer 3 of 78 new emails,
deal with a people issue that could be an opportunity but just feels like another fire to put out, receive an email that means that tomorrow’s plan is now out the window, feel exhausted, crave a wine at 2.45pm, attend a meeting, look at
missed calls, roll eyes, attend a meeting, play phone tag, eat sugar, feel overwhelmed, scroll phone, get home, drink wine, deal with loved ones, drink more wine, watch Netflix, go to bed, scroll phone, sleep fitfully, wake up tired, check email … then rinse, lather & repeat the next day.
It’s time to move away from the tired old approaches to work. It’s time to stop feeling exhausted, aimless and inauthentic. It’s time to get off the hamster wheel of stress and overwhelm. It’s time to start listening to the small, still voice within that’s telling you there must be a different way. The old paradigm of how we work is in
need of an overhaul. Most of us are overwhelmed, over-tired and over it. In this keynote (which can also be run as a masterclass), Dr Gemma Munro paints a new and very doable paradigm: one that involves flowing not forcing, creating not conforming, playing not working, and plugging yourself in not wearing yourself down. She shares the two main shifts to create a wild new way of working, and provides clear action steps under each shift. You’ll leave feeling re-energised, empowered and inspired to change how you go about your work.
The Courage to Change
Alternative keynote for groups of leaders: Leading Through Change
At some point in your life, you’ve probably found yourself wanting to change, but unable to make the change last. It’s as if you have one foot on the accelerator, and the other on the brake. It’s crazily frustrating, isn’t it?
Welcome to being human.
The exciting news is that there is a way around our seemingly unsolvable tendency to self-sabotage when it comes to making change. There is a way to transform immediately, sustainably, and even enjoyably. In this keynote and/or masterclass, Dr Gemma Munro teaches the science and art of rapid transformation. You will learn how to get clear on the changes you want, and then to get out of your own way. You’ll learn to move past fears and doubts, and feel confident and empowered to make the changes you need to make. And the best news: whether you want to transform your mindset, habits, behaviours, beliefs or results, you’ll leave with a tool to do this rapidly and easily, over and over again.
