Marilyn Sherman has spent years motivating and inspiring audiences to get out of their comfort zone and get a front-row seat in life. After starting her career in corporate America, she is now seen as the go-to motivational keynote speaker for corporate and association markets that want their people to improve their morale, teamwork, and communication skills and ultimately achieve more results. With her background as a training officer for a major finance company, Marilyn honed her skills to motivate audiences who are often hard to motivate. With her engaging, and fun personality, Marilyn connects with her audiences immediately and delivers content that they can immediately use when they get back to their office.

Marilyn is a graduate of Washington State University and after working for Chrysler First Financial Services, she was a contract speaker for one of the top seminar companies in the United States and Canada. She officially received road warrior status after delivering six-hour professional development seminars up to 5 cities a week up to three weeks a month for five years! In 1998, she went out on her own starting UpFront Presentations, a speaking and training company. She has served on the boards for the National Speakers Association Las Vegas and San Diego chapters. She also held national positions as the chair of the Motivational Speaker Professional Expert Group and headed up four labs that were conducted across the country.

In addition to being a popular motivational keynote speaker, Marilyn is also the author of three motivational books including “Whose Comfort Zone Are You In?” “Why Settle for the Balcony, how to get a Front-Row Seat in Life” and “Front-Row Service”. When not delivering upbeat motivating programs for audiences across the country, Marilyn accompanies her French husband Yves de Boisredon who takes people on fantasy wine experience trips to France.

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How to Get a Front-Row Seat in Life!

Life is short – live it in the front-row! This dynamic keynote inspires people to get out of the balcony of their life and go for that front-row seat! With so many things out of control these days, attendees will be reminded that their attitude and perception are 100% within their control. With the right mindset, any seat can be a front-row seat!

After showing people the difference between living and working in the balcony, and general admission, Marilyn will inspire people to choose to live in the front-row. Successful people live in the front-row. As one of her clients said, ‘Nothing good happens in the back of the room!’ In this session, she teaches people to have a vision, be of service, be gutsy, appreciate what they have and be empowered to do more. By the time the audience hears this; they will be ready to get out of the balcony where they previously complained about how bad their seats were. Now, they will have all the tools necessary to make some immediate changes for positive results. As an additional training tool, Marilyn has a motivational book of the same title that would make a great attendee gift.

This keynote inspires people to recognize their vision, set goals, overcome obstacles and have a great attitude. Sometimes, people live in a comfort zone and don’t even realize it. Others are influenced by negative people and do things for the wrong reasons. In this keynote, Marilyn helps people take charge of their career and their life by stretching themselves out of their comfort zone and achieve more than they thought possible. With lots of stories of people who have overcome obstacles, the audience will be empowered to do more with what they have.

The benefit to your audience is that when they leave, they will feel empowered to do more than they’ve done in the past and that will yield higher results for your organization. As an additional training tool, Marilyn has a motivational book of the same title that would also make a great attendee gift!

This is a content-filled program that provides tools to anyone who doesn’t like conflict or confrontation. Let’s face it; no one really likes conflict, which is why so many people avoid it. Or, they act inappropriately because they don’t have the tools to navigate conflict. This program teaches people to communicate much better to reduce conflict and to handle uncomfortable conversations with grace and respect.

Marilyn offers proven communication techniques that are easily adapted to anyone’s workplace. With examples and practice, people will learn the value of being assertive and not aggressive or passive-aggressive. This is a great workshop for anyone who wants to reduce conflict and have communication tools that can be immediately applied at work and at home in order to have more harmonious relationships. The tools provided work ESPECIALLY well when dealing with difficult people!

Often times, Marilyn is asked to open a conference with a motivational keynote presentation; this workshop is excellent as a concurrent session. While filled with valuable content, it’s also delivered with humor and audience engagement. There is also an interactive piece at the end that gets everyone laughing and learning about how they sometimes add to potential conflict situations unnecessarily!

This keynote helps anyone in the service industry to up their game when it comes to providing exceptional customer service to their customers and partners. Marilyn starts by giving examples of what a hospitality fanatic is NOT and then teach what it really means to provide service to your customers.

Marilyn’s book, written specifically for restaurants, is called Front-Row Service, How to increase Tip Percentage and Check Averages. This keynote can be customized to people in the foodservice industry as well.

However, this topic is not limited to restaurants and foodservice. If your business serves customers, than this program  It’s all about relationships and delivering the unexpected to your customers. Feeding the needs of your customers before they ask, is what Marilyn teaches in Front-Row Service. Her presentation also touches on ways to inspire yourself to be better and up your game so you can continue to improve. Your customers deserve to be treated like VIP’S, so let them know that doing business with you is a front-row experience!

If your organization isn’t going through some sort of change now, it means one of two things. Either you have already gone through a change, or you are about to!

Marilyn believes when people are asked to change; they become a Victim, a Vacationer or a Volunteer. Obviously if they choose to be a Victim or Vacationer, the chances of the change being successful are severely hampered. Marilyn helps people see what the effects of each V has on the outcome of the team.

This is an interactive workshop that helps people have the mindset of a volunteer: resourceful, opportunistic, positive, helpful, open-minded and vision oriented. (Better than being bitter, resentful, helpless and sabotaging!)

Marilyn consults with the client on their current vision to determine what the change means and how to strategize navigating the change more successfully. Plan on at least two hours for this workshop the next time your team is struggling with a change in your organization.