Speaker - Donna Rachelson

Keynotes that Shift How People Show Up, Lead and Influence

Donna’s dynamic, high-impact and practical keynotes empower talent to step into their power, stand up and stand out so that they can grow professionally and personally.

Donna is a sought-after speaker who has been invited to speak on many local and international stages.

Her keynotes are grounded in over three decades of real-world experience across corporate leadership, marketing and entrepreneurship. She brings a commercially relevant, practical perspective to leadership, personal branding and organisational impact. Donna’s talks go beyond inspiration; they challenge thinking, shift behaviour and equip individuals with clear, actionable ways to strengthen their visibility, credibility and influence in the environments that matter.

Signature Keynotes

Personal Branding for Career and Business Success

Build a competitive advantage from your most valuable asset: your people.

Your most powerful brand is your people. Every time a client looks at, listens to, or interacts with your employees, it impacts the way they perceive your company. There is no doubt that before a prospect or customer buys your products or services or your company, they buy your people first.

If your people know how to brand and market themselves, they are essentially helping to brand and market your organization.

The Personal Branding for Career and Business Success keynote focuses on:
• Characteristics of great brands
• Why personal branding is important to personal and business success
• How to stop being invisible and become visible and relevant
• How to build trust and credibility
• How to develop and market one’s personal brand

Testimonials

“Donna was absolutely fantastic!! We loved every moment of her and she is so fabulous. Her content was tailored to our audience, she took the time to come listen in on the event to make sure her talk complimented the day, she really showed such commitment to our event and was just such a pleasure to work with.”

Thank you for an excellent presentation and bringing home an important message about personal branding. You have created awareness and enthusiasm in our people for something that will benefit them personally – but also our company. A real win-win! Your energy, expertise and enthusiasm is contagious!

“Working with Donna has been great. She is extremely professional and her talk is very impactful on very different audiences (from Women in IT to Chief Information Officers). All of them walk away with lots to consider around making their mark in business with the right brand that carries what they stand for and how they want to be remembered by.”

“Donna infuses her workshops with passion and enthusiasm, and manages to convince even the most ardent sceptics of the need to brand themselves. An expert in her field, Donna ensures that the workshops are of practical value, while at the same time making it fun. She is a consummate professional, and one who is in tune with her audience. I would have no hesitation in recommending Donna.”

“Brilliant! Forces you to reflect on who you are and how you package and portray yourself”

Play to Win: What Women can learn from Men in Business

It’s time to master the advantage of being able to wear both the skirt and the pants.

Over her 30-year career, Donna has worked with a number of senior women executives and has gained insight into how they have built their careers. She also closely tracked the behaviour of men to uncover the Mars and Venus approach to business. In this inspiring one-hour talk, she will share the secrets and insights on how to ‘play business like a game’, ‘take it like a man’ and ‘make your moves’.

In this keynote, participants will learn how to:

• Play business like a game
• Get noticed
• Ditch the small, incremental moves
• Focus on the results
• Work one’s network and state one’s views
• Fake it until you are it!
• Don’t take it personally

Testimonials

“Donna’s talk offers practical advice and has an enlightening perspective on the corporate space. If women want to change how we're perceived, we need to change how we think which will change our approach. I really enjoyed how it shows women how to showcase their personalities and strengths within the context of the current corporate space. I loved hearing the perspective of other successful women and how they've navigated the corporate world.”

“Play to Win provides insightful lessons on how women can best combine their own instincts, skills and work ethics, with those that are displayed by men in the workplace, to their advantage, for the benefit of the business. The “lessons” look at tactical ways to enhance a women’s ability to perform competitively in business, provides an understanding of certain characteristics that men display which creates possible myths that ‘men are more powerful’ and reminds women to use and be aware of their natural strengths, and highlighting other skills that they can learn to adopt to get ahead. Play to Win sums up that it is always about being true to yourself, being honest, factual, and not trying to be someone else; ultimately focusing on the end result that is mutually beneficial to yourself and the business at hand.”

From Invisible to Influential

Standing out in today’s dynamic business world isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room; it’s about being the most trusted and valued.

The way your talent position themselves, communicate their expertise, and build credibility directly impacts their success, and the success of your organisation.

This keynote challenges the myth that hard work alone is enough and equips professionals and leaders with the mindset and strategies to ensure their contribution is seen, trusted, and sought after.

Audience Takeaways

Participants will learn how to:

Strategically shape and amplify their personal brand
Build credibility and trust at scale
Take control of their narrative and visibility
Position themselves as go-to experts and leaders

Testimonials

“Thank you very much for presenting at our conference. When we did reflections the next day, your talk truly stood out. It certainly challenged many people to take action and inspired them greatly. Your slides resonated so much with where I am and where I hope to be. Thank you once again for your time and the incredible insights you shared with us.”

Communicate to Influence

Communication that merely informs rarely moves people.

Influential communication secures buy-in, shifts thinking, and drives action.

This keynote helps professionals and leaders move from functional communication to impactful, influential messaging, while strengthening their personal brand.

Audience Takeaways

Participants will:

Communicate with precision, purpose, and presence
Tailor messages to stakeholder needs
Reduce resistance and increase alignment
Deliver messages that land, resonate, and drive action

Testimonials

“I would like to thank you on behalf of Medis for a great presentation, it was clear and very engaging. We had almost ~100 participants, which is very impressive, and the feedback was excellent!”

Speak Up. Stand Out.

In many organisations, capable people hold back ideas, soften their message, or wait for permission to speak. Over time, this limits contribution, slows momentum, and leaves value on the table. How your people use their voice directly shapes how they are perceived, how their ideas are received, and how effectively they influence outcomes.

This keynote is designed to help people at all levels speak with intent and authority in moments that matter. It provides practical strategies and mindset shifts that enable participants to organise their thinking, manage pressure, and communicate ideas in a way that moves conversations forward.

Outcomes

Participants will:

Feel more confident contributing ideas and perspectives
Communicate more clearly, even under pressure
Use a simple structure to organise their thoughts and speak with purpose
Understand how stories help messages land and be remembered
Leave more willing to step forward and take part in important conversations

Testimonials

“Thank you so much for pouring into our ladies, Donna. Appreciate all the wonderful work you do for us and the partnership relationship we have developed.”

7 Steps to Business Marketing Success

One of the biggest challenges business owners face is knowing how to market their businesses effectively. Most understand that marketing matters, but few know where to focus their time and budget to get real results.

As a result, many fall into the trap of ad hoc activity, disconnected campaigns, once-off efforts, and little to no measurement of impact or return on investment.

This lack of consistency and clarity makes it difficult to link marketing activity to real business outcomes. However, when marketing is treated as a system in the business, it becomes a driver of consistent, measurable business growth.

In this enlightening presentation, participants will be exposed to the key steps to make marketing impactful in their business.

Testimonials

"I highly recommend Donna Rachelson's ‘7 steps to business marketing success’ to any up and coming business owner. I can sum it up very simply as this: All experts at the forefront of their art have their own collection of in-house coined terms. In Donna Rachelson's keynote it is simply one phrase, 'the aha moment'. And there were many of them. She stripped away all misconceptions I had of marketing and in great clarity laid it bare for me.”

“Having recently attended Donna Rachelson’s ‘7 steps to business marketing success’ talk, I walked away very impressed. It was well presented, exceptionally interesting and above all else expressed in a way that kept everyone riveted throughout the talk. Donna involved her audience and incorporated aspects of daily life scenarios to illuminate certain points, which had delegates in fits of laughter.”

“Recently I had the privilege of attending a talk by Donna Rachelson titled “‘7 steps to business marketing success’”. Donna opened the presentation and within seconds, the audience was fixated on her every word. The way she presented the subject was riveting. She has a way of holding your attention from beginning to end. The content of the presentation was clear and understandable and made us want to learn more. I immediately realised the benefit of implementing what she was presenting in our organisation. We have already started to implement aspects of the lessons learned in our business and the results are starting to show.”

Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs

In the fast-paced world of work, personal branding has never been more important.

Marketing for entrepreneurs is difficult – they don’t have huge marketing budgets and they need to build their personal brand to increase their business exposure and enhance their credibility.

Having a strong personal brand and reputation is key for entrepreneurial success – the entrepreneur becomes a ‘go to’ brand, remains top of mind, trusted in their industry and relevant to their target market.

In this talk, participants will explore:

What is a personal brand
The benefits of building a personal brand
Why one’s personal brand matters
The key questions one needs to think about when positioning a personal brand and leveraging and marketing a personal brand for the benefit of the business
Is their personal brand relevant to their business mission
Packaging their personal brand for business success
Leveraging & marketing their personal brand for the benefit of the business tactics that work

If you’re looking for a keynote that delivers practical, commercially relevant impact

Book Donna for Your Next Event