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Conversations with the Inspiring Mari Geasair

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Mari Geasair.

Mari, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Two things I absolutely love doing are supporting other women to step into the spotlight and shine and helping entrepreneurs to build businesses that thrive.

And I have spent many years doing both.

I literally started my first business when I was 12 years old.

But it wasn’t a weekend Lemonade Stand! It was a Boarding Kennel for dogs that thrived for 6 years and was successful enough that it funded most of my journey through the University of Colorado, Boulder where I majored in Theatre Arts.

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that as exciting and powerful as theatre can be, it is also a tough field in which to make a living.

So, instead of getting a “day job” as a waiter, I returned to my “roots” and began my adult life as an entrepreneur. Over the last several decades I have owned and operated five successful businesses of my own.* *(The business I have owned and operated include a Boarding Kennel, Training Agency, Online Bookstore, Arts Marketing Agency, Business Coaching Service and a Speaking & Consulting Business).

Although it was satisfying to start and run these businesses, I came to realize that my true passion is to help other women thrive in their businesses. So, in 2000, went back to school to get training as a small business coach and opened a coaching and consulting business focusing on brand messaging, marketing and visibility for subject matter experts, thought leaders and freelancers.

Between 2000 and 2016, I worked as a consultant and coach. During that time I was also fortunate enough to use the flexible lifestyle my coaching business provided as a support while I worked as a professional actor live regional theatre in both Colorado and Washington state. It was a busy time, during which I worked on over 40 stage productions and I have spent over 19,000 hours personally coaching hundreds of speakers, Solopreneurs, and subject matter experts through one-one consulting and small group classes.

Unfortunately, life can have a way of throwing curveballs at us and in early 2016, I was faced with some extreme dental and health issues. I had to have several painful surgeries and procedures. However, the real lesson and challenge of it all was that for many months, I did not know if I was going to be able to retain my ability to speak clearly. I was initially told that the likelihood was that I would have significantly slurred speech for the remainder of my life.

As a performer, and as someone who literally talked for a living this was a terrifying thought! Fortunately, the procedures worked even better than was originally hoped, and my speech today is for the most part perfectly clear.

The silver lining of this challenge was, however, that it helped me get even more clear about my passions and what I want to do with my life. Almost losing the full power of my own voice, and spending time watching the forces in our culture trying to silence women’s voices made it crystal clear to me that it was time to take another big step forward.

What I realized is that even though I thought of myself as a trailblazer, there was still a part of me holding back. While on one level, it was true that I was someone out there creating her own path and doing her own thing in the world, on another level I was still playing small.

And I also realized that in all of my years of coaching women entrepreneurs and subject matter experts what we were doing together was helping them NOT to play small.

So, as my health returned, I knew it was time to get even more deeply aligned with my unique talents and mission and to commit fully to helping the women changing the world to claim their voices and thrive. We all need to share our truths boldly and proudly. And we need to do it now.

And, so my current work combines my skills as a public speaker and actor with my background as an entrepreneur and business coach. As a public speaking and visibility coach, my goal is to help women thought leaders to step on to bigger stages either literally or through video and digital media and get their messages heard.

Because powerful passionate women can make the world a better place when they make their voices heard.

Has it been a smooth road?
Honestly, there are always challenges along the way. Whether it is a lack of support from other people, or problems defining what you really want, or attracting the right opportunities, or cash-flow issues, or relationship disappointments, or health challenges- there is ALWAYS something that challenges us. I have personally encountered all of these challenges and more.

And that is not a bad thing. The bumps along the way help us get clear about our vision and our values. They help us get in touch with our own sense of the world and peel back the layers of junk that are covering up our inner brilliance.

The trick, I believe, is to not expect perfection from ourselves or anyone else. We can push for excellence and big dreams without putting unfair pressure on ourselves. We can ask for help when we need it, take a rest when we need it and do things differently when we are inspired. Having a great life doesn’t happen at once in a big rush, it happens over time as we keep committing and then re-committing to what is important to us.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into More Impact, Less Stress! story. Tell us more about it.
Big impact usually starts with deep thought and solid skill-building. And that is what I provide. My work supports subject matter experts and thought leaders to create a bigger impact through clarifying their message and branding, creating an effective outreach strategy and mastering the arts of both live and digital presenting.

I help leaders to master the skill of public speaking and presenting on video so that they can reach more people and have a greater impact- without perishing from nervousness in the process. And, I go beyond that and help them create sensible outreach and publicity strategies, so that once they feel confident and ready to share their message it is easy to actually get out there and share it.

Creatives, social disrupters, healers and women on a mission to make the world a better place particularly inspire me. I specialize in working with authors, trainers, speakers, healers and service professionals seeking to share complex ideas in simple ways.

For good reason, society often focuses more on the problems rather than the opportunities that exist, because the problems need to be solved. However, we’d probably also benefit from looking for and recognizing the opportunities that women are better positioned to capitalize on. Have you discovered such opportunities?
I actually think that there are huge opportunities right now for women, and particularly women with diverse backgrounds and experiences, to bee heard through public speaking and digital media. I recently read a Bizzabo Diversity & Inclusion in Events Report that stated almost 70% of all event speakers are male. But what I am seeing from event planners, podcast hosts and digital media outlets is that there is a hunger to change that. I think that when women learn to tame their inner critic and share what is truly in their hearts and minds to share that people want to listen. So, be bold and go tell your story and share your ideas. The world needs to hear what you have to say!

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Jeremy Rill Photography (Mari with Coffee Cup), Ken Holms (Mari in Romeo and Juliet- GreenStage Theatre Seattle 2010), Rebecca Slaughter (Mari at Desk)

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