Empower Your Organization

Mary Fran Bontempo is an award-winning 2-time TEDx speaker, author, humorist, business owner, and media host who teaches audiences to uncover their Brilliance and Resilience 15 minutes at a time. A sought-after presenter, Mary Fran is author of Brilliantly Resilient, The 15 Minute Master and The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words. She is co-founder of the Brilliantly Resilient podcast and program, teaching others to Reset, Rise and Reveal their Brilliance to the world. Mary Fran proves small changes can create life-altering transformations, allowing individuals to be positive and successful in a rapidly changing world. A Huffington Post, Thrive Global contributor and columnist for numerous websites, Mary Fran created a life-affirming brand of wisdom and wit after meeting the challenge of her son’s heroin addiction. A frequent media guest and speaker, audiences of all ages delight in her empowering and entertaining message. Find her at www.maryfranbontempo.com

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Featured Speaker

TEDx Lehigh U
TEDx Loyola University
AHRA (Association for Medical Imaging Management)
Arcadia University
Athleta
Bank of America
BEN FM Philadelphia Radio
Bucks County Community College
CBIZ, Inc.
Delaware Valley College
DMEC (Disability Management and Absence Professionals)
EmCare Physician Services
EOFire Podcast with John Lee Dumas
First Presbyterian Church of Ambler
GNPCC Women in Business Conference
LaSalle University
Montgomery County Community College
NATCAP Society of Government Meeting Professionals
NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association)
Pearl Buck International
Penn Suburban Women’s Network
Power Your Potential Conference
Sisters U
Soroptimist International
Society of Professional Women
The Big Talk Podcast
The Great Girlfriends Podcast
The O’Connor Group
The Sophia Group
The Wellness Journey Radio
Victorious Women Gala
Voice of Business Radio
Women’s Business Forum
WMCN TV
Women of Willow Grove
Women to Watch Media
Women’s Summit on Entrepreneurship
WWDB-AM Philadelphia
Among Others

Available For

Conferences
Corporate Events
Women’s Programs
Keynotes
General Sessions
Breakout Sessions
Workshops
Retreats
Associations
Small Business Meetings
Non-Profit Events

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Corporate, Association & Group Programs

Recommended for business organizations, women’s groups, health conferences, book clubs and conferences on aging. (All content is available in presentation, workshop, lunch and learn, and breakout session formats and is customized to your group demographic.)

The 15 Minute Master

How do you cope when you wake up one day and learn that your son is a heroin addict? That’s what happened to me on Mother’s Day of 2010.

That knowledge changed everything, immersing my family in a years-long nightmare. Eventually. I learned to survive my son’s addiction by taking life 15 minutes at a time. A system evolved which not only worked for life with an addict, it worked for professional and personal challenges beyond that crisis.

Based on the new book, The 15 Minute Master, this empowering program teaches audiences how to bring focus and clarity to issues using 15 minutes, 3 questions and one action step, creating a specific, simple action plan to tackle personal or professional problems, conflicts and responsibilities, leading to increased individual and team productivity, success and happiness, while accomplishing more and finding balance in every day. Attendees will discover the following take-aways:

  • The benefits of intense, intentional focus
  • How to break down issues using three specific questions
  • How to determine if action is possible and advisable
  • How to build an action plan
  • How to dramatically improve productivity and success 15 minutes at a time

Leadership and Your Inner Monologue: Tackling the Critic One Word at a Time

Self-talk is our most powerful influence, mainly because it never shuts up! It can lift us up or bring us to our knees, sometimes within minutes. Self-talk can sabotage or save, and what it does is up to us.

Our inner critic has a big voice, but its foundation is in the individual words that guide our thoughts and actions. We must intentionally tackle our self-talk, redefining ourselves based on who we want to be, breaking sometimes decades-old patterns and habits, thus allowing us to live life with intention, power and joy.

In this powerful and entertaining program, attendees will learn to move through life’s transitions and challenges with intention and purpose, discovering the following take-aways:

  • Why we are all “change experts”
  • How fear and ignorance are positive forces
  • How to embrace the word “fine”
  • How “losing control” creates paths for growth
  • How to manage the “B” word—Balance

Ending Our Addiction to Awesome (Based on TEDx Lehigh presentation.)

Incredible. Amazing. Unbelievable. And the ubiquitous AWESOME! Superlatives are the most over-used words in the English language, yet if we’re not describing something as amazing or awesome, it has no value. Our addiction to superlatives is making us sick, frustrated and depressed, keeping us in an ever-present state of fear of failure.

Yet everything is not awesome, including us. Releasing ourselves from the need to be awesome at everything frees us to work our brilliance, excelling where we are meant to, building on our strong suits and encouraging us to work with others who complement our own strengths and weaknesses.

In this liberating and entertaining program, attendees learn the value of accepting and embracing “less than perfect” while discovering the following take-aways:

  • How to determine the true meaning of “Awesome.”
  • How continuous striving for superlatives diminishes productivity.
  • That “Fine” is an acceptable result.
  • How accepting weaknesses leads to developing strengths and resilience.
  • How releasing superlatives helps define brilliance.

Brilliantly Resilient: Reset, Rise, Reveal Your Brilliance After Life’s Sucker Punches! (Presented with Kristin Smedley)

Since 2019, America has seen a 93% increase in anxiety screenings and a 62% increase in depression screenings (mhanational.org). It has never been more important to equip individuals and communities with the skills to uncover inherent Resilience. But Resilience is just the beginning. Challenges can help us discover our unique Brilliance—the gift we are meant to share with the world. When individuals recognize their unique Brilliance, they are better able to create powerful teams and communities, allowing everyone to do what they do best, so all “ships can rise.”

By examining perception, identifying inherent strengths and transferable skills, and taking imperfect action to move forward in challenges, we can access our inherent resilience and uncover our brilliance. We then bring our best selves to every situation, building strength as individuals and leading our teams to do the same. We become more than resilient, we become Brilliantly Resilient!

In this entertaining and empowering program, attendees will learn to:

  • Reset and uncover inherent Resilience by exploring values, perception, control-ables
  • Rise and thrive by identifying transferable skills
  • Discover and utilize personal Brilliance
  • Take imperfect action
  • Work and live with a Brilliantly Resilient mindset

Surviving Addiction 

No one can prepare you for life with an addict. You are terrified, confused and frequently hopeless. You’re also collateral damage in the war your loved one has decided to wage on him/herself. But the addict’s story isn’t YOUR story.

We all want to save our addicted loved ones, but sometimes, the most we can do is save ourselves, and keep others from drowning in the whirlpool of the addict’s nightmare. Learning how to survive your loved one’s addiction and salvage your own story is not only possible, but necessary for you and all those you love, including the addict.

In this powerful, moving and enlightening program, Mary Fran shares her personal story of life during her son’s active heroin addiction, along with the strategies that helped her cope, survive and eventually thrive, while still loving her child, protecting her family, and living life 15 minutes at a time.

Student and Teen Programs

(Content can be altered to suit group demographic)

Finding Yourself in a Noisy World

Today’s students are under assault. Whether it’s the media, technology or their own peers, the pressure to be what everyone else wants is unrelenting. In this humor-filled program, students learn how to:

  • “Ignore More” and know when and why to unplug from technology
  • “Be Conspicuous” and decide who they are and want to be
  • “Scare Thyself” and discover how pushing through fear leads to confidence and opportunity