Unbelievable stories about what happens when the plan doesn’t go to plan.
Former Airline Captain. Author. Keynote Speaker.
Michelle spent more than two decades flying aircraft, leading crews and making calls when there wasn’t always a neat answer.
She has ferried light aircraft across the Pacific, been struck by lightning in cloud, flown through emergencies, been told no repeatedly, become an airline captain and then had to work out who she was when flying was suddenly gone.
Now she speaks about what those experiences taught her about judgement, leadership, resourcefulness, confidence, adaptability and finding another way when things don’t go as expected.
Stories. Lessons. Takeaways.
EVERYONE IN THE ROOM SAID NO.
She said yes, then
figured out the how.
Michelle wanted to fly from the age of seven.
She was told women shouldn’t be pilots. She was refused finance. She sold what she owned, moved home with her young son and kept going anyway.
Eventually, she became a Boeing 737 airline captain, one of relatively few women in the world to hold that rank.
The interesting part isn’t that she proved people wrong.
It’s everything that happened along the way.
You could have heard a pin drop as Michelle blew the audience away with her storytelling. She was the stand out of the event, everyone loved her.
Monica Rosenfeld
Founder – Global Stories that Stir Movement
TRUSTED BY.
LADY MACGYVER
Unbelievable Stories with Altitude
A keynote about what happens when plans change, things go wrong and you have to work with what you’ve got.
Michelle takes audiences from a seven-year-old girl determined to fly, through some of the most extraordinary moments of her aviation career, and into the much messier business of life outside the cockpit.
There are aircraft emergencies, Pacific crossings, terrible advice, difficult people, cancer, career setbacks, plenty of things that probably shouldn’t have happened and a recurring question:
What can I do with what I’ve got?
This is not a keynote about having all the answers.
It’s about judgement, adaptability, self-belief and the ability to find another way when the original plan disappears.
Audiences laugh, reflect, occasionally get angry on Michelle’s behalf and leave looking differently at the situations they’re facing themselves.
Best for: conferences, leadership events, company kick-offs and teams dealing with change.
EXTRAORDINARY
STORIES
From the cockpit and beyond.
VERY HUMAN LESSONS
Leadership, judgement, pressure and people
PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS
Ideas people actually use when they walk back into work.
DELIVERED WITH ENERGY & HUMOUR
Engaging, entertaining and always real.
Bring Michelle to your next event.
If you’re looking for a speaker who combines extraordinary stories, humour, hard-earned perspective and ideas your audience will still be thinking about after they leave the room, let’s talk.
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