Forget standard keynotes!
UNBELIEVABLE STORIES. VERY REAL MOMENTS.
Michelle spent 23 years in aviation, eventually becoming a Boeing 737 Captain.
She ferried small aircraft solo across the Pacific, flew through a lightning strike, dealt with emergencies, difficult people, terrible advice and quite a few situations she would rather not repeat.
Some of those stories are funny. Some are frightening. A few are almost impossible to believe.
They are also where Michelle learned some of her most useful lessons about judgement, resilience, speaking up, backing yourself and finding a way when the obvious answer isn’t there.
Twenty-three years of flying gave Michelle a lot of stories. Lady MacGyver is where she gets to tell the best ones.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE ROOM?
Michelle tells stories.
Good ones.
A lightning strike over the Snowy Mountains. Thirteen and a half hours alone over the Pacific in a single-engine aircraft. Being told she’d never make a good Captain. The time staying quiet would have been much easier than questioning the Captain sitting beside her.
And plenty from outside the cockpit too.
Some are funny. Some are uncomfortable. A few sound completely ridiculous until you realise they actually happened.
Michelle uses those stories to get people thinking and talking about the situations they’re facing themselves.
That’s where the keynote becomes useful.
Story-led. Practical. Funny. Human.
A LIGHTNING STRIKE.
Somewhere between Cooma and Sydney, flying alone at night, Michelle’s aircraft was struck by lightning.
Then things started disappearing.
First the instruments.
Then the radios.
Outside was cloud.
There was no one to ask what to do next.
WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE LEAVES WITH.
RESILIENCE
A more useful view of what it means to keep going when circumstances change.
JUDGEMENT
Why experience matters when there isn’t an obvious answer.
CAPABILITY
A reminder that people are often capable of considerably more than they think.
THE CONFIDENCE TO FIND A WAY
Using what’s available rather than waiting for perfect conditions.
Right now, across every airline in the world, fewer than 500 women hold the rank of airline captain.
Michelle is one of them.
EXPERIENCE CHANGES WHAT WE’RE CAPABLE OF.
Pilots don’t become Captains because they’ve memorised all the right answers.
They become Captains through experience.
They practise. They watch. They get things wrong. They fly with people better than them. They encounter situations they haven’t seen before. They learn when to follow procedure and when the situation demands judgement.
Eventually, they’re the person in the left-hand seat.
That understanding sits underneath much of Michelle’s work.
Because whether the conversation is about resilience, judgement, leadership or decision-making, the question is much the same:
What do people need to experience, practise and learn so they’re capable when it really matters?
BEST SUITED FOR.
Lady MacGyver works particularly well for:
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Conferences and summits
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Leadership events
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Company kick-offs
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Women’s leadership events
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Organisations going through significant change
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Teams working in complex or high-pressure environments
Every audience is different. Michelle works with organisers beforehand to understand what matters to their people and where the keynote should land.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING MORE SPECIFIC?
DECISION MADE®
Michelle also works with organisations where judgement and decision-making are the focus.
Drawing on aviation training and more than two decades of operational experience, these sessions go further into how people make decisions when information is incomplete, time is limited and there isn’t an obvious answer.
Available as a keynote, workshop or facilitated session.