Travels from California, USA
Allison Massari's speaking fee falls within range: $15,000 to $20,000
After surviving two horrific car accidents, artist and entrepreneur Allison Massari braved an excruciating recovery that forever changed the way she viewed life and happiness. She has since then become one of North America’s leading speakers in “personal development” and “motivation,” teaching hundreds of audiences the self-disciplinary techniques she implemented to manage change, find inner peace, and come alive again.
In 1998 Allison’s car was hit at 60 MPH damaging the vehicle so much that she was trapped inside as a fire ensued melting her vinyl seat to her body. The situation was so grim that police initially declared the case a homicide. Miraculously though, Allison was rescued and began a challenging recovery and rehabilitation which lasted years. Nearly burned to the bone in some parts of her body, she became a master of her mind in order to deal with the agonizing pain. In the end Allison did more than heal; she found clarity regarding her life’s purpose and an inner strength that she has gone on to share with thousands of people.
Making M&C Magazine’s “Best Keynote Speakers” List three years in a row, Allison dedicates herself full-time to helping people obtain their full potential through the art of self-mastery. She has connected with audiences across all sectors through her soft but riveting message about exercising compassion, courage, and resilience to lead a more fulfilling and successful life.
Why Allison? • Voted on the “Best Keynote Speakers”List—M&C Magazine • Speaker at TEDxZaragoza in Spain. • Unique history as an internationally successful entrepreneur, burn survivor, brain injury survivor and artist. • Featured expert in the documentary “ReSolve” (narrated by Scott Neil, Head of Special Forces, US Military, Afghanistan). • Known for her authenticity and her ability to completely transform an audience. Projects a distinct calm speaking style while delivering a riveting message.
“AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF TRIUMPH AFTER BURNING ALIVE.”
THE FIRE WITHIN Hailed as “life-changing” “riveting” “extraordinary” “bold” and “deeply moving” by audiences worldwide, Allison Massari’s message of courage, compassion, and perseverance resonates with participants long after an event has finished. Listed as one of the Top 10 Best Speakers for “motivation” and “personal development” in the United States by Meetings & Conventions magazine, Allison has been featured on ABC News, NBC, FOX, and in Family Circle magazine. Her diverse client list includes: GE Healthcare IT, Eli Lilly and Co., HIMSS/CHIME, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Siemens Medical, LPL Financial, Million Dollar Round Table.
Allison has dedicated her career to catapulting individuals and organizations toward total success, mastery, and fulfillment. As an international keynote speaker, executive coach, and interdisciplinary artist, Allison provides an exceptional blend of business acuity, clarity, creative perspective, and real understanding. Her highly effective methods have enabled her to form bonds as a trusted confidante to CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs. Having triumphed over two traumatic accidents, one where she was severely burned on 50% of her body, Allison captures the hearts of audiences, demonstrating how to move forward with speed and grace. Prepare to be taken on a journey.
Allison Massari’s programs are packed with content. Blending powerful life lessons with compelling, insightful, and humorous stories, she offers actionable tools for people to immediately use to transform and manage their lives.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Allison Massari’s work has always created a roar.
With the heart of an artist, the keen vision of an entrepreneur, and a knack for success, Allison has built four thriving businesses in the past 25 years. She began with a robust fine arts business and jewelry line, Massari Fine Arts, LLC. Among her accolades were commissions for Fortune 500 companies including Lockheed Martin, General Mills and US Airways.
With characteristic vigor, she launched her coaching and speaking career. She was quickly honored as the #1 Rising Star in Speaking by the National Speakers Association, and has been recognized with esteemed engagements including a TEDx event in Spain on “The Future of Happiness” and as a main platform speaker at the 2013 Million Dollar Round Table Conference, addressing an audience of 8,600 from 75 countries. She also appeared in an international documentary about overcoming adversity, hosted by the Head of US Forces for the Military in Afghanistan (coming soon). Currently, Allison coaches and speaks full-time around the world, drawing packed audiences who praise her sincerity and her remarkable life-altering message of determination and overcoming adversity.
REDEFINING THE IMPOSSIBLE
In 1998, Allison survived a devastating near head-on car crash where she was trapped and burned alive, conscious the entire time. Just three years later she was hit again at 60 mph and sustained a closed-head brain injury. Allison has always believed in the miraculous. Her profound journey of overcoming these two life-altering injuries gives her a genuine and direct approach to transcending life’s difficulties. By sharing her story she motivates change—in people and in the organizations that nurture and inspire them.
Incredibly, Allison views her life’s experiences as a tremendous gift, one that helped her find strength, resolve, and ultimately, her life’s work. She says, “I didn’t want to just heal. I wanted to feel peaceful. I became relentless in my pursuit to find the answers to life and to achieve self-mastery.”
TRANSFORMING LIVES Allison’s accomplished and diverse client list highlights the resounding impact of her story and message to so many types of audiences worldwide. Allison imparts courage, no matter which industry you are in. Everyone needs courage. It takes courage in a series of many moments to be successful.
Allison adapts her message to each market. One such market is healthcare. Allison frequently provides motivational keynotes, CEU programs and CME programs to healthcare audiences, helping to heal burnout and highlight the critical benefits of patient-centered care as it relates to health care reform.
Allison’s unique history reinforces her ability to address important and sensitive subjects without alienating individuals. Raised by her mother, a nurse, and her father, a surgeon, Allison grew up with an intimate understanding of the demands and challenges of the medical profession. Her upbringing, coupled with the more than 400 days spent in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and physical therapy centers, gives her a compelling view inside the patient experience.
As a powerful and passionate advocate for both patient and provider, she teaches the art of self-leadership—how to be the light in the room no matter the circumstances. Allison states, “I knew if I could bring healing to the healers, I could have the greatest impact.” Her dynamic and poignant program offers real solutions to the struggle of how to keep the patient first, thereby increasing patient satisfaction and supporting the financial success of medical facilities.
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION Schooled in creativity as a sculptor, painter, and interdisciplinary artist, Allison always felt that her artwork was a vehicle for her passion to connect with people.
After receiving her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Massari went on to receive an integrated masters degree by combining MFA programs from Parsons School of Design in painting, and the School of Visual Arts in illustration in New York City. Her artwork has been embraced by private art collectors and museums throughout the country and overseas.
Her sublime artwork serves as an intimate and bold visual backdrop to Allison’s keynote speeches.
Allison Massari details how she nearly died in a fiery car crash and the aftermath of recovering from burns that had penetrated almost to the bone. Lying swollen and bloody in the hospital for 40 days, Allison was in such excruciating pain, she did not even know how she was going to get through the next few seconds, let alone days. The one thing that gave her brief moments of comfort was a game she had played with her father for years in which they jokingly pretended to be Russian spies “Boris” and “Natasha.” “For the first time in weeks, I smiled. In an instant I went from feeling devastated to powerful,” Allison admits after her father took up the game for the first time since before her accident. “And as Boris would say ‘it is the power of the mind.’”
Allison connects her experience to our pursuit of happiness, in which we often rely on external things or experiences such as falling in love or success at work to make us “feel happy.” However as she points out, if we are always dependent on outside things for our happiness we will always be on the run searching. “The truth is we cannot acquire a deep sense of peace and lasting happiness unless we’re willing to address our suffering,” she comments.
Allison Massari draws from her experience as a long-term patient to define “compassionate care” into today’s health care system, revealing that it doesn’t take as much as people think to provide a high-satisfactory experience for a patient. She describes a day in the hospital burn unit in which she felt especially alone and in pain until a nurse’s simple gaze of kindness shifted her mentality to a more positive place.
“She never said a word,” Allison recalls. “And she put her hands on my head and ran her fingers through my hair and again she never took her gaze off me. And her love washed over me and I felt healed. It was a seven second interaction and I will never forget her.”
Allison Massari teaches her listeners to find peace, purpose, and happiness, and gives them the tools they need to rise above any obstacle. As the survivor of two life-threatening car accidents, suffering severe burns and a traumatic head injury, she exposes her personal journey from absolute loss, to forgiveness and understanding, and finally to success and a life beyond anything she could have imagined.
Through the power of storytelling, Allison weaves humor, surprise, and heart-wrenching experiences, allowing the audience to study what she learned on each step of her path. You will hear and understand the answers to some of life’s biggest questions. This content-rich and deeply moving speech fortifies audience members with a new vision and applicable tools for managing change and adversity.
For Business: The Fire Within - Burn Bright and Blaze Your Trail Prepare to be taken on a moving and thought-provoking journey in which Allison will teach you to find peace, purpose, and happiness, and give you the tools you need to rise above any obstacle. As the survivor of two life-threatening car accidents, and having suffered severe second and third degree burns on over 50% of her body, Allison reveals her personal journey from absolute loss, to forgiveness and understanding, and finally to a success and life beyond anything she could have imagined. Through the power of storytelling, she weaves humor, empathy, and potent life lessons, allowing you to study what she learned on each step of her path. You will hear and understand the answers to some of life’s biggest questions. Her speech will fortify you with an inspired perspective on life and applicable tools for managing change and adversity.
Title options (These all work for the same speech): • The Fire Within℠ — The Art of Exceptional Self-Leadership • The Mindset for Success —Activating True Resilience • Triumph Through Change℠ — The Mindset for Success • The Survival Guide to Being Human℠ — and the Art of Happiness • Thriving in Turbulent Times℠ — Activating Courage and Confidence to Achieve Heroic Success • Self-Mastery℠ — Burn Bright and Blaze Your Trail • The Power of One℠ — Changing the World One Person at a Time
Content Covered in Allison’s Stories for Business Groups: • Navigate Constant Change • Advance a Success Mindset • Reclaim Your Passion for Your Life’s Work • Encourage, Nourish, and Celebrate Your Teams • Establish a Foundation for Wellness and Well-Being • Receive Actionable Tools for Personal Development • Deepen Self-Awareness • Activate Simple Concepts that Strengthen Resilience • Heal Burnout • Master Adversity • Inspire Compassionate Leadership • Ignite the Power of the Human Spirit • Leave a Legacy of Kindness • Self-Leadership: Having Personal Command in All Moments • Amplify Courage and Unconditional Confidence
“The truth is, the same internal fire and ‘command of self’ that I needed to heal my life is exactly what has given me success professionally. They are all the same qualities.”— Allison Massari
Tone: This program is described by clients as "deeply moving”, “profound”, “bold", “life-changing". It is a riveting program packed with content and takeaways through compelling storytelling.
For Healthcare: Transforming Patient Lives - The Heart and Soul of Healthcare Prepare to be taken on a journey. With her perceptive view inside the “patient experience”, Allison Massari’s riveting and insightful keynote illuminates the immense value that healthcare teams have upon a patient who is suffering. This dynamic and poignant program offers real solutions to the struggle of how to keep the patient first despite limited time and other practical constraints. By weaving her remarkable journey with potent life-lessons, Allison highlights the integral nature of patient-centered care and fortifies audience members, reigniting their passion for why they went into healthcare in the first place. She explains, "The power of what you do goes far beyond the technical part of your job. You are healing the places medicine cannot touch. In fact YOU are the medicine." Hailed as “life-changing”, Allison’s keynote offers a sincere and direct approach to navigating adversity, transcending life’s difficulties, and always finding a way to be the healer in the room. This content rich and deeply moving speech also offers applicable tools for managing change, adversity, and the everyday challenges of being human.
“It is vital for all people in healthcare - including those without direct patient contact - to feel valued and recognized for their role in compassionate care. My focus is to support and nourish healthcare professionals, to revive their passion for their mission in healthcare through the constant demands and changes, to alleviate burnout, and to be an advocate for patients and providers. I speak on the patient experience, supporting caregiver resilience, while highlighting the profound impact of kindness in patient care, and kindness for each other. I customize my keynote for a broad range of groups including physicians, nurses, leadership teams, sales teams, technologists, IT professionals, and more.” —Allison Massari
Allison’s Healthcare Background: Allison Massari knows that you have the power to transform lives. As an advocate for both patient and provider, Massari has an intimate understanding of the demands and challenges of the medical profession, and compelling authority to address the delicate nature of patient-centered care. She experienced firsthand the critical value of receiving personalized health care from committed leadership teams, and empathetic providers after surviving two life-threatening car accidents, one where she suffered second and third degree burns on over 50% of her body. In addition, raised by her father, an Oncology surgeon, and her mother, a nurse, Allison was mentored in the world of medicine from an early age. Captivated by her father’s compassionate work, she shadowed him in his practice, and also worked in hospitals and medical office settings. Allison’s riveting and courageous journey from absolute loss to a triumphant and hope-filled life, addresses sensitive topics, shining light on the provider’s immense value to a patient who is suffering, and helping to reinvigorate employees and heal burnout in the workplace.
Title options (These all work for the same speech): • Transforming Patient Lives: The Art of Person-Centered Care℠ • The Heart and Soul of Health Care℠ • The Fire Within℠ • The Power of One℠ • Leaving a Legacy of Kindness℠
Content covered in Allison's stories for Healthcare Groups: • Successfully Navigate Constant Change • Reclaim Your Passion for a Life’s Work in Healthcare • Protect Caregiver Resiliency • Heal Burnout • Encourage, Nourish, and Celebrate Your Healthcare Professionals • Transform Patient Lives—The Art of Person-Centered Care℠ • Highlight the Patient Experience to Impact Patient Satisfaction • Honor Compassionate, Authentic Patient Engagement – Kindness Affects the Bottom Line • Receive Actionable Tools for Personal Development • Deepen Self-Awareness • Activate Simple Concepts that Strengthen Resilience • Achieve Peak Success Through Tough Times • Master Adversity • Inspire Patient Safety Through a Critically Acclaimed Survivor Story • Self-Leadership: Having Personal Command in All Moments • Leave a Legacy of Kindness • Provide a Powerful Presence for the Patient Voice
Sample Objectives for CEUs for Healthcare Groups: 1) Implement the art of bringing kindness to someone in a matter of seconds, regardless of how busy you are. 2) Apply the power you have to transform patient lives - even without direct patient contact. 3) Interpret the patient experience at a deeper level. 4) Prioritize the necessary and positive impact of compassionate care. 5) Integrate the knowledge that patients are deeply impacted and are receiving great healing even if they are not responding verbally with gratitude to your compassionate care. 6) Identify the relationship between compassion, kindness, and patient satisfaction.
SPEAKING.COM: Can you tell us about any particularly memorable speaking engagements / unusual situations that arose while on the road?
MASSARI: My career as a speaker has given me some of the most enriching and awe-inspiring moments that I’ve had in my life.
The first one that comes to mind is when I spoke on the main stage at the Million Dollar Round Table. It was a profound and humbling experience to be in front of so many people from around the world (8,600 people from 75 countries). They had more translators at that event than they do at the United Nations.
Afterwards, I went backstage to thank the interpreters for sharing my message in all of their native languages. I was eager to show my gratitude. I knew how hard they must have worked, and they had given me such a gift – because of them, my message reached so many countries in a single day. I excitedly entered each country’s sound-proof booth, ready to give each interpreter a big hug, and to my surprise they were jumping up to hug me. In every single booth they greeted me so lovingly, and they were so grateful for my message. It was very emotional for all of us. As I went from booth to booth – from Thailand, to Japan, to Italy, to Germany, to Indonesia, to India, and on and on – I felt an immediate bond with each of them, an instant friendship. Jamaica to my left, Israel to my right – it felt like such a small world – and a world of the sweetest friendships and deepest connections. I will never forget that day as long as I live.
Another spectacular experience was speaking for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. It was such an alive audience – can you imagine 8,000 critical care nurses all in one room!? There was so much heart in that audience – it was palpable! They were so responsive to every story – so much laughter, so many sighs, such delight. Here I was, coming to love them, to give back to them – and they ended up giving me so very much more. I am still smiling.
As I am reflecting on many of these sweet memories, I am seeing that what has made every event so poignant and memorable is the love and kindness of people. It is always the light of the human spirit that makes everything come alive.
SPEAKING.COM: How do you keep your audience engaged and actively listening during your keynotes?
MASSARI: I believe wholeheartedly in the power of a compelling and well-told story. If you want people to internalize a message, to experience a real change, you have to sweep them away with a story. It has to touch each person’s heart, their mind, to create images, to move them emotionally, to captivate them.
The stories I share are about courage, and about taking personal responsibility for your life. They are an extremely candid sharing of my own dramatic journey. Every single story has layers of take-aways and through them, I reveal answers to some of life’s most difficult questions: How do you truly deal with extreme adversity? How do you adapt when the challenges seem to come non-stop? Is it possible to understand that very difficult person? Is there a purpose to suffering? What does it take to be ok in this world and to thrive?
Even though my story is unique and personal, the nuggets of wisdom that I share are incredibly relatable to everyone. They provide vital and immediately actionable tools to handle a difficult situation, cope with adversity, to feel encouraged, supported, and motivated.
SPEAKING.COM: What type of client would most benefit from your message?
MASSARI: My message is universal. It’s a celebration of the incredible power, resilience and courage of the human spirit. My keynote is ideal for clients who are invested in the well-being of their leadership teams, employees, and customers, and who want to help revive and restore passion, as well as inspire personal and professional growth.
I’ve had wonderful feedback from larger organizations including GE Healthcare, SAS, and Siemens, as well as from smaller events like leadership retreats and hospital association conferences. I speak to every industry including Healthcare, Finance, Insurance, Sales, IT, Real Estate, Energy, Agriculture, and Non-profits.
I love to come and deliver my speech when a group is undergoing big changes, or is having to manage a very high stress environment, or are dealing with burnout. My commitment is to deliver a grounded message of true hope and to ultimately elevate an audience in a lasting way.
SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?
MASSARI: It was a desire to help people, for no person to feel alone, and to let people know what is possible.
Prior to becoming a speaker I was a full-time artist – making paintings, sculptures, and mixed media work. Even as an artist, my passion was always to touch people in a meaningful way, and create an impact. I wanted to find the common thread that unites us as humans, and to honestly share my own vulnerability in order for the viewer to feel seen.
After my accidents, and after working for so many years on my own healing, I woke up one day with an intense desire to share what I had learned. It was like a fire within. I had learned how to navigate my way out of pain, I had learned to overcome challenges, to find my way to a life that is beautiful. I knew in my bones that it was time to share with others, everything that I’d learned about life, to offer this incredible message of hope.
That’s when the spoken word became a new art medium for me. I have completely devoted myself to the art of speaking. I’m very aware of the way the sound of my voice and the cadence of my words and pauses land on the audience. When I speak on stage I think of that same sensitivity and awareness of how a brushstroke lands on a canvas.
A beautifully crafted speech has the power to change someone’s world. It can shift their entire paradigm. The greatest gift for me is when I get emails years later from people who explain how they still think about my speech every day, or that it changed the way they see their life, or that they still use the tools at their work that I shared. These emails are incredibly moving for me. They fuel my devotion to keep growing and improving my craft as a speaker.
Now everything has come full circle. My visual artwork is now an integral part of my speaking. My entire keynote has a PowerPoint with my artwork as the backdrop. Each image has been chosen to match the feelings of the particular story I am telling, enveloping the audience in a very full and unique visual, sensory, and oratory experience. I want to sweep them away, to lift them up, to encourage hope, and to create a shift in thinking so that they can view their lives from new coordinates. This is the heart of my mission and my passion. I give them my whole self.
© 2018 Allison Massari – This content is the copyright work of Allison Massari and Massari Fine Arts, LLC. No reproduction without written permission.
“I don’t believe there is a group who could sit before the pure magic Allison brings to a room and not be forever changed.” J. Chapman, Global Pharmaceutical Company Ranked 119 on the Fortune 500
“As Executive Director I give very few guarantees—I guarantee that you will love Allison Massari.” Katee Tully, Executive Director, The Morean
“I seldom am impressed by professional speakers enough to attend their sessions 8 times in 3 months. However that is exactly what I did with Allison.” Farogh Nazari, Senior Manager of Global Continuing Education, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
“If you had been at (GE’s) Centricity LIVE, you could have seen the three-minute standing ovation that Allison got after her talk yesterday. And you could have seen the customer who came up to me, hugged me, and thanked me for bringing Allison to Centricity LIVE, telling me that Allison’s speech ‘has changed my outlook on life.’” Justin Steinman, Vice President and General Manager, GE Healthcare IT
“From the front row, I could see Allison’s eyes glisten as she spoke, and felt her sincerity. She touched the entire audience with a profoundly powerful and uplifting presentation.” Paul Trakofler, CIO, Healthcare Administrative Partners
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IGNITED: Learn the Secrets of Transformation from an Artist, Burned Alive, Who Went on to Create a Life She Never Dreamed Possible Allison Massari teaches how to create your own transformation. Ignited is a gripping story of burning flesh, searing pain and relentless challenges that offers redemptive tools which will allow anyone to obtain life’s abundant gifts. Massari provides precise reasoning about how to understand and use suffering to shift to higher levels of awareness, and ultimately a place of peace. Whether you are concerned about personal growth, relationships, work or your past, this audio set can help.
Ignited provides details about how to understand and unravel the complexities of challenges, difficult people and painful moments, as well as how to go beyond to all the gifts awaiting you. Ignited does not embrace magical thinking. Massari empathetically proposes a method for acknowledging difficulty in life in order to learn and make shifts that last, thus moving you forward into a peaceful, grounded life. She advocates acknowledgment of the intricacies of pain and challenge, and shows how love is the salve that ignites the normal and propels it into the miraculous.
You will learn: 1) How to understand the big question: “Why are we living in a world with so much pain?” 2) How to create a complete shift in attitude that will instantly change your reality 3) How to move out of inertia and create against-all-odds outcomes 4) What not to say to someone who is suffering. And a guide to also show what to do and say 5) How to successfully deal with difficult people 6) How humanity, authenticity and connecting to purpose become the fast path to transformation 7) The Seven Healing PatternsTM 8) How life is a school…
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