5 Facts You’ll Love About Working with Carmen
With a track record of inspiring over 600 audiences globally, Juan brings a dynamic and engaging style that leaves a lasting impact, inspires action, and drives measurable change. Whether you’re hosting an intimate meeting or a large-scale conference, Juan will ensure your audience is left with a memorable and transformative experience.
Customization
Carmen goes beyond the typical keynote with high-level customization that speaks to YOUR audience. They will feel like the keynote is specifically for them.
Actionable Takeaways
Carmen leaves the audience with actionable tools that can be used as soon as they leave the room. They will walk away with simple & practical strategies to build confidence.
Energy & Engagement
Carmen brings a spark that lights up the room, filling every team with purpose and drive. Her energy is contagious, inspiring others to rise above their limits.
Real-World Experiences
Carmen’s wisdom is forged in the fires of real-world challenges. She leads with the understanding that comes from walking tough roads, turning struggles into strategies, and experiences into success.
Humor & Grace
With a perfect blend of humor and grace, Carmen navigates leadership challenges. She lightens heavy moments with her levity, offering kindness without sacrificing accountability while staying true to the mission.
Audience Approved, Client Certified—Read the Raves
Uncomfortable moments are the building blocks of transformation. Lean into them, and you’ll discover the resilience you didn’t know you had.
High Performance
The Bumblebee Blueprint
Unexpected Lessons in Leadership
This keynote draws on the surprising characteristics of one of nature’s most underestimated creatures to explore ten essential principles of leadership. Through personal storytelling, research, and metaphor, Carmen Ortiz-McGhee reveals how traits like adaptability, collaboration, courage, and quiet influence can equip leaders to navigate complexity, inspire others, and create meaningful impact.
Designed for anyone seeking to lead with more clarity, heart, and resilience, this 45-minute session offers a fresh perspective on leadership—one that celebrates the power of small, consistent actions and the quiet strength that often goes unnoticed.
Leadership
From Chaos to Harmony
The Path to Leadership Success in Tumultuous Times
With almost 30 years of experience spanning nonprofit, corporate and financial industries, robust market cycles and global economic downturns, Carmen Ortiz-McGhee takes audiences through a human-centered leadership journey that helps audiences find success in the most chaotic of times. Leveraging her proven experience in building high performing teams, turning around underperforming ones and building inclusive cultures, Ortiz-McGhee leaves audiences with hearts full and powerful tools they can use immediately to drive towards their goals and connectedness. Whether in good, exciting times or if they’re tumbling in the center of the storms that so often besiege us, audiences will leave inspired, with a clear path to success.
Motivation
The Lighthouse Effect
How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World
Throughout life, we experience a number of good and bad times, and learn many lessons, but one that sometimes goes unnoticed is that “not all heroes wear capes.” There are ordinary people who may not even know they’ve completely changed the course of a person’s life. Ortiz-McGhee, referencing her chapter and others in The Lighthouse Effect penned by best-selling author Steve Pemberton, likens them to human lighthouses. Like a lighthouse, their job is to protect the journey of the traveler. They’re humble and steady. They seek no reward. They require no recognition. And yet, we all set our compasses by them. They direct us back to the goodness in each other and in our own hearts.
In this inspirational talk, Ortiz-McGhee, one of the people featured in the The Lighthouse Effect, shares stories of her own human lighthouses. You will meet those who have turned personal pain into possibilities for themselves and those around them. You’ll learn what motivates them, where their compassion comes from and the lessons their lives can offer us. Drawing off of this groundbreaking narrative, Ortiz-McGhee offers a framework for living, learning and leading — a way to more positively engage with one another, to build trust, to see beyond the labels that define us to the human experiences that bond us.
Motivation
Flight Lessons: Becoming More Than Enough in a World That Says You’re Not
Part of The Bumblebee Blueprint Series
In this deeply personal keynote under The Bumblebee Blueprint framework, Ortiz-McGhee shares the story of “The Not Quite Enough Girl”—a powerful metaphor for those who feel unseen, underestimated, or out of place. Drawing on her lived experience as the only daughter of a single mother and one of the few in many rooms, she reveals how adversity, micro-traumas, and self-doubt shaped her—but didn’t define her.
Like the bumblebee—scientifically “not built to fly,” yet defying the odds every day—Ortiz-McGhee shows how embracing our perceived limitations can become the launchpad for resilience, purpose, and personal transformation. Through humor, honesty, and heartfelt storytelling, she equips audiences with practical tools to quiet their inner critic, rewrite old narratives, and lead from a place of worthiness and wisdom.
Ideal for corporate, nonprofit, and educational audiences, this keynote is a call to stop shrinking, start soaring—and to remember that our wings were made for so much more.
Motivation
Unfamiliar Skies: Thriving Where You Were Never Meant to Fly
Part of The Bumblebee Blueprint Series
This keynote is a journey through the power of embracing the unknown—learning to lead, grow, and succeed in environments that feel nothing like where you started. From selling books door-to-door in Utah to leading global exchange programs, from working in nonprofits to navigating the worlds of finance and healthcare Ortiz-McGhee has repeatedly found herself in rooms that looked nothing like where she came from.
Each chapter of her journey has one thing in common: the power to adapt, to stay curious, and to rise even when the path is unclear. With warmth, humor, and candid insights, she shares practical lessons on navigating change, taking bold leaps, and leading with authenticity in spaces where you may be the “only” or the “first.”
Ideal for audiences at every career stage, this keynote is a call to trust your wings—even when the world wasn’t built for your flight.
Motivation
The Power of Small: Why Little Things Create Big Change
Part of The Bumblebee Blueprint Series
In a world obsessed with going big, moving fast, and chasing scale, The Power of Small offers a radical—and refreshing—shift in perspective. Through the unexpected wisdom of the bumblebee, this keynote invites audiences to rediscover the quiet force of consistency, presence, and intention.
With a signature blend of heartfelt storytelling, surprising science, and deeply practical insights, Carmen Ortiz-McGhee unpacks why the smallest actions often spark the most meaningful transformation—in leadership, teams, culture, and personal growth.
Audiences will leave with a new understanding of how micro-movements, compound courage, and invisible influence can shape a legacy. Because change doesn’t begin with perfection. It begins with bold, small steps taken on purpose.
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You were so inspiring and made a lasting impact on our organization and me! (read more…)
President of The Junior League of Houston, Inc.
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“Carmen – I just loved your advice but also your energy! You are a dynamic force…”
LEAD Global Connect
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Carmen, your words truly were a beacon – your light traveled far and sparked more light in others. What a beautiful and much-needed impact in a world that could always use more positivity. (read more…)
Owner, Conference Incorporated
“Having been in corporate America for 15 years, I have seen many Keynote Speakers. The buzz following Juan's presentation amongst our sales team was different. The vast majority of people were energized; citing the key concepts and how they can apply in their own lives.”
Kim Osborn
Chief Administrative Officer
THE PROCESS
Going Beyond the typical Keynote.
Carmen brings more than a message—she delivers an experience engineered to uplift, energize, and empower. Known for transforming the improbable into the unforgettable, she tailors every keynote with intention, ensuring your audience walks away with tools that spark both personal and professional flight. From the first call to the final moment on stage, her presence is a catalyst—defying limits, igniting momentum, and reminding us all that with the right perspective, even the heaviest challenges can lift us higher.
2. Detailed Review
Leading up to the date, our team will review and finalize all details to ensure a home-run. AV requirements, slideshow, audience details are all important elements for a successful experience.
4. Follow up Summary
1. Video Call with Carmen
3. Keynote Delivery
Take a deep breath, exhale, and enjoy the moment — you’ve put in the work, and now it’s time to watch it all come to life. Carmen will deliver a tailored and unforgettable experience that will leave your audience energized and inspired.
