“If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” takes on a whole new meaning thanks to Leona’s insights around leadership, team engagement, culture and resilience. These human factors drive Leona, to help businesses uncover the ‘gold’ within their business.
Growing up in a mining town, launching & selling a successful business and working in large corporates, she’s even kayaked with killer whales and MCd MasterChef Live - navigating her way through big wins, ego-fuelled highs, plus epic fails. She knows first-hand how isolating and tough leadership can feel.
These events laid the foundations for a woman with a deep respect for showing up for your life, your team, and your business. Her ethos is one of “tough love” with a laugh.
This enabled Leona to create an incredibly successful corporate career working for companies including Microsoft, Virgin Mobile, Optus and MBF before stepping into entrepreneurship.
As the award-winning founder of Cheeky Food Events - Team Cooking, Leona combined her unique blend of corporate know-how and EQ skills to ignite team cohesion, leadership and performance. With her trademark combination of fun & adventure, Leona hosted more than 2500 team workshops, customised keynotes and corporate training over 17 years before selling.
During this time, Leona was recognised as a leading entrepreneur, winning the Australian Businesswomen’s Award for Outstanding Business Growth, was featured in Australia’s Top 100
Female Entrepreneurs book, BRW, Sydney Morning Herald, and Australian Financial Review. She was also a member and sat on the Sydney Board of Entrepreneurs Organisation.
As a Speaker, Coach & Facilitator, Leona has trained intensively in Neuroscience (NLP), with a focus on Performance, Leadership, Coaching and Presentation Skills.
She also has a passion for adventure and loves to push her limits competing in Triathlons (slowly!), kayaking in Antarctica, and cycling in Provence in search of the perfect Rose!
Leona is a fun, dynamic and masterful storyteller, with the credibility to empower an audience to become the kind of leaders they are waiting for, delivering home truths that pack a punch - on stage or virtually.
Talking Points
Five Easy Hacks to Re-Boot Teams & Clients. Ching Ching!
Are you worried about losing bored, disengaged staff (and clients)? Blitz the Talent War & see more faces in the office. Working from home and boredom have resulted in a “whatever” vibe with staff, clients and suppliers. Even more dangerous, is that this lower energy level has settled in as the new ‘norm’, reducing productivity and how long staff stays with you. Yikes! In this fast-paced presentation, Leona shares 5 easy, low or no-cost hacks, for immediate implementation, to drive innovation, fun, sales, confidence and momentum. It’s all about raising energy levels, creativity and ideas, utilising the proven Neuroscience methods Leona has successfully used with her own business and coaching clients. With Leona, your teams will experience greater Connection, Confidence & Results. What Talent War?Five Easy Hacks to Re-Boot Teams & Clients. Ching Ching!
Key Outcomes:
- Reconnect with and reengage staff, so they're less likely to leave.
- Be challenged to see how these ideas can also be used with key clients and suppliers to increase profits and operational excellence.
- Make your workplace more enjoyable, satisfying and uplifting for everyone!
- New ideas to drive productivity and profit.
Focus:
Re-energize and re-engage. Don't let BORED staff resign.
Audience:
- CEOs
- Corporates
- SMBs
- Team Managers
Suited for:
- 30-minute to 1-hour keynote
- Fun energiser before or after a break
- Can easily be transformed into a half-day workshop, to create a plan for action the next day. Plus Leona can facilitate with staff, clients and suppliers on-site.
RESILIENCE. Can your team learn this Golden Ticket? Absolutely!
Why does Resilience count and how can it be developed within a business? Is it reserved for elite Sports Stars, Entrepreneurs and Trauma Survivors? Can anyone learn it? The answer is YES. An entire team and company can build a backbone everyone can rely on. Any increase in Resilience is an increase in Mental Health plus stability and confidence among all staff. Leona will share 3-5 daily activities that build the kind of Resilience others “look towards”, not “past”, in a crisis. It’s not as hard as you think so let’s move teams from feeling stuck, overwhelmed and anxious to “I’ve SO got this”! RESILIENCE. Can your team learn this Golden Ticket? Absolutely!
Key Outcomes:
- Speedy tips and tricks you can practice and apply EASILY every day.
- With crises and uncertainty in every area of our lives and businesses, people will feel more in control of how they can handle any disruption in their work and home.
- Reduced Mental Health absences.
- "Fitter" teams leaning into a challenge.
- Less finger-pointing.
Focus:
COVID demanded we build Resilience. So why are we still floundering?
Audience:
- CEOs
- Corporates
- SMBs
- Start-Ups
- Individuals
Suited for:
- 30 minute to 1-hour Keynote
- Fun interactive energiser before or after a break.
- A half-day workshop, identifying key triggers that can ignite and deflate your resilience reserves.
TRIATHLONS - The FUN Sports/Business Analogy Everyone Can Relate To
Leona presents a totally new spin on the ‘sports/business’ analogy, sharing her insightful and entertaining stories about the world’s fastest-growing sport. Learnings you can apply directly to the business, and what it’s taught her about leadership, resilience, planning and grit. Starting with the dreaded ocean swim...you’re feeling totally ‘exposed’ in your swimsuit and you can’t see past the huge waves. You just have to make it to the first buoy. Your first goal. The first milestone. First year in business. First-year as a CEO / Team Leader / Coach.Tips to develop your strategy, character and strengths to blitz competitors, lackluster results and getting washed back to shore. You can do 100 races (aka projects, new jobs, new teams) and each is different. The only “Certainty” is your mindset’s belief that you CAN do it.TRIATHLONS - The FUN Sports/Business Analogy Everyone Can Relate To
Key Outcomes:
- To finish in one piece you need GRIT, SELF-LEADERSHIP & FOCUS to NOT LISTEN to your head, begging you to stop, stay safe and retreat. Just like in business.
- You need to lead yourself and/or a team to keep going, in a race almost guaranteed to cause frustration and pain, (sound familiar?) with 0% predictability of success. It starts with training your mind and your heart. Your body and results will follow.
Focus:
Strategy, Self-Leadership, Resilience in Uncertainty
Audience:
- Leaders
- Corporates
- SMBs
- Start-Ups
Suited For:
- 20 to 90-minute Keynote
- Fun energiser before or after a break.
- Can easily transform into a half-day workshop, deep diving into the learnings from the Swim, Bike & Run and how you can bring self-leadership into your teams to increase Resilience and Results.
Secret Entrepreneurs' Business
Lifting the lid on the ‘real’ world of Entrepreneurship. Sharing tips, tricks, stuff-ups wins and what it really takes to run your own business. Despite their bravado, most entrepreneurs live in a constant state of WTF with an underlying fear of messing up. Only another entrepreneur, can understand the stress of making endless decisions on the fly, plus the relentless responsibility of paying staff and overheads, with everyone watching and judging from the sidelines. Customized to the audience, Leona shares the hilarious, sometimes cringe-worthy ‘Stuff Ups’ she got herself into over 20 years in business. The ones most entrepreneurs rarely disclose, including ego-fuelled highs as well as the crushing lows, are interspersed with original and practical tips every business owner or leader can quickly put to use. There are milestones in every business and entrepreneurial journey, you can rely on to trip up even the best of us. Preparation, Resilience and a ‘Lighten Up and Laugh’ attitude is key. Irreverent, gritty, fun, honest and authentically Australian, with global concepts that entrepreneurs will identify and laugh with across the world, including how she sold.Secret Entrepreneurs' Business
Key Outcomes:
- Tips and Tricks to help entrepreneurs ride the emotional and financial rollercoaster.
- Sick of your business? How to re-energise yourself.
- Hints on avoiding the usual failures when scaling. Stop fighting structure!
- Built-to-Sell Podcast with John Warrillow. How to sell an unsaleable business.
Focus:
Survive. Scale. Sell
Audience:
- Entrepreneurs
- Start-Ups
- Franchises
Suited for:
- 30 minute to 1-hour Keynote
- Half to full-day workshops
- Panel discussions &“Ask me Anything”
Hot Lessons from the Heat of the Kitchen for the Office
What makes World-Class Executive Chefs, world-class? With investors and chefs hustling to work with them. Transport their leadership and operational excellence, plus their mindset, into your workplace. Not to mention how they manage unrelenting stress.Revered as ‘Super Stars’ when they’re on the rise, but publicly humiliated when things go wrong, there’s plenty to take directly into your business (with lots of entertaining stories) - from the heat of the kitchen and the 24/7 stress, where it’s like a product launch EVERY SINGLE DAY in the public eye!Perfect for Sales Teams and Managers, Executive Teams and for entertainment.Hot Lessons from the Heat of the Kitchen for the Office
Key Outcomes:
- Audiences will be inspired and challenged to make what Leona calls a Defining Decision - to decide to step up as a true leader, not just a great sales person/ops manager / EA / HR Director / CEO.
- They’ll apply these (customised) learnings and analogies to their own business worlds for immediate results.
- Watch Leona lead 2,000 people to cook together at MasterChef Live, working with celebrity chefs, plus coaching Chef Adriano Zumbo a few years back on David Kochie’s Business Builder.
Focus:
Leadership in the public eye, Operations, and high-stress.
Audience:
- CEOs
- SMBs
- Sales Directors
- Team Managers
Suited for:
- 30 to 90-minute Keynote or as a short, sharp 15-minute energiser before or after a break.
- Perfect as a customised intro to Leona’s Team Cooking Events.
DOUBLE Your Results & Engage Teams With 3 Simple Words
We’ve all got them. Goals that get ‘stuck’ and fail in execution. Projects, Leaders and Teams completely unravel costing time, dollars and confidence. Leona introduces a sneaky, helpful effective twist to the simple formula BE DO HAVE. Create rapid changes and results in every area of your audience’s lives, businesses, teams and careers. Everyone from seasoned Sales Directors to Start Up Millennials can use this formula to reignite and complete projects. Even multi-departmental product launches can start, run and finish with a smile! Leona will share how she used this formula to sell her own “unsaleable” business. DOUBLE Your Results & Engage Teams With 3 Simple Words
Key Outcomes:
- This interactive workshop will leave audiences with the skills to blitz goals they just couldn’t nail before. For yourself, projects and teams.
- Leona will reveal the Neuroscience behind the formula to maximise results.
- The Know-How to drive high-speed, effective results that keep momentum and confidence flowing.
Focus:
Most goals are ‘gonna do’ and rarely ’done’. Let’s get them DONE!
Audience:
- Corporates
- SMBs
- Start-Ups
- Team Managers
- Project Managers
Suited for:
- 15 minute to 1-hour Keynote
- Fun energiser before or after a break. Or to lead into an evening event
- A fabulous half or full-day workshop to scope projects & drive results.
Video
Leona Watson | Showreel
Speaker - Leona Watson - Engaging and Energising Teams and Leaders for 20 years. Helping CEOs, Learning & Development Managers, People & Culture Managers and Team Leaders reconnect with their teams, so the team members enthusiastically re-connect with each other. The ultimate goal is to create re-energised, more engaged teams who 'get stuff done'. As they feel good about the results, they're self-motivated to repeat the same postitive actions and behaviours that created those results for the team and company. Everyone wins! Neuroscience 101! Plus they're just happier which helps move the Wellness agenda along. Leona can deliver Keynote Speaking at conferences, facilitate workshops and Coach Executive Teams and Managers. It's the micro actions and the commitment to creating fun, inspiring and energising workplaces, that will make the difference in retaining the staff to create the teams everyone wants to be part of. And I don't just mean throwing bean bags and pinball machines in the staff room. Also as an Entrepreneur and Coach, she helps Executives and Leaders get rid of the roadblocks and identify the kick-but opportunities waiting for them and their teams and companies. Cheers!Leona Watson | Team Energiser | Showreel
Speaker - Leona Watson - Engaging and Energising Teams and CEOs for 20 years. Helping CEOs, Learning & Development Managers, People & Culture Managers and Team Leaders reconnect with their teams, so the team members enthusiastically re-connect with each other. The ultimate goal is to create re-energised, more engaged teams who 'get stuff done'. As they then feel good about the results, they're self-motivated to repeat the same postitive actions and behaviours that created those results for the team and company. Everyone wins! Neuroscience 101! Leona will do Keynote Speaking at conferences, facilitate workshops and Coach Executive Teams and Managers. It's the micro actions and the commitment to creating fun, inspiring workplaces, that will make the difference in retaining the staff you're keen to keep. Cheers!
