Lynn Maria Thompson | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Lynn is the author of The Feline CEO: How Following a Cat’s Lead Can Make You a Better Business Leader. She has lived with cats since 1989 and operated an online store for a decade to supply the needs of cats and their people. Her business book is based on what she has learned about cat behavior coupled with her own leadership experience while working in the corporate world, as an entrepreneur, and through service on many nonprofit boards.

Lynn's chief keynote speech is entitled Rediscovering Your Inner Roar. She has a number of additional workshop speeches targeting various types of audiences and needs. She's spoken to large and small audiences, served on panels, and hosted events. With a mix of humor, interesting facts, and audience participation, she helps her audiences gain a fresh perspective and see things in a new light.

As president of Thompson Writing & Editing, Lynn has worked with authors on books through ghostwriting, editing, and marketing services. A longtime member of the JAX Chamber and an active member of the ShankMinds mastermind group and the Cat Writers’ Association, Lynn serves on the board of the Jax Online Marketing Meetup group and is a Life Member of the University of Florida Alumni Association. In 2019, Lynn launched The Feline CEO Academy to expand on the principles introduced in her book via online courses. In November 2019, she released a second edition of her first print book, An Author’s Guide to Online Marketing. She has also authored a series of e-books, A Professional Writer’s Ladder to Success.

Current position (1)

President

Thompson Writing & Editing, Inc.

Degrees (1)

Marketing

University of Florida, Warrington College of Business

1975 to 1979

Presentations

Presentations (6)

Rediscovering Your Inner Roar

How Slightly Changing Your Perspective Can Transform Everything

Summary: In this keynote speech, Lynn introduces audiences to the principles detailed in her book, The Feline CEO. It's an entertaining tale, whether or not you like cats. Audience participation includes a series of gentle cat stretches (yes, physical ones!) and thought-provoking questions.

Key Takeaways: A fresh viewpoint to tackle their own obstacles, a new appreciation for challenges or difficult team members, and the enthusiasm to move out of stagnation into forward progress.

Ideal Audiences: Those who supervise others in the corporate, nonprofit, government, or faith-based environments.

Claim Your Territory

Feline Strategies to Own Your Target Audience in a Competitive Marketplace

Summary: This speech explains how we can take cues from a cat’s behavior in defining and defending his territory to guide us toward better claiming our target market within our own field. The audience participates through a series of cat stretches (yes, physical ones!), discussions during the presentation, and with an audience survey reviewing the speech at the end.

Key Takeaways: Methods of adopting a cat’s “catitude” and inspiring it in your team. Ideas for aligning your company’s values with those of your target market. Prompts to help you put your company’s best foot forward. Reminders about working events with purpose, protecting everyone necessary for your company to thrive, and basking in the sunshine of your successes.

Ideal Audiences: Corporate executives, especially those involved in marketing, strategic planning, sales, and customer service.

Hunting Like a Cat

Daily Feline-Inspired Habits to Drive Success

Summary: This speech describes a cat’s hunting behaviors and explains how those can carry over into our daily practices to improve prospecting and marketplace awareness. The audience participates through a series of cat stretches (yes, physical ones!), discussions during the presentation, and with an audience survey reviewing the speech at the end.

Key Takeaways: Prompts to look for prospects in unexpected places, keep skills sharp, use inbound marketing to generate leads, establish follow-up procedures, build relationships, and gather information on prospects. Closing strategies and techniques are also discussed.

Ideal Audiences: Corporate executives, sales managers, or sales forces.

Make a Remarkable Leap

Use a Cat’s Techniques to Achieve Seemingly Impossible Goals

Summary: This speech breaks down the components of a cat’s leaping behavior and examines how each step equates to something we do in the business world when planning and pursuing stretch goals. The audience participates through a series of cat stretches (yes, physical ones!), discussions during the presentation, and with an audience survey reviewing the speech at the end.

Key Takeaways: Examine your past failures for clues to future successes. Never fear envisioning big goals. Do the research necessary to break down those goals into achievable pieces. Gather courage by carefully planning your strategy. Remember to execute your plans, then land gracefully by celebrating achievement of the goal and spy your next target to keep the forward momentum going.

Ideal Audiences: Corporate executives and small business leaders involved in strategic planning, visioning, and ideation.

Observe Before Leaping

Use a Cat’s Techniques to Set Yourself Up for Success

Summary: This speech addresses the difference between a groove and a rut. It then provides several strategies based on a cat’s observing behaviors that can help the audience adjust their own thinking to resume forward motion. The audience participates through a series of cat stretches (yes, physical ones!), discussions during the presentation, and with an audience survey reviewing the speech at the end.

Key Takeaways: An appreciation for a new perspective to slightly shift your thinking so you can see solutions to get out of a rut. Prompts to stay curious, focus on customers, probe more deeply into problem solving, practice constant improvement, and monitor results to make any necessary adjustments in strategies.

Ideal Audiences: Corporate executives, entrepreneurs, sales managers, middle managers, IT managers, operations managers, production managers, customer service managers, nonprofit board members.

Plan Like a Cat

Using Feline Tactics to Improve Your Strategic Planning

Summary: This speech examines how a cat’s personality traits and behaviors can translate over to our own business behaviors when planning strategies for our companies. The audience participates through a series of cat stretches (yes, physical ones!), discussions during the presentation, and with an audience survey reviewing the speech at the end.

Key Takeaways: Lynn’s SHOW concept describing four main personality types within work groups and what this means for allocating human resources optimally. A review of tools necessary to get an overall big-picture view of a situation and how to gain the best perspective to make good decisions.

Ideal Audiences: Corporate executives, those involved in strategic planning for an organization, HR managers, nonprofit board members.

Past talks (1)

Your Author Platform: Why You Need One and How to Build It

Southwest Florida Writers' Conference

Port Charlotte, Florida

April 17, 2020