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Marilyn Tam
International Business Leader
Marilyn Tam
International Business Leader
Biography
Marilyn Tam, Ph.D. is a Speaker, bestselling Author, Consultant, Board Certified Executive/Corporate Coach, CEO of Marilyn Tam & Co. and Founder and Executive Director of Us Foundation. She was formerly the CEO of Aveda Corp., President of Reebok Apparel and Retail Group, Vice President of Nike Inc. and a successful entrepreneur who has built four companies.
Inc. Magazine ranks her as one of the top 100 Leadership Speakers in the world. She has been selected as one of the Top 10 inspirational business speakers by one of the best professional speakers’ bureaus. Brand Channel lists her as one of the four most prominent names in Ethical Business globally. Marilyn is a contributing writer to Thrive Global/Medium on how to live a successful, happy, healthy and dynamically balanced life.
Her life is an inspiring example of what can be achieved if one followed their dreams. She grew up as an abused and neglected child in Hong Kong. She left home as a teen to come to America alone. Following her life mission, she achieved international business and humanitarian success.
Marilyn now speaks, facilitates workshops and consults with corporations, organizations, and people to achieve greater success and happiness. She speaks and consults on leadership, diversity and inclusion from her personal experience as a woman of color and an immigrant, as well as research, business and nonprofit work in 120 countries. She helps people and organizations find and fulfill their life purpose and provide them with the principles and actions steps to take them to their goals. Her NPR (Net Promoter Score) from her clients, the industry standard for measuring customer satisfaction, is among the highest rated of all speakers.
Marilyn was recognized as one of the Top 30 Female Entrepreneurs in the USA by Fempreneur magazine. Jack Canfield detailed her work in his book on the strategies for success, The Success Principles.
Among her numerous recognition and awards is the Artemis Award from the Greek Government and Euro-American Women's Council, with her image on a Greek postage stamp. Marilyn is featured in many documentary movies including GLOW Project, The Compass, Tapping the Source, and FEMME for her accomplishments and inner wisdom.
Marilyn’s book, The Happiness Choice, was the top 3 most read book by businesses according to the leading business book supplier. The book won the Silver Medal of the Global eBook Awards. The book shows how and why happiness is crucial for business productivity and success, and for your physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial health.
Her book, How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want, is in six languages.
Her book, Living the Life of Your Dreams was eBook of the Year in the Inspirational/Visionary category.
Speaker Videos
Speaking Reel
Marilyn Tam's Story
Use What You Got
Glass Ceilings
Driving Diversity
Speech Topics
Diversity & Inclusion: How to Reap the Rich Harvest of Culture, Creativity and Community
The demographics of the world’s population are rapidly changing. In the USA, 2020 is the year nonwhite children becomes the majority of USA children. Between 2041 - 2046 ethnic minority will comprise the majority of the USA population. In 2050, 58% of the world’s population growth will be coming from Africa. Learning how to benefit from diversity and to be a leader in a more diverse and global world is a challenge and an opportunity. The only way to prosper and grow in the 21st century is to embrace and leverage diversity. Learn how to successfully integrate diversity into your organization and network to create an inclusive, productive and thriving culture for ongoing success, employee and customer engagement and retention. Hear stories, learn principles, tools and action steps from Marilyn Tam's global business, humanitarian, and consulting experience to become a more successful global leader.
A key focus is on helping leaders and employees understand how to adapt and grow their unique leadership styles to foster a multicultural workplace and attract and engage employees from across the cultural and diverse spectrum. Marilyn Tam is a self-made immigrant woman of color, you will learn from someone who has actually "walked the walk".
The Happiness Choice: 5 Decisions that Take You from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Happiness is a choice. Gallup research in 2013 showed that in the USA, $550 billion worth of productivity was lost due to unhappiness and poor wellbeing at work and the cost has increased every year since. People want contentment, love, and happiness derived from meaningful work. They want healthy personal relationships, a healthy mind and body, a spiritual core, and a reason for living. But with only 24 hours in a day and the competing demands of modern life, how can you achieve all of this?
The author of The Happiness Choice, speaker Marilyn Tam shares what she learned from being an unwanted, neglected, and abused child in Hong Kong to becoming an international business success and humanitarian who is happy, healthy, and at peace with herself. In this presentation, you will learn the principles, tools, and philosophies Tam and others have used to achieve a productive, healthy, and joyful life. You’ll learn what will help power your organization, employees and yourself to greater creativity, productivity and happiness.
Marilyn’s book, The Happiness Choice, was the top 3 most read book by businesses and won the Silver Medal of the Global eBook Awards.
Leadership Excellence, How You Can Achieve It
To be a successful Leader in the 21st Century takes new skills and awareness. Fresh managerial tools and talents are needed to deal with today’s global business and the tighter and more visible connections between all aspects of the development, production, and consumption cycle. In addition to standard business and finance, leaders have to include the impact on cultural, social and environmental factors. Learn from Marilyn’s international business and humanitarian experience on how to be the more effective and productive in business and life while creating collaborative and lasting relationships.
Marilyn will discuss how to define your mission and the principles and actions steps to ensure a cohesive, productive, and energized team. Strategy and outlook into how to plan and lead in today’s tumultuous and interconnected business environment will be covered. She will help you review your personal leadership style and how to enhance it to increase effective communication and maximum sustainable profitable growth and development of your organization.
Women in the Workplace and Marketplace
McKinsey & Company’s survey showed that better financial returns, recruitment, retention, customer relations and business decisions are the benefits of a more gender balanced organization. In today's highly competitive and interconnected world, women are invaluable to any enterprise. Yet cultural biases and structural obstacles hinder women's progress. This is a loss for the company as much as it is for women. For a business to succeed and continue to thrive today, it needs to fully utilize all the resources available.
Tam will share the key factors that helped her become a successful woman in business and discuss her personal experience as a corporate leader, woman, business consultant, and humanitarian. You will learn the elements needed to attain success and happiness as a woman in business, and how to support and foster the development of women in business. Included in the presentation will be how to deal with “glass walls” as well as glass ceiling.
How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want: Leadership and Personal Excellence: How You Can Achieve It
What seemed to be disadvantages in Marilyn Tam's life ended up being the keys to her personal and professional success. In this engaging presentation, she will show you how to use what you've got to achieve your dreams, just like she did.
As someone who has broken the glass ceiling, Tam will share the leadership skills and character traits that really work to get to the top. You will hear motivational real-life stories, learn the four success principles, and how to maintain life balance and personal peace and happiness while achieving professional success.
Her best-selling book, How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want is available globally in several languages.
Living the Life of Your Dreams - Life Balance: How to Juggle Work, Home, Personal and Spiritual Health
The conflicting expectations and conditioning that people have been bombarded with makes them vulnerable to feeling unsatisfied, second rate and confused. Uncertain economic times, the incessant marketing message of “you can have it all” and the hyper-speed of change is hitting people so hard that they are oftentimes reduced to feeling despair in being able to attain any semblance of a balanced life – and even more critically, economic sustainability.
This hunger and fear is driving the collective unconsciousness. “Life Balance: How to Juggle Work, Home, Personal and Spiritual Health” is packed with motivation, encouragement, and practical resources for a happier more satisfying life.
Marilyn shares from her own experience as well as from the numerous experts whom she has worked and interviewed in her career and life. You will hear stories and practical examples of both success and failures that lead to the development of Life Balance. Learn practical actionable principles and tools to be able prioritize, allocate resources and balance your life demands to greater success, inner peace and happiness.
The Role of Business in the 21st Century
The 21st Century is a wired and interconnected world, which has modified the roles and responsibilities of business. Business is no longer, if it ever was, only focused on the sole pursuit of the current Profit & Loss statement. It is now an integral and dynamic part of the global community, economy, environment and culture. For business to thrive in these circumstances, clarification of the mission and principles of the organization is needed.
Companies, non-profit organizations, sovereign nations and cultures are converging. How do we ensure a healthy bottom line for everyone? What is our future? Marilyn shares four defining principles for maintaining integrity in business and in life. With real life stories of wins and mistakes told with humor and lessons learned, you will take away key principles and action steps to better navigate in today’s fast changing world.
Global Business Today, the Opportunities and Challenges
Business today is global. The development, production and consumption chain stretch from wherever and however “local” the company is to all points of the globe. To excel in this marketplace means that each person and each company have to understand and be proactive about the opportunities and challenges that come with globalization.
Marilyn shares from her global business and humanitarian experience in 120 countries about the benefits, ethics and pitfalls that come with working in a complexity of cultures, traditions, geography and time zones. The increasing interrelationships between developers, suppliers, marketers, buyers and sellers mean that every business and organization need to operate with a much more expanded perspective of their market to be able to thrive today.
Learn from someone who has successfully managed companies and organizations in a wide variety of cultures and environments. Marilyn share insights and principles learned from practical experience. You and your organization will grow and prosper from her wisdom.
Lean In – Is That the Magic?: The Choices and Challenges of Attaining Happiness and Success
Having achieved the fabled professional success the popular concept, “lean in” alludes to, Marilyn Tam shares the insight on what it really means. “Having it all” is a fallacy; we cannot have it all at the same time. The multiple roles and expectations for a woman in the 21st century is impossible for any single person to achieve and maintain. The conflicting and demanding expectations have resulted in a measureable global decrease in women’s happiness over the past 40 years and also in comparison to men’s in all the 35 developed nations.
Hear stories, learn the tools and the skills each person needs to attain the happiness and success as they personally define it.
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