Alison Arnoff is a dynamic speaker with 30+ years in tech, including impactful roles at Intel, IBM, and EMC, and leadership in seven startups, achieving six exits. Her rich background in engineering, sales, and leadership, combined with personal tales of resilience—from overcoming a near-death experience to excelling as a Division 1 athlete—equip her to deeply inspire her audiences. Focusing on Proactive Resilience and strategic leadership, Alison delivers transformative insights, empowering professionals to navigate challenges with confidence. Her engaging talks offer actionable strategies for success, making her an ideal speaker for events designed to leave a lasting impact.
My passion for adventure reveals the best version of myself, highlighting the bravery and resilience that shape my personal and professional life. With over 20 solo trips around the globe, I thrive on the thrill of solo exploration, from hiking New Zealand's Great Walks to diving with sharks. Each journey teaches freedom, self-discovery, and embracing new challenges. Up next? Mongolia in July 2024, to explore the Eagle Hunters. Travel is my way to reconnect with my core values and boundless possibilities. These experiences provide me with unique perspectives and captivating stories, making me an exciting and engaging speaker who empowers others to embrace their journeys with courage and resilience.
More than 100 miles
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
After being diagnosed with an irregular heart valve that was expected to need replacing decades later, its unexpected rapid degradation required me to undergo open-heart surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was dropped off at the hospital curb due to COVID restrictions. Due to an unforeseen complication, I was placed in suspended animation for six days with only a 20-40% chance of survival. Waking from a coma, I faced a daunting path to recovery. I made the powerful, intentional choice to take my life back. A life, less than, was not going to be acceptable.
With no rehab available due to COVID restrictions, I relied on my athletic resilience as a former Division 1 swimmer and triathlete, which played a critical role in my survival and in learning to walk again. Dismissing the walker just a day after returning home, I declared, 'This walker’s not part of my story.' I took determined steps toward reclaiming my life and independence. This journey of intentional choice and determination wasn't just about physical recovery; it became a profound lesson in resilience, empowering me to inspire the same strength in others. Now, I am living a full life again, driven by the same relentless spirit that saw me through my recovery.
Ever since a pivotal call from my 5th-grade math teacher who complained about me raising my hand before the boys, I've been the woman leading the charge. My mother's response, "and the problem with that is?" set the tone for my journey, from becoming Intel's first female field engineer in the early '90s to often being the only woman in the room throughout my tech career. While this trailblazing path was a badge of honor, it also highlighted the stark absence of something crucial: mentorship.
This lack of guidance inspired my transition into coaching, fulfilling my desire to be the mentor I never had. At Dare 2 Be Coaching, I now serve as a beacon for leaders, especially women in tech, offering the support and community I once sought. Through this journey, I learned that there is no reward for doing things alone—yet so many of us do. My mission is to transform my singular journey into a shared voyage of empowerment and success, showing that together, we can achieve far more than we ever could alone.
How do you respond when faced with unexpected challenges? Are you prepared to not just bounce back, but bounce forward?
Proactive Resilience is about developing the right mindset and putting the building blocks in place to anticipate, prepare for, and thrive through adversity. This presentation will help you understand the difference between resilience and proactive resilience, equipping you with the tools to handle life's inevitable disruptions with confidence and grace. Being proactively resilient saves time, energy, emotional distress, and accelerates rebounds and success, enhancing team unity. It’s a key to leading in today's demanding world.
During this insightful and interactive session, you’ll:
> Learn the core principles of Proactive Resilience
> Discover practical strategies to build and maintain resilience
> Explore real-life examples of resilience in action
> Gain techniques to achieve your goals and drive success
You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of resilience and actionable steps to strengthen your ability to navigate and thrive through challenges.
This talk is perfect for:
Leaders who want to foster more cohesive and responsive teams with practical frameworks for handling challenges
Individuals seeking to be better prepared and equipped with the tools to handle unexpected crises effectively
Organizations aiming to enhance team unity, productivity, and resilience to maintain high performance during disruptions
What are the key components of success? Are you leveraging them to their fullest potential?
The 6 C's of Success outlines the critical elements that contribute to achieving and sustaining success. This presentation will delve into these components and provide actionable insights to help you maximize your potential. The lynchpin of this framework is clarity. Without this solid foundation, the rest of the work becomes random and less effective.
A common obstacle is that people do not make the intentional choice to do the work or they move to the next phases without clarity. This session addresses these challenges and helps you build a structured framework to accelerate your success.
In this enlightening session, you’ll:
> Explore the key C's of success: Choice, Clarity, Curiosity, Confidence, Communication, and Commitment
> Understand how clarity serves as the foundation for the entire framework
> Learn key questions to start implementing each phase of the framework
> Discover strategies to develop and integrate these components into your life
> Gain practical tools to enhance your personal and professional growth
> Discover the power of champion, challenger, and cheerleader in implementing the framework for yourself or your team
You’ll leave with a comprehensive understanding of the 6 C's of Success and a plan to implement them in your journey towards achieving your goals.
This talk is great for:
Individuals and teams aiming to achieve sustained success
Organizations looking to develop a success-oriented culture and teams looking to inspire new ways to create efficient and collaborative working
Professional development workshops and seminars
Values are your north star and should be the operating system for your life. They are the motivators that inspire action and create alignment and satisfaction. Are your values aligned with your professional life? Is your team operating with shared values that drive success?
Many people and teams are not intentional about understanding their values, detailing their individual and collective meanings, and how they are living into them. When things are not working or are irritating, it is often because a value is challenged. Without this knowledge, it cannot be rectified. This talk includes an interactive portion to help participants start creating their detailed value map.
Value-Aligned Success focuses on understanding and integrating your core values into your career and team dynamics. By treating values as your personal operating system, you can ensure that your professional endeavors and team collaborations align with what truly matters to you.
In this engaging and reflective session, you’ll:
> Start to identify your core values and their impact on your career and team
> Learn how to align your work and team efforts with your values for greater fulfillment and success
> Gain tools to reassess and realign your values as they evolve and create a values-driven career and team strategy
> Hear inspiring examples of how value alignment has transformed the trajectories of people's careers
This talk is ideal for:
Professionals and teams seeking greater alignment between their work and personal values
Organizations wanting to foster a values-driven culture
Career development workshops and seminars
Do you know how you might be unconsciously sabotaging your success? Understanding and overcoming these internal barriers is key to thriving in all areas of your life.
Building Mental Fitness focuses on identifying and weakening the negative mental patterns known as "saboteurs," based on Shirzad Chamine's Positive Intelligence framework. The primary saboteur, the Judge, works alongside nine accomplices, such as the Perfectionist, Pleaser, Controller, and Hyper-Achiever, to undermine your success. This presentation will delve into how these saboteurs impact your life and career and offer practical tools to counteract them.
Imagine how your life could change if you mastered these saboteurs, much like Michael Jordan, who wanted the ball at the buzzer because he had overcome the doubts that plagued others. This session, based on work at Stanford University with thousands of leaders and athletes, will teach you to get out of sabotage mode and into curiosity and empathy. You'll learn how to identify whether you or your saboteur is leading your decisions.
During this informative and interactive session, you’ll:
>Understand the main saboteur, the Judge, and its nine accomplices
>Learn how these saboteurs impact your life and career
>Discover real-life examples of overcoming these saboteurs
>Address imposter syndrome and its connection to saboteurs
>Engage in exercises to boost your mental fitness
>Learn to shift from sabotage mode to curiosity and empathy
Participants will leave with a comprehensive toolkit to help recognize and mitigate the influence of saboteurs, empowering them to achieve greater success and well-being.
This talk is perfect for:
Anyone who desires optimal performance as a leader or individual
Individuals and teams aiming to remove roadblocks to success
Those looking to get out of fight mode and into flow
Critical moments in life define who we are going to be. One such moment happened to me in May 2020, when my life took an unexpected turn due to a known birth defect in my heart that caused my heart valve to fail 20 years sooner than anticipated. Due to complications during the surgery, I was placed in suspended animation for six days with only a 20-40% chance of survival. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I woke up alone and scared in the hospital.
Waking from a coma, I faced severe complications, including a dropped foot and the need for a walker. The trauma didn't end there; months of frequent hospital visits and the inability to use rehab services due to COVID restrictions compounded my challenges.
In this motivational and inspiring session, you’ll:
>Learn about the critical moments and decisions that illustrate the power of intentional choice.
>Hear my personal recovery story, from facing life-threatening complications to reclaiming my life and health.
>Understand the strategies and actions that helped turn adversity into triumph.
>Explore how these principles can be applied to your own life for personal and professional growth.
>Despite these overwhelming odds, I made the powerful choice to take my life back, rejecting a diminished existence.
With rehab not an option due to the risk of Covid in my weakened state, I relied on my athletic resilience as a former Division 1 swimmer and triathlete. I dismissed the walker just days after returning home, declaring, "This walker’s not part of my story." Supported by my partner, I took determined steps toward reclaiming my life and independence.
This session will leave you inspired by the transformative power of intentional choice, demonstrating that no matter the odds, you can reclaim your life and achieve greatness.
This talk is perfect for:
Groups that cate to people facing significant life challenges or transitions
Individuals and teams looking to build resilience and determination
Leaders and professionals aiming to inspire and motivate their teams