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Spotlight on Marie Bankuti
Life/Success Coach and Business Consultant
Life/Success Coach and Business Consultant
©2008, RiverWays Enterprises
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Question:
What do Information Technology, Life Coaching, and Carla Kimball's approach
to public speaking have in common?
Answer: Making connections.
Perhaps that's why Carla's philosophy and techniques make so much sense to Marie Bankuti, a Life/Success Coach and business consultant with more than 27 years of experience in the IT world. Through her coaching and consulting business, Tether Free Vision, Marie is constantly making connections with groups of all types and sizes, in many different situations—from young women just entering the workforce to audiences at Project Management and Business Analysis conferences to her students at Boston University's Corporate Education Center.
In addition, Marie—who trained in the Co-Active coaching style with Coaches Training Institute (CTI)—offers business and project management consulting, corporate/team coaching, and individual life coaching to help clients zero in on their core values and take meaningful steps towards reaching their personal and professional goals. "What I love about doing the coaching," she says, "is that I'm able to work with people to find out what makes their heart sing, what gets them going—to shake things up a bit and find out what they really want for their lives."
Marie had taken other public speaking courses and tried Toastmasters before she enrolled in Carla's 12-week Speaking with Confidence for Results course this summer, with the intent to develop the additional skills necessary to deliver an engaging and compelling experience for her audiences, whether at speaking engagements, business classes, personal development workshops, or coaching groups.
"So much of what I do is about getting out there and building relationships and credibility, connecting with people and understanding what their lives are about, what their needs are. Public speaking is one of the ways in which I can reach many people and bring to them the benefit of my experience as well as the understanding that there are different perspectives and opportunities to consider, personally and professionally." Marie says. "What attracted me to Carla was that she focuses on that connection with the audience, and on the idea that 'resting in the relationship,' as she puts it, is where you can trust that your message will come across. I love the idea of taking a moment to really connect with who's out in the audience, with each and every individual so it's not just a crowd. You're building a true relationship with people rather than seeing them as a flock of vultures waiting to jump on your every mistake."
Carla's use of the five elements as metaphors for centering yourself
before you begin speaking was also very powerful for Marie—as was
the discovery that the first few classes involved more silence than speaking.
"At the first class we sat there and gazed at pictures and at each
other with no words," she recalls. The exercise is the first step
in developing presence according to one of the guiding principles of Carla's
approach: To become present, we must simply be where we are and begin
from a place of inner quiet.
The speaking presence methodology that Carla uses can be applied to each
aspect of Marie's work. "Carla's technique of getting your point
across by getting grounded in yourself and then connecting with others
can be applied to any relationship, discussion, or speaking situation,"
she says. "What I’ve learned in Carla’s class will provide
me with the tools and the comfort level to allow myself and my message
to shine through in an authentic and approachable way."
More about Marie:
In the coming months Marie will be presenting at the Project Summit/Business
Analyst World conference in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, and speaking
to several chapters of the International Institute of Business Analysis
(IIBA). She also conducts workshops throughout New England on topics such
as time management, resiliency, project management, mother/adult daughter
relationship transitions, and tapping the power of relationship for business
success.
This fall Marie will offer a Young Professional Women's Workshop on October 2 in Newton, Massachusetts, and she plans to organize ongoing groups of young professional women in the Boston area for mentoring, coaching, sharing experiences, and exploring questions such as: How do you bring your authentic self to a man's world? What are the rules you have to play by while still being yourself?
To learn more about Marie and her work, visit her website at http://www.tetherfreevision.com.
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We are centrally located in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire close to the intersection of Interstates 89 and 91. As such we are in in the heart of New England and close to Boston and all of Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York and Maine.
Travel time from:
Albany, NY — 2.75 hours
Boston, MA — 2.25 hours
Brattleboro, VT— 1.25 hours
Burlington, VT — 1.5 hours
Concord, NH — 1 hour
Hartford, CT — 2.5 hours
Portland, ME — 3 hours
Portsmouth, NH — 2 hours
