Keynote Speech - Real Matters: Building Trust in an Unreal World
Curated feeds. Corporate spin. AI-generated everything. Building trust in modern times is harder than ever. It’s also one of the most valuable assets a leader or organization can possess. Employees, customers, and stakeholders are attracted to what feels real – and they can sense inauthenticity in an instant. When leaders show up with authenticity, they create cultures rooted in trust, engagement, and collaboration – the foundations of high-performing teams. Being real is the most powerful way to stand out in an unreal world of filtered perceptions and manufactured narratives. This doesn’t mean rejecting technology – quite the opposite. It means embracing it without losing the human touch in leadership and processes.
Mariana unpacks how trust strengthens team resilience, drives innovation, and builds credibility both inside and outside the organization. Through strategic storytelling and powerful interactive exercises, Mariana delivers practical insights leaders can apply immediately: how to develop trust with those they lead, build authentic brands, and create workplaces where people want to bring their best every day – because when organizations are real, they thrive.
Key Takeaways:
- Identify and leverage your unique leadership abilities to build trust.
- Develop the skills to determine, understand, and guide your team through change effectively.
- Communicate with clarity, empathy, and transparency to navigate uncertainty.
- Unite your teams around a shared purpose to drive collective progress.
- Mariana’s interactive exercises make unforgettable lessons and customized experiences.
Keynote Speech - Perfectly You: Leveraging the Power Within
Everywhere we look, the world pressures us to perform, conform, and be perfect – often at the expense of being true to ourselves. But the truth is, when we show up authentically, we become magnetic and unlock greater resilience, confidence, and purpose. Authenticity not only helps us navigate change and uncertainty – it attracts opportunities and relationships that align with who we really are.
Mariana’s unique energy and interactive dynamics give people permission to drop the masks and discover the bold power of being “Perfectly You.” Through inspiring stories and practical takeaways, attendees will learn how to embrace what makes them irreplaceable and tap into authenticity as a source of strength and well-being to give their best at work and in life. Audiences leave energized, empowered, and ready to stand out – not by trying to be perfect, but by having the courage to be real.
Key Takeaways:
- Harness the traits that make you unique (and “Perfectly You”) to resiliently navigate change and uncertainty with confidence.
- Discover your sense of purpose and increase your personal fulfillment.
- Learn the three-step framework authentic leaders use to cultivate cultures of trust, collaboration, and purpose.
- Foster meaningful relationships to strengthen team culture and team building.
- Mariana’s energy and empathy create breakthrough moments that audiences remember long after they leave.
Communicating Confidently—Cut Through The Noise and Get Heard (Breakout or Separate Keynote)
For everyone in business, delivering a message efficiently – internally and in different media – has gotten infinitely more complex in the age of AI. This interactive presentation will help attendees sharpen their communication skills. Mariana equips leaders – from entry level to the C-Suite – with practical tools and tested principles to speak confidently, authentically, and effectively, whether it’s for client meetings, internal communications, Zoom, an important presentation, a traditional media interview, a digital clip and/or a conference stage. Mariana will share tips that took her more than a decade of television and social media experience to learn, working at two of the world’s biggest news networks, in Spanish and English.
Sample takeaways:
- Learn to distill your main message so it resonates across all platforms.
- Practical tips and pro tricks for in-person and virtual presentations.
- Master the power of persuasion in an era of fleeting attention spans.
- Better storytelling to create connection and leave a lasting impact.
- Establish credibility and build trust in an era of misinformation.
- How to navigate real-time interview scenarios with confidence.
“Top 10 TEDx Talks seen around the world”
Watch HereModerating / Interviewing / Hosting
With experience as a national network news anchor and reporter, Mariana brings warmth and intelligence to each hosting, moderating, and interviewing assignment. Mariana’s curiosity and poise help her get the most out of those on stage with her.
The breadth of Mariana’s experience speaks to her versatility. She’s moderated conversations on embracing a mindset for change at Microsoft, on the rights of women in Iran, on gender inequality at Foreign Policy magazine’s HERPower summit, on media representation at the Paley Center for Media, on financial literacy at Nasdaq, on building a personal and professional brand at Columbia University, a panel on geopolitics and economics at Citi Private Bank’s autumn dialogues with three heads of state from Latin America, a session at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on global healthcare inequity, plus the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, PepsiCo, JP Morgan, Accenture, Spotify, Google, YouTube, Clorox, AT&T, Spectrum, and more.
Best Selling Book
Mariana’s book “Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real” is a call to action to unlock the magic of both our personal and professional authenticity. She also wrote the Spanish version titled: “Perfectamente Tú: El Poder de lo Auténtico”. The memoir was announced exclusively on Refinery29 and became an instant Amazon Best Seller. Mariana was invited to present the book at The New York Times, Book Expo America and the American Library Association.
Its audio version, which she recorded in both English and Spanish, was selected by AppleBooks as a “must listen” and Audible’s Editor Picks. The Today Show did a profile on the book’s success at the United Nations’ Girl Up Summit, and Forbes called it a book to “challenge you to live your full potential”. People Magazine wrote “Mariana tells her readers not to get discouraged and to keep pursuing their dreams— without forgetting who they are in the process.” The “Perfectly You” book tour included sold-out stops in Miami, New York, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle and Barcelona, Spain.
About Mariana
Mariana Atencio is a Peabody award-winning journalist, a former anchor and reporter for NBC and Univision, who has appeared on the Today Show, The Talk and HBO.
Her best-selling book “Perfectly You” was selected by Audible and AppleBooks. And her TEDx talk on authenticity, titled “What makes YOU special?”, has gone viral. To date, it has over 22 million views and has been translated into 13 languages.
Mariana has quickly become one of the most sought-after keynote speakers, founding her own media company, GoLike, and sharing her message at Microsoft, JP Morgan, LinkedIn, Pepsico, Spotify, and the United Nations, among others.
If you are into true crime, her latest project is an investigative podcast about two women who go missing on a trail. It’s called “Lost in Panama” and it was among Apple’s top 10 podcasts on its week of release.
