Entrepreneurship, Leadership and The Courage to Overcome Adversity

The journey of finding your greatness can reinvent and redefine who you are. It may redefine an a community. It may even redefine a culture.

Mid-life, Layne stepped away from the corporate world and entered an unusual, niche career: fundraising event auctioneer. A profession dominated by cis-gendered, white males; an industry not yet willing to stray from the norm. As a non-binary person, brand new out of auction school and with no client market, the odds were stacked against Layne at every turn. A decade later, Layne has found record-breaking success, redefining the role on their terms.

What does it take to blaze a new trail, break the stereotype, and defy convention? The answers are within Layne’s journey: grit, belief, skill, courage, and a lot of vulnerability.

In Bidding To Be Your Best, Layne demonstrates how to take the first step towards doing what you love. They give audiences insight into what it takes to overcome fear of failure, fear of adversity and how breaking stereotypes will lead you to greatness.

Layne relives the experience of being “The only gay in the village” at auction school in mid-west USA. Even after years of being top in the industry, they continue to experience challenging moments of gender discrimination.

With intelligent humour, emotionally charged storytelling and an educational lens, Layne draws listeners into their life experience. They unabashedly challenge the audience to dismantle their perceptions and beliefs about the meaning of success and societal expectations. Staying true to yourself always wins.

Learning Outcomes:

• Channel adversity and vulnerability to find your courage and momentum. 
• Reframe societal expectations to live freely and be authentically you.
• Feel the reality of a LGBTQIA+ professional in a seemingly binary world.

Why reinvent yourself and completely change how you present to the world? Because the anguish and heartache of hiding your truth becomes unbearable.   

​​​​​From childhood, throughout the painful teenage years, and into mid-life, Layne agonizingly held it all inside.  

​​​After decades of skillfully depicting themselves as a straight, cisgender woman, ​​a moment arrived where the truth could no longer be denied.   

With trepidation and gut-wrenching fear, Layne came out to friends and family. ​​The reaction to the news was not what Layne was expecting. Layne was mostly met with love and support, something that many in the LGBTQ2S+ community do not experience after such a bold admittance. 

​​​Empowered with their new authentic self, they began blazing a new trail, while embracing the community in which they ​​so proudly and openly belonged to now. 

And yet, as time passed, something still didn’t feel right for Layne. The label of “she”.  

In From She To They, Layne explains what identifying as “Non-Binary” means. ​     ​With correct language, and the understanding the importance of pronouns, listeners take away immediate learnings. Layne gives insight on what behaviors and actions are needed to become a more inclusive society.  

​​     ​Providing welcoming spaces for all genders is not a privilege, it’s a right. 

With dynamic story-telling, humour, emotion and an educational lens, Layne delivers a presentation that will activate audiences to be the best version of themselves and become a positive force in their home, work and community by creating welcoming spaces for all.  

​​​Learning Outcomes: 

• Reframe societal expectations to live freely and be authentically you. 
• Understand Non-Binary, and how to use pronouns correctly. 
• Feel the reality of a LGBTQIA+ professional in a seemingly binary world.

When life is humming along and the world around us feels calm and positive, we feel excited about what the future will bring: more opportunity, abundance, and well-being. When life saddles us with challenges, fears and pain, the future can feel scary, daunting, and unwelcoming. 

How do we stay “friends” with the future no matter what life throws our way?  

Layne has endured cumulative trauma: financial ruin, dealing with life-threatening health issues, a business gone dark due to the pandemic. Most daunting of all: enduring domestic violence, surviving (and thriving) to give testimony to the undeniable hardship that over 100,000 women across this country face every year.  

Time and again, they have been hurled into hardship. By practicing the mindset of welcoming adversity as an opportunity for growth and learning, Layne has found the lessons that develop wisdom.  

In Making Friends With The Future, Layne shares the uplifting, very personal and insightful journey of their life. Audiences will learn how the choices they make when their world is falling apart, can lead to finding strength and a positive anticipation of the future.  

Be purposeful about your happiness and intentional about chasing joy!  

Adept and with a resolve to live your best life, YOU will be friends with the future!  

Learning Outcomes: 

• Channel and redirect fear and vulnerability into a positive perspective  
• Commit to small, daily actions and find the joy in your future 
• Understand the power of manifestation  
• Reframe societal expectations to live freely and be authentically you