Speak & Thrive Academy
It’s time to Build Your Authentic & Profitable Speaking Business. No more labour that undermines your value or crosses your boundaries, it’s time to build your speaking career in a way that truly respects your time, energy, expertise and voice. Let’s do this thing - the world is waiting to hear your message!
Why This Course?
You have a story that could change lives - but turning it into a thriving speaking business? That’s where things get murky.
You’ve poured your heart into healing, perhaps into advocacy, and creating change. But somewhere along the way, you’ve been told your story should be shared for exposure, not compensation. You’ve been asked to relive your pain on stages that didn’t protect your energy. You’ve felt the exhaustion of wanting to make an impact while barely making ends meet.
It’s time to rewrite that narrative.
Speak & Thrive Academy is an online course designed for heart-led changemakers, educators, survivors, and advocates who are ready to build an authentic, profitable, and value-aligned speaking business - one that honours your story, respects your boundaries & reflects your right to thrive.
You’ll learn how to:
🌱 Craft powerful talks rooted in your lived experience and expertise
💡 Build programs that transform audiences and open doors to paid opportunities
📣 Pitch yourself to aligned organizations, brands, conferences and campuses with confidence
💰 Get paid what you deserve - without feeling exploited or burning out
….And so much more! This is about more than public speaking. It’s about embodied leadership, long-lasting impact, and reclaiming your worth.
Because your story doesn’t just deserve to be heard - it deserves to be celebrated, learned from and valued.
Why Work with Marlee?
If we haven’t met before… Hi! I’m an author, dog mom, queer femme, somatic educator, survivor advocate, RSW and full-time speaker.
In 2018, after my personal sexual assault case set precedent in the North American criminal legal system, I was eager to raise awareness around trauma-informed justice and to make my voice heard. I jumped into the world of speaking with zero strategy and the result was A LOT of free labour. Between my nonprofit work, social work degree and much unpaid work - this was a recipe for burnout. I was torn. I deeply wanted to share my message to spark change but I knew that setup was not sustainable. Something had to change.
In 2020, I entered a speaking competition. I was eager to connect with others speakers to figure out how they were making this career work. To my surprise, I ended up winning 1st out of 50 speakers and thankfully - part of the prize was a mentor who would help me build my speaking business. This is when everything shifted.
I started charging my worth, pitching strategically and securing significant press like Forbes & Mel Robbins Show. Since then, I’ve spent hundreds of hours training in ethical marketing and impactful speaking. I’ve worked with renowned coaches and have trained others in the art of embodied leadership and speaking. I’ve delivered talks for over 100,000 individuals and have shared stages with Gabor Mate, Dick Schwartz, Mariel Buque, Prentis Hemphill and Elizabeth Smart. My speaking career has allowed me to quit my nonprofit job, feature as the subject in a documentary, travel the world and sign a book deal with Penguin Random House. Perhaps most importantly, It has allowed me to impact people’s lives in real ways, to make a difference in the world all while feeling incredibly cup filled and grateful.
Whatever version of this career you’re visioning, it is possible and you deserve to live and breathe it! I’m excited to share all of the behind the scenes secrets & strategies with you to ensure we can all speak & thrive together.
Who Is This Course For?
Speak & Thrive Academy is for the storytellers, survivors, leaders, educators, and advocates who know their voice is meant for more - but aren’t sure how to build a sustainable path forward. This program is for you if…
You’re tired of being asked to share your story for free in the name of “exposure”
You dream of turning your lived experience into meaningful impact and income.
You’ve struggled to find guidance that’s both ethical and empowering, not rooted in hustle culture or sensationalized trauma
You want to learn from and alongside value-aligned change makers who understand what it means to speak from both strength and vulnerability.
You’re ready to finally claim your space on stages, panels, podcasts, and beyond - on your terms.
If your heart is saying, I’m ready to use my story and expertise to spark change without burning out or undermining my value, then this is for you.
What You’ll Learn Inside ‘Speak & Thrive’ Academy:
Module 1: Identify Your Mission & Vision
Clarify your message, values, purpose and the unique transformation you offer audiences. You’ll leave with a powerful mission statement that anchors every pitch, post, and presentation.
Module 2: Addressing Roadblocks
Move through fear of speaking, imposter syndrome, comparisonitis and shame around charging what you’re worth. You’ll learn tools to speak from self-trust, not self-doubt.
Module 3: Create Your Programming
Design programs and keynotes that align with your purpose, educate and drive change. Structure your messaging to match your target audience and design a programming package; titles, takeaways and all.
Module 4: Prospect & Pitch
Learn how to find and reach out to aligned organizations, universities, and conferences - and how to pitch yourself and track communications with clarity, confidence and skill.
Module 5: Craft your Signature Keynote
Develop your signature talk, create the slides and learn the speaking skills that captivate audiences - from stage presence and storytelling to engagement and education.
Module 6: Selling 101
Pricing, contracts, and boundaries - oh my. Learn how to confidently negotiate your rates, handle sales calls, approach follow up and navigate money conversations with ease and integrity.
Module 7: Marketing Your Speaking Biz on Social Media & Beyond
Grow your presence, build your brand and create funnels to convert audience members and leads into speaking clients. Learn marketing skills for different platforms and build an engaged community.
Module 8: Best Practices for Growth & Longevity
Sustain your business for the long run with automated systems, referrals, boundaries, relational skills and trauma-informed speaking strategies that keep you thriving - not just surviving - as a speaker.
What Makes This Course Different?
There are plenty of programs that help you build a business without considering your well-being (think hustle culture). There are also plenty of programs that focus exclusively on mindset without providing a practical step-by-step approach. Speak & Thrive fills these gaps, striking a crucial balance between your well-being and your strategy. Speak & Thrive Academy was created for people who care deeply - about sharing a message, uplifting others and making a difference. It’s not about sleazy marketing or patriarchal sales strategies. It’s about building a speaking career that’s rooted in integrity, purpose, authenticity and longevity. Here’s what makes this program unique:
💖 Trauma-Informed & Nervous-System Aware
Most business courses forget that visibility can be vulnerable. Many speaking programs sensationalize trauma and normalize captivating audiences at the expense of being trauma-informed. Here, you’ll learn practical strategies for growth that honour your values, your boundaries, and your wellbeing.
🌱 Built on Real Experience, Not Just Theory
This course is grounded in what’s actually worked for me - as someone who went from unpaid advocacy to becoming a full-time international speaker featured in Forbes, Buzzfeed, and the Mel Robbins Show. You’ll get real templates, step-by-step strategies, workbooks and stories from inside the world of speaking.
🌈 Values-Aligned Business Building
We don’t separate purpose from profit. You’ll learn how to make money in a way that feels good - without compromising your ethics or your mission for social change. The average annual income for public speakers is over $100,000 - you can absolutely make this career work in a value-aligned way.
🎉 Affordability
On average, speaking courses cost over $3,000. Ie. Speakers Lab, another online course begins at $15,000. I’ve been on sales calls with speaking coaches whose rates begin at $30,000. These rates are simply not accessible for someone getting started. S&T is taking a different approach (see pricing details and payment plans below).
🔥 Practical Tools for Real Impact
You’ll walk away with ready-to-use resources - from pitch templates to pricing guides to workshop outlines - so you can take immediate, confident action.
This isn’t about performing your story for others or hustling hard. It’s about owning your voice, amplifying your message, and getting paid to create change - in a way that sustains your spirit, your community, your mission and your bank account.
✺ Frequently asked questions ✺
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Yes! You can watch it on your own timing. This also means you can revisit modules as often as needed. You’'ll have minimum 5 years access to this course and since it’s a step-by-step structure, you’ll want to move at your own pace and revisit lessons as needed.
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Yes. As an international speaker, I’ve designed this course to be relevant and applicable no matter where you are in the world. You’ll also learn about in-person as well as virtual gigs. The content applies to any niche!
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All members of the Platinum & Diamond Tiers will have access to a ‘submit your question’ form - with options for anonymous or named submissions. These are questions that support your speaking business (if the questions are about the course such as tech support, any member can just email us at anytime). So, think bigger than that! Ie. ‘How does my keynote title sound?’, ‘I had a sales call and it felt really awkward, help me get comfy selling my keynotes’, ‘I haven’t received a response from this campus I pitched, what do I do’?! etc.
Each month, Marlee will select 3-5 questions to answer, then you’ll receive a video of her going through the questions in detail.
Even if your question isn’t answered that month, this will provide you with further insight and strategies for building, scaling and sustaining your speaking business. You’ll have access to a minimum of 6 sessions.
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Always respect your own boundaries so, if it’s not the right time that’s okay. However, we’ve created payment plan options to enhance accessibility. Additionally, our hope is that with these strategies, you’ll be booking keynotes in no time! (reminder that the starting rate for those is $3,000). If the investment is worth it to you, take the leap!
Nervous system wise, we encourage you to make a decision that’s within your learning zone = expand your comfort zone + honour your limits. It may feel edgy but it shouldn’t evoke full on panic.
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No problem. Once you’re enrolled, you’ll receive support emails and will have access to Marlee’s team for any tech/logistics support throughout the course.
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We do not offer refunds. Once you have access to the course, you’re able to see and experience all the modules. Additionally, you’ll have a minimum of 5 years access to the course so even if something pops up and it’s not the right time, you can pause and then revisit.