I help people stop spinning and start deciding. I disrupt patterns and catalyze decisions—so you can lead with audacity.
Ilene Marcus is not only a quirky, charismatic, dynamic speaker – she is a MOTIVATOR. She speaks to CEOs and corporate teams because she can relate to them; she has 32 years of executive experience managing high-stakes teams and multi-million-dollar organizations. Ilene has been featured in Glamour, Fast Company, Readers Digest, Huffpost, Yahoo, Entrepreneur, and is a contributing author for Sixty and Me. She is also the boss lady behind Aligned Workplace and works with groups of CEOs at Vistage and helps early-stage entrepreneurs scale their efforts at Techstars.
Team leaders: ever wonder why you’re so busy and yet still nothing is getting done? Something is going on under the surface. Something is not aligned.
The author of Managing Annoying People: 7 Proven Tactics to Maximize Team Performance, Ilene works with CEOs and other leaders to show them why their teams are not being productive or efficient. Sometimes, it’s the team leaders who need a shift in perspective, a good look in the mirror, to understand that they need to contribute more or communicate differently. The leaders aren’t working in sync with their teams because they aren’t bringing in their best selves.
Ilene coaches the higher-ups to get them motivated, moving, and out of their own way by facilitating conversations for action. She inspires audiences through keynotes and workshops, showing them how to use pragmatic strategies and emotional intelligence to overcome obstacles in the workplace (and in life). She also enables all-hands-on-deck team collaboration from product launches to scaling and growth to attracting and keeping talent and beyond.
Ilene’s mission is to transform negative environments with laughter and grace. No toxic positivity here – she shows audiences how they can face pain, hardship, and obstacles and come out on the other side smiling.
Passion
It’s my calling to help others find joy. I grew up in a serious household, where life’s challenges often stifled my potential. I've dedicated my life to uncovering joy in every situation and helping others do the same. Having lived through more than six decades of experiences, I’ve learned that my purpose is to lift people up. By sharing my own hard-won lessons and fresh perspectives, I aim to help you see yourself as others do—giving you a powerful tool to transform your outlook, no matter where you are in life. Let's find the laughter, the silver lining, and the joy together.
Origin Story
Two weeks before my fifty-fourth birthday, I was fired. Yes, my name appeared on A-1 of the NY Times, the post and the Daily News. My boss, the CEO of an influential NYC non-profit, was caught embezzling and eventually sent to prison.
After thirty-two years of successfully managing high-stakes teams, I was collateral damage.
I had a daughter with another year of college expenses, a second home, and car payments. I was inching closer to retirement without enough savings. After facing cancer in my late thirties, I thought I was bulletproof. Now faced with the loss of my professional persona, my income, my daughter’s respect, facing cancer at 39 seemed docile. I had to dig down deep and think about who I was and what I had been through, and if there were any lessons or silver linings that I could cling to.
Then something unexpected happened. I was targeted by a social media advertisement and was introduced to Vistage, the world’s largest CEO coaching and Peer Advisory group. This was a new path.
I was chosen. Brought on to work with CEOs to improve their leadership and motivate their teams. To use my experience to help them, not for my work product, but for showing others how to work. Looking back on it now, this was the beginning of me believing in myself. Finally, outside validation from a highly respected and sought after group. I belonged.