The future of work demands leaders who can navigate uncertainty with courage and conviction. Yet leaders often remain stuck in prisons of ego, perfectionism, cultural conditioning, and fear of being wrong. Organizations amplify these barriers with silos, toxic cultures, and rigid hierarchies that suffocate creativity and belonging. Rashmi challenges leaders to dismantle these prisons and rise into authentic, clarity-driven leadership.
This keynote moves beyond models of leadership to lived practice. Rashmi invites leaders to confront their hidden barriers while dismantling organizational cultures built on fear and control. Her message is not about leadership theory. It is about the radical transformation that occurs when leaders strip away old paradigms and choose clarity, trust, and courage that empower others to thrive in uncertainty. She inspires leaders with her vulnerability and provides practical strategies they can apply the very next day.
AUDIENCES LEARN HOW TO IDENTIFY UNWRITTEN RULES THAT HARM CULTURE, REPLACE CONTROL WITH TRUST, AND BUILD ENVIRONMENTS WHERE PEOPLE ARE FREE TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR BEST. RASHMI EQUIPS LEADERS TO CREATE ORGANIZATIONS WHERE AUTHENTICITY THRIVES, SILOS COLLAPSE, AND PEOPLE RISE TOGETHER.
The RISE Applied
Through my RISE FrameworkTM, I help leaders reimagine influence and rebuild trust, from the inside out.
KEYNOTES
Takeaways
Guiding leaders and teams
across diverse industries
If you are navigating disruption, driving change, or seeking clarity in today’s evolving world, this experience is crafted for leaders, teams and individuals ready to grow.
LEADING THROUGH CHANGE, CRISIS, OR CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
COMMITTED TO EVOLVING INTO PURPOSE-DRIVEN, SELF-AWARE LEADERS
READY TO SHIFT FROM MANAGING TO MENTORING
FACING TEAM BURNOUT, LOW TRUST, OR CULTURAL DISCONNECT
Suggested Formats
While I thoughtfully customize this keynote for every event type, Rise LEADERSHIPTM - has proven highly effective in these formats.
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01Executive Leadership Retreats
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02People & Culture Summits
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03Strategy or Innovation Offsites
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04C-Suite or Senior Leader Conferences
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05Women in Leadership Events
Rashmi was absolutely outstanding. I would highly recommend her to work with your team if you're looking to get better and really have an examination of what is valuable to your university, to your industry, to your business, or to you personally. She's an effective leader, she's inspirational, and she's given us a lot to think about in our own lives. 
Bubba Cunningham
Athletic Director
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Rashmi pushed me out of my comfort zone. She shared deeply about herself, and paved the way for all of us to then dig deep and share our own highs and lows.. 
Ruthie Jones
Corcoran Icon
California Association of Realtors
Rashmi is truly inspiring! 
Joelle Park
Chief Marketing Officer
Best Western Hotel Group
I had the privilege of hearing Rashmi Airan speak as a keynote at the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum where she shared her story, "Rise Together". With honesty, vulnerability, and incredible strength, she shared her personal journey in a way that was both deeply moving and powerfully inspiring. Rashmi is a phenomenal storyteller—her ability to connect with the audience on such a human level is truly rare. She doesn’t just speak; she creates space for reflection, growth, and connection.
Hiring Rashmi to speak at your event will be one of the best decisions you make - her message resonates long after the applause ends.
Diane Williams
President and Board Director
Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum
Rashmi has a compelling and unique storytelling style that resonates with everyone who faces difficult decisions in their lives both professional and personal. Her lessons in resilience are authentic and driven by a purposeful and pure mission to help improve the lives of others with her life experience. I highly recommend her as an incredible voice to help educate, motivate, and inspire. 
Ling Ling Nie
General Counsel
Georgia Tech University
I attended Rashmi’s talk and I thought it was amazing. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to hear her speak. It was, without a doubt, the best session I have attended in my 40 years. I particularly liked her focus on our duty to the community and society as a whole. 
James A. Martell
Colorado Bar Association
Transformational. Life-changing. 
Alyssia Coates
Senior Director of Development
Brown University
Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing your story with vulnerability, creating a space for us to do the same, and sharing insight applicable to both personal and professional life choices. Your messaging resonated in unexpected and practical ways. I admire the courage on display to speak from a place of such openness and high character.
Grant Achilles
Head Baseball Coach
Brown University
Thank you so much for your incredible presentation. We had a record turnout to hear your story of over 2,700 participants and more to come in our APAC region! 
Hollie Foust
Senior Vice President
Cardinal Health
Rashmi’s talk was authentic and really resonated with the entire audience. She was hands-down the #1 speaker we had over the course of our multi-day conference. 
Marc Durant
CTO and CISO
Merck
Your story is immensely compelling with some incredible takeaways. 
Jenny Pakula
CEO
Oregon Association of Realtors
Rashmi spoke to our senior leadership team and coaches at Georgia Tech. Her story and message around decision-making was incredibly impactful as it hit home the fact that good and smart people can make bad decisions with dire consequences. Rashmi helps shed light through her research in behavioral ethics. She provides a mental process for maintaining ethical vigilance in our decision- making and how to avoid the overconfidence bias that leads to the slippery slope. I highly recommend Rashmi to my friends and colleagues as she will inspire and help create substantive change in our athletic environments around integrity and ethics.
Todd Stansbury
Georgia Tech University Athletics
Rashmi’s ability to tell her story with candor, honesty and ownership makes her keynote incredibly relevant to business leaders. 
Lori Maher McCombs
Maher Group, LLC
SHRM Association Management Professional & Convention Planner
The most mind capturing talk ever! 100% focused and visually present. Personable and relatable 
Roshni Kadhiwala
CEO/Owner JLM Hotel Group
Asian American Hotel Owners Association
Rashmi was an incredible speaker to work with for our “Global Meetings Industry Day” live broadcast. Our goal was to take attendees through the “Event Professional’s Journey,” and Rashmi did just that by sharing her story. Through vulnerability, encouragement, and a call to action, Rashmi spoke to event professionals and spurred them on to get back on track and use their experience to help them excel in their next event. We look forward to further opportunities to work with Rashmi. 
Lexi Quilty
Event Specialist
Meeting Planners International (MPI)
I book dozens of speakers, and I will tell you that Rashmi was the easiest person to work with when it came to booking an event. She came prepared. I got a real clear understanding of what her keynote would be and why we thought it would appeal to the audience, especially for a sea of entrepreneurs. It was brilliant. I think her take on business and her take on life and her experience is incredibly unique and inspiring. Through Rashmi’s eyes and her journey, we talk about failures and successes and how the greatest successes come out of multiple failures. I think her journey through the judicial system is one of epic proportions and one that very few ever experience. So, to relive it through her eyes and see the positivity that came out of that experience was remarkable. 
Brett Winn
CEO, Rave Collective; President EO
Los Angeles
Rashmi’s story illustrates the power of humility and transformation. Rashmi is an energy giver - whether live or virtual. She reminds us that we are all humans and fallible. I would recommend Rashmi, she is one the best speakers I have ever worked with and I will work with her again! 
Damien Atkins
Former General Counsel
Hershey’s Inc.
“Rashmi worked with the Coca-Cola team for an entire day. She created such a meaningful impact on the pivotal issues of accountability and vulnerability. Her diverse and unique view has propelled her as a leader on these topics. Rashmi shares a personal story that we must strive to live through uncertainty with conviction and navigate through the gray area. Her workshop truly helped our team learn how to thrive in chaos, be adaptable and remain curious while always focusing on the organization’s needs and long-term sustainability. Her story is relatable and she is truly a remarkable speaker and consultant!” 
Preeti Balwani
Former General Counsel and Global General Counsel
Coca-Cola
This was an incredibly powerful talk about perseverance, adaptability, mindset, and agility. Truly memorable.
Brian Hollowaty
CEO
Los Angeles Brands
YPO Miami was pleased to have Rashmi address members and spouses at a recent event. Her personal story captivated the crowd, and opened up candid and thought-provoking dialog on ethical leadership during the breakout sessions. Attendees were engaged throughout, and post-event feedback was very positive. Thank you Rashmi for sharing your story with YPO Miami! 
Katherine Rhodes
YPO Miami
Rashmi’s engaging presentation style, coupled with her insightful content, captivated our audience and left a lasting impact. She focused on transforming fear of uncertainty into actionable strategies for success, provided our attendees with practical tools and powerful takeaways they could immediately apply in their roles. Rashmi’s ability to connect with her audience, share meaningful stories, and inspire growth truly stood out.
I highly recommend Rashmi for any speaking engagement or leadership development initiative. Her expertise, authenticity, and dynamic presence make her an invaluable asset to any event. 
John Hamilton
Vice President of Operations
Lightbridge Academy (Franchisor)
Rashmi delivered an unforgettable experience for our team. Her session was more than just inspiring—it was transformational. I received countless messages from teammates who shared how her story and insights profoundly impacted them, shifting perspectives and sparking meaningful self-reflection. She brought her A-game with authenticity, vulnerability, and a powerful presence that captivated the room. Rashmi was exactly what our team needed, and her message will resonate long after the event. 
LaTanya Langley
Chief People Officer
Edgewell Personal Care
Rashmi’s gripping presentation to more than 50 of our lawyers transformed the subject of professional responsibility from a textbook experience to a compelling human drama with real-life consequences. It was eye-opening and gut-wrenching, and Rashmi’s willingness to share the lowest moment in her professional life and her takeaways was a real tribute to her character. 
Scott L. Baena
Managing Partner
Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod, LLP
Because Ms. Airan was only a few years older than the law students she spoke to and because she graduated near the top of her class, her impact on the students was powerful and immediate. I think her presentation gave students an entirely unique, more nuanced and certainly more vivid sense of how seemingly normal professional practice can cross the line over into fraud. She made a very valuable contribution to the students’ that others cannot duplicate.” 
John C. Coffee
Jr. Professor
Columbia University, School of Law
Rashmi’s story is equal parts chilling and heart-warming. The lessons from her life experience weave together to form a cautionary tale for REALTORS®. In watching the room as Rashmi delivered her keynote, I have never seen a REALTOR® audience so transfixed on a speaker and her story. Her delivery is direct, touching, sad, funny and always brutally honest. Her candor and accountability were rewarded with an emotional standing ovation at the conclusion of her keynote. Rashmi and her story cannot be beat. 
Scott A. Peterson
Esq.
Colorado Association of REALTORS®
In my 30 years as a federal prosecutor, I dealt with thousands of individuals involved in criminal conduct. Many were truly sorry for and embarrassed by their criminal conduct but happy to put their punishment behind them and move on as quickly as possible. But in my experience, only one of my former defendants – Rashmi Airan -- has chosen to relive, repeatedly, her personal and professional failings in an effort to inspire and motivate others to avoid the poor choices she made.
It’s a rare thing for a prosecutor and defendant to develop a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. We began as adversaries in a courtroom, became teammates in prosecuting others, and now collaborate in writing and speaking. Rashmi’s acceptance of responsibility for her conduct, her deeply sincere expressions of remorse and humility, and her efforts to share her experiences with others who may be tempted to follow a misguided path, have been extraordinary. Rashmi tells a compelling story, rich with life lessons everyone can relate to. Joe Capone
Rashmi’s prosecutor
Department of Justice
Touching. Bold. Almost moved me to tears! Peter Chee
Founder & CEO
MinimZero
Excellent and Powerful! 
Verne Harnish
Founder of EO, Founder of Scaling Up
Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO)
What Rashmi brought to us is real-life experience with emotion, authenticity, and courage for immediate value add in our individual organizations. As a group of CEOs of our companies, we typically don’t spend an entire day listening and engaging with one Coach/Consultant. Rashmi’s workshop and message were extremely effective and impactful, both personally and professionally. Even after an entire day with Rashmi, we all wanted more. I am definitely planning on bringing Rashmi back to work with my own leadership team at my organization. 
Reuben Xeureb
YPO Malta
YPO
Genuine, relatable, heartfelt, valuable. Made me see parts of myself that need work. 
Shanna Allen
HOLLISTER, Inc.
Fantastic and Inspiring Story! 
CJ Carr
Wyndham Hotels
You are the best speaker I have ever heard! 
Kerri Stone
FIU Law School
Leading organizations worldwide have experienced the power of the RISE LEADERSHIP mindset.
Don't
Wait Any Longer
Rising through adversity takes more than motivation. It calls for a resilient mindset. Let’s build a culture of clarity, resilience, and bold action.
