Delivering Authenticity from the Stage: How Valerie Garcia Turned a Breaking Point into a Speaking Career
Imagine sitting backstage at a corporate event, moments from taking the stage, and being brought to tears — not from nerves, but because the material you're about to present is completely at odds with who you really are. That's exactly the moment that changed everything for Valerie Garcia. A seasoned corporate professional turned full-time keynote speaker, Valerie left the security of a comfortable career to pursue something far more vulnerable and far more meaningful: telling the truth from the stage. In a wide-ranging conversation on the Keys from Keynotes podcast, Valerie shared the story of her transformation, her approach to authentic speaking, and the hard-won lessons that shaped her into the speaker she is today.
The Breaking Point Behind the Curtain
For two decades, Valerie Garcia built a successful career in the corporate world, most notably with Remax Ontario Atlantic. She had a great boss, solid benefits, and a regular paycheck. By most measures, everything was going well. But behind the polished stage presence was a person in deep pain.
"I was sitting backstage in a utility closet crying," Valerie recalled. "I was supposed to speak to all of our leaders and tell them how great everything was, how our numbers were crushing it. And inside, I was struggling with depression. I was suicidal. And I was getting on stage every day with a big smile on my face saying, 'We're doing great.'"
That day, her boss found her backstage. And in that raw, honest moment, Valerie told him she needed to do something different — to stop putting on a mask and start talking about the things that actually mattered. It didn't feel like a logical career move at the time. Leaving a stable job to talk about hard things from the stage seemed closer to crazy than bold. But that's exactly what she did. And amazingly, people wanted to hear it. They wanted the real stuff — the difficult, messy, human stories that corporate presentations rarely make room for.
The First Two Years: Fighting Fear Every Morning
Transitioning from a full-time corporate role to entrepreneurial keynote speaking wasn't a smooth glide — it was a daily battle. Valerie was candid about what those early days looked like.
"For the first two years, I woke up every single day thinking maybe I should get a real job," she said. "It was a constant struggle against fear. The fear was in my own head: I'm not good enough. People don't care. They don't want to hear what I have to say."
What pulled her through was, ironically, the very skillset she'd spent 20 years teaching others. She had trained salespeople how to sell — and now she had to apply those principles to herself. That meant prospecting, working her database, showing up, and adding value, even when the voice in her head told her it was pointless.
And then COVID hit. In one fell swoop, she lost every single speaking gig she had booked for the entire year — what would have been her highest-earning year ever. Rather than retreat, she pivoted. She asked herself one question: How do I help as many people as cheaply as possible right now? That meant seven-hour days on Zoom, making calls, finding new ways to serve. Those years were grueling, but the resilience they built was invaluable.
Speaking Digitally: A Different Kind of Challenge
The shift to virtual speaking during the pandemic taught Valerie — and every speaker — important lessons about engagement. Digital presentations, she noted, require significantly more effort than in-person events.
"It's a lot more work digitally. It's harder to connect with the audience. You don't hear them laughing. You don't get to see their facial expressions. If they're off camera, you don't really know if they're paying attention at all."
Her strategies for keeping virtual audiences engaged include:
- Always standing during virtual presentations to maintain energy and use body language naturally
- Encouraging interaction through polls, chat, and having cameras turned on
- Adding entertainment value to slides — not just educational content, but colorful, fun images (yes, including llamas and gorillas) that make people smile
- Keeping things visually interesting because asking someone to stare at a screen for 60 minutes demands something worth looking at
Authenticity Isn't Just a Buzzword — It's a Practice
Valerie's upcoming book, We're Going to Need Cake: Celebrating Authentic Leadership in a Messy World, is all about celebrating authenticity. But how does a speaker stay authentic when they're delivering material they didn't choose — say, reading charts and graphs to a board of directors?
"It really comes down to your personal values," Valerie explained. "What do you most believe, and what do you want people to take away? No matter what you're presenting, you can still do it with authenticity — being true to yourself, standing in your own body, speaking in your own tone of voice."
She pointed out that we've all seen famous speakers read from teleprompters without revealing anything about who they are. The audience walks away having learned nothing about the person behind the words. True authenticity means bringing your own sense of service, emotion, and care to whatever you're presenting. That's how people believe you. That's how they believe you mean what you're saying.
The Power of Story: Never Make a Point Without One
On her website, Valerie states that she believes stories can and should change the world. In conversation, she expanded on why storytelling is non-negotiable for great speaking — and great leadership.
"I have this saying: never tell a story without a point, and never make a point without a story. The only way we can ever capture people's hearts is through story. A lot of us try to capture people's minds through numbers and charts and stats, but we can't change the way people act if we don't start with how they feel."
Great speakers, she argued, make people feel things — they make audiences cry, laugh, question, and lean over to the person next to them saying, "Me too. I thought I was the only one." Behavioral change doesn't happen through the head. It happens through the heart. And story is the bridge.
Building a Speech: Start with the Big Idea, Work Backwards
Valerie's process for building a speech is refreshingly intuitive. She starts with one big idea — it might be a joke, a title, an image, or the "dismount" she wants to land at the end. From there, she works backwards.
"I'll hear something about some random fact about elephants, and immediately my brain will be like, how do I make a story out of that to teach a lesson?" she said.
Her presentations, built in Canva, are visually heavy with very few words. She wants people to see things that make them feel, with images guiding the audience down the path toward that one big idea.
Perhaps most surprising: Valerie doesn't practice her speeches in the traditional sense. She spends time writing the story in her head, and then it comes out. This means no audience ever gets exactly the same speech twice — she'll pull in someone from the front row, adapt a story based on who's in the room, and take a different road each time. But the destination — that big idea — is always the same.
Handling the Unexpected: When Everything Goes Wrong
AV failures, power outages, incompatible technology — if you speak long enough, it will all happen. Valerie has experienced every variety of technical disaster, and her advice is simple: roll with it.
"When the power went out, we just gathered everybody in a circle and workshopped it," she said. Her off-the-cuff approach to speaking means she's never fully reliant on slides or technology. The stories live in her, not on a screen.
Dealing with Q&A and Difficult Questions
Valerie's approach to audience Q&A is thoughtful and adaptable. She always consults with the event organizer beforehand to understand what's worked well in the past. Her key principles include:
- Always use a microphone — even if you think you're loud enough, someone in the back might have difficulty hearing
- Ensure questions are audible to the whole room — whether through interactive tech tools in large venues or walking into the audience with a mic in smaller spaces
- Make it feel like a conversation, not a shouting match
For difficult questions — the ones you don't know the answer to or don't want to address in a large group — Valerie recommends learning to say, with confidence, phrases like: "That's a great question. Let's talk about it afterwards." Or: "I don't know the answer, but come find me and let me find out for you."
"The more comfortable we are with saying 'I don't know' or 'not right now,' the better we are going to be as speakers — and the more our audience will appreciate it," she said.
Don't Chase the One at the Expense of the Ninety-Nine
One of the most powerful lessons Valerie shared came from early in her speaking career. After a talk where she'd focused much of her energy on winning over a resistant, heckling audience member in the back row, the event survey results delivered a gut punch: "She turned cartwheels for the one person that was never going to get it at the expense of the rest of us."
That feedback was a turning point. Valerie learned that her job isn't to convert every skeptic in the room. It's to serve the people who are ready to receive the message.
"I cannot chase the one at the expense of the ninety-nine," she said. Now, before every talk, she reminds herself: Someone in this audience is here just for what I'm going to say. I want to make sure they get those words.
The Pre-Stage Ritual: Know Your First Line
Valerie doesn't get nervous before taking the stage — she gets excited. But she does have a simple, effective pre-stage process:
- Scroll through her slides to remember pacing and stories
- Know the very first line that will come out of her mouth — a joke, an opening story, something that grabs attention immediately
- Set an intention: "I just want to deliver this in a way that someone in this audience takes something away"
"If you know the very first sentence that is going to come out of your mouth, everything gets easier from there," she advised. "That's why people get nervous — they go up there still trying to process what they're going to say first." She also recommends skipping lengthy self-introductions: "You just heard my bio. It's all good. Move on. Go straight into a story."
Getting Feedback When There's No Survey
Not every event organizer sends out post-talk surveys, so Valerie has learned to actively seek feedback. When audience members approach her afterward with a generic "That was great," she pushes gently for specifics: What was the one thing you're going to take away? What piece really resonated with you?
During Q&A, she'll ask the room: Does anyone want to share one thing they're going to take action on as a result of this? And she follows up with people who connect on social media, asking what's changed in their work or life since the talk. The onus, she believes, is on the speaker to dig deeper than "Thanks, glad you loved it."
Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Speakers: Network Like Your Career Depends on It
For anyone thinking about making the leap to full-time speaking, Valerie's number one piece of advice is unambiguous: network relentlessly.
"I had an idea of how important networking was, but I had no idea really how important it was," she said. "You have to be able to have conversations. It's about prospecting, talking to people — 'Oh, your husband works for this company. Does his company ever put on events?' It's literally at that level of asking for the business."
Twenty years of relationship-building gave her a foundation, but she emphasized that speakers can't simply hang out a shingle and wait to be found. You have to get out there, make calls, tell people you're available, and talk passionately about what you do.
Rapid Fire: Favorites, Embarrassments, and Dream Gigs
Favorite keynote speakers: Brené Brown, for her calm specificity and the kind of mind you'd want to pick over dinner. And Jeremy Gutsche, founder of Trend Hunter, for his boundless energy and the fascinating way his brain works. Two vastly different speakers, both deeply influential.
Most embarrassing moment: While nothing catastrophic came to mind, Valerie pointed to the times she left a stage knowing she hadn't prepared enough. "The audience might not tell you that, but I can feel it. I'm harder on myself than anyone else."
Dream speaking venue: A Crayola event. "As a kid, crayons were the creativity thing," she said. "I feel like that's the audience that would be just so much fun."
The Takeaway: Be Real, Serve Others, and Get to the Point
Valerie Garcia's journey from a corporate utility closet to the keynote stage is a powerful reminder that authenticity isn't just a branding strategy — it's a survival mechanism. Her story illustrates that the most compelling speakers aren't the ones with the most polished delivery or the flashiest slides. They're the ones willing to be honest about their struggles, intentional about their impact, and generous with their stories. Whether you're a seasoned speaker or someone just finding your voice, Valerie's message is clear: know your values, serve your audience, tell stories that matter, and never be afraid to say what's real. The people who need to hear it are already in the room.