speaking
Molly is an energetic, charismatic, and inspiring presenter …
Speaking Topics
The topics can be delivered as talks (keynotes or interactive playnotes) or workshops. Molly can also deliver team-building and experiential exercises on any of these topics on sailboats and tall ships.
Busting Out of the Comfort Zone
Staying in the comfort zone may feel safe, but it often leads to stagnation in both life and business. Molly uses her personal experiences to show how living in the growth zone not only unlocks potential but is essential for driving innovation. Attendees will discover how embracing discomfort leads to fresh perspectives, creative problem-solving, and breakthrough ideas. This session highlights how thriving in the growth zone fosters both personal resilience and continuous innovation, ensuring relevance and competitiveness in an ever-evolving business landscape,
Key Benefits:
- Practical steps to step out of the comfort zone
- Personal and professional growth through expanded skills
- Renewed energy and creative thinking for innovation
- Increased adaptability and forward-thinking strategies to stay relevant in business
Embracing Empathy & DEI
In this session, Molly explores the profound impact that embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can have on employee retention, sales, and profit. But it all starts with empathy—both for others and for oneself. Attendees will learn actionable strategies to cultivate empathy and self-empathy, essential components of fostering a joyful and inclusive workplace. Leaders will leave equipped with tools to build more empathetic teams, which will drive personal fulfillment and organizational success.
Key Benefits:
- Improved leadership skills through empathy
- Enhanced workplace culture and employee retention
- Increased joy and emotional well-being for attendees
Winning Teams
Drawing from over 24 years of experience on a winning sailing team and teaching Outward Bound, Molly dives into the dynamics of successful teams. Attendees will learn how high-performing teams navigate setbacks, foster collaboration, and create a culture of trust. Molly provides insights into the key ingredients that contribute to team success, helping leaders build stronger, more resilient teams that can drive organizational goals.
Key Benefits:
- Insights on creating and sustaining high-performance teams
- Strategies to overcome team challenges and setbacks
- Practical tools for fostering collaboration and trust
Crisis Leadership
Crisis is inevitable, but effective leaders know how to navigate it in a way that strengthens the organization. Through real-world case studies, Molly examines how crises unfold, what kinds of leadership responses are most effective, and how to leverage existing strengths to overcome the unknown. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how to guide their teams through turbulent times, emerging stronger on the other side.
Key Benefits:
- Improved crisis management and decision-making skills
- Strategies for maintaining team morale and focus during crises
- Tools to ensure organizational resilience and long-term success
“I am still thinking about her words … they made an impression! I just wanted to thank you. She was truly great!”
Speaker Bio
At this point in her life, Molly Hughes Wilmer has reached a state of peace, joy, happiness, and empathy that surpasses any she has ever known. Her journey has shaped her into a source of wisdom and compassion, and she now offers everything she has become—and is still becoming—to help others reach their own bliss, their “rapture of being alive,” as Joseph Campbell so beautifully described it.
Molly has been called the “Queen of the Cool Jobs” for good reason. She “followed her bliss” and found herself paid to have extraordinary experiences with fascinating people. She once carried a birthday cake to the top of Mt. Fuji for a sunrise celebration, sailed tall ships across the world’s oceans, and enjoyed fresh salmon off a boat in Bergen. She has given talks on everything from women and aging in Tokyo to the intersection of art and sailing in Hamburg. Whether in a Russian sauna or on the deck of a ship, Molly’s journey has been anything but ordinary.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Molly’s life has tested her resilience—sometimes by her own invitation and often by surprise. She survived storms at sea, summited mountains by moonlight, and helped evacuate a woman with a potential spinal injury. She has cared for a dying loved one, managed a mental health crisis for another, and kept a third alive during a severe allergic reaction. She supported first responders in getting critical communications equipment on 9/11, chaired a sailing regatta just one week after a hurricane submerged the entire facility, and reassured 500 employees their jobs were safe when a burst water main flooded company headquarters the night before an investor call.
Through all of these experiences, Molly has grown, evolved, and transformed her understanding of life. Now, with a deep sense of empathy and joy, she is passionate about helping others find their own rapture in living—just as Campbell urged, “to live in the rapture of being alive.”
The Need for Leadership Development
Women Spanning the Globe, World Trade Center Institute, May 15, 2024, Baltimore, MD