Candace Bertotti
Harvard-educated and VitalSmarts-certified, Candace helps leaders resolve conflict and communicate with clarity under pressure
Why you should book Candace Bertotti for your next event
- Backed by 10+ years of training elite teams, her keynotes deliver measurable impact on performance and culture.
- Facilitated leadership development for AARP and NYC Judges, improving influence and alignment in complex environments.
- Trusted by NASA, Candace delivers tools that help leaders navigate pressure, align teams, and lead with clarity and confidence.
Non-binding request for Candace Bertotti
Master difficult conversations to lead with impact
Harvard-educated and VitalSmarts-certified, Candace Bertotti delivers high-impact keynotes that help leaders master high-stakes conversations, navigate conflict, and build a culture of trust. With over a decade of experience and clients like NASA, PwC, and Lockheed Martin, she equips teams with practical tools that drive performance, accountability, and lasting business results.
Candace Bertotti is a leading authority in leadership communication and conflict resolution, known for helping organizations turn high-pressure conversations into lasting performance gains. With over a decade of experience, she delivers powerful keynotes that equip leaders and teams with practical tools to communicate clearly, navigate conflict, and lead with confidence—especially under pressure.
As a Master Certified Trainer in Crucial Conversations®, Crucial Confrontations®, and Influencer Training™, Candace has been personally mentored by the original VitalSmarts Master Trainers. Her keynotes are grounded in these powerful, research-backed frameworks and tailored to help leaders and teams communicate clearly, navigate tension, and drive change with confidence.
Candace’s background spans corporate, federal, and nonprofit sectors. She holds a master’s degree from Harvard University in Public Administration with a concentration in negotiation and conflict resolution, and has worked with top organizations including NASA, PwC, Lockheed Martin, and the U.S. Department of Education.
Whether she’s speaking to executives or enterprise-wide teams, keynote speaker Candace Bertotti brings clarity, energy, and measurable value to every event. Her content is practical, her delivery engaging, and her results transformative.
If your organization is looking to strengthen communication and performance from the inside out, book Candace Bertotti for your event and give your leaders the tools they need to succeed.
Keynotes
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Communicating in Stressful Situations
How we communicate—particularly in the unique atmosphere of stress--is imperative. This workshop offers practical tools for communicating more empathetically, credibly, clearly and effectively in stressful situations. Workshop is interactive using polls, open-ended questions, video, and short exercises.
Objectives:
- Understand how our brains work differently under stress.
- Explore practical tools to being more concise and diffusing strong emotions.
- Learn tools to gain and express increased empathy.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Negotiating Solutions for Workplace Effectiveness
This course is highly interactive. Participants are asked to bring their own negotiation challenges to the course to apply what is taught to their specific situations.
Objectives:
- Apply a proven communication process to facilitate collaboration when working through disagreement and difference with stakeholders.
- Identify underlying interests and the interests of the other parties
- Learn to use preparation time effectively
- Build trust rather than creating ill-will
- Think strategically about tactics and using them appropriately
- Increase social and emotional intelligence
Includes interactive exercises, at least one Harvard simulation, partner work, role-play, group discussions, direct application exercise, and lecture. Course is highly interactive and offers an opportunity for hands-on practice.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Briefing Up: Tools to Increase Your Influence and Ensure You’ll Be Heard
This interactive workshop provides immediately applicable tools for taking your briefing to the next level—particularly when stress levels are high. Learn ways to describe your points quickly, in an organized way, and engage leaders on complex topics. Become a highly-skilled and influential “data translator”—translating technical details into a compelling message that makes an impact.
Objectives
- Apply multiple tools for making messages more concise.
- Quickly organize information.
- Anticipate values, priorities, apprehensions, and questions of audience to generate a
- more inclusive and impactful message
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Find Your Voice, Overcome Fear, and Get Clarity on What to Say and Write
Held back by fear? Stuck because you don’t know what exactly to communicate? Join this interactive workshop to help you find your voice, overcome what holds you back, and get clarity on your message.
Objectives:
- Apply best practices for overcoming the fear of public speaking.
- Explore tools for finding your voice.
- Explore tools for enhancing clarity.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Elements of Speech Crafting
This interactive workshop explores frameworks for creating engaging speeches.
Objectives:
- Apply the concept of logos, pathos, and ethos.
- Learn several simply structures for communicating effectively.
- Explore tools for organizing your speech.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Developing Your Personal Narrative
What?! Talk about myself?! This interactive course helps you discover and articulate your personal narrative to increase your profession influence.
Objectives:
- Understand the importance of sharing your personal narrative professionally.
- Learn to share your narrative with purpose--understanding when to share and how much to share.
- Generate a personal narrative that can be used in a variety of settings and situations.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Optimizing Presence and Engagement in Virtual Environments
Gain credibility by improving speaking and facilitation skills over virtual formats. Increase self-awareness and heighten the impact of your message. Learn to better engage your colleagues.
Objectives:
- Learn practical, applicable tools for improving presence and delivery when speaking via computer.
- Gain awareness on posture, tone, verbal ticks, and body language that take away or enhance your message.
- Learn practical tools for increasing engagement and generating interactivity including creative uses of polls, chat, and more.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Power Up Your PowerPoint: Increase Your Impact and Influence with Your Presentation Slides
This interactive and research-based workshop offers best practices for using presentation slides as a tool for delivering more informative and compelling presentations.
This is not a how-to class for using the program PowerPoint, (although it will offer some advanced tips and tricks), or a class in analyzing data/statistics. Rather, this workshop focuses on improving the way we present information to get better results and increase our influence.
Objectives:
- Learn when using slides is most powerful and what purposes are most compelling and effective.
- Apply best practices in visual presentation and data translation.
- Learn techniques for using your slides to generate more interactivity.
- Learn what to avoid when creating presentation slides and what to avoid when delivering your slides.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Get Focused: Tools for Improving Your Attention in a World of Distractions
This hands-on and practical workshop delivers tools for increasing focus, accuracy, and attention to detail--to reduce errors and increase effectiveness at work.
Objectives:
- Learn strategies for developing new habits to achieve better focus and attention.
- Learn immediately applicable tools to reduce errors and improve personal work style.
- Learn ways to become a better listener.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Diffusing Strong Emotions (in yourself and others) to Improve Your Negotiations, Decisions, and Results
This hands-on, highly interactive session challenges participants to explore strategies for working with strong emotions (both in other people and themselves).
Objectives:
- Understand research about emotions, stress, and our brains.
- Learn strategies to recognize and diffuse emotions in ourselves.
- Learn strategies to recognize and diffuse emotions in others.
- Connect these strategies and skills directly to work at SEC and increase influence in current role.
Keynote by Candace Bertotti: Six Word Stories: What’s Your Story?
Come to this fun and highly interactive workshop to finesse the art of introducing yourself, (and others), and to practice conveying important concepts with the fewest words possible. Workshop engages with small group discussions (breakouts), interactive application exercises, chat discussions, and mini presentations to full class.
Objectives
- Apply tools for being concise to improve efficiency in talking about your project, team’s mission, and/or conveying important concepts
- Practice ways to more effectively introduce yourself and others.
