Debra Crosby
Conquest Creative Media
Debra Crosby, founder of the PRESENT to PROSPER® Studio and blue-haired goddess of Unconditional Friendliness, has built a reputation for developing cutting-edge, time-tested and actionable speaking strategies and methods. A speaking expert, master storyteller and certified life coach, Debra turns authors, experts, coaches and entrepreneurs into unforgettable and sought-after speakers. Her clients have presented at national conferences, booked paid speaking gigs across the U.S. and landed high-profile media appearances.
Debra has a major crush on TED (not the bear, the talks). As the self
professed TED Talk “Go-to Girl”, she’s obsessed with all aspects of this global public speaking platform. As a result of this love affair, Debra developed The TED Talk Blueprint for Successful Speeches Program® to teach her clients how to communicate in a warm, confident, compelling, clear and concise way. She’s passionate about working with speakers who deliver messages, solutions and ideas that have the potential to unite us as one global tribe. And how does this blue-haired goddess do that? Through her 30-year practice of Unconditional Friendliness.
While listening to Pema Chodron speak about Unconditional Friendliness on an audio book 30 years ago, Debra began spreading her own version of Unconditional Friendliness in all that she does and wherever she goes. As a result, she and her clients have experienced profound benefits like developing deeper relationships, receiving spontaneous support from unexpected sources and attracting unimaginable opportunities.
Although Debra comes from three generations of storytellers – including her late father and former WBZ Radio and Community Auditions TV Host Dave Maynard – she was a painfully introverted young girl. In fact, she was so quiet and reserved at school that her fifth-grade teacher thought she couldn’t speak. Once her teacher discovered just how creative and curious Debra was at home, she found ways to motivate Debra to break out of her shell and become the warm, confident and unconditionally friendly woman she is today.
Years later at age 22, Debra lived in a mud hut in Kenya where she witnessed the elders, shamans and tribal leaders use stories to teach important lessons to the Loue people. Experiencing this deep sense of belonging through the power of story is when she realized for the first time that humanity could be one global tribe.
During her 30-year career, Debra has logged well over 10,000 hours presenting, training and producing. She has taught thousands of people how to present themselves successfully via TV, public speaking engagements and in Hollywood films. As a result, she was nominated best acting and media coach in the United States by the National Digital Film Academy.
Not only is Debra a rousing speaker and teacher, she’s an accomplished performer who has appeared in one-woman shows, theater productions and as an expert guest on television. As the former executive producer and host of the popular Boston Talent Quest TV Show, she introduced undiscovered performing artists like international icon Jackie Evancho to 2.5 million viewers. Debra has received training through the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Harvard University. She has also trained and performed with three different Improv companies, helped bring the Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea, MA from concept to thriving theater and served as an artist educator and trainer at The Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston for 10 years. In 2005, Debra opened A Quest Actor’s Studio and Conquest Creative Media – a training facility and video production company for actors, authors, entrepreneurs and experts alike who sought out Debra’s coaching expertise to master their communication skills and discover the confidence to succeed on stage, on screen and in life.
Debra lives in Salem, MA with her dog and mascot Jam a Jam. She is currently writing The Art & Science of Unconditional Friendliness: How to Unleash Your Inner Golden Retriever, a personal development book that teaches readers how to “retrieve and receive” prosperity, abundance and wealth.
She is a contributing author in the book entitled: Enterprising Women. Her chapter discusses the value of giving a TED Talk and how to organize your presentation as if it were a TED Talk.
