UNMUTED

Recognized as a Forbes Next1000 Honoree, a Workforce Magazine Game Changer, and the #1 Health Promotion Professional in the U.S., I deliver inspiring, interactive, and actionable keynotes and workshops for audiences of all sizes and industries to foster confidence, courage, and connection.

My work helps to unlock purpose, potential, and possibilities in leaders and teams, so everyone shows up with greater influence, impact, and ownership. Learn more at www.RachelDruckenmiller.com.

I support organizations, associations, and events of all sizes through keynote speeches, virtual training, leadership training, and facilitation and have extensive experience in the following industries:
- Insurance / Employee Benefits
- Healthcare / Wellness
- Financial Services
- Education
- Human Resources
- Associations

Living an unmuted life is about uncovering your blind spots, illuminating your strengths, asking for what you need and want at work and at home, expressing yourself creatively, giving yourself permission to feel, advocating for yourself and others, doing more of what brings you joy, and expressing gratitude. Living unmuted is also about listening to your body and what it needs, so you don’t end up sick and burned out. 

A full life is possible if you are willing to be brave and UNMUTE yourself.

Keynote Speaker, Facilitator + Leadership Trainer

Simon Sinek's The Optimism Company

As an online class instructor, I covered the topic of speaking up and advocating for yourself at work, so leaders could feel more fulfilled and experience more growth.

Course Instructor

SIG, an Alera Group Company

Recognized in February 2015 as the #1 Health Promotion Professional in the U.S. by the Wellness Council of America and a panel of industry experts as well as my peers and top #10 in 2017.

With training and expertise in corporate wellness, building health-supportive cultures, and health coaching, my ultimate goal is to guide our clients and their employees to live healthier, happier and more energized lives.

At SIG, we believe good health is good business and have experienced the positive impact that a health-promoting culture can have on employee recruitment, retention, engagement and productivity. We recognize the importance of promoting health in the workplace and take a customized, hands on approach to helping our clients assess, plan, communicate, implement and evaluate health and wellbeing strategies to support their employees and create a thriving culture. 

I also oversee SIG's internal wellbeing program and a committee of my peers, the Wellness Champions. Together, we serve as the leaders in the workplace, planning, implementing and promoting initiatives that promote employee health and well-being. 

SIG has been recognized by the Baltimore Business Journal as one of Baltimore's Healthiest Employers for the past two years and as an American Heart Association's Fit Friendly Company for 5 years running because of our comprehensive wellness efforts.

Director of Wellbeing

In addition to the wellness responsibilities listed below, I work with account management and the C-Suite both internally and with our clients to strategize comprehensive plans that integrate health management, benefit plan design and structure, corporate culture, and employee communication.

Wellness-specific responsibilities: 
*Lead SIG's internal wellness efforts
*Work alongside account managers to provide a value-added service to our clients of all sizes to facilitate, educate, communicate and coordinate wellness initiatives for their employees, including but not limited to: guidance on the worksite wellness process, health fairs, health screenings, health risk assessment campaigns, wellness committee formation, interest survey customization and analysis, wellness vendor coordination and consultations, fitness challenges, and health education seminars.

Corporate Health & Wellness Specialist

Guide Silberstein's internal wellness efforts, working with a committee of co-workers to plan and implement wellness initiatives.  I also work alongside account managers to provide a value-added service to our clients of all sizes in terms of facilitating, educating, communicating and coordinating wellness initiatives for their employees, including but not limited to: guidance on the worksite wellness process, health fairs, health screenings, health risk assessment campaigns, wellness committee formation, interest survey customization and analysis, wellness vendor coordination and consultations, fitness challenges, and health education seminars. 

I have relationships with and access to numerous vendors and specialists in the health and wellness field and also serve as a resource for information on the topic of worksite wellness.

Worksite Wellness Coordinator

Rachel's Nourishing Kitchen

Nourish your body. Feed your soul. Come alive.
Spread hope, healing and kindness in the world. 
Be a light to others.
My mission is to share those messages and to bring life to the world through my work.

I take a refreshing approach about what to eat and how to live in a way that makes us feel energized, inspired and alive. I do this through blogging, group workshops, retreats, cooking classes. If you're interested in learning more about any of those services, please send me a message!

I invite you to connect with your food, where it comes from and how it makes you feel; to slow down and savor your food and make eating an experience instead of an afterthought; to use food as nourishment to feed your body and your soul.

Owner

Heroic Public Speaking

Heroic Public Speaking's GRAD Program is training the world's best public speakers in their craft of delivering powerful messages that 'change the world one speech at a time.' Led by internationally renowned speakers, Michael & Amy Port, and their incredibly talented team, they serve their clients with 100% dedication and passion.

GRAD Alumni

Johns Hopkins University

Assisted interventionists with a research-based weight loss program - the LookAHEAD study. I worked closely with interventionists and interacted directly with diabetic participants, ages 45-75.

Assistant Lifestyle Interventionist, LookAHEAD Study

Adams-Hanover Counseling Services, Inc.

Co-led groups and interfaced with a local community wellness center to gather data and develop programs to improve community health outcomes, specifically obesity.

Clinical Research Assistant

As a keynote speaker, facilitator, and leadership trainer at UNMUTED, I help organizations elevate purpose, passion, and potential by activating curiosity, character, and courage. The result is that people have greater influence and impact at work along with elevated engagement, motivation, and confidence. They live and lead more intentionally and fulfillment. 

For nearly 20 years, I've helped leaders and organizations catalyze both introspective insight and meaningful connection that lead to lasting transformation, personally and professionally.

My mission is to unleash curiosity, confidence, courage, and clarity in leaders and teams, so they can navigate change and uncertainty, foster resilience and wellbeing, and experience more fulfillment and less regret at work and at home. I am also a TEDx speaker and a singer-songwriter who uses my voice and message-driven music to empower and energize people and organizations. I have worked with companies like Sherwin-Williams, Citizens Bank, and the Federal Aviation Administration, and I have been recognized as a Best of Stage Speaker by Smart Meetings and as a Forbes Next1000 Honoree.

Let's connect about your upcoming conference, association event, or keynote!

A few fun facts:

❤️ I’m married to my college sweetheart, Bill
🎶 I’m a singer-songwriter (find my music wherever you listen)
🦚 I’m obsessed with peacocks!
🍵 I collect handmade mugs and am a fan of tea > coffee
🌟 I’m an Enneagram 3
💪 My top CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Strategic, Competition, Futuristic, Focus

They say your circle determines your ceiling, and I didn’t realize how true that was until I found this one.

About five years ago, my friend Eric Silverman told me about a guy I needed to meet named Scott MacGregor.

He was running a group called the Talent Champions Council to support forward-thinking people leaders. As someone who’d worked in the HR space my entire career, it felt like a fit, so I joined.

Since then, that community has evolved into The Outlier Project (TOP), a place where curious, driven, generous people come together to do extraordinary things with extraordinary humans.

Every week, we get to learn from legends across just about every industry and connect with and be mentored by experts and peers who want to help us grow.

It’s a community that supports you, stretches you, celebrates you, and challenges you to want more for your life and your career.

All of that happens because Scott is an “all-in” kind of guy. 

He’s always raising the bar, always dreaming bigger, always finding ways to support this community.

He and Kathy Love care deeply about what they’re building, and it shows.

The people I’ve met through this group have become some of my closest friends. They’ve made my life better, richer, and fuller in every way.

Whenever and wherever I travel for work, I know I can find an Outlier to meet up with, someone who will help me feel at home when I’m on the road.

Last fall, I finally met Scott and about two dozen other Outliers at a retreat in Rhode Island. There’s nothing like being in the same physical space with people who make you feel seen, heard, and alive.

As I reflect on this past year and what I want for the year ahead, one thing is clear to me: I want to invest more time and energy into this circle.

As we close out 2025 and look ahead to 2026, here’s a question worth asking:

✨ Who’s in your circle?

If your circle determines your ceiling, choose a circle that lifts you higher.

Grateful to Scott and The Outlier Project for helping so many of us do that.

🙌

Rachel Druckenmiller 🗣

Keynote Speaker | I help people get UNMUTED and Come Alive at Work by Elevating Self-Leadership + Employee Engagement | Singer-Songwriter | TEDx Speaker

Yesterday marked a bittersweet ending, one I was still processing on my ride to the airport this morning.

Almost four years ago, a speaker bureau agent named Tim Mathy recommended I join a community called Three Ring Circus to learn the business side of speaking.

I dragged my feet for a year before finally getting on the phone with Ryan Estis to learn more about what became known as ImpactEleven.

One of my biggest regrets is not joining sooner.

Not just because of how it’s strengthened the strategic side of my speaking career, but, more importantly, because of the relationships I’ve built.

Prior to this community, speaking was a lonely profession. I wasn’t friends with many other speakers. 

I lived in a place of scarcity, with a mindset that there wasn’t enough to go around.

But when you’re immersed in a community guided by values like, “Give generously, don’t keep score,” you can’t help but start to shift the way you see your work and the world.

When you learn that there are 400,000 keynotes delivered annually and that it’s a $6B market in the U.S. alone, you start feeling more abundant.

After the community formally folded due to unforeseen circumstances in August, the leadership team remained committed to supporting us. 

They delivered on their promise to bring value through a series of in-person and virtual trainings.

Yesterday marked the last of the in-person gatherings in Detroit.

We could all feel the sadness that this beautiful community is coming to an end…and the gratitude that it ever existed in the first place.

The relationships we formed will continue to grow and get stronger. They’ll just take more intention, but the foundation is there.

True community persists.

The experience we’ve shared, whether for months or years, was truly magical.

This is just the beginning.

To the fearless, generous leaders - Ryan Estis, Josh Linkner, Seth Mattison, Peter Sheahan, Jenny Michaels DeRosse, Connor Trombley, Ivy Gustafson, Sharon Fenton and the rest of the team - thank you for all that you poured into us, especially over the past few months.

My life and my business are immeasurably better as a result of your commitment to creating what was ImpactEleven.

And for that, I am grateful.

Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.

💚🩷

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On a day meant for gratitude, I’m thinking of Ashley, a mom of two young kiddos who was recently laid off and could use our help finding her next role.

My friend Zack Demopoulos shared her story with me this week, thinking I might be able to help, and yesterday I had the chance to talk with her.

I could hear in her voice that she’s got a fire inside her. She sounded determined, not defeated.

Ashley Spiess is a wife and loving mama to two little ones.

She describes herself as a “Swiss-army-knife”, someone who can move seamlessly between big-picture executive strategy and the kind of work that actually makes things happen.

With over 15 years of experience across strategy, operations, partnerships, product, and organizational design, she’s so multi-talented.

She stepped into her most recent role with the hope of continuing to do meaningful work while navigating life as a working parent.

And without warning, she was laid off and her household income was cut in half right as we head into the holidays.

Ashley is currently exploring roles as:
- Chief of Staff
- VP / Head of Strategy
- VP / Head of Operations
- Strategic Partnerships or cross-functional leadership

I can tell Ashley’s a go-getter, the kind of person any team would be lucky to have.

And I have a feeling this unexpected closed door will lead her somewhere even better that feels more aligned and supportive.

We can be part of making that happen.

On Thanksgiving, I’m feeling especially grateful for all the amazing humans I’m connected to on here and how powerful it can be when we use our influence and network for good.

🧡 Let’s help Ashley find a role that values the expertise, strategic strengths, and human-centered leadership she brings.

If you have a lead, tag someone below, pass this along, or reach out to Ashley directly.

Let’s help this mama out!

🙌 

#OpenToWork #JobSearch

Sometimes we don’t realize how much weight we’re carrying until we finally feel it lift.

I was talking to a mentor this week, and he asked me how this year has felt.

I told him something had shifted…that I felt like I’d released something. 

“What did you release?” He asked me.

“Heaviness.”

A heaviness I’ve been carrying around for years without even realizing it.

A heaviness in my body and my spirit that’s been with me since the accident five years ago.

A heaviness I couldn’t seem to shake emotionally.

A heaviness that dimmed my light in a way that only I could see and feel.

A few people in my life have been catalysts for that release.

They know who they are because I’ve made it a point to tell them.

Their presence has helped me feel more confident, more grounded, and more vibrantly alive than I’ve ever felt.

They’ve helped me trust myself more and show up as a more honest and unmuted version of who I am.

Their encouragement, truth-telling, levity, playfulness, and consistency have shaped who I’m becoming.

And for that, I am grateful.

Sometimes people enter our lives unexpectedly.

We didn’t know we needed them, but they showed up at just the right moment.

Maybe someone like that came into your life this year.

And maybe this is your nudge to let them know the difference they’ve made.

Here’s to the people who make our lives better, brighter, and lighter.

The ones who help us feel like the best version of ourselves.

Who’s one of those people in your life?

Have you let them know?

❤️

When’s the last time you did something for the first time?

Or for the first time in a long time?

Bill and I took ballroom lessons 15 years ago before our wedding and hadn’t done a class since then.

So this fall, we signed up for weekly beginner lessons (rumba, foxtrot, swing, waltz, etc.), and it’s been such a fun way to connect!

We laugh when we mess up a step, make eye contact in a way most of us don’t with our partner, and we feel more playful and more alive.

There’s a reason for that.

Trying something new (or going back to something you used to love) wakes up the brain and pulls us out of autopilot.

Most of us get a little stagnant or complacent in our relationships because we never change it up.

But trying one new thing can be enough to bring a spark back.

✨ Because novelty makes us feel alive ✨

What’s a hobby you’ve been curious about trying?

You don’t have to be “good” at it. 

You just have to try 😉

You never know who’s quietly following your journey and who wants to help you.

This morning, Mike DiGiacomo said something at the end of our breakfast meeting about why he wants to connect me to people he knows who would benefit from what I do:

“It’s not because of what you do but because of who you are.”

To me, that’s one of the highest compliments someone can give. It speaks to character and presence, to the idea that who we are matters as much as what we do.

We want to work with people we know, like, and trust, and so much of that comes down to how we show up.

At last month’s Accelerent - Baltimore event, Rob McGrain told me Mike and I needed to meet.

Mike came up afterward and introduced himself, and today was our first chance to spend intentional time together.

We planned for an hour…but talked for over two.

I learned about Mike’s journey from sales to genuine service. He’s someone who cares deeply about making leaders, businesses, and communities better.

He told me he’s followed my journey on here since hearing me speak years ago when I was still in my corporate job. I had no idea he knew who I was.

As the CEO of the Greater Maryland Better Business Bureau, he’s committed to protecting and positioning businesses as trusted partners for people seeking their services.

The back of his business card even says:
“Start with trust.”

And in a time of increasing complexity, trust matters more than ever.

We found out that we share a fun connection in his daughter Andrea DiGiacomo, PMP®, whose company brought me in for several virtual events during the pandemic.

By the end of our conversation, we were talking about how we could help each other, and his comment reminded me of what matters most:

👉 Character
👉 Relationships
👉 Being a good human

Don’t underestimate the power of those three factors in your growth and success. They’re what matter most now.

Who’s someone you enjoyed connecting with recently because of who they are, not just what they do?

💬 Who’s a good human the rest of us need to know?

Here’s to the people who show up with character, lead with service, and make the world a little better just by being in it.

Here’s to people like Mike.

✨

Freedom is being disliked by other people.

In other words, someone who isn’t wrapped up in other people’s judgments is someone who’s actually free.

That idea comes from one of my favorite books I’ve read this year:

📕 The Courage to Be Disliked

This book has pushed me in ways I didn’t expect, and, that’s a good thing because we’re not very likely to change if we’re not challenged.

It’s made me think about questions like these:

How often do we seek other people’s approval while betraying ourselves?

How often do we compromise who we are so other people will like us?

How often are we people-pleasing just to fit in?

Growing up, I knew what it felt like to be on the outside, to be excluded and to assume that meant I was disliked. It hurt.

And even now, if I think someone might not like me, I can start overthinking, replaying conversations, wondering what I did wrong, or trying to figure out how to fix it.

If you’ve ever lived that way, you know how exhausting it is.

But the more I’ve sat with this book, the more I’ve realized something:

Maybe the real question isn’t, “Do they like me?”

Maybe it’s, “Do I like myself?”

Am I living the life I actually want to live?
Do I like the version of me who’s showing up?
Am I being true to what matters most?

Here’s a line in the book that hit me the hardest and really stuck with me:

✨ “The courage to be happy also includes the freedom to be disliked.” ✨ 

If reading that felt a little uncomfortable or unsettling…same.

But maybe that discomfort is a sign.

Maybe it’s inviting a more authentic version of you to show up instead of holding back…one that’s happier, freer, and UNMUTED.

What if you let that version out?

✨

What’s a book you’ve read that’s had a significant impact on you?

Kait LeDonne was one of the very first LinkedIn coaches I ever worked with, so I am so excited to be partnering with her on this conversation!

She's an expert when it comes to all things personal branding and LinkedIn and is one of my favorite people to follow and learn from on this platform.

Join us next Tuesday right here on LinkedIn Live!

#UnmuteYourself

Personal Branding Expert for Ambitious Professionals • Join 55k Members Receiving Weekly Personal Brand Playbooks by Subscribing to My Newsletter • Speaker & Corporate Trainer • CNBC MakeIt’s Personal Branding Instructor

The path from "I want to speak" to "$10k keynotes" feels like some secret society nobody talks about.

Do you need an agent? A speaker's reel? How do you get testimonials if you've never spoken before?

Everyone wants to build a paid speaking business. Nobody tells you step-by-step how to actually do it.

So I'm sitting down with Rachel Druckenmiller 🗣 to get you the real answers.

Quick backstory: Rachel was one of my first LinkedIn course students back in the mid-2010s. I still remember that phone call where she said, "I think I can turn this passion into a full-time business."

Flash forward 10 years:
• 40,000+ LinkedIn followers
• TEDx speaker
• In-demand keynote speaker
• Singer (yes, she performs at her keynotes)

Both our businesses exploded on this platform. But Rachel's speaking trajectory? That's what I want to unpack for you. (and what she is so generously willing to discuss)

THE QUESTIONS NOBODY ANSWERS 

Do you need an agent to book speaking gigs?

How do you create a speaker's reel when you've never spoken professionally?

What's the actual formula for pricing yourself? ($500 to five figures - how?)

Is there really a secret society of event organizers? (Spoiler: kind of)

Who should you be reaching out to? (Hint: It's not who you think)

How do you use LinkedIn to book speaking gigs without being salesy?

How does content play into all this?

Can you build a speaking business while keeping your day job?

I've watched dozens of "become a speaker" trainings. But I've struggled to find the "build this business model playbook." So, I'm hosting it instead.

Next Tuesday, Rachel and I are doing a raw, unfiltered LinkedIn Live where we're answering every single question you have about building a paid speaking business in 2026.

No gatekeeping. No "it depends." Just the exact roadmap from $0 to five-figure keynotes.

We're going deep on:
• The LinkedIn strategy that drives inquiries
• How to position yourself when you have zero speaking experience
• The psychology of premium pricing (and when to raise your rates)
• Building your speaker brand while the bills still need paying

Mark your calendar. This is the conversation I wish I'd heard 10 years ago.

Kait LeDonne, Helen Fickes and 1 other connection attending

How to Use LinkedIn to Build a 6-figure Speaking Business

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