Suzanne F. Stevens, CSP, Overview
Suzanne F. Stevens ignites a culture where your contributions count • for you • your company • your community.
Keynote Speaker, Social Entrepreneur, Author & Founder
CSP – Certified Speaking Professional – this is the only earned designation for professional speakers. Only 15% of speakers have this designation internationally. Suzanne F. Stevens is one of only sixty-five Canadians who currently hold this designation for speaking excellence.
Suzanne has worked with companies on five continents since 2000. She has interviewed leaders and entrepreneurs in 21 countries and brings their personal and professional transformational insights into every speaking engagement.
Suzanne is an author, international speaker, social entrepreneur, moderator, host, and adventure traveler. She is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP – one of 65 in Canada, among 15% globally), World of Difference award recipient, CAPS Philanthropy Award winner, Canadian Sovereign’s Medal of Volunteers recipient (highest Canadian Volunteer honour), and multi-recipient of association service awards. She is a past National President for The Canadian Association of Professional Speaker (CAPS), founder of YouMeWe Social Impact Group (YouMeWe.ca), WisdomExchangeTv.com, YouMeWeFoundation.org, and YouMeWe Movement.
In every keynote, session, or workshop, Suzanne brings her audiences to the front row by using a customized approach, her entrepreneurial experience, vast international adventures, human observations, a slice of humour, and interactive process to get the audience to explore how to “make your contribution count.”
Suzanne’s is an “interactive, thought-provoking, dynamic keynote speaker” who shares strategies on how to implement conscious-contributions™ consistently for you, your company, in the community, and beyond. She transforms perspectives on how to maximize personal meaning while having a social impact that will attract, engage, and retain colleagues, customers, and collaborators — sustainably and profitably.
Suzanne is most gratified by her investment in leaders and watching them fill a gap in society that creates a ripple effect to impact hundreds or thousands. She is most energized by travelling to over 60 countries with her backpack to explore cultures, interview trailblazers, and navigate the road less travelled with her husband.
Suzanne ignites a culture where your contribution counts for you • your company • your community.
Host, Producer & Philanthropist
In 2011, while in her mid-forties, Suzanne and her husband sold most of their worldly possessions and reorganized her internationally acclaimed training company, Ignite Excellence Inc., to follow a passion of women empowerment.
For nearly two years they backpacked through seventeen Eastern and Southern African countries interviewing pioneering women leaders for Wisdom Exchange TV. Suzanne pioneered Wisdom Exchange TV as a philanthropic initiative. As host and co-producer of the first African women focused web-enabled platform, the goal was to provide a resource to educate, cultivate, and inspire future African women leaders. Suzanne and Michael, have interviewed 70+ African pioneering women. Wisdom Exchange TV has a global reach, having been viewed in 77 countries and growing.
In 2007, Suzanne founded the YouMeWe Foundation (youmewefoundation.org). Its mission is leadership, advocacy, and education; the vision is to invest, inspire, and develop women leaders in emerging countries. Amongst many contributions, the foundation’s primary focus is providing tertiary education scholarships to prospective women leaders in emerging countries. As of 2016, the foundation has awarded 26 scholarships to young women in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Author, Book: Make your contribution count: for you, me, we
Create a Social Impact, in your community or beyond (book description)
You yearn to make a difference in others’ lives. You feel the call to throw your wisdom, energy, and time into a cause, social enterprise, or not-for-profit. You want to give.
Have you considered your giving may be hurting, not helping?
In the West, we want to fix, and the tools to repair social, economic, and environmental issues are often unconsciously selected by the ego, rather than what will benefit the whole. The strategies to correct the injustices of our time are lived by leaders who make their contribution count—every day.
Make your contribution count imports pioneering African women’s guidance to navigate how the West can integrate African cultural ethos, where we takes precedence over me. Pioneers who have endured many unimaginable circumstances harness their feminine energy to transform how to lead, contribute, consume, and structure organizations to have a social impact in their communities and beyond—sustainably.
Be transported through 17 African countries and 70 interviews along with the author, Suzanne F. Stevens, and her husband, Michael K. Gingerich as they backpack through a timely social evolution. Through real-life adventures, international research findings, practical strategies, and reflective questions, the author will take you on a journey where:
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- Your contribution awareness will be heightened locally and abroad
- You will explore strategies on how to tap into your purpose to maximize your meaning
- You will discover tools to lead conscious-contributions™—sustainably.
To purchase the book visit: https://youmewe.ca/make-your-contribution-count-book-purchase/
CEO and Founder of International Training Company
Ignite Excellence Inc. is an internationally acclaimed training organization specializing in influential communications for leaders, businesses, and sales professionals. Ignite Excellence’s extensive training programs focus on how to influence, differentiate, and engage more people and winning more business. Over thirteen years, Suzanne and her team have trained on 5 continents to several fortune 500 companies. Ignite Excellence expanded its in-class training to online solutions providing affordable access to local and emerging markets. IgniteMe. online academy.
As an influential communications expert, Suzanne shares strategies and techniques to understand how people make decisions in order to create collaborative cultures. These techniques can be applied across cultures and generations. Workshops. Ignite Excellence Inc. is the operating company for YouMeWe. All programs offered can be found through YouMeWe Group.
Ignite Excellence diverse client list included:
Suzanne’s diverse clients include companies such as: Astral Media, Boehringer Ingelheim, Canadian Paraplegic Association, Canadian Standards Association, Desjardins, GE Capital, Golder Associates, International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), MasterCard, Nedbank, RBC, Vizada Satellite, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Meeting Planners International, SWIFT (Swaziland Fair Trade), CCAfrica, Rooftops Canada, Africa International University, and many more.
Conference Producer
Suzanne hosted the first Ignite Excellence Conference in 2010. This fundraising initiative brought together women from across Canada to hear some of Canada’s top women speakers. Thirty thousand dollars was raised, with all the proceeds donated towards scholarships for prospective women leaders in Africa. The Conference name has changed to the YouMeWe Conference. To register for the next event visit: YouMeWe Conference.
Board Member
Suzanne was the 2017 National President for the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). She has served on National Board for six years. She also served on the Global Speaker Federation board. (CAPS: www.canadianspeakers.org)
Adventure Traveler & Photographer
Suzanne has traveled extensively to over 60 countries and counting, often alone, and often taking the-road-less-traveled. During 2011/12 Suzanne and her husband, Michael K Gingerich, embarked on a journey through 19 countries working side-by-side, 24/7, usually in one room! They interviewed pioneering African women in seventeen African countries for Wisdom Exchange Tv.