Growing up

Marian grew up on the east coast of the US.  She moved more than 19 times by the time she was 18 years old.  (She often jokes that her father "had a short attention span.")  Her moves took her up and down the coast starting in New Jersey and living in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida.  As a kid, she got to experience the exotic when her father took the family to Thailand.  Though very young, her memories of Bangkok are vivid.  Of all the places she lived, she spent the most time in Virginia and has always thought of the Washington DC metro area as home. 

First Jobs

Marian's working career started young.  Her first jobs were helping out her folks in their businesses (Travel, Restaurants, & Hotels).  At 14 years old, she took her first real job as a salesperson in the Reading Outlet Stores (known as the original outlet mall in the US).  She worked for the Handbag & Luggage Outlet (which likely sparked her passion for purses.)  Her next job was in banking and proved to be the first in a long line of financial positions.

Influencing Experiences

The family members on the fraternal side of Marian's family were master story tellers.  One after another story was told around a large dining room table.  She would often say "I want to grow up to tell stories as good as Grandmom."  And she did.

Marian's father spent the last 10 years of his career in the food business in large scale amusement parks (Busch Gardens, Paramount's Kings Island).  Visiting from out of town, she joined him at work one day and he asked her which rides she like to go on.  Her response was "I can go on a ride anytime, I want to see how you feed 35,000 people a day."

Marian had no intention of entering the food business, she is naturally curious.  As a result of her curiosity, she has come to understand more people, situations, and businesses that have allowed her a "shortcut" to diving into conversations with clients and attendees.

Early on in Marian's speaking career, she attended the Training Specialist Program at Georgetown University.   This experience solidified her career choice in adult education.  She is an avid believer in continuing education because "you don't know what you don't know until you go and learn more."  She helps clients improve personally and professionally by "sharing the wealth of information" she has acquired.  She is passionate about helping others to understand the dynamics of effective communication and attitude within the workplace.  She is known for her ability to look at the adversity in life, find the humor in it, and persevere in spite of it.  Humor is key to resilience.

Marian Madonia Marian's business career started in banking and financial services. Her career grew quickly. She moved into management by the time she was 20, and by 22 had become the Director of Corporate Training for a large financial institution in Washington, DC.  In addition to  managing the training function, she had a few programs that she created and taught herself including:  management, sales, customer service, communication, and time management. 

The banking industry struggled in the late 80's and early 90's.  After 2 layoffs in a row, in 1991, Marian joined a large trade association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).  She had three roles with the association.  In the first role, she was the project manager for 10 annual conferences on employee benefits (DC/DB plans and Health/Welfare plans).  These were 3 day intensive programs for benefit administrators to educate them on the latest legislative and industry changes so they could stay current.  In her second role, Marian was the project manager for a week-long training program for new benefit administrators that involved teaching them everything they would need to know in order to be effective administrators.  In her third role, Marian taught 2 day long Financial Planning Seminars.  These programs were designed to teach employees (and their life partners) how to plan for their respective retirements.  This was a win/win program as employees became self-sufficient, it required them to participate more in company 401(k) plans so employee contributions increased.   In order to be more effective in her role, Marian obtained securities licenses (Series 6 & 63) and dove into studying for the Certified Financial Planner designation.

In 1996, Marian had the opportunity to pursue an adventure.  She moved to a 4000-acre farm in Saskatchewan, Canada.  At first, she pursued another avenue of her financial career and became licensed to sell life and health insurance.  In the end, the finance wasn't as important to her as was helping people.  Within 3 months of moving to Canada, she was back to pursuing her passion of delivering training programs.  She began a training and consulting company serving both US and Canadian clients.  Her focus was people skills; management, communication skills, customer service, and her most often requested program "How to Deal with Difficult People." The project she is most fond of from this part of her career was a joint project with Deloitte & Touche and Human Resource Canada where a year long internship was created for people who wanted to start a business. Marian's roll was to handle teaching and coaching on the people side of business. Watching people pursue their dream and become successful at it is still one of the most rewarding experiences of her career.

In 1997, Marian returned to the United States and now locates her business, Madonia Communications International, in Kansas City, Missouri. Marian's services include consulting, training seminars, and keynote speeches on Leadership & Management, Customer Service, Communication Skills, Dealing with Difficult People, and Maintaining a Positive Attitude & Motivation during Adversity. She is author of the book  No More Garbage:  90 Ways to Deal with Change, Challenges, and Chaos and Fantastic Customer Service: Inside and Out.  She is in the midst of several other writing projects, so stand by to see the latest.

Marian's clients have included The UPS Stores, T-Mobile, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Clairol.  She helps businesses improve the bottom line while caring for its people.  This combination of productivity improvement with relationship building builds staff loyalty; one of the best ways to improve the bottom line is with staff who care. 

“Live, Laugh, Learn, and Never Give Up!”