Speakers and Presenters

Bernice Ross has an amazing acuity and a proven track record of 3 years of creating a magical event just for real estate women business owners and executives. The times spent networking, sharing and learning together is most valuable and what brings us back each year. There is not another event that captures the spirit we treasure and build upon throughout the year.
-- Susie Hale
FrogPond, FrogPond Publisher and Housing Trends eNewsletter

 

Bernice L. Ross, Ph.D and CEO RealEstateCoach.com

Bernice L. Ross, Ph.D. and CEO, Author, Trainer, and Speaker, couples her expertise as a Master Certified Coach with over 30 years of real estate sales experience. As CEO RealEstateCoach.com, Bernice currently heads up the company's 10 person coaching team while also serving as a coach and a consultant to the top firms in the real estate industry. She has spoken at numerous state associations as well as at NAR. With over 350 published articles to her credit, Bernice is also a nationally syndicated columnist for Inman News who dubbed her "America's top real estate coach."

Her new book, Real Estate Dough, Your Recipe for Real Estate Success was the #1 selling book at the 2008 NAR conference. She is also the creator of an exciting new real estate simulation game, called Real Estate Dough-Negotiation. Players have repeatedly reported that: "It's way more fun than Monopoly®!"

 

Karel Murray

Karel brings meaning to mayhem with her “nothing but the truth” approach to business and life. An accomplished author and humorist, Karel has made radio and television appearances and she enjoys local, regional, and national publication of her articles. In addition to Hitting Our Stride: Women, Work and What Matters (http://www.HittingOurStride.net), she is the author of Straight Talk: Getting Off the Curb. Karel is a featured author in Extreme Excellence: Dynamic Interviews with America’s Top 10 Performance Experts, and publishes a monthly newsletter—Think Forward!® read by thousands of subscribers. She is the author of the CPR for Managers Series and has created a weekly podcast series where she interviews industry experts on various topics: http://www.JustForAMomentPodcast.com.

Karel holds a BA in Human Resources and has earned numerous designations and certifications, including the prestigious National Speakers Association CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) and the Real Estate Educators Association DREI (Distinguished Real Estate Instructor). Her resume includes experience as a human resources regional executive of a large commercial insurance firm, as an award-winning sales person, as a manager of a top producing real estate office, and now as owner of Our Branch, Inc., a national and international speaking and training company.

She has received several awards for her community service, including the Blue Springs Missouri Chamber of Commerce Award, and once taught a pig named Nelson to jump rope . . . but that’s another story.

She is a member of the National Speakers Association and a Board Director for the Minnesota NSA Chapter, Meeting Professionals International and has served as a Board of Director member and officer for the National Real Estate Educators Association. As a professional keynote speaker, Karel has had the pleasure of connecting with hundreds of audiences throughout the US and abroad.

When not on the road, Karel can be found in Waterloo, Iowa, with her ever wonderfully patient husband Rick and their attentive brood of four—at last head count—cats and dogs.

 

Darity Wesley

A national expert on software, technology and data licensing as well as privacy and information security issues, Darity Wesley is the founder and Chief Privacy Guru™ of Privacy Solutions, Inc.

Darity, a 20 plus year veteran of the public record and real estate information industries, is the champion whose mission is to protect the lifeblood of business, the free flow of data, by helping government, companies and associations manage the risks associated with the protection of the valuable data they have gathered and of which they are custodians. Whether it is employee data, member, customer or consumer data, it is critical in today’s technological environment to erect the shields to protect this information and at the same time avoid the liability that comes from incorrect and inappropriate data use practices.

Darity represents many Associations of Realtors®, Multiple Listing Services, Brokerages and technology companies providing products and services to the real estate industry.  She has served on various Boards of Directors and also served on the San Diego County District Attorney’s Identity Theft Task Force, the State of California Department of Consumer Affairs, and is the Education Committee Co-Chair and Privacy and Access Advisory Committee Co-Chair of the Property Records Industry Association. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego, School of Law.

She can be reached at 619-670-9462 or darity@privacygurus.com.  Her website is www.privacygurus.com

 

Chris Kiel

As Business Development Manager for HomeFinder.com, Chris is responsible for establishing and growing relationships with top brokerages, national franchises and MLSs. She spends a lot of time traveling the country attending real estate conferences (like RISMedia, Real Trends, Inman Connect and many of the national brokerage & franchise events). She is also actively involved in national sales of HomeFinder.com products and exploring new opportunities for the site and for our newspaper partners. Chris is also a licensed real estate broker.

Chris is an 18 year sales, business development and marketing veteran. She has been a licensed Real Estate Broker for over 16 years, actively selling for 10 of those years; first as a top producer & franchise manager with Coldwell Banker, and then on a dynamic team that averaged 70 million dollars yearly in closed volume at a large independent company in Indianapolis. Chris spent six of those years in the real estate technology space for companies including Bamboo.com Virtual Tour Company, iPix and now HomeFinder.com, pursuing her passion for online real estate marketing and technology.

Chris holds a Bachelor's Degree in Art History from DePauw University in Indiana and currently lives in Chicago, IL.

 

Marilyn Naylor

Marilyn Naylor, as she lovingly paints a picture in her book, Free to Experience, had spent 42 years paying taxes and waiting to die, "'cause that's all you can be sure of." Then came the revelation, "It ain't so," unless you believe it is. Her messages are both subtly loud and precisely clear. "We have within us the power of control and decision. This is the power that, when accepted, allows our lives to flow without script, but only if we accept the responsibility for our life and the actions we take. Experiencing life is the most important aspect to being. Accept and appreciate yourself on all levels; quit waiting to die while you are paying taxes. Live so you can have the joy of experiencing."

In addition to raising three children, Marilyn has worked in the banking industry, as a travel agent, and at a veterinary office. Currently she does metaphysical counseling, leading workshops in Coping with Fear and Anger, Playing with the Child Within, and much more. As an international speaker, Marilyn regularly addresses audiences on the Native American Medicine Wheel and its value to overcoming life's challenges.

In 2009, Marilyn "died" and was resuscitated five times on a Medi-vac helicopter en route from Montana to Spokane, Washington, for open-heart surgery. Her inspiring story charts a course for hope even in the bleakest of times.

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