Read what our clients have to say.
As a keynote speaker:
Thank you for addressing the Medical Management Leadership of Heath Net. . . Your talk was both stimulating and engaging. We appreciated your call for future challenges to the industry and how you forced us to integrate our ability to cope with these using the skills defined. You left us with much food-for-thought and a sense of possibilities. Thank you.
Jennifer Gutzmore, M.D.
Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer
Health Net of California
Thanks for your excellent program yesterday. I learned more from you about the Founding Fathers in 30 minutes than I have in 70 years of history classes! Great job!
Jay Wilbur
Program Chair
Paramount Rotary Club
Ara Norwood is a truly inspiring leadership speaker. He manages not only to engage his audience, but his speeches and facilitation are 100% pure inspiration. Ara’s speeches have a more motivating effect than hours and hours of training and Ara’s insightful thoughts are a true gift. I highly recommend Ara without any hesitation.
Jennifer Grogl
Personnel & Training Manager
Princess Cruises
A sincere thank you for the fantastic program you delivered to NSA Utah. Your presentation was incredible! The content was valuable to the audience and the accompanying handout was outstanding. I want you to know how much I appreciate the time and effort you devoted to getting my presidential year kicked off with such flair. Your presentation will no doubt inspire others to join NSA and help our future presentations be even better.
Dian Thomas
President National Speakers Association, Utah Chapter
We would like to extend our thanks for your dynamic presentation at our recent Professional Development luncheon. Your presentation was exciting, informative, timely, and well received by the managers in attendance. The tips you shared can be used to help us all become more insightful and effective managers.
Justin Hess
President
National Management Association, City of Burbank Chapter
Your presentation was fabulous! A great motivator for me. I have been fortunate enough to attend the Franklin Covey seminar, “Focus: Achieving Your Highest Priorities,” as a part of my training with the City of Santa Clarita. Your thoughts, however, were welcome because you were able to be more personal with us. I appreciate that you shared your personal successes and the fact that you can quote from your mission statement! I feel motivated to work on one for myself and family. Your enthusiasm was contagious, and I feel recommitted to planning with purpose, and executing the plan! In closing, I would like to thank you so much for your time. I recognize that you made a tremendous sacrifice for us, and I know you will be greatly blessed for helping us to become more productive. I cannot wait to dig in to the materials that you emailed to us. You are so generous to share! Thank you again for your time and talent!
Lisa Larsen
Department of Field Services
City of Santa Clarita
Your presentation was insightful. The practicality of your talk certainly applies to the healthcare business that we are in, and indeed is applicable to all fields. It certainly is in line with our organization’s goal of developing leadership skills.
Nicholas Scott
Manager of Cardiology/Center for Health Management
Little Company of Mary Hospital
You are an excellent communicator and I am honored to have been in the presence of someone so mentally sharp. Thank you for your informative presentation on The Founding Fathers and for sharing your knowledge.
Joseph Vadnay
Rotary Club of Redlands
As a seminar leader:
I just wanted to let you know that I think you did an outstanding job for the Executive Team with the training. Definitely in your zone. Keith Sultemeier
President & CEO
Kinecta Federal Credit Union
Your expert delivery helped make the sales training both valuable and fun! The feedback from the group is still very positive. They especially are finding a great deal of value from the coaching piece.
Lauren Renner
Organizational Development Manger
The Advocate/Greenwich Time
I want to thank you for providing us with an exceptional training experience. Your program exceeded my expectations and was truly a worthwhile investment of time for our team. Your interactive approach to the training and your facilitation style were exactly what I was looking for. Everyone who attended said they learned something in the training that they could take back and immediately apply to their work
Christina M. Myers, SPHR
Human Resources Manager
Pearson NCS
It was a pleasure to be a student in your “Learning Center”. Your level of commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity is considerable. The effort you go through to enrich the learning process is impressive – multimedia (music, movie clips), personal anecdotes and information (your fact & fiction, your guitar music), trivia questions (“This Day in History”), your presentation on life-long learning, combined with your genuine excitement and commitment to sales training and one quickly realizes how fortunate we are to have such a professional supporting and teaching our sales teams.
Ed Russell
Director, Sales Operations
Kinko’s Business Solutions
Having worked in Corporate America for the past 12 years, and having experienced many “trainers”, I can say with confidence that Ara Norwood is in the top 1% of executive educators I have worked with. Ara creates an atmosphere of learning that is top notch. A refreshing change.
Laura Henkels
Account Executive, Fashion Division
Los Angeles Times
Your workshop was highly requested and we were thrilled that you could come to our campus! The evaluations for your workshop were excellent and the comments I have received personally were also outstanding and in praise of your presentation. It’s clear that you were definitely a hit! We hope to have you back again at the next event!
Leslie Carr
Director, Professional Development
College of the Canyons
We would like to thank you for presenting such a dynamic seminar filled with excitement, humor, and real life examples. Not only did our members walk away from the day with a renewed enthusiasm for sales and marketing, they took with them valuable information which they could implement immediately. It was of great benefit for our members to learn and refresh their techniques. Than you for providing our members with the necessary tools to thrive in their businesses.
Jim Merle
Chairperson, Business Development Committee
Santa Fe Springs Chamber of Commerce
As a consultant:
The work you have performed for me and my company in the field of customer service in general, and in the field of leadership in particular, has set you apart from your competition. The curriculum and program materials you developed for me are of the highest quality; your ideas are sound; your ability to teach is engaging; and your completion of this project ahead of time lines was wonderful – and unexpected. However, my highest compliment to you is the following: you really understood our business. I look forward to working with you again.
Craig Dinkel
President and CEO
International Trading University
Please accept my personal thanks for your recent support to Nestle Business Services and the Nestle family of companies in North America during our Pallet Conference. Your presentation on negotiations was exactly what was needed to help align our internal stakeholders with our strategic sourcing approach. Your effective facilitation of our strategy discussion led to an outcome that I don’t believe would have been possible had we led the discussion ourselves. Having attended other meetings where you have either functioned as an instructor or facilitator, I knew that I could expect a high level of professionalism and an engaging, even entertaining dialogue. Given my high expectations, I was pleasantly surprised to see my expectations exceeded as you were able to quickly move the group beyond the obvious issues, identify key strategy issues and prioritize those issues with buy-in from a diverse group of internal stakeholders. The only thing I would have changed would be to have scheduled more time for you to spend with the group.
Niels R. Martin
Group Manager, MRO – North America Purchasing
Nestle Business Services
Ara, thank you for your assistance with respect to my rep. Your perspective and the detailed guidance you shared was very helpful to me. I studied the notes from our meeting and acted on them today by holding a meeting with him (as you had suggested). From this meeting I learned what it is that motivates him, why he’s having some challenges, and, he shared some concerns that we were able to discuss (and begin to resolve). I’m hopeful that today will mark the beginning of a prosperous career for him. Your input was key to getting us moving in the right direction. Thank you Ara!
Kim Johnson
Inside Sales Manager
Royce Medical
I am so excited to see you will be sharing your knowledge and self with more people. I will never forget you helping me with my resume. . . and gain direction. I now head the recruiting and talent acquisition for 4 companies. And honestly would not be here if not for you. Thank you always! Samantha Berns
Talent Acquisition Partner
JUNO
As a Speech Coach:
I was so appreciative of your taking time out of your busy schedule to judge the event for us. I was mesmerized by your ability to give the students some of the most valuable feedback I have ever heard from any judge in a speaking competition. The students felt your feedback alone made the competition well worth their time. As a chair and professor in the business environment, namely information systems and business communication, I found your input and astute observation and critique to far exceed anything I have ever had the privilege of hearing in the public speaking arena. Again, thank you for your expertise and input. You made a lasting impression on many young lives that will last them a lifetime.
Doris Christopher, PhD
Chair, Information Systems
California State University
As a College Professor:
Professor Norwood, for the first time in my life I am confident that I possess more potential than I ever believed possible because of you. You changed my paradigm! I have never met a man that has your level of wisdom and knowledge. I value your opinion because I believe that you are man of great valor. You have devoted your life to growing your knowlege and your character, and I for one, have been blessed to have known you, if only for a brief period in my life. I wanted to let you know this because you have changed the course of my life, and I will be forever indebted to you.
Kristina Mahakian
College of the Canyons
Fall 2015
Undoubtedly the best professor at College of the Canyons. A natural motivator.
Richard Thomas
College of the Canyons
Fall 2013
I could only wish that other teachers could follow in his foot steps and learn a thing or two about what it means to be a “teacher.”
Jack Doumanian
College of the Canyons
Spring 2012
I now see why I’ve met so many people who have taken your classes 3, even 4 times!
Carrie Hernandez
College of the Canyons
Spring 2011
The energy he brings to the class is a rare trait that no other instructor possesses. He is a teacher in the truest sense of the word.
Blessy Briscoe
College of the Canyons
Spring 2008
I’ve never had a teacher blow me away. I cannot even begin to say how much I’ve learned. It seems like he would be a professor from Harvard and COC just lucked out. On a scale from 1 to 10, he’s a 12!
Lucy Mansourian
College of the Canyons
Spring 2006