Motivational Speakers

Vicki Hess, CSP, RN, MS is the founder and principal of Catalyst Consulting, LLC. A skilled Escape Artist, she helps people escape from Professional Prison and provides a passport to Professional Paradise. A highly-regarded speaker, author, facilitator and consultant, Vicki is an expert in employee engagement, team dynamics, and workforce and leadership development, with more than 25 years of hands-on business experience. Her clients include Booz Allen Hamilton, Four Seasons Hotels, Piper Rudnick, LLP and CareFirst Blue Cross BlueShield and many others.


Vicki's professional experience in nursing, sales, management and human resources and original research led her to develop her proprietary Professional Paradise™ concept and proven SHIFT™ methodology for permanently changing unproductive thought patterns, actions and habits. This SHIFT methodology helps to develop fully engaged employees and leaders, who in turn deliver remarkable business results.

Here are two examples of Vicki's impact on organizations that bring her in:
"I've implemented Vicki's strategies and tools with my sales team, and our statistics have increased dramatically because my team loves coming to work. I've also received numerous comments from clients that our attitudes have "shifted." , Linda Erickson, Director of Sales, Washington Convention Center.

Rick Bush, Unit Manager for Citigroup, says, "I use Vicki's Professional Paradise strategies to improve attitudes on my team, which has improved all their other metrics as well." Let Vicki show you what is possible for your organization!

Vicki is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), the speaking profession's international standard for platform skill. (Fewer than 10 percent of all professional speakers worldwide have completed the five-year process for CSP designation by the National Speakers Association.) She holds a Master's Degree in Human Resource Development from Towson University and was an adjunct professor at The Johns Hopkins University Graduate School of Business for five years, teaching "Principles of Training and Development."

Vicki is the author of SHIFT to Professional Paradise: 5 Steps to Less Stress, More Energy & Remarkable Results at Work and the 28-Day Diary Series™ - a collection of innovative workbooks which transform readers through long-term habit change - and her newest book, The Nurse Mangers Guide to Hiring, Firing and Inspiring which "lays out a practical, workable system for building the kind of team that gets excellent results—over and over again."
She is also a regular contributor to the Baltimore Business Journal.