Beyond Impressive™
Move beyond
impressive
to influential.
Rita Goodroe works with organizations and professionals to move beyond being impressive to being influential — so they build trust, earn real influence, and move people to act.
Trusted by organizations that value influence
What Rita's Keynotes Do
Keynotes & Workshops
That Deliver Lasting Impact
Rita Goodroe is an award-winning keynote speaker, emcee, and former Fortune 500 attorney who works with organizations that want their people to:
01
Stand Out
and Sell More
Find what makes you unforgettable, connect instead of perform, and close more business.
Learn more →
02
Create Real Influence
Lead with real clarity, build trust that goes deeper than respect, and create something worth following.
Learn more →
03
Turn Performance Into Impact
Become impossible to ignore, see your effort turn into real results, and accelerate your growth.
Learn more →
The Approval Reflex™
The most impressive person
in the room isn't
the most influential one.
Think about the last conversation where you walked away wondering how you came across — not what the other person was thinking, not what they needed, but how YOU came across.
That's the Approval Reflex™, and it's running in the background of every professional interaction you're having — in sales, in leadership, in everyday performance. Breaking it is the fastest path to the results you want.
It's the moment your attention moves from the person in front of you to the impression you're making on them. When it does, you can't genuinely see them, hear what they're telling you, or understand what they need. And real trust can't grow in that space.
“Impressive gets you into the room.
Influence is what gets people to follow you out of it.”
Rita's REAL framework is how you break it — a concrete, learnable method for getting so locked into the people in front of you that there's no energy left to manage how it all looks. That's what it means to move BEYOND IMPRESSIVE™.
What Planners Say
Results That Speak For Themselves
“Rita is a ball of energy and information. She has the innate ability to capture and hold the attention of an audience from start to finish. Her content is concise, practical, actionable, and peppered with humor.”
“Rita is one of the best speakers I’ve ever had speak at my events. She’s engaging, stimulating, inspirational, and funny. I can’t think of a time I was given so many compliments on the speaker.”
“Rita is an absolute rockstar at captivating conference attendees. Her top-notch communication skills and infectious energy electrified Podfest’s 10 Year Anniversary, an epic four-day event with 2,000 attendees.”
Recognition
Change-Maker Award — United State of Women Summit, convened by the Obama White House
About Rita
From impressive
to influential —
she's lived it.
Rita Goodroe spent most of her life becoming the person everyone expected her to be. And it worked.
People would tell her how impressed they were with everything she'd achieved — the law degree, the Fortune 500 career, her relationship, the award-winning community she'd built from scratch. She was told how capable she was, how great her work was. And still got passed over for promotions and bigger opportunities.
So she tried doing more — being more. But it didn't change anything.
Then the "enviable" relationship ended, leaving her about to turn 35, alone, with a career she didn't love and no idea what she wanted next. So she did what any rational person would do, of course — went on 35 dates in 35 consecutive days with 35 complete strangers, each one picking the adventure, all of it going on a public blog.
“None of them became her husband but they were all mirrors.”
And what she saw was a person making choices out of fear — fear of failure, rejection, other people's opinions. That fear had her playing it safe — performing for approval, toning herself down, losing pieces of herself. And you can't create real influence when you're focused on how you're coming across instead of the person or the work in front of you. She was impressive to everyone and influential to no one. And that was why everything she wanted to experience felt just out of her grasp.
That discovery built BEYOND IMPRESSIVE™ — the idea that influence, not impressiveness, is what creates every result you actually want.
She sees it in every organization she works with, from Fortune 500 companies to national associations. A sales professional who builds strong rapport but can't seem to close. A leader whose team respects them but keeps their distance. A high performer who produces great work but never takes the risks that create real breakthroughs.
The REAL framework is how she teaches people to make that shift — from performing for approval to operating with intention.
Today she's regarded as one of the foremost experts in communication, connection, and trust — recognized with the Change-Maker Award at the United State of Women Summit, convened by the Obama White House, and featured in The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, and Fox.
Rita spent most of her life becoming impressive. She'll spend the rest of it helping others move beyond it.
The Washington Post
NBC
As Featured In
CBS
FOX
Forbes
Inc.
USA Today
“Rita is a ball of energy and information. She has the innate ability to capture and hold the attention of an audience from start to finish. Her content is concise, practical, actionable, and peppered with humor.”
“Rita is one of the best speakers I’ve ever had speak at my events. She’s engaging, stimulating, inspirational, and funny. I can’t think of a time I was given so many compliments on the speaker.”
“Rita is an absolute rockstar at captivating conference attendees. Her top-notch communication skills and infectious energy electrified Podfest’s 10 Year Anniversary, an epic four-day event with 2,000 attendees.”
Beyond Impressive™
Ready to move your people from impressive to influential?
Rita works with a select number of organizations each year. If you're planning an event and looking for a speaker whose content will still be talked about when your next event rolls around, let's talk.