Talks that stay with you
Built from real stories, real lived experiences and three decades of watching what happens when people and organizations stop listening.
And what becomes possible when they start.
"Laura did a fabulous job!
Very educational and hit me hard...
Thank you!"
Illinois Society for Healthcare Marketing &
Public Relations Conference Attendee
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Talks that change the room.
© Laura M. Nozicka | Big Idea Tango LLC
When over 900 women organically shared their mammography experiences on a social media post Laura shared about her own experience, the resulting data told a story no survey can capture.
This presentation draws on that qualitative dataset to examine the real barriers to screening — not the clinical ones, but the emotional, relational and experiential ones. What women said about fear, dismissal, physical discomfort and communication failures reveals what health systems must understand to meaningfully move the needle on screening rates.
Laura also exposes what women are thinking in the mammography suite and staying silent about. This talk illuminates the barriers and beliefs about breast cancer screening.
© Laura M. Nozicka | Big Idea Tango LLC
What happens when patients stop believing they’ll be heard? They stop speaking up. They delay care. They leave healthcare systems entirely. And in that silence, trust, outcomes, reputation, and loyalty begin to erode. The patient voice may be the most valuable asset healthcare organizations can no longer afford to lose.
Drawing from powerful patient narratives, firsthand interviews and insights from Laura’s Desperate for a Diagnosis podcast, years of facilitating qualitative market research and anchored in Laura's Wharton Healthcare Quarterly-published work, this talk reveals how communication gaps, implicit bias and systemic pressures contribute to a loss of trust that impacts not only patient satisfaction, but outcomes, loyalty and long-term engagement with care.
Laura brings both patient and physician perspectives into the room, highlighting why patients feel the way they do, where breakdowns occur and what can be done differently.
© Laura M. Nozicka | Big Idea Tango LLC
What if your organization’s biggest barrier to innovation isn’t a lack of ideas, but a culture afraid of looking foolish?
Organizations spend millions trying to spark innovation, yet many struggle to move beyond safe thinking, polished plans, and ideas that feel fully formed before anyone is willing to test them.
In this engaging and interactive talk, facilitator and strategist Laura Nozicka explores why innovation behaves more like learning a dance than executing a business plan. Real innovation requires experimentation, awkward first attempts, missteps, vulnerability and the willingness to move before mastering the steps.
Using humor, storytelling, audience participation, and even a little cha-cha, Laura reveals why the organizations making the biggest leaps forward are often the ones willing to embrace beginnerhood, create psychological safety, and let their people learn out loud.
© Laura M. Nozicka | Big Idea Tango LLC
We grow up with a vision for how life is supposed to unfold. The career. The relationship. The milestones that signal we’ve finally “made it.” But what happens when life takes a different path or the dream arrives looking nothing like we imagined?
In this heartfelt and thought-provoking keynote, Laura Nozicka explores the tension between the lives we planned and the lives we actually build. Through personal stories, humor, unexpected detours, and hard-won insight, she offers a powerful reframe for anyone navigating reinvention, disappointment, uncertainty, or a season of becoming.
“How To Show Up When Your Big Dreams Don't” is a conversation about resilience, identity, redefining success, and learning to recognize that meaning and fulfillment can appear in forms we never expected.
Sometimes the life that unfolds beside the dream becomes the real story.
Available as a keynote or interactive workshop.