for the rooms where real things get said
Emily LoMenzo Washcovick has spent her career making the uncomfortable topics easier to talk about: what customers really think of your business, what mental illness actually looks like from the inside, and what it takes to rebuild when it's your business, your reputation, or your own mental health on the line.
She knows these topics intimately because she's navigated all of them herself:
Spent 11 years as Yelp's Small Business Expert. She presented to audiences ranging from enthusiastic to deeply skeptical and worked directly with business owners on customer experience, reputation management, and digital presence.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2018 following a manic episode and hospitalization. She speaks from inside the experiences she covers, not from a safe distance.
Trained in crisis de-escalation and mental health response. She brings both personal experience and professional training to conversations about mental health in the workplace and entrepreneurship.
Conducted hundreds of interviews with entrepreneurs navigating major life transitions. She knows what it looks like when business and life collide, because she's had those conversations at every stage.
Built her own media company after being laid off in 2025. She knows what it looks like to start a business from scratch, because she's doing it right now.
She meets audiences where they actually are because she's been there herself.
What Emily Brings to Every Room
Deep Expertise
Emily has been the business expert on stage and the patient in the bed. She's the insider who can give the behind-the-curtain conversation, and the person who's navigated systems from the outside. That dual perspective is what makes her talks land differently than a straight credentials pitch.
Practical Tools
Every talk Emily gives leaves audiences with something they can apply. Not a feeling that fades on the flight home. Frameworks, language, and a clearer way of thinking about the problem they came in with.
She's a systems person who happens to be a good storyteller.
Energy + Empathy
Whether she's presenting to enthusiastic entrepreneurs or a room full of skeptical small business owners who've heard it all before, Emily adjusts. She's spent years working with frustrated, misinformed, or overwhelmed audiences — and she knows how to earn the room, not just fill it.
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Success, Rewritten: Building a Business That Doesn't Break You
A grounded, practical look at what it means to build a business that supports your life instead of draining it, and how to redefine success when the version you inherited stops working.
Ideal Audience: Entrepreneurship conferences, industry associations, leadership events, corporate audiences exploring mental health and identity at work.
Available as a keynote or extended workshop session. In-person and virtual.
Key Takeaways:
A working definition of resilience drawn from real experience, not theory
The early signs your business is succeeding while you are depleting
Why mental health and business strategy are not separate conversations
How to rebuild your relationship with ambition after a major life disruption
Additional Details: Emily spent 11 years at Yelp, was laid off in November 2025, and used it as the foundation for what she's building now. She's also been hospitalized for a mental health crisis, and speaks about both without hedging. Most success stories are told backward, where the pivot looks intentional and the hard part looks shorter than it was. This keynote is not that.
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Build to Be (talk series): Built to Be Loved, Built to Be Reviewed, Built to Be Found— three sessions that stand alone or run as a full track
After 11 years as Yelp's Small Business Expert, Emily gives the talk she couldn't give before, from the inside out.
Ideal Audience: Small business conferences, chambers of commerce, home services industry events, franchises, entrepreneurship summits, trade associations.
Each session available as a 45- to 90-minute standalone or as a workshop series.
Key Takeaways:
Built to Be Loved: mapping the full customer journey, auditing every touchpoint, and building the kind of experience that earns advocates instead of just transactions
Built to Be Reviewed: why reviews drive revenue, how to respond to every type of feedback, how to generate authentic reviews without making it awkward, and how to build a system that compounds over time
Built to Be Found: translating your in-person business identity to your online footprint, the monthly batch method for creating 30 days of content in one to five hours, and building genuine connection through content
Additional Details: Emily is particularly effective with audiences that have had mixed or frustrating experiences with platforms like Yelp. She understands the complaints, has seen the system from both sides, and can have that honest conversation without it becoming a sales pitch.
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Honest, specific talks on bipolar disorder, ADHD, crisis, and identity — built to reduce stigma without reducing complexity.
Ideal Audience: Mental health awareness events, corporate wellness and DEI programming, advocacy organizations, healthcare conferences.
Available as a keynote, panel contribution, or workshop. In-person and virtual.
Talk topics in this category:
Bipolar disorder, ADHD, and what adult diagnosis actually looks like
Navigating mental health crises — what patients experience and what they need
Mental health in the workplace: identity, disclosure, and high performance
The intersection of entrepreneurship and mental health
Additional Details: Emily's mental health talks draw on lived experience, crisis de-escalation and mental health training, and her ongoing work interviewing people about how major life events reshape identity. She speaks to general audiences and professional ones — adjusting depth and clinical specificity to the room.
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On the Other Side of the Gurney: What Emergency Healthcare Providers Get Right (and Why It Matters)
A first-person account of psychiatric crisis, ED care, and inpatient treatment — built for the providers on the other side of it.
Ideal Audience: Healthcare conferences, emergency nursing events, first responder organizations, clinical training programs.
Available as a 30-, 45-, or 60-minute session with open Q&A.
Key takeaways:
How to communicate with patients in crisis when insight is limited
Language that de-escalates without dismissing fear
How to support families who are overwhelmed and scared
Protecting your own well-being while delivering patient-centered care
Additional Details: Most patients in psychiatric crisis cannot fully express what they're thinking, fearing, or needing in the moment. This session offers a first-person account of experiencing a mental health crisis, an ED visit, and the transition to inpatient care, and what those moments felt like from the inside. Emily has presented this session for the Wisconsin Emergency Nurses Association and builds it for the realities of today's ED: overcrowding, safety concerns, compassion fatigue, limited resources. The talk doesn't minimize those challenges. It explores why brief moments of empathy carry weight long after a patient is discharged, and why the words said in the worst moments often determine whether someone asks for help again.
Who Books Emily?
Entrepreneurship conferences and industry associations looking for a speaker who makes resilience feel real, not aspirational
Small business conferences — especially home services, franchise, and trades — that want practical marketing and reputation expertise with an insider perspective
Healthcare and clinical events seeking a patient voice with substance, not just a personal story
Corporate events exploring mental health, identity at work, or high performance without burnout
Mental health organizations and awareness events that want lived experience presented with depth and credibility
Panel organizers and conference moderators who need someone who can hold a room and keep a conversation honest
Think i’d be a good fit? Lets talk!
