Motivation. Inspiration. Transformation.

I bring it! A tailored and customized experience for your audience. I have developed specific messaging to support organizations just like yours throughout the year.
Heart Health Month - February - What's Your Love Language?;
Black History Month - February - Black Power, Black People, and Black Eyed Peas;
Women’s History Month – March - "Wellness, Wholeness, and Self-Care for Women";
Stress Awareness Month - April - Stress, Performance, and Food;
Minority Health Awareness Month - April - The Truth About Soul Food;
Women’s Health Month – May - Between My Neck and My Knees;
Military Appreciation Month - May - Mightier Than the Sword;
Soul Food Month – June - Heritage, Health, and Honey Buns;
Men's Health Month - June - Eat to Win. Succeed and Live;
Back to School – August - All the Cool Kids Eat Like This;
Obesity Awareness Month - September - Such a Pretty Face;
Substance Abuse Awareness Month - October - Cookies. Candy. Cake. Coke;
Diabetes Awareness Month - November - Defying, Defeating, and Fighting Diabetes;

Looking for something else? I am happy to jump on a call and discuss it.

Below you will find an example of one of my most in-demand workshops
Title: It Starts in Your Head
After losing and gaining over 700 pounds and finally learning how to make the mental shifts necessary to keep the weight off, I confidently, courageously, stepped into my boldest and most unstoppable self. Now I am committed to showing – not helping, teaching – I give up “the secret sauce”— women how intentionality around your health transforms your personal and business life in the most amazing ways. This is my superpower.
Keynote: 25 minutes plus question and answer
Large group:
Small breakout:
Keynote: 25 minutes plus question and answer
Large group workshop: 90 minutes
Small breakout session: 90 minutes
In her 90-minute interactive talk and writing workshop, Michelle teaches attendees her process for unpacking, uncovering, and processing limiting beliefs around food, eating, and hunger. • 20 mins – Introduction: Michelle shares her personal food stories • 25 mins. – Attendees do a writing exercise to discover their own Food Stories • 15 mins. – Attendees share their Food Stories and the discoveries they made during the writing exercise.
Learning Objectives
How to find your story
How to face your story
How to rewrite your story
How to replace your story

A food addict in recovery and experiential eating expert, Michelle Petties is an author, speaker, and inspiration. Her debut memoir, Leaving Large – The Stories of a Food Addict, a category winner in The 2022 Memoir Prize for Books, features the award-winning essay, The Cake is in the Mail.
Looking at Michelle today, you would never guess that she used to be morbidly obese, once tipping the scale at 260 plus pounds. After gaining and losing over 700 pounds, Michelle finally discovered the “secret” to winning the battle between her mind, body and food – her “story.” The personal and powerful stories in her memoir chronicle a lifetime of eating for all the wrong reasons and illustrate how events, experiences and memories inform our beliefs, attitudes, and habits around food, eating and hunger, revealing that the answers to why we eat, what we eat rest in our Food Stories. She now speaks to organizations, large and small, sharing her unique insight and her story of hope, healing, and triumph.
Michelle attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, as its first early admissions student in 1975 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Texas at Arlington. Born in Los Angeles, raised in Marshall, Texas, she has lived in Dallas, Atlanta and Washington, DC.
Michelle is a public media veteran who develops strategic partnerships, sponsorships, and alliances for Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR. When not speaking, writing, or coaching, Michelle can be found on the tennis courts, shopping for new wigs or searching consignment boutiques for deals.