Looking back, everything I have done in my career has brought me to where I am today. After graduating from Northern Illinois University with a BS in Education, I became a teacher for three years. I transitioned into a sales career in corporate America that spanned seventeen years where I sold and delivered presentation skills and sales training programs to senior executives. I joined the National Speakers Association and served on their Board of Directors. Today I am a speaker.
My entrepreneurial spirit bloomed when I launched Toni Gattone & Associates, a wholesale manufacturers representative agency in the garden and gift industry. Still going today, my amazing reps and I have been selling quality ergonomic tools, gifts and home accessories since 1990.
Gardening has always been my first love so it was no surprise when I became a Master Gardener in 2011, and served as their Public Seminars Co-Chair for two years. That was when I realized I wanted to start speaking again and today I am excited to be sharing my message of hope and resilience. I am member of the Garden Writers Association and Great Garden Speakers.
I have presented my seminar, YOU CAN GARDEN FOR LIFE! with Adaptive Gardening to Master Gardener chapters, garden clubs, senior groups, nurseries and at national flower & garden shows. At the Seattle Flower & Garden show in 2017, an acquisitions editor from Timber Press saw my presentation and I now find myself happily engaged and working on my first book.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5