Vera Milan Gervais
Speaker &
Workshop Facilitator
WORDZ We Wear®
Closing the gap between
capable and confident.
TEDx SPEAKER
"The Art of Alignment"
AUTHOR
The WORDZ We Wear
RECOGNITION
YWCA Woman of Distinction in Business
Bringing WORDZ to corporate, association, professional development, and women's leadership rooms
Where Vera Has Spoken
△ Confidence · Identity · Success
Closing the gap between capable and confident
Some of the most capable women you know and work with don’t yet see themselves that way.
They’re skilled, talented, and respected individuals. Yet they still believe they need to know more, or achieve more, or continue to prove their value. Those beliefs can consciously or unconsciously hold them back from fully contributing or pursuing greater roles and responsibilities.
The belief gap is where Vera works.
Vera’s keynotes and workshops are based on the WORDZ We Wear® framework. This highly relatable method helps accomplished women recognize and change the language shaping how they see themselves and what they believe they can do.
Women begin to speak about their strengths and goals with greater certainty. They contribute their ideas more confidently and make choices from self-trust rather than self-doubt. The WORDZ We Wear resonates with women and is equally relevant in mixed rooms where confidence, communication, professional development, and leadership matter.
Confidence is an outcome, not a skill
You can teach someone to act more confident. But unless the underlying beliefs are understood, it isn’t lasting confidence. Real confidence comes from what a person believes about their own worth, which is why the work starts with beliefs.
The WORDZ We Wear® framework begins with a simple premise:
the language we use to describe ourselves reflects who we believe we are.
Those word labels shape how we show up, the choices we intentionally make, and the opportunities we feel confident to pursue.
Audiences learn to recognize how word labels and expectations shape their identity. They begin choosing language that reflects their strengths and abilities, and aligns them with their aspirations.
The result isn’t performing confidence. Greater self-trust and a clearer sense of identity build real confidence, allowing each individual to recognize their full potential and lead from within. Meaningful success is a natural outcome.
△ THE FRAMEWORK
The Identity Journey Model
Behind every keynote and workshop is Vera’s signature Identity Journey Model, which traces how the word labels we wear shape who we believe we are, and who we go on to become.
Be starts with recognizing our innate strengths, gifts, and talents, and the labels we’ve been wearing that hide them.
Believe is where we exchange the labels that limit us for WORDZ that align with who we really are.
Become is who we have the confidence to be when our language and our self-image match.
Each stage continually feeds the next.
The model creates a path for the audience to follow. They learn how beliefs and choices shape their identity and leave with language they can return to after the keynote or workshop ends.
△ The book behind the method
The WORDZ We Wear: How to show up with confidence and create your best life
The book behind the method reveals how the WORDZ women wear influence the way they feel about themselves. When they show up with confidence, they expect more. When they expect more, they pursue more. When they pursue more, they get more.
Available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
△ KEYNOTES · BREAKOUTS · HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS
Speaking & Workshops
Vera’s keynotes and workshops help audiences recognize how word labels shape their identity. They leave knowing how a shift in language can change their communication and choices, which directly affects their confidence and expectations.
By simplifying complex ideas, Vera keeps the content real and actionable. Candid stories and interactive exercises help people see themselves differently and show up with greater clarity and self-trust.
Selected programs also include the ALIGN tool, introduced in Vera’s TEDx talk, “The Art of Alignment,” giving audiences a reminder of the power of their choices.
Ideal for women’s leadership development, Vera’s programs are equally relevant for mixed audiences.
WORDZ for rooms like yours: women’s leadership events, corporate team building, association conferences, professional development, education and multicultural events, and entrepreneurial gatherings across Canada, the U.S., and internationally.
See Vera In Action
What WORDZ Could Change Your Life?
Glenn Gould
Live Session
△ Signature talks and workshops
Speaking topics & audience takeaways
Leadership Within
It's a skill, not a title
How do we develop stronger leaders?
By helping people recognize the ways they already lead. Through story, analogy, and reflection, Vera helps audiences identify the strengths and instincts that shape how they contribute, influence, and make a difference.
- Recognize innate strengths and talents as leadership assets
- Understand how self-talk affects confidence and visibility
- Name and communicate the value they bring
- Show up with greater purpose, clarity, and self-trust
Confidence
It starts with "I Am!"
How do we build confidence?
By changing the thoughts and words shaping what we believe about ourselves. Using the analogy of clothing labels, Vera shows how the word labels we wear influence self-image, confidence, and what we believe we can do.
- Recognize the labels and expectations shaping self-image
- Interrupt the search for external validation
- Use the WORDZ We Wear® analogy to move from self-doubt toward self-trust
- Choose WORDZ that support confidence, clarity, and action
Meaningful Success
It's about alignment
What makes success meaningful?
Balancing achievement with values. Drawing on interviews with successful women as well as her own experience building businesses and navigating change, Vera highlights what happens when goals, values, strengths, and choices align.
- Recognize any resistance to inherited definitions of success
- Identify where achievement and alignment have drifted apart
- Clarify the connection between strengths, values, and goals
- Define success in a way that is meaningful and true to who they are
Testimonials
What Planners Say
"In a profession that is over 90% women, where titles can quietly limit how we are seen, Vera's words were validating, healing and empowering all at once."
Debra Bullis, CAP. HR. PM., Canadian Media Producers Association
"Everyone in the room was engaged and found your technique thought-provoking. Your presentation and exercises provided a great launching point for discussion, no small feat considering the diversity of experiences and backgrounds of the more than 30 participants."
Kim Rayworth, Joint Planning Session, NB Theatre Organizations
"The WORDZ for Wellness session met the needs and goals of the Early Childhood Educators in attendance. Engaging, interactive, and encouraged meaningful participation."
Planning Committee, ECE Me Day Conference
What Audiences Say
"Within one session she guided me to find my word! And the next thing I knew I was The Possibility Psychologist."
Julia Sen, Registered Clinical and Counselling Psychologist
"Vera Milan Gervais invites us on a gentle introspection so we can recognize the labels that no longer serve us, challenge them, and replace them with words that define who we truly are."
Michèle Nadeau, Executive Director, YWCA Moncton
"I felt like I instantly showed the world who I really was."
Kelsey Reidl, Visionary Life Podcaster, Business Mentor
"The ALIGN tool is useful as I can put it into practice in my personal and professional life."
C. Henderson, workshop participant
Meet Vera
Vera Milan Gervais
Vera Milan Gervais is a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, TEDx speaker, and author of The WORDZ We Wear. She helps accomplished individuals close the gap between capable and confident by explaining how the word labels we wear shape our confidence, identity, and the way we show up.
Vera learned early that a word label can quietly influence how we see ourselves and what we believe we can achieve. Her personal identity journey started with one defining word she wore for years: defective. A label attached to a birth defect.
The turning point did not come from pretending the label hadn’t shaped her. It came when she decided it did not have to define her. That insight led to years of personal and professional development before it became the foundation of the WORDZ We Wear®: the work she now brings to stages and workshops.
With more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, writer, marketer, and strategic consultant, Vera brings candour and hard-earned insight to conversations about confidence, identity, leadership, and meaningful success.
Vera has lived the journey to meaningful success: building five businesses, growing a family, travelling the world, and delivering a TEDx talk. She’s been named a YWCA Woman of Distinction in Business and received the CAN Fund BE EPIC Award for Authenticity & Advocacy.
She has presented to corporate, association, education, women’s leadership, multicultural, entrepreneurial, and community audiences.
Based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Vera is available for in-person events across Canada and the United States, select international engagements, and virtual sessions.
△ FOR PLANNERS
Why bring Vera to your event?
She brings experience audiences can trust.More than 30 years in business, entrepreneurship, creative work, and leadership give Vera real examples people can recognize from their own lives.
She brings perspective to confidence and identity.Vera helps people recognize how labels and self-talk shape the way they lead, communicate, and decide. Audiences leave with language they can use immediately.
She engages the room.Vera’s candid storytelling and humour captivate people, leaving them ready to think and act differently.
“The team fed back that they could have listened to you all day. The WORDZ We Wear workshop was the perfect team building activity and increased their confidence!”
Maria DiIorio, Partner, bMod Communications
△ FEATURED ON
Aging with Purpose and Passion
WORDZ that shape your identity
This Mother Means Business
Permission, moldy bread, motherhood & ambition
The Cynthia Manion Show
The power of WORDZ
My Rejection Story
Rejection sensitivity is a survival reaction
The Brand is Female
Labels that no longer serve us
How Women Write
Rewriting identity and confidence
Jewelry Business Academy
Stop calling it a hobby
Women Winning the Game of Life
You are not the words they gave you
Founder to Founder
Changing a label transformed business identity
Hey, I've Got Something to Say!
Words and laughter with Vera
CanvasRebel
The biggest risk was believing in myself
Bold Journey
Self-worth came with embracing imperfection
Vera writes a weekly Substack blog, Nearly Naked Truths, for any woman who second-guesses herself.
Read Nearly Naked Truths →△ WORDZ We Wear — the book
The WORDZ We Wear is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon · Barnes & Noble · Chapters/Indigo · Bookshop.org · Target · Walmart · Apple Books and select independent booksellers.
The audiobook, narrated by Vera Milan Gervais, is available on Audible and wherever you listen to audiobooks.
△ EVENT PLANNER RESOURCES
Everything you need to introduce Vera, promote the event, and prepare the room.
Vera’s full media resources includes approved bios and photos, topic descriptions, testimonials, introduction copy, pronunciation guidance, book information, and event-planning details.
To ensure planners receive the most current materials, the full kit is shared directly with event planners, conference organizers, media hosts, HR leaders, and booking contacts.
A few quick answers
Yes. Stories and examples are chosen for the audience, theme, format, and desired outcomes, while maintaining the core message and methodology.
Yes. Depending on the session goals and length, Vera can provide worksheets, a workbook, the ALIGN bookmark, or copies of The WORDZ We Wear. This can be discussed during booking.
Logistics like AV, room setup, timing, travel, and accessibility are confirmed in advance.
Book a conversation straight into Vera's calendar or send a note with your event details. Most events are booked three to six months ahead, and shorter timelines are welcome when availability permits.
Vera is based in Moncton, New Brunswick, and is available for in-person events across Canada and the United States, select international engagements, and virtual sessions.
Vera's programs are ideal for women's leadership development and equally relevant for mixed audiences: corporate teams, association conferences, professional development days, and education, multicultural, and entrepreneurial gatherings.
△ Let's talk about your event
Let's talk about your audience.
Planning a conference, professional development day, leadership event, team session, retreat, education event, or association gathering?
Let’s talk about what you want your audience to leave with, and how Vera can help make the event meaningful.
20–30 minutes, straight into Vera’s calendar.
Based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada · Available in person and virtually
Most events are booked 3 to 6 months ahead. Shorter timelines are welcome when availability permits.
