Sinara Speaks, writes, inspires workers

She's been on "Cheers" and "General Hospital," performed stand-up comedy, acted in plays, and done voice-overs.

Today, Sinara Stull O'Don-nell runs a Springfield-based speaking and writing business, Sinara Speaks, that's devoted to career success. She also has a Web site at www.sinaraspeaks .com.

Stull O'Donnell worked full-time in corporate America and pursued an acting and writing career at the same time.

When she moved to Spring-field 2 1/2 years ago to be closer to her parents, who had re-tired here, she decided to write and speak full-time.

Stull O'Donnell went from writing two to four articles a year to approximately 70 articles a year. She writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal Online, Succeed magazine and Sam's Club Source, a publication mailed to Sam's Club members.

Stull O'Donnell's speaking engagements take her all over the country. She uses four basic topics when speaking to an organization: "Humor in the Workplace," "From Stress to Success," "Capturing Clear Communication" and "Customer Ser-vice Equals Imagina-tion."

"Then I customize the speech based on the company or or-ganization," she said.

Stull O'Donnell said there is a huge demand for people to motivate and train employees. She practiced her public speaking craft at Toastmasters meetings, then moved on to Kiwanis and Chamber of Com-merce meetings here in Springfield. She was encouraged along the way by Marlene Chism, a professional speaker.

"Marlene got me my first paid referral," Stull O'Donnell said. Now, she speaks at meetings all over the country.

"The need for public speakers has been a trend for the last 20 years," she said."Trained speakers are especially important during a recession. People need their employees motivated and productive. I call myself the comedy catalyst.' I want to be a catalyst for change."

Stull O'Donnell said it's "thrilling," to find out that positive changes have been made in a company after she spoke to the employees. "It's thrilling to know that I made a difference in the organization," she said.

Stull O'Donnell said she be-lieves humor is an integral part of the workplace. "It makes us more productive, improves our health and increases team work," she said.

In addition to staying busy as a public speaker and freelancer, Stull O'Donnell is writing two books one about switching to better job opportunities and one about humor in the workplace.