About Tina
Tina Guillot is an inspirational and humorous speaker and trainer and also provides speech-writing and coaching services through her privately owned business. She is a professional emcee and a certified trainer and life coach with the John Maxwell Team. She has 30 years of experience in the corporate world as a technical writer and document control manager and is a contributing writer of “101 Great Ways to Compete in Today’s Job Market.”
Tina is a graduate of John F. Kennedy Sr. High School in New Orleans and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management and Organizational Communication from Concordia University of Wisconsin, Summa Cum Laude, and a Master of Education in Career and Technical Education from Concordia University of Portland. (Tina was chosen to serve as the class speaker for the Portland graduation – video HERE.) She is an active member and former officer of the St. Bernard Parish Business and Professional Women’s (BPW) organization, and in 2016 was named one of the BPW’s Model Working Women of the Year. She is also active at her church, Grace Lutheran in New Orleans, where she is serves on staff as the Media Director for the congregation.
Tina joined Toastmasters International, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals grow in their communication and leadership skills while improving their self-confidence, in 2011. Since then, she has served in multiple officer roles and earned many educational awards, including the organization’s highest honor, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM). She has also received twelve consecutive Triple Crown awards and was named the District 68 2011-2012 Area Governor of the Year, the District 68 2012-2013 Division Governor of the Year, the District 68 2014-2015 Toastmaster of the Year, and the District 68 2017-2018 District Executive Committee (DEC) Member of the Year. In August 2019, Tina was presented with a Toastmasters International Presidential Citation during the Hall of Fame celebration at the organization’s 88th annual International Convention, held Aug. 21–24 in Denver, Colorado. This award is presented to members who have shown continual support and dedication to the organization. Recipients of this citation are selected at the sole discretion of the International President.
She is the Vice President of Education of Celebration Kenner Toastmasters. In May 2016, Tina was elected to serve as the 2016-2017 District 68 Director. District 68 includes approximately sixty chartered and provisional clubs in southwestern Mississippi, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas. As the district’s director, Tina was instrumental in leading the District to “President’s Distinguished” status for the first time since 1999. She remains involved as a Past District Director supporting the overall efforts of the DEC.
She has been married to the love of her life, A.J., since 1983, and they were blessed to adopt two children, P.J., born in 1992, and Livia, born in 1999. The family has faced many challenges over the years. In 2011, P.J. was in a tragic accident and suffered mostly 3rd degree burns over the majority of his body. He was hospitalized in a burn unit for nine months, during which time Hurricane Isaac destroyed the family’s home in Braithwaite, Louisiana. In August 2018, A.J. was diagnosed with kidney cancer and was in the hospital when P.J. passed away (this was following a fourteen-year struggle with drug addiction). All of these events, which are chronicled in her blog, have inspired Tina to speak and write on faith, perseverance, and (more recently) grief.
Tina’s greatest personal desire is to add value to others by sharing her stories and experiences. She notes that in the words of Dr. John C. Maxwell, she wants to “make a difference by doing something that makes a difference with people who want to make a difference at a time that makes a difference.”
“Tina did a leadership presentation for our chapter meeting in October 2015. We enjoyed the presentation. One of the goals of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chapter of the Project Management Institute is to provide value to our local business community in the form of leadership and collaboration and her topic was right on point! Her cheerful, sincere, and personal delivery was superb.” — Randy Shaw, 2016 President, Gulf Coast Project Management Institute