Meet Violeta
The first time AI helped me win, I felt like a fraud
School days in Lithuania
I grew up in Lithuania in the last years of the Soviet Union. I was brought up with one rule: see what needs doing and do it perfectly.
That training built me a career. It also gave me a quiet companion who showed up every time the work felt good:
who do you think you are?
Made in Kaunas
With Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus
Two countries, three professions
I began as an office builder, running the international relations team at the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy for five years while finishing an MBA in European Studies.
I lectured in marketing for seven years across four universities in Lithuania and the UK. I led sales for a decade in industrial and
automotive companies.
In 2019 I started a second career as a freelance court interpreter, and in 2020 I joined Toastmasters. That second decision was the one that changed everything.
Winning 3rd Place in Humorous Speech Contest, D91 Conference, Toastmasters International
The day I asked the judge for a pause
I now interpret in court three or four times a week in Lithuanian and English, often in serious criminal proceedings. In 2024 I interpreted for a defendant in a murder trial that ran deep into the language of blood evidence. I asked the judge for a pause, opened my specialist vocabulary, and continued. I did not lose the room.
That was the moment I knew my voice had landed.
Speaking at District 91 Conference, Toastmasters International
I have experienced AI Impostor Syndrome firsthand
In 2024 I entered the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest in the UK, wrote every word myself, and placed third in the national final out of four thousand speakers. I felt every bit of that bronze.
The next year I had less time and more nerve. I sketched the speech, asked AI to polish, and won two contests back to back.
Inside, I was certain I had been caught. That feeling has a name - AI Impostor Syndrome – when success feels too easy.
I started talking about it and half the room recognised it instantly. The other half recognised it and was not admitting it yet.
I am a TEDx speaker, a Toastmaster and a member of the Professional Speaking Association. I deliver keynotes on confidence, identity and ownership of your own work in the age of brilliant assistants.
The core message is short enough to fit on a business card:
Don’t be A FOREIGNER in your own SUCCESS.
Audiences leave with:
Permission to stop apologising for using AI
Language for what they have been feeling since AI walked into their work
A clear, useful idea about ownership of their own output
A laugh they did not see coming
Bring Me to Speak
I am Lithuanian, so the humour is dry and arrives roughly half a second after you expect it. I walk every day and I ski twice a
year which is where most of the best sentences arrive.
I share a couch with a Yorkshire terrier called Emma, who is firmly in charge of the house.
I no longer chase perfect, which my mother would call the one thing I have failed at.
Off Stage
TEDx speaker, AI Impostor Syndrome: When Success Feels Too Easy
BA in English (Vilnius University),
MBA in European Studies (Kaunas University of Technology)
AFHEA (Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy)
Toastmasters International, Club President; third place in the UK Toastmasters
International Humorous Speech Contest 2024; International Speech contest Semi-finalist, Toastmasters International UK.
Member, Professional Speaking Association (PSA)
A freelance interpreter for Ministry of Justice, UK
Seven years lecturing in marketing across four universities in Lithuania and the UK
Ten years in sales and business development
The credentials, briefly
If your team has gone quiet since AI arrived, that is the room I work best in.