Italia Tornabene is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and motivational speaker known for her raw, unfiltered approach to resilience, personal accountability, and rebuilding from nothing.

Her story spans extreme adversity: growing up in poverty, experiencing homelessness multiple times, navigating instability, and starting over again and again. Through grit, strategy, and relentless self-belief, Italia transformed survival into success. Today, she is the founder and CEO of multiple six-figure businesses across education, publishing, consumer products, and lifestyle brands, as well as the founder of a nonprofit focused on long-term self-sufficiency and personal empowerment.

Italia is the creator of the Baxter Learns to Save children’s financial literacy series, an award-winning wine brand, and several purpose-driven ventures that reflect her belief in breaking generational cycles through education, ownership, and mindset. Her work bridges real-world experience with practical systems for growth—financial, personal, and professional.

As a speaker, Italia addresses themes of resilience, identity, leadership, financial independence, overcoming adversity, and rebuilding after failure. She speaks candidly about fear, loss, discipline, and the uncomfortable decisions required to move from survival mode into true leadership. One of her keynotes focuses on women’s empowerment, but her message resonates broadly with individuals, entrepreneurs, and organizations seeking grit, clarity, and transformation.

Italia’s core message is grounded in lived experience: success is not reserved for the lucky or privileged—it is built through persistence, self-trust, and the willingness to rise every time life knocks you down.