Spring is in the air!

Unfortunately, that means, so are allergens..

If you're like me, you’re excited to enjoy some outdoor time as the weather warms up. But with the beauty of spring also comes an onslaught of seasonal allergies that can leave us feeling phlegmy and, worst of all, voiceless.

Losing your voice is never fun, but it’s especially frustrating if your livelihood depends on speaking.

So today, I want to share my go-to three-step vocal reset to help you find more vocal ease, even in the thick of allergy season.

This quick warm-up takes just five minutes and follows a simple progression: Breath, Body, Bubbles.

But before I walk you through this warm-up, let's get scientific, shall we? 

Pick a test phrase. It can be the days of the week, a favorite song lyric, even a line of Shakespeare if you're feeling fancy.

(My personal favorite is "If music be the food of love, play on!")

Say your test phrase out loud and assess how your voice is feeling today. 

I'll wait.

.....

Hey there!

Actually, sorry—maybe the exclamation point was too much...

Hey there,

No, that still doesn’t capture my enthusiasm...

Howdy!

Okay, now we’ve gone too folksy.

Tone is tricky, isn’t it?

One of the hardest things to master in both blog writing and public speaking is tone.

Maybe you’ve been on the receiving end of, “I don’t like your tone,” as a teenager.

That’s often our first lesson about tone: whatever we’re doing, it’s wrong.

Many of my public speaking clients wrestle with this. They say things like, “I feel like my personality doesn’t translate to Zoom,” or “I’m not sure if I’m striking the right tone in meetings.”

But I’ve found that 90% of the time, when I ask them to define what “the right tone” is, they can’t answer that question.

When it comes to tone, so many of us are trying to aim at a target we cannot see.

We believe there is such a thing as the right tone—but we haven’t yet put words to what that is.

And this is where things get messy...

I recent...

"I'd love to learn how to become a more effective public speaker, but I just don't have time."

This is a sentiment I hear a lot as a public speaking coach, especially this time of year, as the weather gets nice and the siren song of the beach starts calling.

And look, I get it.

Skill-building sounds hard and time-consuming, and frankly, I'd rather go to a barbecue.

But here's the rub: investing time in honing a skill set is far more efficient than investing in honing a speech.

Paradoxically, I’ve found the people who claim they don’t have time to master the skill of public speaking are also the people who spend the most time preparing for individual presentations.

They'll spend weeks revising a pitch deck to within an inch of its life, only to show up at the big meeting and realize they don't have the right adapter to connect the projector.

They'll spend days memorizing a speech, only to end up sounding so robotic in their recitation that the whole room zones out immediately.

T...

“Let me tell you a story”

To me, that is one of the most beautiful sentences in the human language. And fortunately for me, I get to hear it a lot in my line of work. 

Story, my friends, is the word of the day. 

Today I want to talk about the science of story and a simple trick for weaving storytelling into even the driest of presentations. 

Here's a fun fact about Story:

When we hear a good story, our brains release oxytocin. 

Oxytocin is one of those feel-good hormones that's specifically associated with trust and bonding. You can see why this might be especially powerful when you’re giving a presentation.  

Perhaps you've heard that old business school adage, “We buy from brands that we know, like, and trust.” 

Well, this doesn’t just apply to our shopping habits. We also buy into ideas from people that we know, like, and trust.

So, if you want to build trust with an audience, one of the best ways you can do that is to tell them a story.

Of course, not all stories are crea...

Are you a notorious straight-shooter who always says exactly what's on your mind without a moment's hesitation? 

This blog is not for you.

Today, I want to talk to my overthinkers.

My friends who always think before they speak (sometimes to their own detriment). 

Growing up, we're often told to “Think before we speak.”

This is excellent advice in general. Having a filter is a very useful thing in polite society. But, as with so many things in life, a trait that starts off as adaptive can very quickly become maladaptive.

Let’s talk about this idea of “the filter.” 

When it comes to speaking, I like to think of verbal filters like curtains. 

Each idea we have is a ray of sunlight. 

In an ideal world, these rays are filtered through the curtain, letting an appropriate amount of light into the room. 

People who have no filter often get in trouble for speaking without thinking. 

They’ve built a house without curtains. 

Sometimes the natural light can be refreshing, but often it’...

I'm feeling spicy this morning, so allow me to make a blasphemous claim about my industry:

When it comes to public speaking, preparation is good, but technique is better.

Now, am I saying you should wing your TEDTalk? Absolutely not. 

But, I do think most of us are over-emphasizing the importance of “preparation.” (Or, at the very least, we’re defining “preparation” wrong. 

You’d be amazed how many times a week I play out some version of this scene: 

Future Client: I’m not bad at public speaking, as long as I have time to prepare.

Me: Okay, great! How often do you feel like you’re given adequate time to prepare? 

Future Client: …almost never.   

And therein lies the problem with relying on “preparation” when it comes to public speaking. 

If you define “preparation” as spending hours outlining, drafting things out word for word, memorizing, and rehearsing in front of a mirror, you’re severely limiting the amount of opportunities you can say “yes” to. 

Think about it: If the ke...

I can’t tell you how many times a week I hear some version of the following statement: 

“I don’t really do a lot of speaking. I mean–I have one-on-one conversations all the time, but the idea of speaking to a crowd TERRIFIES me.”

This statement always puzzles me. 

(Not the part about public speaking being scary–that I totally get. Performance anxiety is a completely normal fight or flight response that I will get into later in this very email!)  

No, the thing that puzzles me is the first half of that statement: 

How can someone say that they “don’t do a lot of speaking” and immediately follow it up with  “I have one-on-one conversations all the time”?

This is one of my biggest gripes about the field of Public Speaking.

Most of us are putting far too much emphasis on the word “Public.”

Public Speaking does NOT have to mean “speaking to a crowd.” 

If you speak up in a team meeting of five people, you are a public speaker. 

If you lead grace at the dinner table, you are a publi...

Happy New Year! 

Hope you got to enjoy some much needed rest before launching into 2023. 

I know for me, the last week of December is all about rest and reflection.

You will not find me in Times Square for the ball drop! I spent the last moments of 2022 enjoying a sleepy board game night with a handful of good buddies.

And as much as I love a good new year's resolution, I feel like that process is doomed without a healthy dose of old year reflection. 

That's why before I sit down to create my New Year business goals, I always take an afternoon to review my past year's numbers. 

(As much as I'm a word nerd, I also appreciate some cold hard data!)

And here's the big stat that hit me as I conducted my 2022 audit:

In 2022, more than 60% of my business could be traced back to public speaking events that I participated in.

That means more than 60% of the folks that hired me in 2022 did so because they attended a talk or workshop that I led. 

And the amount that I paid to participat...

One of the first things I ask a client when they tell me they’ve booked a speaking gig is, “What’s your goal for this event?” 

For newer or nervous speakers, the top 2 responses I get are:

“I want people to see me as an expert in my field.” 

or

“I want to sound smart.”

Totally fair. 

Who doesn’t want to be viewed as an expert in their field? 

But unfortunately, while this goal is completely understandable, it’s also completely doomed. 

That’s right. The voice in your head telling you to aim for “sounding smart” is leading you down a dark path. 

A path that ends in my biggest public speaking pet-peeve… jargon. 

We’ve all heard it (and we’ve probably all used it in an insecure moment). 

Jargon is defined as “special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.”

Some professions are particularly susceptible to jargon, like lawyers, doctors, and techies. 

But truth be told, no industry is immune from it. 

I...

At long last, May is here! 

Here in New York, it feels like spring is finally in the air, and the streets are buzzing with the possibility of new beginnings. 

On that note, I’ve got a personal update that I’ve been busting to share…

Next week, I’ll be jumping into rehearsals for a new musical at the New Jersey Repertory Company!

I’m overjoyed to have the opportunity to perform for a live audience for the first time in many moons. 

Spring has sprung and live theatre is back in a big way! 

Now, if you’re newer to my emails you may be thinking, 

“Wait, I didn’t know Sara acted. Isn’t she a public speaking coach?”

You’re not wrong! 

I am indeed a public speaking and storytelling coach. 

What I probably don’t talk about enough in these newsletters is where my training for these fields comes from. 

So it’s at this point that I must reveal my secret identity: I am, and have always been at my core, a theatre kid.

(See the incriminating photographic evidence below)

My parents mad...