Speaking as an Introverted Leader

This part of my work is simple to describe:

I help highly educated, introverted professionals speak in public without faking a persona.

Not to turn you into a showperson. Not to bolt charisma on top of who you are.

To help you be clear, calm, and believable when it matters most.

Where people usually start

Most people who come to me for speaking work are already good at their jobs. The tension is in moments like these:

• Internal presentations to senior executives or investment committees

• Board updates where you get ten minutes and five of them are questions

• Client pitches where your quieter style gets overshadowed by louder colleagues

• Town halls, off-sites, or “say a few words” moments that fill you with dread

• Panel discussions where you worry you’ll be drowned out or go blank

• Difficult internal conversations: pushing back, delivering bad news, or challenging a bad idea in the room

• Biographies of speakers you are introducing on a stage, practicing in advance, as most people’s bios tend to be too long, overly technical, and rarely human

On paper, you are more than qualified to be there. In your body, it doesn’t always feel that way.

What this is (and what it isn’t)

This is not a glossy presentation skills course and not a Toastmasters clone.

It is one-on-one work, tailored to your actual context: your industry, your role, your audience, your temperament.

No generic tricks. No forced “energy.” No insistence that you become a different person.

What we actually work on

The focus is always practical and specific. Depending on your needs, we might work on:

• Finding a speaking style that fits you

  How do you sound when you are clear, steady, and not performing? We pay attention to how you speak one-to-one, and build from there, instead of copying some extroverted template.

• Honouring accents and second languages

  Many of the people I meet think and work in several languages. English may be your second or third. The answer is not to hide. We work on slowing down, enunciating just enough, and trusting that when you respect your audience’s intelligence, they will lean in to hear you. Your accent and cadence are not defects to be scrubbed out. In global finance cities where voices often sound interchangeable, the fact that you sound different can be a genuine asset.

• Structure under pressure

  Openings, closings, and spine. How to start without rambling, land without trailing off, and keep your remarks anchored when the stakes are high and time is short.

• Voice, pace, and silence

  Many introverts rush. We work on slowing down without feeling like you’re dragging, using silence without panicking, and keeping your voice audible even when you’re tired or nervous.

• Slides and visuals: you lead, they support

  We stop letting the deck run the meeting. We design slides so they carry the right analytical load without turning you into a narrator reading bullet points. You learn how to:

  • take control of the flow instead of chasing what’s on the screen

  • know when to pause on a slide, when to move on, and when to go “off-deck”

  • handle the classic moment when someone derails you by jumping three slides ahead

  We also explore how to speak effectively without slides at all: short briefings, board updates, and “can you just say a few words” moments where there is no screen to hide behind.

• Handling questions, especially hostile or vague ones

  How to buy yourself time, clarify muddy questions, push back when needed, and say “I don’t know” without sounding weak. My own teaching career was built on answering questions in real time; we can treat this as a learnable craft, not a talent.

• Repairing a persona that feels like an act

  Some clients have already built a louder, more performative style because they thought they had to. Together, we unwind what’s no longer serving you, so you can keep what works and quietly drop the rest.

• Choosing which speaking invitations to accept

  Not every microphone is worth it. We look at which opportunities truly move your work and reputation in a direction you care about, and which you can decline without guilt.

How this actually looks in practice

There are two common patterns:

1. Event-based work

   You have a specific speech, board presentation, town hall, or high-stakes meeting coming up. We design, rehearse, and stress-test it together. The aim is not perfection; the aim is to walk into the room knowing you are prepared in a way that fits you.

2. Ongoing presence work

   You’re moving into a bigger leadership role, or already in one, and want your speaking and presence to match your responsibilities. We work over time, so your improvement is gradual and sustainable rather than a one-off performance spike.

In both cases, the conversations stay private. No recordings are shared. No clips appear in a slide deck somewhere. Your internal work does not become my marketing material.

Why I care about this

I am an introvert who has spent over 20,000 hours speaking in front of people, mostly as an instructor and advisor rather than a performer.

I never tried to become a stage personality. My style has always been: quiet, prepared, genuinely engaged, willing to say “I don’t know” when that was the truth.

Again and again, I saw how powerful that could be in rooms where most people were braced for spin.

This page exists because too many highly educated, technically gifted professionals have quietly decided they are “not leadership material” simply because they don’t enjoy the spotlight.

You don’t need to become someone else to be heard.

You need a way of speaking that matches who you already are, in the rooms you’ve actually earned your way into.

If that resonates, we can work on it together.