In my communications work with nonnative English speaking professionals, founders, and teams, the topic of accents comes up often. The common threads are that 1) everyone wants to sound professional, and 2) almost no one feels confident speaking English with their...

Transitioning into leadership is probably for many people, the biggest transition of their career. When you’re used to being a worker bee with your head down, spending your whole day talking to people and helping them get their work done can feel hard. You may think,...

Elisabeth van Holthe tot Echten talks about how women can communicate with confidence navigate the challenges of being in leadership roles.

While it’s often not helpful to generalize the differences between men and women, it’s worthwhile to discuss how pitching a company or an idea can be a different experience for women. Many women get the advice to “fake it til you make it,” but is that really the best...

Communication skills are essential when you’re a founder. You have to get investors on board with your idea and convince them that you’re the right person for the job. But no matter how great you think your idea is, when it comes to pitching, there are still some...

Time and again I have worked with women in high-powered roles who are struggling with imposter syndrome. They are often crippled with self-doubt because they either believe that they don’t deserve the role they have or they somehow don’t know enough. Their lack of...

Alex signed up for my six month group coaching cohort for communication skills, but had already missed our first group session and two of our 1:1 calls. I started to doubt her motivation and was about to write her off when she surfaced in my inbox. “I’m sorry, I’ve...

A senior executive walks into a room of 300 employees, who all work for him. He then leans in and whispers to a director flippantly, "I don't really know anyone's name." The director notes to herself that day that this executive also walks throughout the building and...

Cat showed up on my calendar interested in joining one of my women’s group cohorts. When I asked her why, she said, “I’ve been in a toxic workplace for too long. I’m looking for another job now, but in the meantime, I have to stay at this company. My confidence has...

How would you rate yourself on your effectiveness as a communicator in meetings? Do you consistently add value? Or do you hang out waiting for someone to ask you for your opinion—never really getting the chance to participate? In my work, I hear a lot of struggle when...

“Before you get to a new story, you have no story.” — Michael Margolis The last time I went to see my shaman (a.k.a. 21st century Northern California therapist), we spoke again about purpose. He told me I’d been circling mine for years like a moth to a flame, getting...

Last year I delivered a group coaching program for a remote team distributed across India and Colombia. After four sessions, they had shown tremendous improvement, but when it came to their delivery, they were still struggling. Their presentations felt like...

I get this question a lot from women I work with: In a meeting—especially when it's a room full of men (virtual or in person), how do you actually get your voice in there? Women have been taught to be polite. We've been taught not to interrupt because it's rude. We're...

When I was asked to design a workshop to empower team members to engage in healthy self-promotion internally at Google, I was already aware of the inherent challenges that keep individual contributors from raising their voices — especially women. My work with...

One of the most important skills to have when running a remote presentation is the ability to get your timing right so you keep people engaged. People may show up with the intention to pay attention, but there are just too many temptations when working from home....

The way we give presentations has changed. No longer can we rely on our in-person charisma and presence to engage the audience—if we even had that in the first place. Instead, we have to communicate and connect through a screen. Whether you're a C-Suite executive or a...

In previous posts I talked about why everyone needs to nail their elevator pitch. In this post I’ll continue with more reasons why getting it right matters. Career Switching A confident, personal elevator pitch can help you land a job in a new field. What many forget...

In a previous post I outlined why everyone needs to nail their elevator pitch. In this post I’ll continue where I left off: how to connect the different parts of your personal story so it feels cohesive. The way to do this is by figuring out your through line. A...

"So what do you do?” We all dread this question — at parties, at networking events, even at work. It feels so awkward to summarize your entire life and purpose in a short answer. Of course we want to make a great first impression. What should we say? Having an...

When was the last time you asked yourself why you do what you do? I can cram my day with lots of tasks, and on good days I accomplish them all. But if at the end of the day I have lots “done”, and I’m no clearer on why I’ve done it, it creates a certain flavor of...

We had gotten to a point in our rehearsals where we had a show that was presentable. All nine of us were hitting our cues, there was some spectacle, and moments of wonder were starting to come through. But I couldn’t shake the niggling question: what is this all...

“I need a story like yours.” I had just given a talk to a group of entrepreneurs in San Francisco where I opened the discussion with story, as I always do. A member of the audience approached me and said he wanted to transport his listeners the way I had transported...