What people ask me before getting in touch.

Almost always delivery. If the content were the problem, people would argue with it. When phones come out it is not that they disagree, it is that they have stopped listening, usually because they hear someone in a hurry or a voice that never changes and never pauses. In the first session I tell you which it is in your case, and then we rehearse your real presentation, with me playing an audience that drifts off, until you can hold their attention.

Yes, the physical side of it. Executive presence is the impression you make in the first few minutes: whether you come across as the person who decides, or as someone people nod at before asking your boss. That impression depends a great deal on how you sound and on whether you can hold a silence. I don't do mindset work. I work on the voice and the breath, which is what people actually hear, by rehearsing your real meetings under realistic pressure.

Yes. It is a comment that holds back a lot of promotions and almost never comes with an explanation: your work is fine, and the role still goes to someone who came across as more senior. Gravitas depends mostly on your pauses and on how settled your voice sounds, and someone who is not afraid of a silence carries much more of it. Both can be trained. We work on what you actually have to say, with me pushing back, until holding a silence stops feeling uncomfortable. It is one of the most common reasons people get in touch.

Usually the voice. You did the course, your slides are better and your story is clearer, but people still switch off halfway through, so the content was not the problem. Presentation courses are rehearsed calmly, sitting down. In a real meeting adrenaline changes how you sound, and that is what people hear. That is the part I work on: your real presentation, standing up, with interruptions, against the clock, and with me playing the toughest person in the audience.

It is the part of communication coaching that hardly anyone covers. A communication coach works on what you say and how you structure it. I work on what happens when you say it out loud with something at stake: the recommendation that sounds like a request, or the point a colleague repeats louder and gets the credit for. If your message is good and still not landing, this is usually where it gets lost. I don't rewrite your content; we rehearse the real meeting until it lands.

Because people respond to certainty more than to knowledge. You walk out knowing you were right, and the decision went with the person who put it more simply. The one who knows more tends to add caveats, explain and justify, and every caveat gives people a small reason to doubt them. The one who knows less says it once, stops and lets the silence do the work. It is neither a knowledge problem nor a personality problem. We take a real recommendation of yours and rehearse it until you can say it, stop and hold the silence while I push back.

It is the part most public speaking coaching skips. You stand up, your voice goes up, you rush, and the audience decides you are nervous before you have made your first point. Presentation courses work on structure, slides and storytelling. I work on what goes wrong when you stand in front of people, which is the breath, the pace and the pauses, and we practise standing up in front of someone, because that is how it actually sticks. If you have done a presentation skills course and still lose people, this is probably the part that was missing. If what you have coming up is a big room or a stage, this is how I prepare it.

Yes. You probably know the moment: your mind goes blank on the question you were dreading, or you hear yourself speeding up and cannot slow down, and the people listening decide you are not in control. In my experience all three are more physical than psychological. Freezing and rushing usually start with the breath, and going flat is the voice shrinking to play it safe. We rehearse exactly the moments that trigger it, with me asking the question you fear, until your body stops surprising you. Once that happens, the nerves usually ease.

Yes, this is exactly what it is for. For ten years I walked on stage to sing opera in 1,800-seat theatres, with no microphone and no second chance, so I know stage nerves from the inside and what they do to the voice. When something is at stake, at the investment committee, in the pitch to the client, in your submission to the judge or in front of the board, your breath stays high, your voice goes up and you speed up, and hearing yourself like that is what sets off the nerves. Relaxation exercises do not break that circle. Rehearsing your real room under pressure does, the way you rehearse before an opening night: I play the committee, the client or the court, I ask the question you dread and we repeat it until your body stops surprising you. If you are looking to get over a fear of public speaking in general, this is not for you. This is how I prepare it.

Yes, and I have been through this myself. In Spanish you are quick and persuasive; in English you become cautious and you can tell people take you less seriously. You are paid for your judgement, and you are being judged on your English. In a second language your voice goes up, you speed up and all your attention goes on finding the words, so people read hesitation that isn't really there. I don't do accent reduction, and your accent is fine. I am a native Spanish speaker working in English in London, and what we do is rehearse the meetings you actually have in English until you have the same authority as in your own language.

Yes. A large part of the working week now happens on a screen, and on a screen it is easy to disappear: cameras off, people answering emails, and your proposal turns into background noise. The microphone and the camera flatten the voice and remove half the signals you get in a room, so whatever goes wrong in person gets worse on a call. We rehearse on camera, exactly as people will see and hear you, until your voice makes up for what the microphone takes away. A good part of my individual work now happens on video calls or is aimed at them.

Yes. In front of a microphone everything shows straight away: the awkward question catches you out and you sound younger than you are, the journalist takes you where they want, or in a debate you get talked over and never get the floor back. And there is another situation people rarely mention: you have been signed, promoted or given the role, but you still sound like the person you were before, and the respect that should come with the position has not arrived yet. I work on press conferences, interviews, debates and public appearances, and we rehearse them with me as the journalist asking the question you are dreading. I don't write speeches or give political advice; my job is to make sure that when you speak, people take you seriously.

An executive voice coach works with people who know their subject and have prepared, but are still not convincing. What I work on is how you sound when something is at stake, without confidence exercises or body-language tips. First I find what specifically goes wrong for you under pressure: the pace, the pauses, the breath or where the voice sits. Then we rehearse your real situations, with me interrupting and pushing back, and I stop you at the point where people would stop listening. We repeat it until the correction holds without you having to think about it.

Yes, at any age. Most people who have been told they sound too junior, too flat or too nervous assume that is just their voice, and it isn't. The voice depends largely on muscle and air, and both can be trained. Very few people have a faulty voice; most simply have an untrained one. The first session usually makes that clear, because you hear the difference in your own voice.

The individual programme runs from six to twelve sessions. In the first one we find what is holding you back and you already hear the difference. You need at least six for the change to hold under pressure, and up to twelve if there are several different situations to prepare for. Team workshops are 90 minutes or half a day.

Both. Individual work is effective online, and most clients mix the two: I can interrupt you and push back just as well on a call. Team workshops work better on site, though small groups can work remotely.

People whose careers depend on being believed when they speak: lawyers and advocates, fund managers, real estate and corporate leaders, and sales and client-facing teams, in London and Madrid. That includes family law and litigation practices, investment firms, and senior teams who present regularly to clients and investors. If speaking in meetings is an important part of your job, this is likely to be relevant.

Yes, and not as a generic workshop. Each director gives a real three-to-five-minute talk on something they are actually dealing with, while I push back. I show each person where people were with them and where they stopped listening, pick two or three things for each of them, we practise those under pressure, and then they do it again so everyone hears the difference. It can be a half day or a series of 90-minute sessions.

Yes, and it is one of the areas where it works best. The buyer picks up doubt before they hear your argument, and that is when they push you down on price or go with the competitor who sounded more certain. We rehearse real calls and pitches, with me as a buyer pushing on price, until you keep your conviction. The same applies in luxury and premium retail, where the person in front of the client is part of what the client is paying for.

The diagnostic session, one hour, is £150. The intensive, four hours in the days before a specific date, is £1,000. A pilot workshop, 90 minutes with one team, is £900. Programmes and longer workshops depend on the format, the number of people and the location: tell me what you have coming up and I will send you a written proposal within two working days. Travel outside London or Madrid is charged separately at cost.

Yes. I am a native Spanish speaker and work in both languages, in London and in Madrid. Some clients prepare in one language and present in the other, which brings its own difficulties: you sound like yourself in one and more junior in the other. I know that situation well.

Then you need a voice coach rather than a speech therapist. A speech therapist treats voices with a medical problem; I work with healthy voices that let you down at important moments. Under pressure your voice goes up, you rush, the pauses disappear and people hear someone less sure than you are. If you have hoarseness, pain or any vocal damage, see an ENT first. If your voice is fine and you are still not convincing, that is exactly what I work on.

If your voice is fine in normal conversation, there is no hoarseness or pain, and it only lets you down when you present, that is what I work on. Under pressure the breath stays high, the voice goes up and gets thinner, and by the end of a long pitch or a long day there is nothing left, usually just as the important meeting starts. That is a mechanical issue rather than a medical one, and it can be trained. If you have persistent hoarseness, pain, loss of range, or your voice also fails outside presentations, see an ENT or a voice clinic first. And if I hear anything in the first session that sounds medical, I will tell you to get it checked.