About
About me:
Hi! I’m Melissa. I’ve been teaching public speaking and presentations skills for the past six years. I love watching people’s ideas come to life as they gain confidence and connect with listeners.
My background is in the performing arts. I am a professional opera singer who has performed on stages ranging from enormous, grand spaces like the Metropolitan Opera to intimate and unconventional venues like people’s living rooms. Opera News has called me an “expert raconteur” and the New York Times has praised my “appealing amber mezzo.”
Along the way, I started to see that the qualities that allow me to connect with an audience from the stage are what any presenter need to deliver an idea with confidence and clarity. My work as a presentation coach combines my performance training with cognitive science to help us understand how we relate to one another. One of my central beliefs is that every job is really a communications job.
About my work:
Whether I’m working one-on-one or in a group setting, my work focuses on developing core strengths, overcoming insecurities, finding connection points with audiences, and moving listeners to action.
Key components of my approach include:
Being heard: Vocal techniques that command attention and maximize understanding.
Owning the room: The biomechanical qualities of confidence.
Connecting with the audience: It’s not about you. It’s about them.
Making it memorable: Structuring content and using engaging language.
Authenticity: Leveraging your experience and excitement about a topic.
Speaking with authority: Tactics for demonstrating expertise and showing leadership.
Taking off & landing: Effective ways to start and finish.
I work with a broad range of organizations and individuals from many walks of life. Every year I partner with regional Python software conferences to coach dozens of tech conference talks. I am a national instructor for New Leaders Council which trains early-career community organizers to build networks and run for office.
I particularly enjoy helping speakers present complex, technical topics in ways that are accessible and meaningful to their audiences.