We recently connected with Amanda Hennessey and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

I would want a fun, safe, and empowering public speaking class to be a required part of either college or high school. In addition to teaching students how to create and deliver compelling presentations, I would really want this training to help people learn how to manage their nervous systems. I have a lot of clients who had a painful public speaking experience or two when they were younger. And that unhealed and unaddressed pain leads them to avoid opportunities and visibility when they are older. It makes me sad!

Just because someone is really good at research or managing others, doesn’t mean they necessarily have the skills to present well. But somehow, it’s often just expected that folks should “just know” how to speak publicly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a public speaking coach, author, and speaker. I love helping professionals to experience public speaking as an adventure with exciting risks, discoveries, and massive rewards rather than as a horror movie with terror, hiding, and dread. Through one-on-one coaching and customized corporate workshops, I help individuals to speak with power and ease so they can change the rooms or zooms they are in without self-doubt or losing precious sleep.

As the Founder of San Diego Public Speaking and Boston Public Speaking, I have coached a wide variety of individuals who are making waves in their industries – scientists, entrepreneurs, executives, activists, doctors, lawyers, artists, and more! A number of my culinary clients can be seen regularly on America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country on PBS and one client has appeared on the Today Show several times.

My background is in performance and teaching acting. In 2007, I was approached by a woman who knew I taught acting. She asked me if I could help her with a presentation for her job at a bank. I said “Sure!”

I thought this kind of work would be really dry, but I actually really enjoyed the experience. I could use what I knew about creating a compelling performance to inform the writing and the slides. I didn’t like being bored and assumed those listening to work presentations didn’t either, so I applied my creative and comedic instincts to the content. I had my own issues with stage fright that I was working on, and so my findings really helped me to support my client with her nervous system challenges.

I added “public speaking coaching” to our acting class website and over time my client load increased. For the most part, each client is essentially writing and performing their own “one-person show.” I have the privilege of being a performance coach, director, and creative collaborator.

I also began offering workshops to organizations. It’s been really fun to bring in all of the creativity from the acting and writing part of my life into start-ups, hospitals, non-profits, and more.

In 2014 I launched Boston Public Speaking as a separate entity and in 2019 I launched San Diego Public Speaking. So many people have never received training on how to speak in front of others, so I love filling in that gap in education. It’s understandable that so many would find presenting really challenging. I understand how awful stage fright feels. and I LOVE empowering others to rise above their fears, actually enjoy the ride, and make an impact.

​I wrote the book Your Guide to Public Speaking – Build Your Confidence, Find Your Voice, Inspire Your Audience so I could share all I’ve learned so far as a coach and performer. It’s chock full of strategies that address the mindset, body, heart, voice, and motivation of the speaker. It then goes on to give practical instruction on creating a memorable talk, networking introduction, or toast, as well as how to deliver it with confidence and personality. I’ve included stories from my work with clients so readers can see how to apply the lessons in a very practical way.

​Next up – I’m very excited to create an online course that people can take in the comfort of their own homes.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

My best source of clients are my websites. The SEO is great for Boston Public Speaking, San Diego Public Speaking, and Boston Acting Classes. It’s been a priority that these websites have language, images, and offerings that create a sense of safety, possibility, and fun for anyone browsing. On a deeper level, I also aim to infuse whatever business things I am doing (coaching, facilitating workshops, networking, working on my website and marketing, creating proposals, social media, etc.) with positive energy and fun.

From time to time do I want to throw my laptop out the window because I’m frustrated with tech stuff? Hell yes! But I do think that when people jump on your website to look at your offerings, they are not only reading your bio and descriptions, they’re also tuning into your vibe and the vibe of your business. For that reason, I make a conscious effort to stay away from scarcity vibes, especially when new business is feeling a bit slow. It’s not always easy, but it’s definitely worth the effort! And over the years I’ve found that when things slow down I typically need space to recharge my batteries or I need to shake things up with a new offer.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like the vast majority of people in the whole wide world, the pandemic led me (let me rephrase that – forced me) to pivot. Until March 2020, my coaching sessions, workshops, and classes had been 98% in person. I used Zoom occasionally when traveling. I’m very glad I was familiar with it before lockdown! As the world as we knew melted around us (and companies canceled upcoming in-person workshops), I immediately started advertising a virtual Be Bolder Public Speaking Bootcamp on Eventbrite and my websites.

A bright spot at that time was that folks from Chicago and New York signed up, rather than just local people. It was a huge relief to see that my training could still be effective and fun online. And it quickly became clear to me that people were going to need help presenting virtually. Ring lights for everyone! It was a very happy day when the first company reached out to me to lead a virtual workshop for an entire team, with a focus on presenting online.

My husband and I also immediately jumped into action by moving our Boston Acting Classes business online. We offered a few virtual acting for the camera one-night workshops and then started offering virtual 5-week classes – Intro to Acting, Intro to Acting for the Camera, Intermediate Acting, and Scene Study. We did adjust some things – we made classes 2 hours instead of the customary 2.5 hours. We also tweaked some of the exercises for our new medium. We were thrilled to see that teaching acting online could work! Students could connect, have fun, tap into their creativity, and express themselves.

We’ve always loved offering these classes, but it felt even more powerful now. We could see that the creativity, fun, and escape for people were very helpful for their mental health during such a stressful sad time of uncertainty. And It’s been awesome to have students from Mexico and Saudi Arabia in class, as well as other regions of the US. People have become friends and creative collaborators through our classes, which makes us feel great.

Our acting classes are still online currently. If you’ve always been curious about acting or want to get back in shape creatively, come join us at BostonActingClasses.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sandiegopublicspeaking.com/
• Instagram: @amandaghennessey
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandahennessey/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXL9saS91RaCIi8Z8D-xYrQ
• Other: https://www.bostonpublicspeaking.com/ https://www.bostonactingclasses.com/

Image Credits
Photos by Angela Garzon – @createwithgusto – “Say buh bye to boring brand photography”