HIRE ME TO SPEAK ABOUT SPEAKING
You and your people need to get heard. I'm on a mission to make it so.
VOICE BIASES ARE ALL AROUND US AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THEM. THAT STOPS NOW.
Need a gamechanging virtual or in-person speaker for your next event?
From keynotes people cannot stop talking about to group workshops that work, my secret sauce is practical tips plus revolutionary thought leadership to change what power sounds like and help rising leaders find their voice and use it well.
I stand for good* communication.
*That means no more boring panels, flopsweat presentations, or soulless pitches. Not just sounding good but feeling good doing it. 'Cuz joy matters.
I GOT YOU:
In-person or virtual talks, workshops, and trainings with a world-class speech expert and disrupter with a decade of experience helping stiff speakers get free and get what they want.
My framework offers practical and paradigm-shifting tools for
- women
- immigrants
- introverts
- marginalized speakers
... and anyone struggling to get heard, to love their voice, or to pitch and present with confidence.
The work is rooted in sociolinguistics, psychology, social justice, and performance theory. The work is for whole person leadership.
I also offer consulting for institutional heads and stakeholders, because it's possible to listen with more generous ears and shift your culture if you're willing to reckon with old biases and tired tropes around what leadership and authority "should" sound like.
Communication training meets professional development meets DEI: my presentations and workshops are fun and fiery and pragmatic as hell. As I like to say, if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter.
The world needs diverse voices speaking up and getting heard.
You know the times demand it.
I can help with how.
"Samara's session was incredible. Running a cohort of corporate climate influencers, we hoped she would help them develop confidence as speakers. But what she actually did was show us how to mute the self-doubt and imposter syndrome, and teach us to relish the elements of our communication that make us unique and authentic—the kind of qualities that we want from our leaders.
She helps you find your voice, and use it to build the kind of future we all want to live in."
—Lucy Piper, Director, WorkforClimate
"Samara ran a workshop for our women's ERG (men were also invited and attended) and she truly got 125 colleagues buzzing. Her framing on public speaking and on using our voices better is inspiring, fresh, instantly applicable, and literally exactly what the world needs now. Whether we're in conversation, or giving presentations, or pitching.
One of my favorite AHA moments: Samara suggested that what matters when we speak is caring out loud. We all need to bring that approach to work."
—Andrea Rothschild, Strategic Advisor, Hill+Knowlton Strategies Global
HIRED BY & PARTNERED WITH
COACHING THE NEW SOUND OF POWER
Hi, I’m Samara.
I’m a speech coach trusted by C-suite execs and thought leaders, candidates for US Congress, and celebrities presenting at award shows and the UN. I've coached activists, moms returning to work, and high school girls who want to make a difference. Behind the scenes, I work with leaders and rising leaders on the cusp of something big—who need to speak with confidence and joy in a voice they recognize as their own to truly make sh*t happen.
I’m all about the new sound of power—because what power has traditionally sounded like isn’t working for us and fortunately, it doesn’t have to. My debut book Permission to Speak is available for preorder through Crown, a Penguin Random House imprint.
BA: Princeton. MFA: Brown. I've partnered with Moveon.org, The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, corporations, nonprofits, foundations, and universities. And been hired by everyone from Sony to Netflix to help movie stars integrate good acting with good accents. Clients include: Gal Gadot, Pierce Brosnan, Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin, Terry Crews, Rachel McAdams, Ruth Negga, and Rosie O'Donnell.
For over a decade I’ve coached magnificent humans for the moments that matter. What do you need?
SUBMIT A SPEAKER REQUEST
FEATURED IN
SIGNATURE KEYNOTE
PERMISSION TO SPEAK: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You
Is it possible to enjoy public speaking? To love your voice and trust you’ll get heard? Can you really show ALL the way up with your gorgeous ideas and your gorgeous heart?
Samara offers best-of takeaways from her much-anticipated debut big idea book with Penguin Random House, a personal and cultural reckoning with what speaking in public is and what it can be.
Our voices tell a story about power and this keynote offers wildly practical tips, moving and inspiring tales, and a massive dollop of permission to find your power, out loud.
The goal: a voice that's specific not generic, brave not safe, joyful not self-serious, varied not squeezed into one boring note, diverse in all the ways. So you move the room and get what you want—the gig, the raise, the respect, the yes, the future that is calling to you.
A timely talk that meets the crises of this moment with joy, science-based strategy, and contagious courage.
KEYNOTE OR WORKSHOP
GET HEARD: The No-BS Answer to Mastering Tone, Making It Through the Noise, and Taking the Lead
There are two parts to any communication: what we say and how we say it. For those who don’t look or sound like the traditional standard of power and authority, how we deliver the ideas we want to share is tricky and tough to decode. But we sure know what happens when it all goes wrong:
Each of us has a story (or too many to count) of being misunderstood, underestimated, talked-over, ignored, called demanding, too angry, "difficult," or the b-word.
In this keynote, Samara Bay offers a simple and powerful solution: a new take on tone. She reframes the oft-studied strength/warmth leadership balance and makes it both doable and deeply satisfying.
AKA you won't hear "smile more to get what you want!"
Instead, Samara's invaluable users' manual voice techniques plus big picture thought leadership offers the audience a chance to consider what power, strength, and leadership even mean to them in today's world—and tomorrow's.
And then gives them the tools to do it.
ADDITIONAL TOPICS AVAILABLE
Focused sessions covering each aspect of Samara's framework are customizable to your team's needs.
Here's what I love:
Taking people from panicky in public to full-flex permission. So they discover, finally, how to share their best ideas as whole, coherent humans in sync with their body, their voice, and their mission.
It feels like a revolution because it is.
OTHER WAYS TO WORK WITH ME
For press or pod interview requests, please contact my publicist, Kristin Carver Smith, at
For inquiries about VIP private coaching, please click the button, or email the team at
PRIVATE COACHING DETAILS
JOIN THE PERMISSION PARTY
Get yourself on my email series "Permission Party" and power your week with voice & permission strategies to show up and speak up in the moments that matter. Come out of hiding. Feel real change.
(Psst. This party is a revo-f*ing-lution.)