Case Study
Vanessa: Finding Confidence in a Second Language
Vanessa’s work is built around conversation. As part of the learning and development team at Equinix, she spends her days helping people reach their goals. Almost all of it happens in English, her second language, and she wanted to be certain her ideas were landing exactly as she meant them.
The Challenge
Vanessa is Brazilian, and around 90% of her working life happens in English. When so much of your job is helping other people express themselves, being fully understood matters enormously. She wanted the people she spoke with to get precisely what she meant, without a single idea losing its shape on the way across.
Behind that sat a bigger ambition. One of her life’s goals is to lead, and leadership, as she describes it, is largely about talking to people, to audiences, to whole rooms. She knew this was the moment to help her spoken English catch up with where she was heading, so she began looking for someone who could support her on that journey.
This was the moment my life changed, because I started doing this intentionally.
The Solution
A colleague at Equinix pointed Vanessa towards London Speech Workshop. What drew her in was the methodology. This wasn’t coaching sessions alone, but an approach built around feeling genuinely comfortable and confident, with real attention paid to accent.
She started working with her coach, Zoe. What she found surprised her, because it wasn’t a reinvention or a miracle. It was recognition. Many of the things she was already doing, a hand gesture here, the intonation of her voice there, she had been doing without thinking. The shift came in doing them on purpose. Zoe motivated her to speak, and pointed to the exact details she could refine, so that intention gradually replaced instinct.
The Result
The change was noticed first by the people around Vanessa, who told her she was expressing herself so much more clearly. She felt it too: more prepared to present, more ready to speak with other managers, more assured at executive level.
And here is the lovely part. Vanessa is only halfway through, five sessions into her course, and already feeling all of it. If this is the difference she notices in the middle of the journey, she wonders, what will the end feel like?
If you’re looking for a different strategy to help you, I really recommend reaching out. They can help you, like they really helped me.
Ready to start your own communication journey?
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