Executive Voice Coaching
Executive voice coaching is one-to-one work with a senior leader on the most overlooked element of high-stakes communication – the voice. Most presentation coaching focuses on what you say, JSG Voice works on the instrument that delivers it: breath, resonance, pace, weight, and presence in the body. Sydney based, with engagements across Australia and internationally.
Coached by Jack Starkey-Gill, Voice Director at Bell Shakespeare and an executive presentation specialist with an MFA in Voice from NIDA. Conservatoire-grade methodology, applied to the rooms that matter – board updates, AGMs, investor pitches, leadership team addresses, capital raises and high-stakes keynotes.
What is executive voice coaching?
Executive voice coaching is the application of professional voice training (the same discipline used to prepare actors at conservatoires like NIDA, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre) to the specific demands of senior corporate communication. The focus is the physical instrument behind your message: breath, resonance, pace, weight, presence in the body, and the moment-to-moment vocal choices that determine whether a leader’s words actually land.
In practice, executive voice coaching addresses the components of communication that are visible to every audience but rarely taught in business contexts. How a leader’s voice carries weight without volume. How breath supports authority under pressure. How pace and weight shape the perceived gravitas of every word. How vocal habits such as rushing, dropping ends of sentences, de-energising important content, and monotone delivery quietly undermine senior leaders in high-stakes rooms.
The methodology draws on the established lineage of professional voice pedagogy: Patsy Rodenburg, Kristin Linklater, Cicely Berry, Barbara Houseman, Arthur Lessac, Catherine Fitzmaurice. These are the foundations of how performers are prepared at the world’s leading drama institutions. Translated for the corporate room, they form a rigorous, physical, evidence-based methodology that almost no other coach in the Sydney corporate market has trained in.
Why senior leaders work on voice
Senior leaders typically come to voice work for one of two reasons. The first is a specific upcoming room, such as a board update, an AGM, a capital raise, or a major keynote, where the stakes are real and the standard preparation isn’t enough. The second is a phase of senior career growth: stepping into a more senior role where the calibre of voice and presence needs to match the calibre of the work.
In both cases, the underlying observation is the same. At senior levels, the technical content of communication is rarely the issue – these are people whose expertise is established. The gap is the physical delivery: voice that doesn’t yet carry the weight of the role, breath that fails under pressure, pace that races when stakes rise, presence that doesn’t anchor in the body. Without addressing these, the message, however good, does not land at the level the leader needs.
Voice coaching addresses this directly. Most clients see measurable change within three to five sessions: a steadier voice under pressure, a slower and more deliberate pace, vocal authority that doesn’t depend on volume, and a calmer, more anchored presence in the body. The change is durable because it’s physical – habits embedded into how you breathe, stand and speak, not techniques you have to remember.
How voice work differs from public speaking training
Public speaking training is widely available through Toastmasters, online courses, executive education programs, and generalist communication coaches. The focus is typically on structure (how to organise a presentation), confidence (managing nerves), and frameworks (storytelling, openings, closings). For early-career professionals or anyone new to public speaking, this work is genuinely valuable.
Executive voice coaching addresses something different and more specialised. The starting assumption is that the senior leader can already speak in public – they have years and sometimes decades of experience doing it. The question is no longer whether they can present, it’s whether their voice and physical presence match the calibre of the rooms they now walk into. That requires a different toolkit.
Voice work is technical and physical. It treats the voice as an instrument, and like any other instrument, it can be trained, refined and tuned. The methodology comes from professional performance training, where actors spend three to five years learning to use their voice with precision under pressure. Almost no public speaking coach has this training; most coaching in the corporate market focuses on the message, not the instrument that delivers it.
The shorthand? Public speaking training works on what you say, executive voice coaching works on the physical instrument that says it. Senior leaders typically need the second, not the first.
The voice-led methodology
The methodology draws on the established lineage of professional voice pedagogy. Five names form its foundation:
Kristin Linklater — founder of the Linklater Voice Method, used widely at major drama schools globally. Focus: freeing the natural voice through breath, resonance and physical relaxation.
Patsy Rodenburg — Director of Voice at the Royal National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Focus: presence, breath, the three circles of energy, and the relationship between voice and personal authority.
Cicely Berry — Director of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company for over fifty years. Focus: text, language, and the embodied connection between voice and meaning.
Barbara Houseman — senior voice practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe Theatre. Focus: clarity, articulation, pace, and the physical mechanics of vocal authority.
Catherine Fitzmaurice — developer of Fitzmaurice Voicework, an integrated approach combining breath, resonance and the autonomic nervous system. Focus: voice under stress and high-pressure performance.
Each forms part of the foundation of how professional actors are prepared at the world’s leading conservatoires. Each has been studied, applied and refined as part of an MFA in Voice at NIDA.
The translation from stage to corporate room is the work of the last five years of practice, and of a career built across acting, copywriting and now executive coaching. The same techniques that prepare a Bell Shakespeare actor for a major touring production prepare a senior leader for a board update, a keynote or a capital raise. Same physical principles. Same vocal rigour. Different room.
Who I work with
Most clients are senior executives, founders, partners and senior leaders. Common profiles include:
C-suite executives at ASX-listed and large private companies who are preparing for board updates, AGMs, capital raises, leadership team addresses and strategic communication moments where voice and presence directly shape commercial outcomes.
Founders and senior fund managers preparing for investor pitches, fund updates and capital raises. Voice work that translates technical conviction into commercial trust.
Senior partners at law firms and professional services firms preparing for client pitches, partner presentations and high-stakes professional communication. Past clients include leaders at King & Wood Mallesons.
Senior leaders investing in their own development during phases of career growth – stepping into more senior roles where the calibre of voice and presence needs to match the calibre of the work.
Engagements range from short-notice preparation for a specific upcoming event to longer-arc development across multiple sessions. All work is one-to-one, confidential, and tailored to the specific contexts the leader is preparing for.
What a session looks like
Most sessions run between 60 and 90 minutes. The work is built around the leader’s specific context – the actual material they’re preparing for, the actual rooms they’re walking into, the actual vocal habits that are quietly working against them.
A typical first session begins with a brief diagnostic – listening to how the leader currently sounds, identifying the specific patterns to address, understanding the upcoming context. The work then becomes practical: breath exercises that build vocal stamina, resonance work that anchors authority, pace and weight calibration, physical anchoring, and applied practice on the leader’s actual material.
There are no theatre exercises that feel out of place in an executive context. No improv. No “vulnerability work.” The methodology is rigorous, physical and specific with elements of creative thinking. Some clients have described sessions as more like working with a physiotherapist or coach than like a generic communication training session – focused, technical, and producing measurable change.
Sessions happen in person at a private studio in Sydney or at the client’s offices, or remotely via video conference. Voice work translates well to remote delivery – most international clients work entirely via video.
Pricing & packages
All engagements are package-based. Most clients begin with a confidential discovery call, then move into a package shaped around the rooms they’re preparing for. Pricing reflects the seniority of the work and the depth of preparation involved.
Discovery & Diagnostic
A single 90-minute confidential session. For senior leaders wanting a focused, one-off intervention or a clear sense of whether longer-form coaching is the right fit before committing.
From $500
Executive Voice Package
Three coaching sessions over three to six weeks. The most common starting point for executive voice work – enough sessions to build durable change in voice, presence and delivery, focused on a specific upcoming context or broader leadership development.
From $1,200
Board & High-Stakes Intensive
A multi-session intensive ahead of a specific high-stakes presentation such as board update, AGM, capital raise, keynote, or partner pitch. Tailored to your timeline, including weekend and short-notice availability when needed.
Quoted on scope
Frequently asked questions
No. Most clients are at senior levels (C-suite, partners, founders, senior fund managers, board directors), but voice work applies across industries. The common factor is the seniority of the rooms the leader walks into, not the sector. Past clients have included leaders in law, finance, infrastructure, media, education and professional services.
Speech therapy addresses clinical voice issues such as vocal fold health, articulation disorders, and accent reduction. Singing lessons train the voice for musical performance. Executive voice coaching applies professional voice methodology to the specific demands of senior corporate communication. The methodology overlaps with conservatoire actor training, not with clinical or musical voice work.
No. The methodology is built on the opposite principle; releasing the natural voice from habits that have constrained it, not adding theatrical mannerisms. Most clients report sounding more like themselves at full capacity, not less like themselves. The work is about removing what’s getting in the way, not adding what isn’t there.
Yes. Voice work translates well to remote delivery via video conference. Sound quality on standard video platforms is sufficient for the work, and many international clients work entirely remotely. In-person sessions in Sydney are also available, either at a private studio or at the client’s offices.
Most clients notice change within the first session, particularly in breath control, pace and vocal weight. Durable change typically develops across three to five sessions, as new physical habits become automatic. The work is physical, so the timeline is closer to athletic training than to cognitive coaching.
Yes. Confidentiality is non-negotiable for executive engagements. NDAs are signed before any pre-engagement work where required, and confidentiality is maintained on case material, identity and content even when not formally requested.
Ready to talk?
Every engagement starts with a confidential 30-minute discovery call. We talk through the moment you’re preparing for, what’s at stake, and whether voice coaching is the right fit. No obligation.