Hey, I’m Melissa!

Public speaking is no longer something you can skip out on. You have to unmute, turn on your video and report information to your boss, to the board, to investors. 

When the pandemic began, we needed to get creative with how we approached work. With so much uncertainty with how long it would last, a lot of my introverted friends became very comfortable not leaving the house and having all eyes on them in meetings at work. Somehow, at the same time, there was less and more space to hide in the online world. Expectations shifted, skill sets needed to shift, and a lot of people’s toolboxes were outdated. 

I created Show and Tell with Mel.

It started as a free workshop catering to confidence in speaking and interviewing and evolved so much in its first 3 months. In August of 2020, the inaugural cohort began the 30 day bootcamp version of what would become a 12 week experience. 

As a lifelong learner, I find so much pride in being able to create a container that people can join with confidence and revisit time and again as new speaking opportunities arise. I tell people, I am here to help you turn your mess into your message. It aligns so much for me. 

If you are looking to land the job, stand a little taller, and share your story with more confidence, I am your coach.

Why me, you ask?

Somewhere, there is a VHS tape of me singing Christmas carols at the dining room table. I am about 5 years old and I have a cold, so every few words I rub my nose and jump right back into the out of tune rendition of Silent Night. On Halloween, I am dressed as a clown and dancing all over our front lawn doing what could only resemble today’s Floss dance. I was a trendsetter, what can I say? 

I was fearless. 

As I got older, something shifted. Performing alone on a stage suddenly came with nerves, high expectations, and debilitating fear.

Enter pageants. Speaking onstage allowed me to explore something that was different from everyone else. I could form opinions and make connections that weren't available to me when I was singing someone else’s song or doing someone else’s choreography. Don’t get me wrong, I was not cured of the fear; I just found my confidence faster with each opportunity to speak.

In college, I was part of the residence life team - I was an RA and made my way up the ranks professionally as I obtained my Master’s in Social Work. Even after grad school, I remained in Student Affairs training student staff and graduate staff on how to fulfill their roles. From team building exercises to protocols in life threatening situations, I was leading teams that was the front line for hundreds of first year college students.

I had no problem leading these trainings. 

Being at the front of the room, with my own voice and my own creativity to deliver lessons empowered me. I loved being able to answer questions, facilitate learning and inspire creativity in others. 

At the same time, I was still participating in pageants. One was informing the other. In pageant interviews, I had 10 minutes for the judges to know, like, and trust me with the title I was pursuing. At work, the same was happening with an added caveat - lives were at risk. I had to get my staff to know, like, and trust me so that their students could know, like, and trust them.

To this day, I promise you - nothing is as stressful as a 10 minute pageant interview. You never know what the judges are going to ask you. It can be a personal question, “Are you dating anyone?” or a political question, “What should the President do next about the pandemic?” or a carefully worded question, “What 3 one-syllable words best describe you?

I had to be ready for anything.

Little did I know, all of these experiences were preparing me for what was to come. I knew there were people who were hired to come into colleges and universities to speak and train attendees. It was my job to find them and bring them in! Now I wanted to be one.

A friend and poet was in town at a leadership conference and I met up for dinner with a group of speakers and performers in the college market. I was asked by one of the speakers, “If you weren’t working in student affairs, what would you do?” I pointed right back at the group and said, “I would do what you do.”

Three months later, the person became my boss when I accepted a position as a full-time public speaker traveling to schools and organizations training leaders and their teams. I felt like a Broadway performer. Go in, teach and coach with energy and flair, travel to the next place and do it all over again. It was exhilarating and exhausting. 

I learned so much.

For five years, I was taking planes, trains and automobiles, sometimes gone for 3 weeks at a time. August was our busiest month and there were times when I was home for 30 hours - enough to sleep, replenish socks and undies and be back out on the road. 

The time I spent in the thick of speaking allowed me to do a TEDx talk, it challenged me to speak in rooms as large as 2000 college students, create new content, and get to know myself as a speaker. I was still sweating profusely, furiously reviewing my notes seconds before being introduced, getting so nervous I couldn’t eat and I love food so that last one is no fun.

But it wasn’t debilitating for me anymore.
The time it took to get there is why I consider myself to be a valuable addition to your toolbox as a speaker.