You have something to say.
Say it like you. And mean it.
TESTIMONIALS
Casey is incredible. A true pleasure to work with and she greatly improved my storytelling skills!
May Boeve, ED
350.org
I hired Casey to coach me for my TED talk and credit her as the #1 factor in the success of my talk with nearly 2 Million views on TED.com. She is flexible, wise and efficient. She helped with everything from polishing the language to building presence and confidence. Considering all the options out there for speaking coaches and PR, hiring Casey consistently remains my best investment. You won’t regret hiring her and will be lucky if you can get her.
Alexandra Sacks, MD
author, speaker
My first experience watching Casey host an event was a revelation. I'd never seen someone engage an audience so completely and authentically, to the point that my first thought was: "I want to be able to do what she just did." Casey's ability to translate the traits of master storytellers into learnable concepts has given me an entirely new approach for my conference keynotes. She's the best in the world at making you TED worthy.
John Denny, VP eCommerce & Digital Marketing
Cavu Venture Partners
Casey's approach matched what I needed in every way. She's not just incredibly talented - she's a hard worker and remarkably efficient. In every session, she met me wherever I was at, and yet she always knew exactly how to make our time together most effective. My favorite part was practicing my delivery with Casey once we had the content hammered out. I started to truly feel the "right" way to say each phrase to deliver its intended impact.
Aly Richards, CEO
Let's Grow Kids
I was paralyzed to speak in front of large crowds and was honestly not very good at it. Casey patiently worked at my pace and tailored the work to my specific needs. I rocked my very first important speech and while I was delivering it I could hear her voice guiding me through it and empowering me. I feel more confident in my leadership role, and I'm looking forward to more public speaking opportunities! It's not just speaking - Casey gave me a better method to prepare for anything.
Emeline Foster, Executive Director
French-American Foundation
Casey is a storytelling wizard. She supported me from a rough idea of what I wanted to say through sharing a story I was proud of in front of a crowd. She is exquisite at seeing which details are crucial for the impact of the story and which to cut. She pushed me outside of my comfort zone, which really improved my delivery. Best of all, she is a joy to work with and made me laugh through my discomfort with public speaking. I run a new company so memorably communicating our brand is key and I canʻt think of anyone I trust more than Casey to help me craft an effective and authentic story.
Ali Andrews, CEO
Shake Energy Collaborative
Casey is amazing at what she does. She provided tons of value in just one month. I am now convinced that I can become a great storyteller. And I have the clarity and guidance I need to get there.
Nazar Ivaniv, Co-Founder
15-Five
I have always had a fear of public speaking. In 2014, I was invited to speak to an auditorium filled with fellow photographers and photo editors about my work. I hired Casey to help me with my presentation. It was therapeutic. She helped me edit down my speech to be clear and concise. She pulled out of me a story that I felt proud to tell. Casey taught me how to speak and what to do when I got nervous. The presentation was a success and I felt like I had really accomplished something. I have highly recommended her to friends and co-workers.
Erin Patrice O'Brien
portrait photographer
Our collaboration with Casey helped us considerably. She helped us create a presentation that was creative, cohesive, articulate, emotional, informative and deeply personal. We felt very good about the work we did and received amazing feedback. She made it happen and I can’t thank her enough.
Lisa Klinghoffer
Co-founder, Leon & Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation of the Anti-Defamation League
About Me
I learned my craft on the A Train.
Nostrand Ave to 125th Street: this was my commute for three years, and it took almost exactly one hour. I needed fifteen to screen a third of the Moth's open mic content, as well as each pitch that came through our hotline. I needed two to finish a lesson plan for the storytelling workshop I was teaching that week, and - if I really tried - I could churn out an annotated outline for my New Testament course in one hour. On the A train.
I was a full-time divinity school student supporting myself by working for The Moth. In other words, I was listening for a living, in order to get better at listening, for a living.
Topics like God and human suffering, the sexual and religious legacies of slavery, and feminisms in Christianity and Islam - (all literal course titles) - collided with the personal narratives coming through my earbuds and emerging in my workshops. What does it mean to connect to others? To communicate the truth - or dissonant truths? And how might storytelling help us do that better?
That's the kind of question that brought this unchurched kid from a New Age household to a secular storytelling nonprofit and a seminary, simultaneously. I'm passionate about strategies for sharing ourselves with others on our own terms. When we do that successfully, something happens: we cut through the noise. And the noise is lethal. Literally.
I started Say It Like You because I believe that when we show up, powerfully, as ourselves, we heal our culture's toxic definition of what power looks and sounds like. Also, it's so fun. So that's how I get this bread. The end.
Yours in speech and story,
Casey Donahue
Workshops
I know how it feels to have a team member get up there and - maybe not choke, per se? But definitely not, like, nail it. Guess what? Good presenting is a team sport. You can help colleagues improve without sounding like an asshat. I'll give your team a practice that will not just strengthen your presentation skills, but more importantly, your listening skills too. Now your team has a superpower. And you like each other better too, so, um, you're welcome.
Speech Coaching
That quarterly meeting was meh. You've gotten the feedback from the higher-ups, but you aren't sure how to act the part of "engaging presenter" without sounding fake, or terrified, or [insert worst nightmare here]. That's where I come in. I'll help you speak like, well, yourself - a particularly compelling version of yourself.
Get in Touch
Tell me about the scope of your project and the services you're looking for!