Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

What if the very thing that made you a top performer is now keeping you from getting promoted?

You've delivered outstanding results, taken on high-stakes projects, and worked harder than everyone around you. So why are other leaders getting promoted while you're still waiting for your next opportunity?

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Great work doesn't speak for itself. And being brilliant isn't enough to get you into the executive suite.

In this episode, Laura sits down with Uma Subramanian, a former top 1% performer at Microsoft, executive leadership coach, and author of The Sought-After Leader, to uncover what actually separates high performers from leaders who consistently attract promotions and career-changing opportunities.

By the end of this episode, you'll know:

⁉️Why hard work, talent, and exceptional results aren't enough to get promoted—and how to position yourself as a leader who creates strategic impact.

💰How to make your value visible to senior decision-makers, build a memorable personal brand, and develop relationships that open doors to new opportunities.

🎯How to communicate with confidence in high-stakes meetings, handle challenging executives and develop the human leadership skills that matter even more in the age of AI.

If you're ready to stop being overlooked and start being recognized as the executive leader you already have the potential to become, press play and discover how to make your value impossible to ignore.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

About our guest:
Uma Subramanian, a leadership coach, is author of The Sought-After Leader. Drawing on her experience as a technology leader and her work coaching high-performing professionals, Uma helps ambitious leaders accelerate their careers, strengthen their executive influence, and become sought-after candidates for leadership opportunities. Through her company, Limitless Leaders, and her signature SOAR framework, she teaches leaders how to increase their strategic impact, communicate their value, build a powerful personal brand, and cultivate relationships that open doors to career advancement.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered include:
Executive presence and leadership influence
Why hard work alone doesn't lead to executive promotions
Career advancement strategies for high-performing leaders
The SOAR framework for executive leadership success
Building a powerful personal brand and professional reputation
Increasing executive visibility without bragging or office politics
Communicating your value to senior leadership
Building strategic relationships, trust, and executive sponsorship
Using listening tours to strengthen influence and organizational awareness
Executive storytelling and persuasive presentations
Preparing for high-stakes executive meetings
Handling challenging questions with confidence and composure
Strategic thinking and creating organizational impact
Essential human leadership skills in the age of AI
Moving from high performer to sought-after executive leader

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

Is your leadership communication style unintentionally making your team less effective—and undermining your executive presence?

You work hard to lead your team, communicate clearly, and deliver results. But what if the very strategies you rely on—giving direct feedback, pushing through challenges, and expecting others to think like you—are actually holding you back?

In this episode of Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence, Laura sits down with Annie Yatch, a former counterterrorism expert turned leadership and performance coach, to explore what separates elite performers from everyone else.

By the end of Laura’s conversation with Annie Yatch, you'll know:

🔑How to identify and overcome four critical leadership gaps so you can build trust, improve team performance, and get better results without micromanaging

💰How to develop an elite mindset and stay calm under pressure

🔥How to increase your influence and executive presence and create the kind of authentic connection that inspires people to perform at their best.

Ready to stop letting hidden leadership gaps limit your success?

Listen now to discover practical strategies for thinking like an elite performer, communicating with greater influence, and leading your team with more confidence.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

About our fabulous guest:
Annie Yatch is a former counterterrorism analyst who now works as a leadership and performance expert helping executives, founders, and high-performing professionals strengthen how they lead, communicate, and show up under pressure. Her work focuses on the often-overlooked foundation of executive presence: the internal state that drives clarity, confidence, and influence in real-time communication.
What makes Annie particularly relevant for your audience is her perspective that executive presence is not just a skill set—it is a physiological and psychological state. Many capable leaders struggle to speak up effectively, communicate clearly, or project confidence not because they lack knowledge or communication training, but because stress, cognitive overload, and nervous system dysregulation interfere with how they show up in critical moments.

The Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to speak up in executive meetings
Executive Influence
How to communicate with senior leadership
How to develop executive presence
How to be seen as VP material
How to influence executives
How to stop overexplaining at work
How to answer executive questions concisely
How to handle pushback from senior leaders
How to increase visibility with leadership
Director-to-VP transition

Are you Director or Above Who Wants Faster Promotions, More Influence, and Stronger Executive Presence?

Book a confidential Executive Presence Strategy Call to discover the communication patterns that help high performers get seen as senior leaders.
👉 Book Your Executive Strategy Call here

Have you ever stayed silent when a senior leader was making a mistake because the last time you spoke up, it backfired?

Maybe you challenged a boss and were labeled difficult. Maybe an executive embarrassed you in a meeting. Or maybe you've learned that disagreeing with powerful people can come at a professional cost.

Now, even when you have the expertise and evidence to challenge a decision, you hesitate. And that hesitation could be costing you opportunities to demonstrate your strategic value and influence important business outcomes.

Here's what high-performing leaders need to know: You don't have to choose between staying silent and creating conflict.

By the end of this episode you’ll know:

🔑Why past experiences with difficult executives can keep you silent today, even when you know your perspective could prevent a costly mistake.

🧰How to use Laura’s top technique to challenge assumptions, raise concerns, and protect important executive relationships.

🎯How to turn disagreement into influence without becoming defensive.

If you've ever walked out of a leadership meeting thinking, "I knew that was a bad decision, but I didn't say anything," this episode is for you.

Press play to learn how to push back with confidence, make your expertise heard, and influence better decisions without unnecessary confrontation.

So look, if you're a director, senior director, or VP who regularly sees risks or problems that senior leaders are overlooking, but you're struggling to get them to take your perspective seriously, I want you to think about something.

How many times have you watched a decision go forward, knowing it was going to create problems, only to find yourself and your team dealing with the consequences later?

It's frustrating because you know you have the experience and judgment to contribute at a higher level. But being right doesn't automatically mean you're influencing the decision.

And that's exactly what we work on inside Executive Presence Mastery.

I help you develop the communication skills and executive presence to challenge assumptions, handle pushback, and get your ideas heard by the people making important decisions, without coming across as confrontational or difficult.

If you're ready to be seen as a strategic leader whose perspective carries weight, schedule a strategy call with me here.

We'll look at what's getting in the way of your influence and how we can help you change that.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to speak up in executive meetings
Executive Influence
How to communicate with senior leadership
How to develop executive presence
How to be seen as VP material
How to influence executives
How to stop overexplaining at work
How to answer executive questions concisely
How to handle pushback from senior leaders
How to increase visibility with leadership
Director-to-VP transition
How to disagree with senior leadership

Are you Director or Above Who Wants Faster Promotions, More Influence, and Stronger Executive Presence?
Book a confidential Executive Presence Strategy Call to discover the communication patterns that help high performers get seen as senior leaders.
👉 Book Your Executive Strategy Call here

If you were sitting across from yourself in a meeting, would you find yourself interesting?

Would you lean forward, eager to hear what you had to say?

You may be brilliant at what you do, but if your ideas aren't capturing attention, your expertise could be going unnoticed. And for high-performing introverted leaders, being the most prepared person in the room doesn't always translate into influence, recognition, or career opportunities.

The good news? You don't need a bigger personality, a louder voice, or a complete communication makeover to become more memorable.

In this Fun Friday episode of Speak Up, Laura Camacho shares The Boring Test, inspired by television producer Maz Farrelly's powerful insights on earning attention and making people care. Discover three simple questions that can transform how you show up in meetings, communicate your value, and build an executive presence that gets noticed.

By the end of this short episode you’ll know how to:

🚀Turn routine status updates into compelling insights that make busy executives lean in, listen, and care about your ideas.

🔥Challenge predictable communication habits to stand out in meetings without pretending to be someone you're not.

🧲Make your unique strengths more visible and memorable so colleagues recognize your value, trust your judgment, and think of you for bigger opportunities.

Press play to discover three small changes that can make your next meeting more impactful, your contributions more memorable, and your executive presence more influential.

And if you're a senior leader who is tired of being the reliable, hardworking person who gets all the assignments but not the recognition, that's exactly the kind of challenge we tackle in my Executive Presence Mastery System.
Here is the scheduling link to explore working together.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to speak up in executive meetings
Executive Influence
How to communicate with senior leadership
How to develop executive presence
How to be seen as VP material
How to influence executives
How to stop overexplaining at work
How to answer executive questions concisely
How to handle pushback from senior leaders
How to increase visibility with leadership
Director-to-VP transition
Executive presence as an introvert

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

What if the biggest thing holding back your career isn't a lack of talent or opportunity—but your willingness to keep doing things the way everyone else does?

In this thought-provoking conversation, legendary television producer and top international speaker Maz Farrelly shares the unconventional thinking that helped her create wildly successful television shows, build fiercely loyal teams, and reinvent her career after 30 years in entertainment.

From the surprising strategy behind The Weakest Link to the boss who accused her of being too well-liked by her team, Maz challenges conventional wisdom about creativity, leadership, and success.

In Laura’s conversation with TV producer Maz Farrelly, you'll learn:

🧲How to break away from conventional thinking by making something better—or doing the exact opposite—to create opportunities others overlook.

🧩Why treating your team with kindness, celebrating their achievements, and taking responsibility for their success can make you a stronger, more effective leader.

🚀How to stop overthinking, embrace calculated risks, and take greater ownership of your career, happiness, and the decisions that shape your future.

Listen now to discover how thinking differently, leading with courage, and taking action can help you create the career and life you truly want.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

About our guest:
Maz Farrelly spent more than 30 years creating television viewed eight BILLION times—programmes that sparked office arguments, dinner-table debates, and cultural obsessions. Her expertise goes beyond getting attention: she knows how to make people care.
Having worked with global leaders, CEOs, and international stars including Beyoncé, Pink, Usher, and King Charles, Maz now brings that same psychology into conference halls and boardrooms around the world. Her message is simple: whether you want people to listen, trust, buy, lead, or embrace change, you first have to give them a reason to care.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to speak up in executive meetings
Executive Influence
How to communicate with senior leadership
How to develop executive presence
How to be seen as VP material
How to influence executives
How to stop overexplaining at work
How to answer executive questions concisely
How to handle pushback from senior leaders
How to increase visibility with leadership
Director-to-VP transition