Transform Your Life With PRESENCE,

Fill It With IMPACT

What is this thing called Presence?

It’s this subtle and powerful aspect of your communication – and is often noticed in you by others even before you speaking a word. Everyone can find it.

First, and foremost, it’s where you put your attention. The world tells us to embody “Look at me!”

What if we were to embody “There you are!”?

When we attend to our presence – a deeper way of listening

– we connect to ourselves and other people in a more meaningful way.

Hello, I’m Martha.

I reside in New York City.

I am deeply devoted to having my clients present and project themselves in the most powerful way possible.

I coach and facilitate communication skills with a special focus on the non-verbal. When this aligns with the messages you create – those which connect to the real needs of your listener, you have complete communication.

The programs in Presence exist to bring you greater mastery and skill when in environments that throw you into uncertainty at any given moment.

I offer coaching and training courses where you are able to find a more powerful Presence with great impact.

How do you do this?

Actually, my clients do it themselves. They use the distinctive, proven skills & practices offered and coached. They apply them. First, by getting the language and narrative right & resonant. Then, with their presence, impact & physical expression.

Today, with so many distractions, it seems that capturing and holding someone’s attention is wildly challenging. When you show up to them as fully open, present and connected to yourself and to them, you are seen and heard by your listeners and all while holding great ease, comfort and confidence.

It begins with building rapport – even with diverse audiences. When you master this, your ideas are more readily accepted; and you make your unique contributions.

My clients tell me that they feel more comfortable in their skin. Their work relationships have improved and that they are now seen as the expert they are. Whether you are in school or in business, your impact is needed. Stand out.

“We are having to develop a new resiliency, adaptability and the great power to change things, to create things, and to bring more opportunity and joy to others.“

Jacqueline Hobbs

Work with me

Coaching

Courses

Vocal Presence

Supporting people to get their messages and voice heard – and acted upon – so that they can make their contribution and enjoy their work with great comfort, ease and confidence.

The coaching and courses offered are well-suited to help leaders, business people, students, women, and others express themselves with a true and powerful presence. Special attention given to physical presence with a straightforward approach and defined process for you to get yourselves heard.

Let’s be in touch.

I publish a blog from time to time where I share practices, methods, insights, interesting stories and resources with you. I send out information through email on online courses, tiny courses and events.

I have a limited Social Media presence. I use the time to learn, create and to be. This is our best way to connect.

What My Clients Are Saying

"Martha, the morning session was absolutely transformative. The opportunity to share space, movement and breath with others was so impactful; understanding we have a kindred bond to connect with others, to share, to learn was amazing. You helped bring out the best of our selves. I would love to arrange a time for you to visit my campus as I would love to gift a session to women of my inner circle…will be back in touch with you shortly to explore.”
CEO, Healthcare Research

“Martha’s work and her techniques transcend both the professional and personal. She individualizes programs to lead to execution, leadership and team development. Her focus on essential skills trains from C-Suite to entry-level. All of the above is most critical at this time when cultures have to blend “old guard” and millennials and we all need to evolve, communicate and empower for success.”
MD, Financial Services

“I am in a new C-Level role and there is nothing that you and I have done over the years we’ve worked together that I’ve ever done before. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t rely on the skills you taught me to be successful in this role.”
CFO – Pharma Business

“Thank you so much for your coaching session over a year. It was a great pleasure to work with you. I strongly feel that your sessions are very effective and useful for my future career. In addition, most importantly, it was fun!”
Professional Services Firm Partner, Japanese Leadership Academy

“I just completed my third training with Martha Gelnaw and each session builds on one another. The classes are motivational, fun and highly educational and seem to get better each time! Martha is an experienced professional that has help me both professionally and personally. I am a big fan of the Improvisation session because I believe that every sales call is an improvisation. “Feeling my Feet” and “Being in the Moment” are two skills learned in the training that could be implemented immediately.”
Director, Global Pharma Company

“Working in the male-dominated trading floor environment made it hard for me [a woman] to feel recognized. Martha’s use of role-playing situations made it easier for me to introduce myself, assert my ideas in meetings, and gain credit for my work which allowed me to advance in my career.”
Director, Sales & Trading, Global Investment Bank

“I contracted Martha to work with my senior team who was preparing to present at a high stakes internal conference with an audience of 800 during a critical juncture for our practice. She worked carefully with each person to bring out their best, most engaging style and persuasive message. This was no easy task as these were people who are highly technical and not used to exhibiting a compelling stage presence. The results were very good and each person was happy with the outcome from the meeting.”
Senior Project Manager, Big Four Professional Services Firm

“Martha helped me become confident, relaxed, clear and organized – and to come across as an expert willing to help the audience while presenting trade ideas to greater than a hundred clients who had various levels of expertise.”
Director, Sales and Trading, Investment Bank

“I attended a program that Martha facilitated early in my career … [her] coaching has made me more self-aware of my communication style … I attribute the outstanding results to Martha’s deep experience in advising executives at all levels, acting training and sincere interest in seeing everyone succeed. Martha has really made a difference!”
Finance Director, Pharma firm

“I worked with Martha during a time of much change in my career, including a significant increase in responsibility. I realized that having great drive, a creative and strategic mind, and a successful track record were not going to be enough, and that I needed to SHOW my confidence in my capabilities in order to have credibility in my new role. Martha helped me learn how to portray my full confidence, and to have my presence embody my strength. Her coaching and guidance has had a significant impact on my ability to shine!”
SVP, Director, Financial Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Why be Present?

Our interactions are relational, not transactional. What happens when we offer our distraction rather than our full attention? We lose trust. To be present is to give attention and to take attention in equal measure.

Why would I want to focus on my Presence?

There are many reasons. Here’s one: When our body is misaligned with our intention, it creates an incongruence that potentially produces a lack of trust. People believe what they see more than what they hear. If an inconsistency exists, they may not accept what you say as true.

Another is, it is possible to communicate differently once we are able to finally quiet our inner critic. If we are hijacked by a fear of judgment or by anxious thinking, we may not speak up to share our ideas. Our important contribution is lost. Take heart! There’s an app for that. (meaning an application or practice)

What does it take to have Presence and Impact?

When we practice being fully connected to ourselves, and then we can connect to another person in a meaningful way. This does take practice. It may feel vulnerable. Intimate. One can learn to hold that. I like to say “This is an inside job.” The coaching and training programs offer you this.

We work into an ease and comfort and what is you and your unique personality.

Do you have to be a leader to need presence and impact?

Absolutely not. We don’t need to be a leader by title or role. It has nothing to do with rank. To paraphrase Simon Sinek’s What makes a great leader?

“Some sit at the highest level of an organization and they are not leaders. We do as they tell us because they hold authority but we do not trust them.”

He goes on to say: “There are those who are at the lower levels of the organization who have no formal authority but they have made a choice to look after the person to the left of them and to look after the person to the right of them and we would follow them anywhere.

Leadership is the awesome responsibility to see those around us rise. Every one of us can choose to be the leader we wished we had. We will lead our teams and our clients when we do everything in our power to see them rise – to see them achieve their ambitions and their dreams.”

I’ve found that people look for the body of a leader. If they don’t find it, they move on.

What’s the difference between presence and impact?

Presence is a state of alignment with your physical. It’s a deeper form of listening. Impact is the effect that it has on the listener. It can also have a physical component to it as well.

Why Vocal Presence?

We must get ourselves heard at the back of the room. I’ve noticed that even the most seemingly powerful person can retract their voice in some way. If our listener cannot hear us or experience our resonance and our breath is cut off, they may not have the psychic energy to struggle to tune in. They can simply give up.

What does it look like to work on this?

When you join a course, a class or coaching, you bring your real life, real-time situations. The principles and practices are applied directly to the outcomes you seek. It’s not theoretical nor hypothetical. You are able to take away those applications that work for you. And then you use them over and over again until it becomes second nature.

What would characterize your style?

I don’t do anything unless it involves a measure of fun. I like to say, “It’s not brain surgery.” Why not relax and have fun learning and not take ourselves so darn seriously.