Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Lee Bonvissuto, Founder of PresentVoices, located in New York, NY, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I founded my company - PresentVoices, to change the way we communicate at work, so we are listening to—and being led by—more types of voices. I offer private communication coaching to help folks access and articulate their best ideas in their most important moments. I also work with teams to help them collectively communicate with more presence, precision, and power.

I love working with founders and freelancers to help them articulate their strategic vision in off-the-cuff circumstances. Leading internal meetings, hiring, fundraising, pitching, new client calls, networking, etc. The people I support want to feel more present and powerful in their everyday professional communication. I help folks develop and ingrain a personal process to be activated in moments of spontaneous speaking so they can speak up and show up with authenticity and authority.

I’m passionate about dismantling systems that are silencing voices in our society so that they can hear more of us. I do the work because I know what it means to have debilitating anxiety disrupt my ability to articulate my ideas in important moments.

Tell us about yourself

I was raised by a mime and had tremendous social anxiety, holding me back in my career. I spent over a decade in an active panic attack—I was confident doing the work itself, but the moment I had to talk about myself or my career, I’d have heart palpitations, throat constriction, air hunger, and vocal shakiness. I would lose my train of thought (and personality) and get formal, especially around seniority. I was in a cycle of feeling flustered and frustrated, reinforced by my inability to communicate effectively in moments that mattered most to me.

During this time, I worked as the assistant to a neuropsychologist, where I learned about trauma, anxiety, executive functioning, and attention. I combined my experience as a theater director to help myself and others feel more powerful and present in the here-and-now (instead of in the past and future). I started to do my work now in public hospitals, helping frontline staff communicate with compassion and clarity. Since then, I’ve helped thousands of people communicate with more comfort, confidence, and cohesion across industries.

Every day, I hear from people who feel like there’s something wrong with how they communicate. They think they need to change who they are or how they speak to be heard. This extra layer of effort is often getting in the way, leading to over-analyzing, over-thinking, and over-preparing. This can be especially true for folks whose voices have been more historically marginalized and have had to work harder to be heard. I’m driven by helping people trust that their voices are perfect. This work is unlearning—we work to remove the layers of effort and over-thinking that are getting in the way of them accessing and articulating their ideas in their most challenging moments.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment is creating supported spaces where folks can practice communicating with more confidence, by themselves or in a group. I’m honored to serve so many types of voices every day. The people I support have so much to say, but they struggle articulating it off-the-cuff. They have a clear vision that will impact their communities and workplaces but have trouble speaking their truth into existence. I serve as an outside eye and sounding board to help them access and articulate their vision. I recently launched The PresentVoices Collective, a supported virtual space where my clients can practice speaking off-the-cuff in front of a small group. Their vision is more fully realized in defending their voices, and the impact is exponential in their lives, communities, and workplaces.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Trusting yourself as a leader and a business owner is key, especially for mission-driven founders and freelancers who care about being of service, which s can make us over-work, over-analyze, and over-prepare, disrupting our inherent ability to listen to ourselves and others. This is amplified for folks whose voices have been historically marginalized in workplaces. Over-working interrupts our intuition, and instead of listening to ourselves, we prioritize and center other peoples’ reactions, perceptions, and expertise. One of my favorite parts of this work is watching people build that trust for themselves (or get it back if their confidence has been shaken).

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Invest in Big Trust: If you’ve been given feedback that you need more confidence or executive presence, it can become a distraction at the moment as you strive for something that feels like it’s outside of yourself. Instead, reject the feedback and invest in your intuition instead. The definition of “confidence” is to trust boldly—we can’t always trust everything around us. Still, we can invest in trusting ourselves, our mission, and the folks we’re here to serve.
  2. Expect Self-Doubt: Most of us feel like an impostor or have self-doubt when doing something new. Accept that you will not feel confident all the time, especially in the beginning. Expecting that it will feel uncomfortable will help you trust yourself, even more when you inevitably experience self-doubt. Remember that everyone is figuring it out as they go along and that you can do it in your way.
  3. Speak to your people: Not everyone is your client (and that’s a good thing). Be loud about what you believe in so you attract the right people (and dissuade the wrong ones). Beware of trying to please everyone because that robs you of your ability to be yourself truly.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://presentvoices.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PresentVoices.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/presentvoices.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahbonvissuto/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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