What happens when you know your stuff, you’ve done the preparation, you have something important to say…and then you get into the room and start second-guessing yourself?

In this episode of The HR Big Meet Podcast, Emma Djemil is joined by communications coach, keynote speaker and comedian Louise Stevenson to talk about finding your voice, backing yourself and communicating with confidence when it actually matters.

Louise is CEO of Speakeasy Coaching and has more than 25 years’ experience in stand-up comedy - including teaching Emma how to get on stage and attempt to make strangers laugh. So naturally, we explore what comedy can teach us about confidence, dealing with challenge and being OK with the fact that not everyone is going to like you.

We talk about:

• Why so many capable women wait until they feel completely ready before speaking up
• What actually makes someone persuasive
• How to handle difficult questions without panicking or pretending you know everything
• Why bringing your personality and humour into work doesn’t make you less credible. Quite the opposite.

We also get into the self-belief underneath all of this: how you stop relying on other people to validate your expertise and start recognising the evidence that you’re actually pretty bloody good at what you do.

If you’ve ever stayed quiet in a meeting, over-prepared because you were terrified of being challenged, or waited for permission to say what you already knew needed saying, this one’s for you.

Louise works with organisations, leadership teams and individuals through in-house workshops, group coaching programmes and 1:1 coaching through Speakeasy Coaching. She also runs public masterclasses, including Find Your Voice, throughout the year.

Her next masterclass on 25 September 2026 covers being heard, influencing senior stakeholders, communicating with confidence and getting buy-in - and if you message Louise over on LinkedIn and mention this podcast to sign up by 14th September 2026, she is offering you £25 off!

If this episode resonated, firstly, welcome. You are very much amongst your people here.

You can connect with Emma on LinkedIn, where she spends a lot of time talking about confidence, leadership, visibility, self-trust and the realities of working in HR.

If you're at a point in your career where you're questioning things, feeling stuck, disconnected from yourself or wanting greater impact without sacrificing your entire nervous system in the process, Emma also works with women in HR through 1:1 coaching. Find out more about that here.

If you enjoyed this episode, do all the lovely podcast-y things: subscribe, leave a review, share it with your HR bestie, or stick it on LinkedIn so more women realise they're not the only ones feeling this stuff.

🎙️ Subscribe for more conversations about confidence, leadership, vulnerability and sustainable impact in HR.

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