An exploration of how we speak and why, as well as a guide to help those who have been historically silenced—think women and people of color—own their voices, from a high profile speech and dialect coach and podcast host.
PERMISSION TO SPEAK:
How to Use Your Voice to Get What You Want
by Samara Bay
Crown, February 2023
Anyone who has ever been told “You should speak up!” during a presentation at the office, a group project at school, or even a conversation among friends can attest to the misunderstanding at the heart of that demand. For those of us—women, people of color, immigrants, outsiders—who find it hard to speak up, the issue is not just about willpower. Many of us have internalized the same messages since birth: that because of the pitch of our voice, the accent we possess, or the slang we use, we will not be taken seriously. Power, we’re told, sounds like the mostly white, straight, wealthy men who wield it.
Samara Bay has made it her mission to change that, and with PERMISSION TO SPEAK she presents a fun and practical road map for making big cultural change while embracing our natural strengths. Bay is one of the most in-demand speech and dialect coaches in Hollywood, and here she draws on her extensive experience and the latest research in public speaking, linguistics, and social science to identify tools for unlocking the potential in each of our voices—whether you’re an entrepreneur, a new political candidate, a creative type, or a mom going back to work. Through writing that crackles and hums with her conviction that the voice is an endlessly manipulable instrument, she shows us that we can—with awareness and intention—become a catalyst for personal and societal revolution.
You’ll learn how to practice enough that you’re prepared but think on your feet so you can pivot in the moment; how to seem confident enough to be credible yet human enough to be believed; and how to have fun but speak with the gravitas your subject requires. Giving yourself permission means more than landing your message—it’s about finding all of the joy in speaking to your public.
With simple tools, big ideas, and a whole lot of heart, PERMISSION TO SPEAK offers a revolutionary take on public speaking and a new definition of what power sounds like. Namely, you.
Samara Bay is a content developer and Hollywood communication coach who helps creatives, businesspeople, scientists, and brands tell their story. She hosts the Permission to Speak podcast on iHeartRadio. Samara is also a moderator at Silicon Beach tech conferences, a member of the leadership council for the UN’s first ever summit on the role of the media in promoting social causes, a workshop teacher with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and a dialect/speech coach to actors in Hollywood. Recent projects include: Netflix’s Red Notice with her client Gal Gadot and Amazon Prime’s Hunters, Season 2.
Jane Quinn is a street-smart, young, blonde with music in her blood: raised a stone’s throw from the beachfront Bayleen Island Folk Fest, Jane’s mother was a songwriter who was tragically robbed of proper credit for her work. Jane writes the music and fronts the small time local rock band Harpoon, while her guitarist writes the lyrics. It’s 1969, and this year’s Folk Fest is rabid for the appearance of Jesse Reid, the tall, soft-spoken singer with a baritone voice that’s made him the heir apparent of folk rock. When Jesse crashes his motorcycle en route to the concert, Harpoon takes the stage in his place, and Jane’s confident soaring vocals steal the show. As Jane prepares to settle back into Island life with her cousin, aunt, and grandmother, her work as a caregiver soon thrusts her into the path of none other than Jesse Reid, in town recovering from the near-fatal crash. Romance blossoms between Jane and Jesse just as Jane embarks on her recording career, with Jesse acting as a guardian angel as she contends with the rampant sexism in the industry. With Jesse’s encouragement, Jane begins to write her own lyrics, and the world begins to take notice when Harpoon go on tour as Jesse’s opener. Just as Jane is beginning to carve out a legacy for herself in the shadow of Jesse’s fame, she realizes that Jesse is battling heroin addiction and overnight everything she is building unravels. Jane wants honesty from Jesse, but she’s keeping a secret of her own and the resulting turmoil ultimately adds fodder to her confessional groundbreaking album Songs in Ursa Major.
Working as a wench—i.e. waitress—at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college. But company policy only allows guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets to internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. The Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight, though. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms, and in a joust before Castle executives, they’ll have to prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval—if they don’t get fired first. Filled with witty historical and pop culture references, this book has a sweet, clean friends-to-lovers romance that will satisfy readers looking for a love story without overwhelming the main action.
Aldermere is a town with its own set of rules: there’s a tea shop that vanishes if you try to force your way in, crows that must be fed or they’ll go through your trash, and a bridge that has a toll that no one knows the cost of. Some say that there may even be bigfoots wandering through the woods.