Permission to Speak, by speech coach Samara Bay, is a timely and inspiring guide that offers a fresh perspective on public speaking and how to use your voice to make a difference. In a world where powerful people are expected to sound a certain way, Bay's revolutionary approach redefines what power sounds like and encourages readers to find their own voice. Through anecdotes, research, and practical exercises on breathing, emotion, pitch, and tone, Bay provides a comprehensive toolkit to help readers strike the right balance of strength and warmth to land their message. She also invites readers to reflect on their own voice story and offers insights on how to turn habits like vocal fry and upspeak into powerful tools. Overall, Permission to Speak is a must-read for anyone who wants to use their voice to lead and effect change in today's world.

Permission to Speak - How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with you is a practical guide to help those of us who are not the stereotypical wealthy white guy leader on how to use our voice and be heard. As a woman, this book offered me great examples and focus areas to help me be more aware of my voice and vocalizations. The book covers all aspects -- breath, size, emotions, pitch, tone, sounds, words and heroism. The last chapter is how to talk about ourselves and how to deal with imposter syndrome. There are exercises and visualizations throughout and I have already tried some of them and found them to be extremely helpful. This book is a great guide for anyone who is looking for more confidence when they speak and more awareness of how they come across to others. The author is a highly sought after voice coach and she knows what she is talking about. I recommend this book.

This is a gem of a book. From the moment I began reading it, Samara Bay's voice spoke to me, and it kept getting better from there on. As women we readers tend to downplay our own voice and to essentially stand in the wings, waiting to be heard above the din.

I had never heard of vocal fry or upspeak, but I recognized them immediately. Interestingly enough, when men use the same voice techniques they are not judged as harshly, yet women are judged as breathy, flighty or even unintelligent. This book is about tone of voice, quality of voice, yes, but also so much more. We are essentially the first generation of women to truly begin to have a place at the table of authority, and yet we, culturally, habitually, even evolution-wise, tend to take up less space in the world. We are taught to hold in our stomachs, hold down excitement, keep our voices moderate, and so on. This book is about spreading our arms wide, standing up tall, putting our elbows out and claiming our voices. It is not solely written for a female audience, but it truly did resonate with me. I believe anyone who speaks in public, needs a seat at the table to stand up for one's self can benefit from this book.

Thank you for sharing this important book with me.
I appreciate the chance to read it.
THANKS so much!

From the powerful cover to the amazing content, I truly love this book! It’s uplifting and lights a fire within to remind you of the strength you have.

How hard it is to say what you really want to say, especially with freedom, expression and confidence. As a youngster taught to be a quiet people pleaser, speaking out is not an easy task for me. How would I ever think I deserved respect when I talked?

I found this book fascinating. It is full of insights into how and why we speak as we do. It is a great help for an individual to find their particular voice, their authentic expression. I learned about pitch and tone, dialect and emotional expression. I had no idea showing emotions could be a powerful tool revealing passion rather than merely a sign of weakness. I like that Bay provides readers with choices, including options to change speaking habits. Awareness is key and once that is covered Bar provides suggestions and exercises, should we choose to change our voice. She draws from a wide variety of authorities in related disciplines.

While Bay has coached public speakers, this book is full of good insights if you want to sound confident making political speeches or when you phone in a customer complaint. It is especially valuable for women. Bar is interested in readers becoming the most powerful and potent authentic person possible. If you are ready to express your unique voice, this book will get you on your way. You can start by taking a deep breath.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Samara Bay's PERMISSION TO SPEAK could not have come at a better time. Her powerful, enjoyable guide lays out the power of how we communicate and ways to enhance our overall presentation when the stakes are high and we are under pressure. Now facing a presentation to an open-minded, but powerful group, I will use the insights and the lessons I learned to make my own speech as powerful and transformational as I dream. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

A nuts-and-bolts how-to book on the grammar of "power", how to sound like an authority when speaking privately or publicly. I appreciate how simple it is to follow the instructions and examples of what could have been a very vague book.

Permission to Speak by Samara Bay focuses on how women can get comfortable doing public speaking well by paying attention to the mind-body connection and our breathing. Samara says “breathing well before we speak is the most fundamental Way each of us has To either stand up for ourselves or undermine ourselves”. Think about it. If someone’s talking too fast or too slow and their breath is out of sync, we don’t really want to listen to them. Breathing well when we talk helps us relax and when we relax, we perform better at every task. Samara wants the readers of this book to be embodied talkers. And that also means stop apologizing so much, like so many women do when they talk! Samara covers many other helpful tips to help women feel at home addressing others and using their voices in a powerful manner.

Thank you Crown publishing for a copy of Permission to Speak. This is a timely read as many women think about goals for 2023 or are simply looking to process what life looks like post 2020 trains and in times of political, racial, ethnic and on going #metoo turmoil and change. How do you give yourself space to be you and speak? How do you get others to value your voice and acknowledge that others have a voice in all spaces where to work and leadership and change are happening? A book can't provide anyone answers but can lead an engaged and motivated reader into thought and perhaps action. Permission to speak might be the call to reflection and action many are seeking (or this is a great gift for graduation season!).

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to improve their ability to speak up for themselves whether for business or in the public speaking realm. The author gave some great tips and tricks to help anyone find their voice and speak from their heart. As a shy person I do find it difficult to be able to speak in front of large crowds and make it meaningful and not robotic. This book helped me see that I have to own my speech and that I don't have to lower my tone to make myself sound more like a man to be heard. There were many great examples and reasons behind each technique.

The book was broken down into 8 chapters, each delving into the aspects of speech. Many of the chapters had examples of what to do to improve that aspect of speech. For example in the Breath chapter there were techniques to improve your breathing. My only critique was that it did get a little wordy at times. (I know that may sound a little ironic.) Overall, I think this book was very helpful and the next time I have to do a presentation or officiate a ceremony for my school I plan on using many of these techniques.

Thank you to Crown Publishing, and Penguin Random House for this advanced copy.

“Permission to Speak” is a non-fiction book by Samara Bay, a vocal coach. Ms. Bay’s focus is about how to speak up and make your voice heard. This book is more geared toward women, but anyone who needs (or wants!) to become a more effective speaker can benefit from some of Ms. Bay’s tips. Some of the examples include breathwork, mental preparation, becoming loose, and showing passion (which she notes is different from emotion). I wish that there had been visual examples to accompany the words - such as drawings or a QR code to see examples. Ms. Bay is passionate about speaking in general, going beyond just how to present oneself to an audience. Ms. Bay also discusses empowerment and taking authority (in other words giving one permission to speak up, speak out, and be heard). In addition to her speaking suggestions, Ms. Bay also provides information from studies and book about speaking. She also provides examples from her work with clients - which made some of the stories/examples a lot more personal. However, I found this book to be a bit too heavy on woke-ness along with a lot of political slant. I also wished that this book had been organized a bit differently - such as a subheading in a chapter for a story and/or information from a study and a separate section for potential exercises. Ms. Bay did a podcast in 2020 and makes some references to that in this book. If this book interests you, take a listen to her podcast. Four stars for the overall information, two stars for the political slant - thus an average of three stars from me.