What happens when the advice meant to help us succeed teaches us to distrust our own voice? In this conversation, Amy sits down with Create Magic At Work’s Resident Voice and Presence coach Sandra Bargman to explore a question that reaches far beyond communication skills. Are women being supported in finding their voice, or are they being taught to reshape themselves to fit environments that were never designed for them? Together, they unpack the hidden assumptions behind executive presence, the double standards that shape how authority is perceived, and the subtle ways women are encouraged to soften, edit, or second-guess themselves. From phrases like "Does that make sense?" to the criticism of vocal fry, filler words, and emotional language, the conversation challenges who gets to decide what credibility sounds like. Amy and Sandra also share what they are seeing inside the voice and presence coaching at Create Magic At Work with clients, where storytelling, breath, intention, and self-awareness often create deeper transformation than any communication technique. At its core, this episode is an invitation to stop asking how to sound more powerful and start asking whether we trust ourselves enough to be heard. Moments That Create Momentum: 1. Fixing Women or Fixing the Room — Explore why communication advice often focuses on changing women instead of challenging the environments where leadership is evaluated. 2. When Authenticity Gets Mistaken for Weakness — Understand how collaboration, emotional intelligence, and relational language are often judged differently depending on who is speaking. 3. Silence as a Leadership Skill — Discover why presence and confidence are often found in thoughtful pauses rather than faster responses. 4. The Stories We Are Most Afraid to Tell — Learn how the experiences we hide or dismiss often become our most powerful leadership lessons. 5. Presence Beyond Performance — See how breath, intention, and genuineness create trust and influence without requiring people to become someone they are not. Schedule a Voice & Presence Coaching Intro session - complimentary This 20-minute session with Amy Lynn Durham is the required first step for all Voice & Presence coaching at Magic Thread Media. We’ll walk through your vision/goals and then transition you directly into your 1:1 sessions with Sandra Bargman. Link to schedule - https://amylynndurham.as.me/voicepresenceintro Learn more - https://magicthreadmedia.com/services About the Guest: Sandra Bargman helps leaders unlock truthful presence with a blend of vocal mastery, storytelling skill, and deep emotional intelligence. Drawing from decades as an actor, singer, director, and life counselor, she teaches people to express themselves with clarity, authenticity, and intention. Her signature framework The B.I.G. Approach brings together breath and body work, vocal strength, diction, silence, mindfulness, and story craft, giving clients the tools to communicate with confidence and purpose. Whether she’s coaching one-on-one or leading groups, Sandra guides people of all ages and professions to access their inner truth, sharpen their message, and step into bolder, more grounded communication. Listen to Sandra’s podcast - The Edge of Everyday About Amy: Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work. She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality. Connect with Amy: https://createmagicatwork.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427 https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Mentioned in this episode: This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/
