Who is Janell Payne?
Janell Payne is a Training and Development Consultant, Experienced Educator and Exec. Communications Coach of unparalleled experience. She works with ambitious business professionals who want to break free of their comfort zones and elevate their speaking and communication skills. She was born in San Jose, California and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.
But before becoming a highly sought after communications coach, Janell was a dancer. She spent decades being trained and evaluating her movements in a studio surrounded by mirrors. Dancing is where she learned that practice makes progress, and that engaging an audience requires intention and strategy: both lessons she has carried into her life’s work: coaching.
Janell describes all communication as a dance. Clear communication, whether 1:1 or 1 to many, takes effort, anticipation, interpretation, flexibility, reciprocity, and adaptability. Public speaking is no different. People listening to a speaker are hungry for human connection, relevance to them (WIIFM), interaction and conversation. A person might possess an inherent “strength” when it comes to public speaking, but that advantage means very little without practice.
You may be familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers; and Janell agrees, there is no substitute for doing the work. Janell coaches her clients to confidently and authenticity communicate a message that results in action.
“Speaking isn’t about perfection, it’s about engagement.”
“I will often tell people, no matter what you’re into, beer brewing, marathoning or bread baking, whatever your jam is, you won’t see improvement unless you practice, create new muscle memory, and have strategies to measure your improvement.”
Education & Experience
Janell has a BA in Communication Studies from San Diego State University and a Masters in Communication Studies with Honors from San Jose State University, where she earned a certification in Mediation.
Janell’s work experience is vast and varied: starting with positions in post production and production at MTV as a Communication Liaison, for two of MTV’s hit reality television series: The Osbournes and The Newlyweds in Los Angeles; and teaching Public Speaking, and Interpersonal Communication as Adjunct Faculty at San Jose State University.
Janell spent 13 years in Higher Ed., both teaching for the academic and corporate client side; as well as partnering with administration leadership on fundraising events, and serving on the Academic Senate as well as a variety of other committees. She taught COMMS at a dozen different colleges from 2006 – 2019. Her academic courses in: Listening, Public Speaking, Collaboration, Facilitation, Collaborative Debate, and Group Decision Making evolved into Professional Development courses for corporate clients in later years. The latter topics include: speaking and presenting in the workplace, leadership and supervisory skills, delegation strategies, strengths, teamwork, emotional intelligence, leading effective meetings, motivating peers and resolving conflict.
In 2008 Janell joined Boutique Comms Firm, Bold Echo Communication Solutions, in the Bay Area where she is a Lead-Coach, prepping speakers in high tech for big stage Keynotes, Annual Conferences and Tedtalks. She also works with start-ups and established senior leadership at Fortune 500 companies locally and around the globe.
Since 2008, Janell has focused on coaching professionals in small business, organizations of all kinds, and big companies. Of all the work she delivers, these four exemplar projects “take the cake”:
- Working with students: During the pandemic she coached six high potential (some already CEO of their own company) Stanford MBA students to craft their messaging and stage presence for their LOWKeynote Address for the world.
- Working with local leaders: In 2019, She designed, led and coached a Leadership Series for the Camas School District. She received a phone call from a leader in the Vancouver School District to discuss rolling out a similar training when Covid shut down the world.
- Working with entrepreneurs: In 2019, Janell volunteered for the OEN (Oregon Entrepreneur Network) coaching three finalists, competing to win the prize money to start/launch a food product company. CEO of Cajun Life won the prize money to fund and launch his starts up, A Cajun Life https://acajunlife.com/)
- Coaching young leaders to speak with presence as they transition from principal dancers into leadership roles for their Non Profit Dance Company in San Diego, CA.
Janell has taken classes at Groundlings Improv Theater and School in LA (Groundlings who have gone onto “Saturday Night Live” (Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig…where countless other queens and kings of comedy were discovered) and uses her improv experience to facilitate trainings, discussions and meetings as well as coach her clients to use facilitation best practices and techniques.
In 2012 Janell joined award winning and internationally renowned woman owned comms firm, PowerSpeaking. With PowerSpeaking she is a Master Facilitator and Exec. Coach, working with every level of professional IC – CSuite for high stakes presentations for companies including: Apple, Ebay, Genentech, Gilead, Salesforce, LAM Research, Lululemon, NetApp, Docusign, and dozens of other globally recognized Fortune 500 companies. In 2019, Janell joined emotional intelligence company Oji Life Lab as a consultant.
In the Pacific Northwest, she has coached, consulted, and taught clients in: Portland, White Salmon, Hood River, Ridgefield, Bend, Vancouver and Camas where she lives with her husband, daughter and son.
Fun Facts
Janell loves to bowl and believes that if you can successfully wait tables and drive a 5-speed automobile, (or…if you have survived childbirth) you can do anything!
Where is Janell Located?
Janell lives in Camas, Washington and the majority of her focus is on coaching leaders in the Pacific Northwest; however she coaches clients worldwide via Zoom, and she can be hired to visit corporate headquarters to lead workshops on communications tactics.
What is Communication Coaching?
Communication coaching covers three broad areas: interpersonal communications (one-on-one or small groups), presence (leading meetings and medium sized groups, both formally and informally), and presentation skills (for high-level meetings, speeches, and pitches).
A communication coach like Janell offers her clients strategies that cover all the levels of efficient communication listed above, and also drill down and put heavy emphasis on any single area that a client wants to improve in. Learn more about the specific services Janell offers individuals.
Communication coaching isn’t just for the individual though: groups benefit greatly from Janell’s high energy, engaging workshops; either in person or through a webinar or 1:1 virtual setting.
Who Benefits From Working With Janell?
Without a hint of hesitation, Janell’s answer to this question is: everyone.
“I could be working for a startup founder, a doctor, a non-profit’s executive, a fortune 500 CEO; it doesn’t matter if it’s tech or pharma or whatever– people are the same in terms of what they want to become better at. They tell me, I want to become concise, speak with clarity, minimize fillers, and look more confident. People are consistent in terms of what they want.”
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – Mark Twain
But who does Janell most enjoy working with? Leaders who are “coachable” (willing to be vulnerable). “People who are coachable are the best ones to work with, they want to grow and perform better and put in the time to practice. Somebody who is vulnerable enough to say ‘I could be better at this, and I’m willing to do the work’”
Janell also relishes opportunities to work with women in business. She is particularly gifted at helping women of all stripes navigate the sometimes thorny paths of being a leader in typically male dominated fields.