Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherhara Downing.
Hi Sherhara, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m on a mission to make human interaction and connection effortless. My journey started as high school class president to college emcee for every event. Then travel the world speaking on behalf of brands to coaching companies and their teams–but the common denominator has always been helping humans connect with other humans through communication.
Public speaking and engaging listeners have always been a gift and talent but it became my full-time profession when I transformed that talent into a skill. To continue this work, I cofounded SpeakHaus with Christa Clarke, where we offer team transformation through communication on our on-demand coaching platform. Oddly enough, socializing, initiating conversation, and creating spaces that people feel comfortable sharing have become my practice ground for growing professionally.
What I learn from people is how to connect, engage, influence, and inspire. So many of our desires and ambitions are contingent upon our relationships with the people around us. We need people and my work at its core is about the power of human connection and how it enriches our lives!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
You don’t know what you don’t know. If you’re anything like me, you’ve experienced setbacks and tough failures all because you lacked information… that you didn’t even realize… you didn’t have. That’s been my struggle. Navigating entrepreneurship is about quickly learning from mistakes and equipping yourself with other people’s wisdom, so you avoid future pitfalls. But I’m proud to say, each struggle has resulted in some type of success!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about SpeakHaus?
SpeakHaus equips enterprises and high-growth startups with on-demand communications coaching programs for teams— at scale. The SpeakHaus Coaching Platform leverages self-guided, asynchronous collaborative training experiences and professional coaching to build teams of engaged collaborators and confident communicators.
The SpeakHaus Coaching Platform uses machine learning to quickly create customized and scalable team coaching pathways that are further personalized for individual team members. SpeakHaus’ mission—equipping the next generation of leaders to thrive in business and communicate with confidence. We believe your voice should never be one of the barriers you experience along your path to success. Our purpose is to make human connection effortless, so everyone can confidently share their voice and gifts with the world.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My curiosity has been extremely important to my success. I appease my curiosity by asking questions, diving into conversations, and learning what people are passionate about. My curiosity for people and human connection has helped me build a network of customers, advisors, and supporters. Those relationships are what create any success I experience.
Just so you know, curiosity is one of my values. I never thought defining and visiting my values regularly would help me evolve as a leader. I’m getting better in ways I’ve avoided and it’s because I’ve been committing to my values. Courage, Creativity, Curiosity, Connection, Community, Champagne, and Crown Royal! Each is a value that reminds me of who I am and who I’m becoming. If you haven’t made space to honor your values, this is a sign. Get in tune!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.speakhaus.com
- Instagram: @sherhara
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/speakhaus/
