Helping You Speak Up

My name is Joanne Whitlock, and I spent years feeling frustrated with my own silence and inability to speak up. I was told to "just be confident" or "just speak" - but I always failed.

Trying to understand why led me to become fascinated by the subject of speaking itself. I spent eight years as a visiting professor in Madrid teaching speaking skills, and two years training teachers in Kazakhstan. Along the way, I ran Freedom of Information research across 133 UK universities - every single one expects students to self-advocate for support with participation, and none of them teach how.

That gap is what I've spent the years since researching and building tools for. I'm the author of ten books, including the Seven Reasons framework for understanding why capable people hold back from speaking.

Now, through Quiet in Class and Cantomax, I write, research, and share what I've learned - helping others skip the self-blame and get straight to what actually works.