Private Coaching Public Speaking Events
Private Coaching Public Speaking Events
Hi! My name is Janna. I help organizations and individuals communicate better, feel happier, and create better together. I do this using the tools of Applied Improvisation and Applied Storytelling. As a 17-year teacher of Improv and Storytelling, I co-founded the Storytelling programs at The Second City Training Center and Chicago Dramatists. I also teach creative group work for The Leadership Studio at the UC Booth School of Business, and the Innovation Academy at the University of Notre Dame.
In private practice, I do two things:
- I offer private communication coaching. Here, I help people prepare powerful public talks (for tech conferences, innovation summits, TED Talks, Moth GrandSlam competitions, Sunday sermons, even wedding speeches!). I also help people improve challenging professional communication (with colleagues, employees, clients or patients).
- I design and facilitate group workshops that are playful, joyful, and full of discovery. In-person or online, these fun, interactive workshops foster genuinely inclusive culture, and leave teams feeling happier, stronger, more connected, more creatively productive, and primed for innovation.
I tailor my work to each individual and every group, using a set of tools that were born in Chicago nearly a hundred years ago, created by a social scientist to help a city rise up after a Great War and a Great Depression. These Improv tools gave birth to Saturday Night Live and American comedy as we know it. I use Storytelling forms old as the hills to help people listen better, grow empathy, strengthen community, and put words to what matters to them. I share tools that performing artists use to get flexible and confident in our self-expression, while thriving in ensemble. I draw on what I learned about listening, growing up in the Arizona desert.
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Workshops & Teaming Activities
Workshops & Teaming Activities
Skill-building workshops improve group dynamics by strengthening empathy, listening, trust, and respect, which lead to improved collaboration and innovation. Teaming activities deepen connection and joy among team members through regular laughter, play and discovery.
Public Speaking & Communication Coaching
Public Speaking & Communication Coaching
Presentation coaching helps those preparing a live or recorded talk or presentation, to have relaxed, genuine, confident presence, and to wield the elements of great storytelling. Communication coaching helps those looking to feel more at ease and confident in dialogue.
When not coaching and facilitating, I also work as a producer, writer and performer.
I curate, host and produce a quarterly live storytelling show called Here Chicago. Before Covid, it regularly sold-out 150 seat theaters over 10 years. Right now it's on pause. Intuitive Treasure Hunter is a life-sized game played out in the world. I created it in 2005 to help restore access to players' creative intuition. It is now being offered online. Learn more.
Being a public speaker and performer is pretty different in these online times, but I'm enjoying the possibilities. I attend speaking engagements across all platforms & perform as a storyteller, actor and improvisor in digital spaces, too.
I write short stories and essays. I'm working on a book called Wonderful. Who knows when it'll be done! I also provide copy-writing and copy-editing services to businesses and individuals.
“Janna Sobel coaches with great insight and discernment. I'm an excellent public speaker and storyteller, but wanted support on an IT industry presentation for an international conference. We met for two sessions and her insights were profound, and profoundly helpful. I’m in SF and she’s in Chicago, so we met remotely on Skype, which worked fine. My presentation today was joyous, playful, smart, well-constructed, and authentic. I’m grateful Janna came along when I needed her intelligence, compassion, and unerring intuition. Thank you, Janna!”
- Mark Baum, Senior Application Developer at Soliant Consulting
- Mark Baum, Senior Application Developer at Soliant Consulting
“I’ve never met anyone who can make you feel more comfortable — or happy about — getting out of your head and in touch with the creative kid in you that knows how to play. Janna can bring a group together like no one else. She can take a room full of shy strangers and in 10 minutes they are rolling on the floor laughing together. This atmosphere of fun is the essence of learning, and it’s why I sought out classes with her not once but twice.”
- Jackson Cusick, Copywriter at Money Map Press
- Jackson Cusick, Copywriter at Money Map Press
“Janna helped me craft a personal tale into a Moth Grand Slam winning story! With a few specific and pointed questions, she clarified my intention honestly and humorously. She invites vulnerability and encourages strength at the same time. Not only an incredible coach, she's an inspiration.”
- Caitlin Costello, Operations Manager at City Staffing, NYC
- Caitlin Costello, Operations Manager at City Staffing, NYC
“Janna is a wonderworker. The magic of her teaching is learning to let your own life speak. Whatever your occupation, and whether you’re a seasoned speaker or trying to get more comfortable with public presentation, Janna is an expert guide. She builds my confidence and sharpens my tools to mine a story for its treasures. You will be stretched, and you will grow in your own wisdom, having more fun than you can imagine in the process.”
- Elizabeth Moriarty, Lead Organizer for Industrial Areas Foundation & United Power, Chicago
- Elizabeth Moriarty, Lead Organizer for Industrial Areas Foundation & United Power, Chicago
“Working with Janna on my keynote address for a pivotal leadership summit was both a joy and a valuable learning experience. My presentation was a success, and Janna was a huge part of that. She coached me as I developed the talk, and she helped me maintain a balance of professional content and meaningful human connection. Janna is knowledgeable, professional, empathetic, gentle and fun. Two thumbs up!”
- Moises Norena, Vice President of Innovation at Moen and Fortune Brands
- Moises Norena, Vice President of Innovation at Moen and Fortune Brands
"I had a brand new team of people with widely ranging backgrounds who'd be collaborating intensely for 3 months. I brought Janna in the first week to help the group bond and build off each other’s ideas. In a fearless and nurturing way, Janna lead the team through a series of exercises that created an incredibly supportive environment that allowed each person to share their creativity and be vulnerable. She had a profound effect on each person individually and on the group dynamic - setting the tone for how we’d work. She was the first of 25 guests we had with us over the course of 3 months, and when I asked the team who stood out and really made an impact, it was Janna’s workshop they said would stay with them the most."
- Maria Scileppi, Founding Director of 72U at 72andSunny
- Maria Scileppi, Founding Director of 72U at 72andSunny
“Janna is one of those rare teachers who can teach about the world, while learning a world from her students.
She will listen to you as well as she listens to nature.”
- Viveca Malave, Singer/Songwriter
- Viveca Malave, Singer/Songwriter
“Janna Sobel is among the most uncommonly generous artists it's been my privilege to know. She is that rare person that's every bit as concerned with the craft and care so evident in her own work as she is with contributing to a broader artistic community. Her spirit of wonder, her unfailing candor and courage, and her stubborn refusal to abandon innocence combine to make her work nothing short of dazzling. The fact that she brings this energy and sense of artistic purpose to her work as curator, teacher, and citizen of Chicago's creative community is to our lasting benefit and good fortune.”
- Ian Belknap, Founder of Write Club, a national competitive live-lit series
- Ian Belknap, Founder of Write Club, a national competitive live-lit series
“People talk about community all of the time but Janna lives it, she radiates it. She creates an environment where even the most frightened
find courage to contribute and try new things. She opens doors for people to change the way they connect; in real, grounded and respectful ways.
With humor and intelligence, she opens herself in a way that shows all of us it's okay to do the same.”
Deanna Moffitt, Keynote Speaker and Leadership Consultant
Deanna Moffitt, Keynote Speaker and Leadership Consultant
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CONTACT
CONTACT
Please enter your information in the fields to the left, and I will reply within 24 hours.
I look forward to speaking with you!
Janna