Meet Leslie Gaar:Writer, Performer, Public Speaking Coach
Hi, I’m Leslie.
I help anxious-but-determined people stop spiraling and start speaking with clarity, confidence, and passion, (yes, even if your palms sweat and your brain goes blank when you open your mouth).
I’m a public speaking coach, humor writer, and performer who knows what it’s like to have a million ideas and exactly zero words when it’s your turn to speak.
After years of performing on stage, (and literally falling off it once), leading workshops, and figuring out how to grab an audience’s attention even when they’re mid-meal, I’ve learned:
✨ You don’t need to be “perfect” to speak with confidence.
✨ A clear, simple structure can save you from babbling (and overthinking).
✨ Humor helps, but so does a deep breath.
Why I Do This:
Your ideas matter. Your stories matter. Your voice matters.
You deserve to share them without the panic sweats- whether it’s in a meeting, on a panel, at a conference, or in everyday conversations that feel bigger than they should.
How I Can Help:
✅ I work with entrepreneurs, creatives, professionals, and community leaders who want to stop spiraling before they speak and actually enjoy sharing their ideas.
✅ Through 1:1 or group coaching, I’ll help you:
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Clarify your message so you don’t ramble.
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Practice speaking in a way that feels natural (not robotic or overly formal).
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Manage your nerves with practical, realistic tools.
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Feel ready for meetings, panels, or presentations without feeling like you might throw up.
A Few Fun Things About Me:
🎤 I’m a performer, so I know how scary (and exciting!) a mic can be.
📚 I’m a humor writer because laughter is my favorite form of therapy. (Also actual therapy).
😅 I’ve definitely said “um” more than a few times in a row before- and survived.
✨ I believe speaking should feel like a conversation, not a test you’re about to fail.
Want to Speak Without the Panic Sweats?
✅ Grab my free Panic-Proof Speaking Guide to get started.
✅ Or contact me below to see if 1:1 or group coaching is right for you.
You don’t have to white-knuckle your way through every meeting or presentation. Let’s get you speaking without freaking!
Want to know more about my journey as a coach and creative? Read on.
My coaching journey
My journey into coaching started in 2012 somewhat as an accident. I had recently left the classroom to stay at home with my newborn twins, and I was hired by an education service center to coach new and struggling early childhood teachers.
I had taught for years, but I was nervous to take on this unfamiliar new role. But it didn’t take long to realize that even though I’d never done it formally, I was a natural coach.
I had garnered lots of wisdom from teaching as well as from my creative experience, and I found it incredibly satisfying to share this knowledge with my clients. Beyond that, it made me believe in the power of coaching.
Since then, I’ve shifted my coaching practice to focus on creatives and professionals.
Creatives often struggle to find someone who speaks their language and understands their career path looks different from a more traditional one. They may need help handling rejection, taming their inner critic, or juggling the demands of their work.
Professionals in other areas can feel intimidated by public speaking or presentations. Improving their communication skills and learning how to translate their authentic selves into their work and personal lives can be a game changer.
All the world's a stage (to me)
My first performance was at the age of five, when I was chosen to have my feet washed as part of a ritual during chapel. Even at that age, I knew an audience when I saw one, and I was not missing my opportunity to shine in front of the whole school.
I milked my time on stage- er, at the altar- taking my time as I put my shoes back on and smiled at everyone. The pastor actually had to pause the service because I was taking so long.
It was heaven.
I started taking ballet soon after, and I was hooked from day one. At 7, I had my first performance on an actual stage. At 12, I told my math teacher mom I was done with algebra because all I’d need to know as a grown-up was how to sign autographs.
By college, I was ready to branch out and try other performance types. My dance training had given me a lot, (discipline, precision, funky toes), but it had also instilled a nearly-crippling sense of perfectionism in me. After all, in ballet a few degrees difference in positioning is the difference between doing a step correctly or not.
Exploring musical theatre, where I often got to improvise dialogue and sing bawdy songs, helped me start to loosen the strings that bound me. I began to see the value in embracing the moment, rather than trying to craft it.
Years later I would go further, taking a jackhammer to my perfectionism by studying and performing improv. It’s a skill that transformed me not only as a performer, but as a writer.
Performing continues to be a huge part of my life. I’ve been lucky enough to work with and receive instruction from everyone from Broadway performers to American Ballet Theatre dancers to world-renowned singers.
I’ve performed on stage as well as on film and in print campaigns. Along the way, I’ve played top roles in shows like Evita, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, and many others.
I’m a long way from that little girl hamming it up in chapel, but I still thrill every time I’m in front of an audience. The stage will always feel like home to me.
Writing for laughs
Writing has also been a part of my life from a young age. Whether I was scribbling my grievances into a journal or taking notes on my unsuspecting neighbors as I played undercover detective, I frequently turned to writing for comfort and entertainment.
At 16, I wrote an article for my school newspaper detailing my misadventures as a grocery sacker, including the time I grabbed a badly-closed bottle of cleaner and squirted bleach all over my (borrowed) jacket.
A visiting college professor praised my work, saying it was the best feature of the year. Classmates stopped me in the hall to tell me I was funny- something that had never happened before. For the first time I saw how humor could help me deal with life’s assorted bleach catastrophes. It’s still what drives me to write humor.
Years later, after my youngest was born, I started blogging with the idea that I would write about very serious, important topics. And then I started writing, and what came out was much closer to that grocery sacking essay from years before than the think pieces I’d hoped for.
Because, as it turns out, when you have 5-year-old twins and a newborn, you need lots of therapy in the form of laughing at the ridiculous.
Before long, I had accumulated a following with readers from all over the world, like some super-sized version of all those classmates high fiving me in the hall! I gained confidence and started submitting to publications and was thrilled to have a piece accepted almost immediately by the parenting website juggernaut, Scary Mommy.
More than 10 years later, my writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Jim Henson Co., McSweeney’s, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and in You Do You, a book in the New York Times bestselling I Just Want To Pee Alone series, among other places.
Podcasting
I launched my first podcast, My Effing Desk, (later rebranded to Creative Jumpstart), in 2020 after feeling frustrated by the creative advice I was hearing. Much of it was not geared towards moms and felt completely impractical and tone deaf. (Saying you should write every day is one thing. Actually trying to do it with a carpet of Legos and Goldfish dust between you and the computer is quite another).
I wanted to hear from women creatives who were actually making it work, who had found their “effing desk”- a place of their own where they could devote time to their passions.
A couple of years later, a friend from high school approached me about starting a new podcast with him- or more accurately, his drag persona, Candi Shell. Leslie and the Drag Queen launched as a limited series in 2022, and it still remains one of the best times I’ve had on a project! Not only did LATDQ give me the chance to talk about one of my favorite topics- creativity- it brought an old friend back into my life. We even wrote some songs together for the show! You can check out episodes here.