Some stories are easy to tell. You rehearse them over coffee, at dinner tables, in passing conversations, and the words come out polished and safe. Then there are the stories that live deeper. The ones tangled up in shame and silence and years of learning how to hide. Those are the stories that change people when they finally get spoken out loud.
Jennifer Emperador told one of those stories.
At the recent DEBx conference, Jennifer stood on stage and shared a deeply personal journey through childhood trauma, sexual assault, and the long road to reclaiming her voice. Her speech was not a performance. It was a reckoning. And her closing line landed like a declaration: "You are a masterpiece that never needed to justify your existence."
Jennifer is a holistic embodiment coach who helps people move through shame and step into their power. But before she could do that work for others, she had to do it for herself. She found Toastmasters in 2017, left before the year was out, and came back when she was ready to show up as herself. This time, she joined Project Masters Toastmasters and stayed.
What kept her was not just the speaking practice. It was the community. Jennifer stepped into the Vice President of Public Relations role and transformed how her club told its story. When she was handed a folder of stock photos to represent the club, she pushed back. "These aren't my members," she said. She started telling the real stories of the people in the room, their fears and their breakthroughs, and that authenticity spread across the district. Other clubs started borrowing her approach.
That same instinct for real connection carried her to DEBx, a 90-day speaker development experience designed to help emerging speakers use their voice as an instrument of change. Jennifer applied after watching 10 speakers share vulnerable, courageous stories at a previous event. She thought, "I can do that. I want to do that." She got selected and then immediately wondered what she had gotten herself into.
The process was intense. DEBx required its speakers to sell 25 tickets to the event. Jennifer sold hers in three weeks. Then came the harder part. Writing the speech meant confronting emotional and mental blocks she had been carrying for years. During rehearsals, her coach Deb kept telling her to get out of her own way. Jennifer kept insisting she was trying. Then something cracked open. She broke down in tears, and that was when the real speech finally showed up.
Her message was built around a pattern she sees everywhere. People apologizing for simply existing. Apologizing for needing the bathroom, for bumping a table, for taking up space, for receiving a compliment. "Even a compliment becomes a prompt for an apology," she said. The phrase "stop apologizing for your amazing presence" came to her during a meditation practice, and she started saying it to everyone around her. Strangers, clients, fellow Toastmasters. Every time, it stopped people in their tracks.
On the DEBx stage, Jennifer cried. She cried during every rehearsal too. She laughed about it, wondering if the tears would eventually stop. They did not. But she learned something crucial in the process. The emotion was not a sign of weakness. It was proof that she was connected to her message. And staying connected to the message is what connects you to the audience.
"I spent so many years hiding and pretending to be strong," she said. "Why can't I just be with my feelings, pause, own it, and then move on?"
(Michael Schacht explored the same idea: the parts of yourself you hide are often the ones that connect you to people.)
That insight reframes what emotional storytelling actually is. It is not about performing sadness or manufacturing a vulnerable moment. It is about going to the real place every single time and knowing you can breathe through it and keep going. Jennifer did not become more powerful because she stopped feeling the weight of her story. She became more powerful because she learned how to carry it on stage without collapsing under it.
After the speech, audience members lined up to meet her. Strangers hugged her. People cried with her. One person said they were going to call their daughter because they had never spoken about what happened to her. They had just put it under the rug. "If I can just change one person's life," Jennifer said, "I've done my work here."
Jennifer's advice for new speakers is simple. Connect to your deep why. Not the surface-level reason you are giving a talk, but the thing underneath it. What do you want the audience to leave with that will actually change how they think? When you find that, the doubts start to shrink.
And her biggest public speaking pet peeve? When people apologize for their presence. When they open with "I'm so sorry, I'm so nervous" or stop mid-speech to say "sorry, I made a mistake." It diminishes the speaker and breaks the connection. Even Deb, the founder of the conference, had a small stumble during the event. When Jennifer heard it from the dressing room, she felt relief. "That gives me permission to mess up too. It's part of the human experience."
Jennifer closed our conversation the same way she closes her speech.
Stop apologizing for your amazing presence.
About Jennifer Emperador
Jennifer Emperador is a holistic embodiment coach and vocal advocate for survivors of trauma and abuse. Through her coaching practice, SOL Discovery, she helps people move through shame and reconnect with their bodies and their voices. She is a member of Project Masters Toastmasters and a speaker at the DEBx conference.
Connect with Jennifer:
- LinkedIn: Jennifer Emperador
- Instagram: @healwithzenjen
- Website: soldiscovery.com
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