Meet Lynn and The Team
Founder
Lynn Kirkham
The moment she said YES to pushing through her terror of public speaking and delivering her powerful story in front of a crowd of 400, Lynn Kirkham went from a wallflower to a woman on a mission. She has since empowered more than 1,500 professionals to feel comfortable in their own skin, come out of their shells and step firmly into their own voices with unstoppable confidence.
Lynn’s students leave her one-of-a-kind training with a YES, excited to share their messages from important job interviews to large public stages. Her secret sauce is in her exceptional ability to see people in ways they’ve never been seen before, so they can show up in ways they had only dreamed they could. Her passion and her San Francisco Bay Area company has successfully coached corporate professionals, high-tech CEO’s, TEDx presenters, solo entrepreneurs, small business owners and many underserved women.
Prior to launching her company, Lynn spent 20 years as a top-producing commercial printing executive/manager. Her success enabled her to embark on a seven-year sabbatical dedicated to giving back, three of those years – a solo journey around the globe. It was during her stay at an orphanage in India, taking care of 36 girls who had no voice that she made the commitment to unleash as many voices as possible in the time she has left on this planet. (Hear Lynn’s global travel story below, the talk she gave during her induction into the Happiness Hall of Fame in November 2017)
Lynn’s gift swiftly brings students to the other side of the age-old fear of public speaking. Before they know it, they feel freedom in front of a crowd and enthusiastically share messages that light up the room.
Her inside-out approach identifies and brings forth the innate talents and abilities of each individual presenter, making it easy to find words relevant to their audience, without memorizing scripts or relying on PowerPoint slides.
She was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four consecutive years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Singularity University, Genentech, Intel, IBM and many others. In addition to her Yes You Can Speak company, she was a co-founder of The Inspired Heart Foundation – a non-profit organization helping low income, at-risk Bay Area women to find their authentic voice, align with their highest potential and become inspired, courageous leaders in their families, workplace and communities.
In her free time, she contributes to animal shelters and organizations focused on improving the earth. Lynn lives in Belmont with her husband and their two very cute rescue cats.
Klaudeen Shemirani, M.A.
Lead Trainer
Klaudeen Shemerani found her authentic speaker’s Voice as a graduate of Lynn Kirkham’s trainings in 2015, and quickly discovered she had a unique purpose to serve the mission of Yes You Can Speak, as a co-facilitator and communications coach for this transformative public speaking training program.
She brings her expertise in trauma release and a heartwarming mama bear presence that helps students easily step into their true voice with ease. She naturally creates a uniquely safe space for others to be seen and heard.
Klaudeen is gifted in facilitating life-changing conversations and workshops that teach people, and couples, how to feel, speak, heal, connect, and transform in extraordinary and meaningful ways. She is a modern day healer, communication coach and mistress of ceremonies and rituals.
In addition to her work with Yes You Can Speak, she founded SoulBody Rituals, offering spiritual healing bodywork, communication coaching, somatic-based meditation, and meaningful rituals. Most of her clients are awakening couples, and women reclaiming their spiritual-sexual connection, authority, and voice.
Klaudeen received her Master’s degree in Women’s Spirituality from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and her Bachelor’s degree in Peace & Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley.
She also received trauma bodywork training from the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, and studied at the Strozzi Institute for Embodied Leadership. Klaudeen is also a certified massage practitioner and Reiki II practitioner, specializing in facilitating deep relaxation, energy balancing, and self-regulation healing for stress, trauma, anxiety, shame, blame, self-worth and self-esteem. More information about Klaudeen can be found at
Melinda Lee, M.A.
Lead Trainer
Melinda approaches her professional mission with an infectious sparkle in her eye, having guided more than 50 different corporate teams toward masterful communication. She is an inspiring speaker, speaking coach, and story-telling expert. She joined the Yes You Can Speak team after being drawn to the unique methods of Lynn Kirkham's approach to speaker training and being amazed by the rapid transformations she witnessed in professionals who have gone through the Melinda LeeYYCS programs.
With captivating exuberance, Melinda brings heart and expertise to the Yes You Can Speak team as a communications facilitator for over a decade. As a lead trainer for YYCS, she is passionate about helping the corporate community with story-telling that engages and connects audiences of any size.
She brings mastery in helping corporations develop techniques in strategic messaging to help businesses achieve desired results based on their unique needs. She also mentors small business owners to leverage the power of speaking to achieve next level results within their businesses.
Her vision: Increase the number of successful and profitable small business entrepreneurs around the world. Her mantra: "Hope alone will not grow your business; but a unique and compelling message can and will!"
Melinda holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance, and an Insights Practitioner.
Aliki Helman, CPC, SPHR
Lead Trainer
Aliki Helman is an accomplished and industry-certified executive coach and consultant with 20+ years of management, consulting, human resources, staffing, and employee engagement experience in start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. She holds an M.S. in both Education and Chemistry from Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia.
She is a graduate of the Yes You Can Speak program and has helped many speakers ascend to new heights. Her passion is growing companies that positively change people’s life. Aliki’s clients include Mindosphere (a management and technology consulting company), Abaxis, Micrus Endovascular, Avantis Medical, NeoGuide Systems (acquired by Intuitive Surgical), as well as early stage start-ups such as Optimizing Mind (Artificial Intelligence) and Data Weekends (Data Science). Her social impact clients include Singularity University, and Kiva.
) to make genius possible for people, teams, and organizations. Aliki presented about Exponential www.leap2genius.comAliki is also an entrepreneur and built her own successful HR outsourcing and staffing company Alitek Solutions, and she recently founded Leap2Genius (Organizations, and Activating Genius and Human Potential as a guest speaker at Singularity, Stanford and Santa Clara Universities. Aliki has presented at events and conferences including a recent workshop on “Exponential Human Technologies” at Singularity University Global Summit.
Aliki applies to coaching her 20+ years of executive human resources, and consulting experience as well as a wide range of coaching methodologies including Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), neuroscience, and Core Energy Coaching process discovered and developed by Bruce D Schneider, founder of IPEC. These coaching methodologies are founded on more than 10,000 hours of research and application over the course of 30 years. These interdisciplinary processes have its roots in psychology, adult development, integral psychology, mentoring, consulting, quantum physics, adult and accelerated learning theories, emotional intelligence, leadership development, and theories of conscious evolution.