People decide about you before you speak.That part is trainable.
I work with entrepreneurs, presenters and professionals who have to stand up and represent something — a company, a product, their own expertise. Not to hand you a script, but to make you present enough that you don't need one.
In Portuguese, Spanish and English · on location or online
Português · Español · English
We work in whichever language you'll actually be performing in. If you present in a second language, we train in that one — presence changes when you're outside your mother tongue, and that's exactly where most people lose it.
How I got here
“I'm just not a natural in front of people.”
“Neither is anyone on television. They were coached.”
I'm Yasmim Manaia — a Brazilian-Portuguese presenter, actress and singer. I started early in entertainment and spent close to twenty years in television, musical theatre and international campaigns, learning things nobody names as skills: presence, emotional awareness, and how to keep listening while you are the one being watched.
The pandemic ended that chapter and made me look properly at what I had actually been trained in. It was never performing. It was the ability to walk into a room and be entirely there — which matters more to a founder pitching an investor, or a specialist finally asked to present their own work, than it ever did on a set.
So I built the Aura Method. I teach communication as human formation rather than technique: not tricks for looking confident, but the presence that makes confidence unnecessary to fake. The people I work with are usually very good at what they do and tired of that not coming across.
What we actually work on
The Aura Method rests on four things. They're not modules to get through — we return to all four, weighted towards whatever you most need.
Presence
Breath, posture, weight, where your eyes go. How you occupy a room before you have said anything, and what tension quietly does to all of it.
Emotional awareness
Recognising what you're feeling while it's happening rather than afterwards — and knowing which part of it belongs in the room and which doesn't.
Deep listening
Most people rehearse their next sentence instead of listening. Attention is the thing an audience actually feels, and it can be trained like any other muscle.
Sustaining meaning
Communication isn't transmitting information. It's keeping meaning alive across a whole conversation, a whole pitch, a whole room — including the silences.
Training
Two private tracks and a group format. Private sessions run on location or online; group training is always in person, because presence can only be practised with other people in the room. Scheduling is arranged together before we start.
Aura
For one specific thing you're facing
The foundation. Four sessions on how you land before you've said a word — breath, posture, voice, attention, and what pressure does to all four. We work with something real and near: a pitch, a keynote, a camera you freeze in front of, a room where you keep making yourself smaller.
Every session is prepared around the material you bring, so our time goes to your situation rather than to a standard programme. You leave with things you can rehearse alone.
Aura Plus
For a change you want to hold
The deeper investment. Eight sessions is enough to design a curriculum around you specifically rather than adapt a standard one, and enough time to get past technique into the habits underneath. Where your voice goes when you're challenged. What you do with silence. Why you speak faster the moment it matters most.
For people stepping into something larger: founders becoming the public face of their company, professionals moving into visible roles, anyone whose work now asks for a version of them they haven't grown into yet. A few months after the last session we meet once more, included, to see what held and what slipped.
In-company and group training
For teams and companies
Every person who represents your company in public is doing brand work, whether anyone has trained them for it or not. Your specialists at conferences, your sales team in the room, your founders on stage. They are your brand ambassadors, and most of them were hired for something else entirely.
I come to your offices, or a venue you choose. We start with a conversation about what's actually going wrong — the pitch that keeps not landing, the experts who go flat the moment they face an audience — and I build the programme around that. Everyone works in front of the group, because it's the only way to practise it.
How it works
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A free half hour
You tell me what you're working on. I tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it. No preparation needed and no obligation either way.
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Sessions built on what you bring
Before each session I prepare around your material — your pitch, your talk, your situation. We work on it directly rather than through exercises invented for a general audience.
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Practice that outlives the sessions
You leave each session with something to rehearse on your own. With Aura Plus we meet again months later to see what actually held.
What people say
[A short quote about a specific change — what they could do afterwards that they couldn't before.]
[Name], [role], [company]
[A quote that names the fear they arrived with. Specific beats flattering.]
[Name], [role], [company]
[A quote from a group or company client, if there is one.]
[Name], [role], [company]
Questions
Is this public speaking training?
Partly, but it starts earlier than that. Public speaking training usually works on the talk. This works on the person giving it — how you arrive, what your body does under pressure, whether you're actually listening to the room. That transfers to a pitch, a negotiation, a camera or a difficult conversation, not just to a stage.
I'm not nervous, I just want to be better. Is that enough of a reason?
Yes, and it's often the more interesting starting point. A lot of the work is with people who already function well in front of others and want the difference between competent and compelling.
Which language will we work in?
Portuguese, Spanish or English — whichever you'll actually be performing in. If you present in a second language, we work in that one, because presence changes when you're not in your mother tongue.
Does online work as well as in person?
For private sessions, yes, and if you present on video calls it's arguably better, since we're training in the medium you use. Group training is always in person: you can't practise holding a room through a screen.
Should I choose Aura or Aura Plus?
Aura if you have one specific thing coming up. Aura Plus if the pattern is older than any single event, or if you're moving into a role that will keep asking this of you. We can decide together on the intake call, and you can extend from one to the other later.
Where do sessions take place?
[Your city and studio, plus how far you'll travel. Say whether travel costs apply for on-location work.]
How do I pay, and what if I need to cancel?
[Your payment terms — instalments, invoicing, and your cancellation policy. Say it plainly here and it stops being an awkward conversation later.]
Start with a conversation
Tell me briefly what you're working on. I'll come back within two working days to arrange a free half hour, so we can find out whether I'm the right person for it.