About Tracey

“I have always been able to listen to someone's story and sense where the emotional connection is.”

Over the course of her career, Tracey Pepper has devoted her immense creative energy to a wide diversity of roles: journalist and magazine editor, media trainer to pop superstars and CEOs, and most recently, certified life coach. After 15 years of working closely with celebrities and high-profile executives, Pepper has gained a rare insight into the deeply ingrained stumbling blocks that prevent even the most successful people from speaking with complete confidence. Building upon her highly specific expertise and genuine passion for empowering others to share their stories, Pepper has developed her own singular approach to communication coaching — an empathetic and emotionally rooted alternative to the fear-based methodology of conventional media training. With a unique focus on strategic self-reflection, she ultimately helps clients to dismantle their self-sabotaging beliefs and radically transform the way they present themselves to the world.

“There are so many reasons why people are afraid of public speaking, and almost none of them can be solved with an external fix,” says Pepper. “I can’t wave a magic wand and fix you, because you’re not broken. My job is to help you build trust within yourself and connect you with your purpose and passion, so that it comes through when you speak.”

Both systematic and intuitive — one client calls her “Marie Kondo for your psyche” — Pepper’s coaching practice begins with an inquiry into the client’s perspective on public speaking. “A solid understanding of how they feel about it tells me a lot,” she says. Pepper then guides each individual through the work of addressing what may be holding them back, a process closely tied to the key philosophy behind her coaching: You can’t separate how you show up to speak publicly from how you feel about yourself.

“A lot of communication coaching is very performance-driven or externally focused — it’s about eye contact and body language, like: ‘Don’t do this,’ ‘Don’t say that.’ My method is more affirming because it works from the inside-out,” Pepper explains. “It’s about changing people’s entire relationship with speaking so that it becomes natural and authentic. Once they’re able to be more present and focus on being of service to the audience, they stop worrying about what people think of them and the external issues correct themselves.”    

In all of her client sessions, Pepper infuses her coaching with the same depth of compassion she brings to her role as a life coach. She first pursued training in 2019 after experiencing coaching’s expansive impact on her own life. Soon after completing the extensive credentialing process to become a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach through the Co-Active Training Institute and an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation, Pepper began helping clients navigate profound transitions in their careers, relationships, finances, and well-being. In an unanticipated turn of events, she also found that the tools she’d acquired wholly revitalized her approach to media training. “I went into life coaching with the goal of helping other people live better lives but didn’t realize how it would turbocharge my work as a media coach,” Pepper says. 

In a burst of inspiration, Pepper then merged essential elements of her life-coaching and media-training practices. Once she began providing that deeper level of support, she found that the results were a game-changer, often helping clients move from debilitating fear to radiant self-confidence. “Last year I worked with a client who had a huge social media platform but experienced intense social anxiety even just taking casual meetings,” she says. “It turned out this person had some trauma in their past, and there was a good reason why they felt that way.” After a month of twice-weekly sessions with the client, Pepper observed a significant shift in their level of comfort when speaking. “Now, this person is comfortable in all kinds of settings,” she says. “They’ve really found their voice and they’re using it to show up and do good in the world.”

The launch of Pepper’s communication coaching practice is only the latest turn in a vibrant career defined by following her curiosity into unexpected places. An L.A. native, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in English from Tufts University and later earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, then channeled her lifelong love of music into her work as a writer for such magazines as Entertainment Weekly and an editor at Interview and a senior editor at SPIN. “My journalism background comes into play when I’m helping people sharpen their message, because I can feel what will resonate with reporters,” she notes. During a post-SPIN foray into writing publicity bios for pop stars and rock bands, Pepper discovered her innate gift for helping artists craft more engaging answers to interview questions — and quickly became one of the most in-demand media trainers in the music industry.

In one of her most recent endeavors, Pepper has expanded her practice to serve all individuals looking to elevate their communication skills, including CEOs and other senior executives in tech, wellness, beauty, fashion, healthcare, design, gaming, and more. “So many people are required to inspire and motivate their teams as part of their jobs, but dislike speaking and are afraid of being found out,” she says. “I’ve realized there’s a great opportunity here to take the methods I’ve used with people in the public eye, and use them to help anyone who wants to be a better communicator in their day-to-day work life.” 

As she widens her reach and helps enterprising people of all kinds to fulfill their purpose, Pepper aims to create a positive ripple effect on the world at large. “One of the most exciting things to me is that I’m able to empower people who have the platform and the access to be of service,” she says. “If I can work with someone behind-the-scenes and help them find the tools they need to go out and make the world a better place, that is my highest calling.” — Liz Barker

Watch Tracey be interviewed about her coaching journey here.