Alexei Vernon is on a mission to empower people to find and share their voices, especially

women. At an early age after being sexually abused, she spoke up and saw the power of

her voice to make a difference. Then about four years or so later, arriving at school

in the old school full on braces and headgear, her classmates cruelty to her really led

her to kind of go quiet for a lot of years until she discovered an outlet for her expression

in ballet, where she not only studied on full scholarship at the Pacific Northwest

ballet school, she also began to turn out to the world, rediscover different forms of

expression and teach and speak more publicly in high school. That led her to also share

her story about her abuse in a public way and something in her realize that telling her

story allowed her to be of service to others and that speaking made her come alive. So

she picked up that torch and ran with it, becoming Miss Junior America. And we talk about

that in our conversation actually and how she really feels about it and why she ended

up even sort of pursuing it, landed herself a college scholarship, laid the foundation

for work in speaking advocacy and empowerment. Now branded a quote, Maxie Maven by President

Obama's White House Office of Public Engagement for a pretty unique and effective approach

to women's empowerment. Alexia is, she's becoming really sought after speaking coach, corporate

communication and presentation skills consultant and trainer. And she's the founder of something

called the Spotlight Speaker Accelerator and Spotlight Speakers Collective. And the author

of a new book called Step Into Your Moxie, which is a rally cry to amplify your voice,

your visibility and influence the world. Super excited to share this conversation with you.

And be sure to keep tuning in to our special second weekly episode this month as we introduce

you to new musicians and singers and songwriters and performers every Thursday throughout the

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