The Philosophy Behind The Speech Habit

Speech improvement is not a destination, it is a practice.

After years of working with clients, Dr. Barb observed that people needed more than lessons. They needed to keep practicing even when the initial motivation wore off. The answer was was to develop the habit of practicing English speaking skills.

Research on habit formation points to the same principles: small changes are more powerful than big leaps, and repetition creates neurological change. Every time you return to a speech feature, even briefly, you strengthen the connections that make that pattern easier to produce. 

You do not need a long session. You need consistency.

As Will Durant wrote, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Practice Your Way

The minimum commitment is one email a week. Five minutes. No login required. That is it. Everything else is optional and available whenever you want more.

Level 1 - Activate Awareness  Each week you receive a focused mini-lesson by email with audio examples embedded directly in the message. Open it, listen, practice. Just reading and listening is enough to reactivate the neural pathways for that speech feature and keep your awareness sharp all week.

Level 2 - Gain Control  When you want to go deeper, record yourself practicing and send it to Dr. Barb. She sends back a video reply with specific feedback on what she hears. No scheduling required. Do it when it fits your week.

Level 3 - Achieve Analysis  More and more practice helps create a feedback loop which helps you monitor your own speech so you can hear how you sound, notice mistakes, and know how to make changes. 

Use the optional weekly group session on Zoom. One hour with Dr. Barb and other members. Ask questions, practice out loud, hear how others work through the same patterns. 

One-to-one coaching sessions with Dr. Barb are also available to members at half the regular rate, booked separately, on your schedule, as many or as few as you want.

Two Ways to Join

The Speech Habit -- Email Practice  $35/month

This is a weekly email mini-lesson, delivered to your inbox. It is a focused practice with audio examples, one speech feature at a time. A very simple foundational habit that keeps your skills sharp.

  • Weekly email mini-lesson with embedded audio
  • One speech feature per week, cycling through five core areas
  • Lessons increase in depth each time a feature returns.

Enroll in Weekly Emails Only



The Speech Habit -- Full Membership  $99/month (founding member rate, locked for life)

This includes everything in Email Practice, plus all of the interactive options. You choose to participate as much or as little as you want.

  • All weekly email mini-lessons
  • Optional weekly live group sessions on Zoom
  • Session recordings in your member library on Thinkific
  • Optional async video feedback from Dr. Barb
  • One-to-one coaching sessions at half the regular rate
  • Access to the member community for Q&A and resources

Founding Member Offer

Use coupon code "tothestars"

The first 20 full-membership subscribers are the founding cohort of The Speech Habit. As a founding member, your $99/month rate is locked in for as long as you remain a member -- even as the regular price increases. If you're in Canada, please contact me before enrolling: [email protected]
Enroll with Coupon Code "tothestars"

The Cycle: 5 Speech Features

The Speech Habit is built around five core features of American English. Your weekly emails cycle through all five, returning to each one at increasing levels of difficulty. You never repeat the same examples or exercises, but the features you practice will always be the same five, because real fluency is built by returning to fundamentals, not by moving on from them.

1. Intonation - Practice the change in pitch to emphasize important words in phrases and sentences.

2. Word Stress - Practice emphasizing the stressed syllable with higher pitch and longer vowel duration.

3. Pronunciation of Vowels - Practice words that contain the featured vowels of the week. 

4. Pronunciation of Consonants - Practice words that contain the featured consonants of the week. 

5. Listening and Imitation - Listen for all features in an audio of a sentence. Notice which words are emphasized, how words are stressed, how sounds are pronounced. Imitate the sentences the way you heard them.

Assessment/Review - Apply your skills from each of the the five topics you have practiced to short practice exercises. The answers are provided so you can self-check your answers. 

Repeat - After we've covered all five features and the assessment/review, the cycle starts again, and each time we return to a feature, we go deeper. Real progress is made in small, consistent steps, returning to the same fundamentals at increasing levels of refinement. 

Live Sessions on Zoom

You can ask questions about and practice any speech feature you want in the live group sessions.

Group sessions meet ONCE a week. The day of the week and times vary through four time slots to accommodate members across US time zones and Central European Time.

All times US Eastern:

  • Monday 4:00 -- 5:00 pm
  • Tuesday 6:00 -- 7:00 pm
  • Wednesday 1:00 -- 2:00 pm
  • Thursday 12:00 -- 1:00 pm

Special Coaching Session Rate

for Speaking Group Members

Members will receive a private scheduling link to book 60-minute one-to-one coaching (on Zoom) for half the rate of a regular Focus Session.

Included in Membership (bundle)

Here are all the products that are included in your membership bundle.