About Me

I'm Eleanor Amy Wilkinson & here's my English communication coaching story.

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My life has taught me language & communication give us freedom.

I started Utter Eloquence to give you that, in English.

I'm also a lot like you.

As a British native living in Slovenia ,

I know how small you feel losing your self in another language.

And as an entrepreneur I understand how our fears, beliefs & identity directly impact our business.

Combining my experiences as a certified English teacher & life coach, I developed my unique Energetic Fluency Method that gives you the English communication skills you need to speak like you.

I'm so excited to guide you back to your freedom again.

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My connection with English communication began in 2013, when I moved to London to study History of Art.

While studying, I worked in luxury retail for brands such as Tiffany & Co., Harrods & Christie’s — environments where language is a strategic tool, not just a skill.

I was trained to communicate with a high level of professionalism, sophistication & nuance, knowing how the right words, tone & communication strategies build trust, strengthen relationships & directly influence sales & business results. Small adjustments in phrasing, politeness or tone could completely change how a message was received & whether a client felt respected, understood & valued.

As many of my colleagues were from Europe & Asia, being a British native, I was constantly asked questions like:

“Why did you say that not the way we were taught to?”
“Why’re are you softening your tone like that?”
“Is this more polite — or just indirect?”

Curious, I would ask back:

“How does this feel in your language?”
“Would this sound natural in your culture?”

Patterns became clear to me — shared problems across languages like tenses, as well as language-specific weaknesses.

Pronunciation difficulties for French & Italian speakers
Time & action confusion for Mandarin speakers
Differences in tone & directness for German & Slavic speakers.

I began to understand that their communication barriers weren’t just about English grammar — but also understanding the emotional & cultural style within English, the aspects of a language you can’t learn from a grammar book.

Without realising it at the time, I was helping my colleagues, partners & friends understand the subtleties of English communication — particularly politeness, modification & the unspoken communication rules native speakers instinctively follow.

The emotional & cultral energy of language became a key aspect of THINK in my Energetic Fluency Method.

Overcoming Public Speaking Fears

While doing my Master’s in Arts Management, I worked at a museum & was asked to give public tours.

Public speaking terrified me. I felt vulnerable knowing my colleagues & strangers would be focused on me for 1 whole hour— worrying about what to say, whether I’d mix up my words or sound stupid.

To protect myself from such embarrassment, I wrote a long word-for-word script & memorised it obsessively.

But in the moment — standing in front of eight people, their eyes on me — I couldn’t remember any specific lines of my script.

I had no choice but to trust myself.

I focused on the information I wanted to share, not the specific words. I spoke more naturally, responding in the moment rather than performing a rehearsed version of myself. Within a few minutes, my fear disappeared & I started to enjoy myself.

I discovered I was actually good at it. I wasn’t ‘perfect’ — but it was me.

I realised what held me back from one of my strengths was my own limiting beliefs & fear.

Within weeks, I was confidently speaking to audiences of 80, including celebrities & high-profile people.

I enjoyed it so much public speaking quickly became the favourite part of my job.

I began helping my colleagues — many of whom weren’t native English speakers — prepare their tours.

We worked not just on what they said in English, but how they said it: language, delivery, confidence, presence, energy & personality.

This experience later became the foundation for my Audience Ready English program.

Eleanor Wilkinson in Sir John Soane's Museum, London

Me about to give a tour in London, 2018

Moving to Slovenia & Teaching English

In 2020, I moved to Slovenia & experienced what it’s like to be without the freedom of language, communication & self expression.

I started learning Slovene & found traditional language courses didn’t work give me the speaking skills I urgently needed. Memorisation, repetition & surface-level textbook explanations of this Slavic language completely unrelated to English left me unable to communicate as I needed & wanted.

Coinciding with language learning was my training to become a TEFL- certified English teacher, for which I had to learn English grammar in a technical way. When I consciously knew & understood the grammatical names, elements & functions of my own language, I saw the way my brain interprets language as an English native is not the same as a Slovenian native.

The same is true for your native language & English.

I began comparing & connecting English to Slovene, & everything became clearer. I saw what grammar elements was the same, similar to English— & what simply didn’t exist in Slovenian. That deeper understanding changed everything for me. I stopped taking classes & taught myself in my new way, passing the official language exam & started communicating in my day-to-day interactions.

In 2021, I completed my TEFL qualification & taught Business English for local language schools. Almost immediately I realised these methods & curriculums were ineffective for developing real-world business communication skills, as most of their programs focused on generalised skills like email writing that participants didn’t need in their actual working life.

In my own learning & In my private English teaching, I began developing my own fluency method that focused on

how language actually works in the brain
how it’s felt emotionally & culturally
how it’s used differently in real situations

Now the THINK stage of my method was fully developed.

However, I was noticing something else...communication blocks weren’t just linguistic, they were emotional.

Fear of making mistakes.
Fear of sounding stupid.
Feeling “not good enough.”
Or having completely lost motivation to learn English due to negative school experiences.

Suddenly there was another layer to work through - their fears & mindset.

To help clients overcome these blocks, I completed a Life Coaching certification, allowing me to integrate emotional clarity, mindset & confidence work into my language coaching.

This was useful in clients establishing new beliefs & taking positive steps towards goals that felt impossible like working, having job interviews or giving presentations in English.

It was here the second stage of my method FEEL was created, along with the foundations for my Speak Like You program for English fluency & communication.

Eleanor Wilkinson with Slovenian flag in Slovenia

Me in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, 2019

From Business English to Energetic Fluency

In developing my own business, I experienced challenges around public speaking & had to navigate the emotional side of visibility — something every entrepreneur faces.

In marketing & business coaching webinars I attended, I noticed the majority of participants weren’t native English speakers & they complained of struggling with communication & visibility because fears around English was affecting their business growth.

I’ve learnt how we communicate in our business is often the clearest indicator of our fears & limiting beliefs.

It shows up in whether we speak at all, how much we over-prepare or script & whether we keep ourselves small or hide parts of who we are to sound ‘correct’. For non-native speakers, this is compounded by English fluency itself.

As both a business owner & a foreigner navigating another language & culture, I feel deeply connected to these challenges & made the decision to stop working with corporate clients & focus exclusively on English communication for entrepreneurs.

Through my experiences in sales, public speaking, language learning, teaching English & business development,

I realised we connect most deeply when we speak authentically.

My mission is that every one of my clients can do that in English — to speak freely, naturally & with their own energy in their business.

That’s what led me to create the Energetic Fluency Method that helps entrepreneurs overcome every layer of their communication barriers: