In this kickoff episode, voice coach Sloan Real introduces herself and shares her journey from teaching singing to helping people improve their voice and confidence. She discusses her passion for helping people, especially women, feel heard and valued. Sloan briefly mentions her upcoming episodes that will address various aspects of the voice, both physical and psychological. She also promotes her website, YouTube channel, and Facebook group for exclusive content. The episode then dives into 10 proven vocal coaching techniques to boost confidence, starting with the importance of proper breathing.

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[00:00:00]

[00:00:40] Sloane: Welcome. Welcome to my first official. Episode one. Yes. Welcome to my channel. I am Sloane, an expert voice and confidence coach, and I absolutely love the intro coming in here. I never get tired of hearing. That gets me all excited and amped up and this is what we're going to be doing. All things voice.

[00:01:06] This is a kickoff for what is to come. And before we jump into today's topic, episode today is officially a, a welcome episode, but I wanna leave you with some value, some information that you can take away as soon as you turn this off from wherever you're watching with or listening. Whether it's on the podcast, audio, YouTube, wherever you're catching this, I want you to be able to leave when you're done here and go apply at least one of 10 proven voice coaching techniques to boost your confidence.

[00:01:39] So, A little bit about me. First of all, thank you. If you have found me, if you are new to me, I know. wanna also thank all of the people who have supported in getting me here. A lot of suggestions for a few, a few years now moving me in this direction. And I've, I've just been like, oh no. Another thing I gotta go learn and, and deal with, but, Thank goodness for good team people that can do this in their sleep.

[00:02:03] So very grateful. Shout out to all of you who are doing the final edits and getting this all out to the world for me. I appreciate you very much. So, yes, I'm Sloan Real. And just a little background on me if you're new. I began teaching voice primarily to singers about. 23 years ago is when I opened my practice and it, truthfully, it was just teaching people how to sing and a little side note very not altruistic at all.

[00:02:37] I had a little band going and it was a way for me to pay for my, I've shared this with clients frequently. This was a way for me to earn money, to pay for my hair, my makeup, my outfits, and all of that fun stuff. What began to happen, not, not quite a right away, but within about, by the first five years of me teaching voice, interesting things started to show up.

[00:03:06] I started having clients come in with physical ailments and things going on with their voice. I hadn't seen a lot of vocal fatigue yet, but I was seeing things, for example, Recovering stroke victims that needed help restoring their speech. I started receiving referrals from ear, nose, and throat doctors for things such as vocal cord dysfunction which mimics asthma.

[00:03:35] It's essentially where you go to, to inhale to speak or say something and. Nothing, everything gets stuck and you can't get any sound out, which can be very scary. I began to see things where a lot of physical things, anesthesiologists or issues where the, the The anesthesiology tube rubbed up against, or somehow caused an abrasion on the vocal chords themselves.

[00:03:59] So I, you know, I wasn't really paying too much attention to what was coming through. I was still just doing my thing, and it really was for singing for, for many, many years, just teaching people how to sing, which really came down to helping people find confidence around their voice to be able to sing well in the last decade.

[00:04:20] One of the reasons that I'm, I'm putting this information out at the level that I am now, is one of the things that, that actually is, is breaking my heart, is I'm seeing way too many women girls get, are getting younger and younger. I've, I've had them, you know, as young as an an eight year old who cannot put into words.

[00:04:39] Why she doesn't feel comfortable running around on the playground and singing and playing like she would at home on her own without people there listening. A lot of Adult professional women not feeling heard, not feeling seen in the workplace, not getting the raise or the promotion that they are completely qualified for, you know, somebody else coming along who has less experience than them being promoted to a position that they wanted.

[00:05:08] So I'm, I'm seeing a lot more of this. Not feeling valued, not feeling heard, not feeling seen, and. I guess the reason I'm, I'm so passionate about this is this was my story growing up in a home. There wasn't a lot of, well, I, I was that person. I, my voice was not valued. I was not ever asked my opinion or what I thought or what I would want.

[00:05:35] It, I was always told how it was going to be. And my personality and as I get to know myself more through many types of therapies and activities, I, I do a lot and we are gonna be diving into some of this down the road, but as I've gotten to know myself better and understand the way I'm wired now, when I look back at my childhood and my young adult years, I, it all makes sense.

[00:06:07] Everything came together and it all adds up. And it's like, of course I'm going to get some slack and I'm going to rub people the wrong way. And what has happened at this point in my life with this work that I have done, and the work I do around the voice is I've reached that point where it really doesn't matter.

[00:06:27] The only thing that matters to me right now, Is truly getting this information out on as many platforms as possible in as many people's hands, in your ears into your heart, that if you are one of those people, if you struggle with just speaking up, just making your voice heard, forget about being seen, we're not even gonna talk about that yet.

[00:06:54] But you really, and, and, and. Every day that goes by that you are not feeling heard, that you're not feeling honored, that you're not feeling valued. Every day that goes by, a piece of you is going to shrivel up and die, and there's no reason for it. And I'm here. I'm here to share with you. There are tools and there are tips and tricks, and today you're gonna leave with 10.

[00:07:20] 10 solid things that you can go and use immediately to help break out of these old patterns and beliefs. So, I, I've really skimmed over this very quickly. Not a lot of details, but I am in the coming weeks there are, I'm gonna be addressing every. Aspect of the voice from physical things that we do with our voice, whether conscious or unconsciously, things that we're doing with our voice that might be causing us to get passed over for the promotion or the raise.

[00:07:56] I'm going to address the psychological component, those things that old patterns and beliefs, whether. Or perce or perception, a perception of what we thought was real. We're gonna turn all of that upside down. I'm gonna be continue to give you valuable information that you can try on for yourself. Just a shout out.

[00:08:20] I will have all of this in the show notes, but the website and the YouTube channel are filled with tons. I mean, you literally could go. Binge watch what is already out there, you know, for, for two, three hours. Free fun. That's a real key in how I work with people is we, we've gotta be having a good time.

[00:08:39] There is some, some challenging, there'll be some challenging things that I do with clients and, and I might do here with y'all and the show give you some opportunities to try some things on. Once you make that breakthrough, once you start connecting those dots, the freedom on the other side is it's, it's off the charts.

[00:08:59] I've never felt so happy, so fulfilled. The only thing that would make me happier is more people truly stepping into their voice and, and their, their, their power. And one of the things that I be showing you how to do is giving you tools for how to. In conversations how to express yourself fully. We're gonna be having a lot of fun.

[00:09:22] One thing that I wanted to share as well, in addition to the website, vocal Coaching by Sloan, the YouTube, is if you are a woman listening or watching, please head over to the Find Your Voice, rock your. Facebook group you will have access to things that are exclusive to that group. Trainings I've got all kinds of fun things.

[00:09:47] I've got a little quiz. I'm gonna be popping in there. Super fun to kind of gauge yourself where you are with your voice. So without further ado, let's jump into for today 10 10. Proven vocal coaching techniques that you can use right away. Now, the, the first thing is breath, and I can't say enough of that.

[00:10:09] And if you go poking around into all of my content and information out there, you are going to see a lot on breath. And it, it's, it's probably. People are probably sick of hearing about breath. There's, there's all kinds of things around breath. There's videos and, and resources and the, the first thing with breath for your voice is there's a lot of people breathing incorrectly.

[00:10:33] So one of the things that I will be diving into probably on this. Separate episode solely dedicated to breathing, where I will bring you probably 10 proven breathing techniques for your voice to help you get dialed in and use your voice effectively. So the first thing, just a, a quick tip a little test.

[00:10:52] Let's do a, a little thing here together right now. Just do a body scan of wherever you're at, whether you're at home, in the car, at work, wherever you are listening or watching this right now. And I want you to, what, where are your shoulders? If your shoulders are up by your ears, you are cutting off circulation.

[00:11:11] You're creating tension in your neck, and then your back. And just start with by taking a nice, deep breath into the belly. You can even bring those shoulders all the way up to your ears as high as you can, creating tension, intentionally create tension in your back, your, your neck, your chest, and then let that out with an exhale.

[00:11:34] And release all of that tension. So the first thing to pay attention is, is are you even breathing correctly? And if your ears and shoulders are up there touching and you're carrying all kinds of stress in your back, it's very likely you are shallow breathing and there is no oxygen getting past your ribcage, past your lungs, down into that solar plexus diaphragmatic area.

[00:11:58] So breath a lot on breath. Vocal exercises. For days, binders full. I will be sharing exercises with you throughout these. Again these are loaded all over the place and some other content, but I'm gonna be bringing things specific to this show weekly for you. The use of inflection, how you use your voice.

[00:12:19] Number three this would have to do with the tempo or the past, or the melody actually in your voice. Inflection has more to do with, instead of speaking like this, and we know where this goes with everybody actually adding some color, adding some variety, adding the power of the pause or. To your voice, power of the pause.

[00:12:43] Very effective strategy for using your voice, especially if you are presenting on stages. I know one of the things that can happen is that we get nervous. The first thing to happen when we're nervous is we disconnect from where all that breath is coming from. Everything slips up into the chest, into the, the, the shoulders.

[00:13:01] And, and now we're all up here in a tight. Tense stressed ball. So the, a big key to all of this, not mentioned, but kind of, you know, assumed is relaxation. The more relaxed that you can get before you need to use your voice, whether having to have a difficult conversation or step into a meeting or do a presentation in front of a group of people, even on Zoom, I know that Zoom causes great anxiety for for many people.

[00:13:29] So the the greatest thing that you can do is get yourself in a relaxed state before you. Play or record or get on that stage. So that's number three, using inflection. Number four has to do with your tempo, the speed, speaking slowly and clearly. Fascinating thing around tempo. I think more frequently we are faced with people that wanna speak really fast, and I've seen this show up in a couple of different ways.

[00:14:03] One in my own household, oh gosh. My, my, my kids, bless them. Three different personalities, three different ways of using their voice. I have one who has from from birth, been out there and knows what he is here to do and has no problem showing up. Fully embracing his dharma, living the life that he was created to live.

[00:14:27] I have another one who's like this extreme, very extremely painfully shy, a little mumbling, sorry. As I, I find myself frequently. You know what, can you repeat that again? What? What did you just say? And then I've got another who's the complete opposite of that who spikes. Speaks so fast. Same thing. I cannot.

[00:14:46] Understand, and this doesn't just show up, you know, in our, in our families, it shows up in our, our friendships, our relationships in the workplace. If you are speaking too slow, if you are speaking too fast, if you are mumbling and, and you would know, you would know. If this is affecting you, pay attention.

[00:15:08] To feedback that you're getting. If people, if you find you're frequently being asked to speak up or repeat yourself, that is information for you. That is feedback for you to make a note and dig into that a little deeper because this would also affect promotions employee reviews. Special projects, right?

[00:15:33] Part of the thing that, that if you're employed or if you are an entrepreneur, woman, entrepreneur yourself and wanting to expand your services and get on other platforms or other people's stuff that they've go got going on as a guest is you wanna pay attention. Do do are, do any of these things apply to you?

[00:15:56] And feedback is such a great resource. I think that's one of my 10 tips I'm gonna come back to. So pay attention to the tempo or the speed at which you are speaking, emphasizing your strengths. This is a great one. We all have unique gifts and talents and. I know that even with myself, there are times where I have, I wouldn't say intentionally I was playing small, but you know, in a new group of people or I, I don't really know the vibe yet.

[00:16:30] I'm trying to feel it out. You know, what, what is a, you know, What's appropriate for me to share and say and, and what kind of tone, you know, can I be all out or do I need to, not so much withhold, but maybe temper. I, I know that I have been known to get very excited and if I'm super excited and, and I remember there was a time in my life.

[00:16:54] A while ago, you know, dropping the F bomb, right? Profanity used to really offend me and it was more like young adults, you know, teenagers and, and kids doing this. Well, you know, as I have evolved there, I've been known. I've been known to drop a, you know, a couple of bombs myself once in a while, but not in a negative way, not in a complaining way.

[00:17:18] More of, in a way of, yeah, this is awesome. Let's go, let's go do this thing. And I, I think it's also. It's more, more of a cultural thing. The words that we use, how we speak. Now I certainly wouldn't go doing that, you know, in church in the middle of a pastor's sermon or something like that, that would not be appropriate.

[00:17:40] So using your natural gifts and talents and not being ashamed or afraid. To use them, but paying attention to the audience who you're hanging out with. And this has been a game changer for me. I, as I, I mentioned earlier I was always pretty outgoing. I've always been kind of a cheerleader type. I'm going to rally the troops and let's go do this.

[00:18:06] There are times where that hasn't been the best thing where I really needed to wait. And be invited. This is another thing I've learned about myself very recently. I need to wait. For the invitation and invitations come in many shapes and forms and, and a variety of waves. They're not necessarily a handwritten, stamped invitation I get in the mail or, or Anite in, in the in an email.

[00:18:36] But I, I have been known because I, I do tend to get very passionate about things that I believe in, things that have made. A huge difference or impact in my own life. In the past, I, it's been like the, the greatest thing since sliced bread and everybody's gotta know about this. And I've been known to go share and, you know, overshare over enthusiasm.

[00:19:00] I've actually been told, I've been, this is, it's heartbreak. I don't know if you can relate. I've actually been told, well, this is one of the things growing up, I was frequently told growing. Sloan, you are too much. You are too loud. You need to quiet down. Okay. Like these. This is like king, king, king. You know, I can't tell you how my report cards in school.

[00:19:28] That's kind of an always a b average student. My sister's brilliant, which is Harvard, Stanford, crazy, intelligent, brilliant woman. My report cards and the comments. For years. You know, Sloan does, you know, well, and this and this and this, but she talks too much so. Probably not a coincidence that I am a, a vocal coach.

[00:19:54] I, I found my way, I found something that I love to do and I'm making a wonderful living at doing it, and I get to work with people that I love working with. So, you know, I wish I had known that as a kid, you know, if as a kid, if I had known, oh, I'm gonna be a vocal coach when I grow up, would've saved me so much.

[00:20:13] There were, you know, times on the playground where I'm sticking my, you know, someone is hurt and I'm running over to be helpful. Nobody invited me, nobody asked for my help. Next thing I know, I'm getting a dodge ball in my face and there's blood dripping outta my nose. I mean, crazy in the professional sector you know, having to go to human resources because I was I was too helpful.

[00:20:33] I called into human resource. Sloan, you're being too helpful. You need to mind your own business. Okay? People ello. I've been told that I'm too happy, that I'm just too, too much. And so what has helped me to understand that about myself is that if someone is having a a rough time, You know, a client, a family member, a friend, it is probably not gonna be helpful for me to show up as my happy go-lucky.

[00:21:03] Everything is awesome, Sloan. But rather to mirror and dial that down and get to a place where this person who might be suffering or having a rough time I'm gonna be much more effective and more helpful if I can get myself on their level. Doesn't mean I stop being who I. It just means I have to tweak it in that moment.

[00:21:23] So do not shy away from your natural gifts and talents. It's who you are. And as you get to know yourself and better, these things are really, really helpful. But in cases like a promotion or a special project that you are totally qualified, like you are the person for this new project coming out. Get in there and go get it.

[00:21:46] Just go get it. It's your project. Okay, there's a few more. Number six, dressing for success. Those of you who know me, you know, I love my wardrobe stuff. I'm a closed horse. So, but, you know, it is amazing how, and I know with the, all the Zoom and there's all kinds of memes out there where we've got, I do have a full, I'm fully clothed in my, my, if you're watching on video.

[00:22:11] But I've heard all kinds of, you know, crazy stories. You know, lawyers going to court, you know, with, you know, in their shorts and, and their, their blazers. There is a difference. You energetically change your vibration if you are dressed in sweats and a ponytail versus. Putting on a little makeup and some lipstick if you're ladies or guys, whatever your thing is.

[00:22:37] So dressing for success if you are going into an office, if you are seeing people in person and in live. You know, I think last statistic I heard was we get seven seconds. Seven seconds to make an impression on anybody, whether in person, whether on live, whether on a video, whether on a FaceTime. That is not a lot of time people, so if that's all you get to make an impression, go at it.

[00:23:06] Dress your best. Just a couple more. Number seven, practice and prepare for whatever it is that you're going out for. Trying out, auditioning, asking for the raise in your relationships. If you are in relationships that you, you keep trying all of these different things and getting the same result and it is not satisfying.

[00:23:29] That is the definition of insanity. Ask me how I know. I've been there. I would say that the greatest relationship I'm in right now, the, the longest term relationship wow. I think we've got 30 years coming up here and it has not always been happy, smiley, fun. Any relationship that has has been gone that long that tell you it's been amazing.

[00:23:52] They're lying. It's not true. I am, I think that I am the one that has really it's, my perspective has changed it's acceptance and forgiveness and letting people be who they are. Right. And me, but me being who I am without worrying about stepping on other people's toes or hurting anybody's feelings or riling the feathers.

[00:24:21] Right. And so, I would say actually was the, the pandemic really, the pandemic saved my marriage. The pandemic did a lot of things and. My relationship with, with my spouse changed dramatically. As a result of that, I was heading one direction and did an about face and did a lot of work, a lot of work, a lot of deep work, a lot of shadow work, you know, other than the regular therapies.

[00:24:48] The work I do with the voice, a lot of that, doing that for myself first was life changing, has made an impact and, and Anything worth doing? I think. What is that old saying? Anything worth doing? I can't remember. Worth fighting for? I don't know. It's, it's it hasn't been easy. But it's definitely been worth it in the long term.

[00:25:13] So preparing and practice. I don't know how I got off on that tangent Visualization, visualizing your success is another great. It's another wonderful way to also get yourself into state before you're going to be using your voice. I have all kinds of silly exercises I'll be sharing in future episodes with you of how to get in state, using your breath, using your voice, creating sound, using your body.

[00:25:41] It's very powerful dual tool for building your confide. Visualizing yourself doing whatever it is that you're heading in to go do. And number nine, feedback I already mentioned. Feedback is awesome. I've, I've had some things happen in the last couple of years, investments that I've made that didn't quite bring the return that I was expecting.

[00:26:03] Very sad and scary and, and what I ended. Being able to do is changing my perspective and using the experience as feedback. So, so when we, when things happen that feel like we have failed or it didn't go well, or whatev whatever the case, it's not failure we're, it's only failure if we quit, if we quit.

[00:26:32] Then yeah, it's, you're done. But if you use the feedback effectively and go back and look at what did work, if there was anything that worked and things that didn't work or go as planned it's just feedback telling us to try something different so it can all be seen as a positive experience. Please don't see failure as a bad thing.

[00:26:56] It's, it's a good. It's, it gets us to the next level. It helps us to make different decisions. It moves us into action. It's when we get stuck and we don't do anything that, that we have failed. And then number 10, keep practicing. The key to building confident voice is to keep. Practicing. The more you speak, the more you present, the more confident you'll become.

[00:27:22] You'll improve your skills. You will command the respect and attention of your audience and. There's so much more to come from there. I'm trying to keep these right at the time limit we're at now. If you have found any value in this today, I would love it if you would, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button.

[00:27:43] I'd love for you to share this with someone else that you care about. Anyone who's struggling with their voice or could use A little inspiration around their voice. And then of course, as I mentioned, you can always hit up the website. Those show notes will be in the show notes. Vocal Coaching by Sloan.

[00:28:00] There's a YouTube channel, but if you are a woman watching or listening, please head over to the Finder Voice, rock Your Confidence Facebook group. Go join that group. Jump in there with the rest of the ladies. I am in there every Wednesday. I'm doing. Specific for that group of ladies. And just more wonderful, helpful content, things that you can apply.

[00:28:23] I've got some free gifts going on over in that group and some trainings that we'll be showing up here in the next couple of weeks. So thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next time.

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About the Show

Helping Women Access the Power of Their Voice So We Experience Living Our Best Life–Here and Now–In Everything We do!!

This podcast is dedicated to teaching you how to find your authentic voice, grow your confidence and unlock your potential creating life changing results. I share weekly tips, tricks, guest interviews, and over 2 decades of helping people just like you learn how to express themselves from a holistic and empowered space.