Episode #14 How to Make Your Voice Matter NOW!

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[00:00:00] Well, hello and welcome back to Find Your Voice, Rock Your Confidence. I am your host, Sloane Reali. Hey there, fellow entrepreneurs. Are you ready to unleash your voice and make it heard? Buckle up because I've got five incredible strategies that are going to skyrocket your confidence, help you increase your revenue and do it at a breaking speed if, if there's always the if.

You take my suggestions. If you apply what I'm offering to you, this valuable information, you know, so often I work with clients. I do guarantee my work always, but the guarantee is only if you do your part. So for today, today's topic, five ways, as I mentioned, to make your voice matter now with unstoppable.

Unapologetic, unshakable [00:01:00] confidence. So I've been having a ton of fun sharing quotes that are meaningful to me. Hopefully you will find some meaning. This is for all of you basketball fans out there. See if you can guess. Who made this quote, I've missed more than 9, 000 shots in my career, 9, 000, I've lost almost 300 games, 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.

I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Any guesses? If you guessed MJ, Michael Jordan, you are correct. I can't get over, you know, the statistics for Babe Ruth, you know, all of the, you know, Tiger Woods, all of these athletes that, You know, took risks that were trusted that their team trusted them to make the winning goal and, and not make it.

I mean, you talk about pressure. [00:02:00] Hopefully you're not under that kind of pressure for your business, but I mean, some businesses are, some businesses right now are literally in, you know, are we going to make it? Are we going to make the next payroll? You know, you're, we're some, some businesses are one paycheck away from having to close the doors.

So, you know, this is just. Some, some, some sweet, some simple things that you can do for yourself. If you are a business owner and the first thing that I want to start with before we dive into my juicy tips today, I just want to take a moment and have you think about and appreciate the magic. of confidence.

Now, often we go about our day or maybe you're going into that, that presentation or that meeting, or if you're a singer listening to this today is really geared more towards business. I have more podcasts on the way for singers, but you know, maybe you don't feel super confident, but there are things that you can do to get yourself into.

Mental confidence state, [00:03:00] there are things you can do to connect that mental brain to your physical body to, you know, and I don't know how I feel about fake it till you make it. I did believe that for a long time, but just the act of every day getting up the ritual. We spoke about rituals of preparing to present anything.

And I want you to just imagine for a second. Okay. You walk into a room, your shoulders are up and back, you're holding your head high, and you smile, and, and, and that, just your posture, as you walk into the room, whatever you're going to do with your voice, says, I'm here, and I mean business. That kind of unapologetic, unshakable confidence is like a magnet.

This is what attracts people to us. I mean, who doesn't want to be more magnetic? Who doesn't want to be able to walk into a room of potential clients, [00:04:00] prospects. If you're a singer, you know, other artists, collaborators, maybe management teams. I've been to a number of events in the last couple of years where there are actually people from the music platforms there.

Like, the artist is up there and they know these people are in the room most of the time. That is your audition. So, you know, if you only have, you know, whatever your set is, 10 minutes to show everything you got, get up there and show it like you got it. All right. So, I want to say, you know, when you believe in yourself and your abilities, your voice becomes a force to be reckoned with.

So I want to say that again. Take this in. When you believe. In yourself and your abilities, your voice becomes a force to be reckoned with. It captivates, it inspires, and it inspires trust. It compels your audience, your people to take action. So, just a [00:05:00] couple of things about About doing that.

So first things first You've got to find your unique voice Right? We all have mentioned this before in previous podcasts, our tonal quality of our voice, the sound of our voice is very much like our thumbprint, we use our thumbprints in this country as identifying information, right? Real IDs, driver's license, passports, all of these things require our thumbprint, because it is so unique to who we are as individuals, the tonal quality, the sound, Of your voice acts the same way.

You are a one of a kind, your business, whatever that is, deserves a voice that reflects your authenticity and your passion. So you don't want to mimic others. And be a copycat of what other people are doing, [00:06:00] you know, other people are a, are merely a reference point for us to go, you know, see what other people in our industries are doing so we can find that gap.

We don't want to go repeat and do the same thing everyone else is doing. I really struggled with this before starting this podcast and some of my coursework and the online programs that I've been launching. I really, you know, I, I really respect people like Roger Love, Roger Love. Coins himself as America's number one vocal coach, and he's worked with lots of celebrity people.

He's based out of L. A. Cheryl Porter is super fun. She's the gal that teaches with the boxing gloves and sings in the car again, and I actually use a lot of her warm ups for for my stuff, but I am not trying to be now. Roger or Cheryl. I am trying to be me, but I did. I struggled with that for a long time because my thought in my head was, how am I ever going to compete with people like that on platforms that are massive?

And what keeps coming back to me from [00:07:00] my coaches and mentors and my own clients are Sloane, you don't need. to be those people. We want you. You have your own way of doing what you do, and you are the reason that we come to you. So I just want to pass that same information on to the listener. If you are a business owner, or you're getting ready to start your own business to really figure out what you do best.

And leave the rest, get in your lane and stay in your lane. And when you're doing market research and you're, you're checking out you know, competitor, I use that lightly because there really is no competition. There is so much business to be had. There is. There are so many clients. I don't know how many billion people we have on the planet now, but there is plenty.

I'm a big believer in abundance and collaboration, and there is so much out there. We are only limited by our imaginations, right? Gwendolyn Strong, shout out to my Girl out there, that's where that comes from. [00:08:00] You're only limited by your own imagination. Anyway, I want to come back to the mimicking thing just for a moment, because I did share on a recent podcast about a young woman, a singer who on YouTube, she her thing, she could in fact mimic literally sound exactly like it was like 20 different.

artists, 20 different performers and singers. And in that case, mimicking for singing is actually an excellent tool. Because if you can mimic and sing everything from Adele to Mariah Carey to Oh gosh you know, Def Leppard songs, funny thing coming on that later. If you can mimic all of these different artists and sing all of these different styles and genres, it's actually an excellent way to work out your voice.

It's an excellent way to build muscle and flexibility and endurance in your vocal cords in ways that you [00:09:00] might not have done. The thing on the Def Leppard, pour some sugar. And I know this is more for business owners, but, but if you're a singer listening to this. Pour some sugar on me, classic, I don't know what year amazing, fun, I had an 11 year old girl sing this in a showcase recently.

Well what I found, and I should put this in the show notes and share it with all of you, the Royal London Orchestra redid that song, I don't know how recently. With Def Leppard, and they turned it into an, not just a ballad, epic ballad. It is absolutely beautiful. If you are listening to the song, you have no idea what song it is, but the lyrics are there.

You can hear the lyrics from Pour Some Sugar On Me, but they did an amazing job. And this is one of the things I teach singers. I teach you how to take a song and completely turn it upside down the way they did. So, mimicking is good in that way. For singers, if you're going to exercise [00:10:00] your voice in all these different ways.

But if you're a business owner listening to this, you don't need to mimic other people. Just be you. Do you. You know you better and your business better than anybody else. So I want to encourage you there. Embrace your quirks. Embrace your personality. Let your voice shine, I love this, like a disco ball at Studio 54.

All right, anyone who doesn't know what Studio 54 is? I've just really dated myself and go look it up. So anyway, remember again, this is never, anything to do with your voice is never about being perfect, right? What is the P in perfect? The P in perfection. You, some of you listening, you know. Right.

It's poison. It does not help us. Right. Let it go. You know, we can do wonderful things with technology. If you need to do a little edit here or there with your, your audios, your videos, whatever, no biggie. Right. It shows that you're real. It shows that you're being [00:11:00] authentic. It shows that you're, you're being you, right?

Your audience, our audiences crave us. Being real, right? Not being perfect. Perfect is not attainable. Perfect is not reachable. If you're trying to do anything perfect on screen with your, your business. In your videos, you, you literally have spoke to this before, you can, you can perfect the life right out of, of anything that's living in your content or whatever it is that you're presenting, right?

It can, you can make it so dry and so boring. It might be perfect. You might have the perfect timing. You might have gotten everything exactly where you wanted it. But now it's just kind of lost its color and its flavor, right? You don't want to be boring. You want to be alive, right? So it's about, again, it's about being real, right?

So, you know, unapologetically be yourself. Inject your personality into [00:12:00] your content, your videos, your social media. Let your voice be the secret sauce that sets you apart from your competition, which, again, I don't believe that there is any competition. There's a ton of collaboration to be made out there right now.

So note, did you know that your voice can actually repel other people? I know that you've met people like this or you've, you've heard someone. Okay. So just a couple of really quick stories. I'm up in Paso Robles with my family, not too long ago. And, and there are two couples walking past us. Don't know these people.

Hopefully they will not ever, ever be listening to this podcast, but you know, they're, they're retired social folks, you know, they're, they're retirement age, semi retired adults. One of the women in this group is speaking, and the tonal quality of her voice, I don't even think [00:13:00] I can mimic it. It, it sounded like a toddler, like the sound of her voice sounded, I'm not talking elementary school friends, I'm talking, she sounded, Like a child, like a little child.

Now, I don't know, she could have had some vocal impediment or something going on. What, the reason I bring her up is because it caught my ear. So much so that I, I made a mental note of it, but I didn't say anything about it. And then we got home and later that day, someone in my family said, Oh yeah, did you hear that lady when we were walking by?

And we all of our jaws hit the floor because we all heard her. And it was just a very interesting dynamic. Another thing I, again, I'm not going to mention anything, but for those of you who don't know, I am a weather channel freak. I'm addicted to the weather channel. It could be so much worse. I watch the weather channel because I'm always checking a number of different areas, weather Laver.

On any given day, partly because it helps [00:14:00] me to figure out, you know, what am I going to wear? You know, it's going to be, you know, freezing and cloudy here, but it's going to be sunny and hot up there. So, I watch the Weather Channel and I also compare it with our local weather. So we have on our local weather they've been moving people around.

I miss my old girl who was there, but she's moved and I don't know what's, what's going on over there. But there's a new young woman. She is doing a fantastic job. covering the weather. She's very professional. She carries herself very professionally. Her, her voice. And I'm not sure what to do with this. If someone from the station sees this, this is what, when I hear her voice, it's not repelling me, but her voice is very, very sweet.

It's like speaking to your grandmother. Again, if someone from the station is listening to this, you know who I'm talking about. She's beautiful. She's carrying herself wonderful. But this tonal quality is not helping me.[00:15:00] With her authority as really being confident about what she's. giving information about.

And if I could get in there to work with this woman, and I have to work, and I've got to wait, and I need to, you know, wait to be invited sometimes to do my work. But if I were invited, the first thing I would get in there and do with her is show her how to add weight. to her voice. She's got way too much water.

There's, you know, maybe some, it's a lot of air in there, but a lot of water, which is really nurturing and loving and, and it's working fine. But coming back and she's not repelling me, but it's really making me want to say, look, girl. You're doing the weather. Come on. Let's, let's make this a little more lively.

I would, I would teach her the power of the pause. I would get in there and teach her about punch words where she really wants to deliver. Yay, [00:16:00] people. No fog today. Let's celebrate. Somebody get out there and do that sunshine dance. I would teach her how to add more earth, which is going to bring more authority to her voice that is going to add to her confidence level.

And I think really, you know, the psychology of what could be happening with this particular weather person. right now, giving it away because I've already shared that it's a female. It's just a confidence level. You know, I don't know if she's new to this. She's definitely new to our market. So she's still finding her way.

And if anyone from the station is hearing this please pass this along to the powers that be. I would love to come and work with any of your people that are new at the station and just helping them. Find their confidence both on television and with their voice in audio form. So, but for the rest of you listeners.

This is, I guess it's a little assignment, a little extra credit thing. I want you to think about the tonal quality [00:17:00] of your sound. Do you attract people to you with your tonal quality or do you push them away? You know, the, the reverse of water. Having too much water in your voice is having too much fire, you know?

Fire. You know, fire hose not balanced with that water. So if you're just constantly blasting, blasting, blasting information, content you know, you're, you're, you do, you're going to push people away with that as well. And that, that could be more of a repelling nature. There are tonal qualities.

I'm not sure if I'll get to fry today, but, but somewhere either today or in the next episode, I'm going to talk about vocal fry. So coming back to. Your elevator pitch, your 30 or 60 second, who you are, what you do, who you serve, and how you do it, right? We've all been to those networking meetings, and I know that there are things that are still happening online since the [00:18:00] pandemic, which is, can be a little tricky, you know, how do you get that across on a Zoom meeting?

You know, how do you interject your enthusiasm and your excitement for what you offer? On a screen with, you know, 30, 60, you know, a hundred other people. So in person is always a little easier to do this, but really being concise and offering compelling information about what you do now, the key to that is really addressing the pain.

What is the, the pain or the problem that you speak to? And help your clients figure out, right, really getting their attention at these meetings in that minimal time. Sometimes it's only 15 seconds or 20 seconds. So, you know, 20, 30, 60 seconds, whatever time that you have to make that lasting impression.

What is that message, right? What is it that leaves them wanting to know more [00:19:00] about you? Right. So, if you need help with that, this was actually a course that I taught in first of all, getting really clear about who you are and what you do, and then getting clear about who it is that you serve or actually fast forward.

That's how I used to do it now. I help people get really clear about who's your, who are you serving? Who are the people that are calling you? Who are the people that are reaching out or showing up in your DMs, asking you questions? That is your client. And then go create your message around that. My message has changed a few times this year because it went from last year where I primarily was serving singers.

An emerging artist in the professional music world. I then switched that over and started speaking to more professional and entrepreneurs for presentation skills and leading and managing teams. And I've come full circle back to, [00:20:00] even those people are still finding me and coming to me first through whatever my message has been about singing.

I have a new woman is coming to see me this, this week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, and in her notes, there's a little fill out when you're scheduling appointments with me, you know, information about why are you coming to see me and her beginning of her share is really, I used to sing. I love to sing. I, I Need a safe place where I can go play.

I'm starting to move into more presentation and public speaking. But again, she came to me through whatever she saw about my information online. It was through the singing first. So I'm still fine tuning my own message to be able to cover all my bases there. But the big learning piece for me is when I stopped speaking to singers altogether.

There was, was definitely a slowdown in my business, so I'm still sorting that out for myself. [00:21:00] I'm only a half a step ahead of you that are listening if this is something you're wanting to do. Pay attention to what's making your phone ring. Pay attention to the messages coming in through your contact pages on your websites or your gifts.

That is who you want to be creating content and messaging for are the people that are calling you. And that can change over time. So, coming back to compelling, clear, concise. That's the key with your 20, 30, or 60 second pitch when you're given such a limited amount of time about who you are, what's the pain or the problem that you solve, and who are those people that you're helping solve that.

Number three, embracing the power of storytelling. So, you know, this is really big right now. Oh, I don't know how many millions of different people are working specifically with helping you craft your [00:22:00] story. Lots of people online, coaching, mentors entrepreneurs, teachers, coaches, songwriters, poets, you know, you getting to your storytelling.

Now, I don't know how many Ted Lasso fans we have out there. Speaking of coaching, love that show. Ted always has. Some story or analogy or a metaphor that he's sharing with his team, with his management, with his coaches, with the players themselves. But you know, to weave compelling stories in to whatever it is that you are sharing.

will help to draw the listener in. The easiest way that I'm finding to share stories are testimonials of my clients where they were before they started working with me how we worked together, kind of sharing a little bit about that transformational journey that happened, and where they end up. [00:23:00] at the end of our time, but not always, you know, it's, it's a journey.

I've had clients that have stayed with me for years, sometimes not necessary. You don't need to stay with me for years. You know, if you come in and you get what you needed and you move along, I've had people work with me. And then they leave and go work on their own. They'll come back. I've, I've had this with a couple of, you know, Iration is one of those.

I have worked with now with half of that band and they'll come for different purpose and reasons. I've had you know, kids will start singing and maybe elementary. school and then they get involved in sports and they come back in high school and it, it doesn't take that long to get back on that horse, right?

It's like riding a bike or learning to swim. It's just a skill that maybe you've got out of practice, you get a little rusty, we get you back on that horse and get you going again. So, testimonials are a super easy way to weave stories in. Another way to do that is really sharing your own triumphs, your own failures, your quirky moments.

That make you human, right? [00:24:00] Anything that makes your audience engage emotionally to laugh, to cry, tapping into those emotions. I spoke last week about emotions, you know, tapping into the elements their senses, actually anything, you'll get them, you know, listening, reminding them of an old song from their childhood.

You know, what's the scenery. What do you. Seeing, what are you smelling? What's the the backdrop for the story that you're telling? So storytelling is not just about entertainment. In my case, I like what I do also educating while hopefully entertaining and getting you to laugh or think of your own fun stories that you can share.

But it really builds that trust, creating that bond. And makes your voice unforgettable, you know, and not your voice just from an audible space, but your written word, right? Your spoken word, [00:25:00] what is your messaging, your sales message? What is your training voice when you're working with new employees?

So the voice comes in many different forms. One more here. Mastering the art of body language. So, you know, one of the things about body language is, is your gestures. It's your eye contact. It is taking up space on your stage. I've spoke a lot about. you know, speakers or presenters not hiding out behind that podium.

Get out from behind that box. They're really working that audience, not just the people standing right in front of you, but really engaging with all of those people that are sitting over to the left of the stage. You know, work, making your way, using your body, walking across to the other side, engaging with those people.

If you're in your huge auditorium or you've got rafters up above you, you've got to really make sure that [00:26:00] you connect with those people with your eye contact, you know, opening up your body with your arms, with your chest, with your stance, instead of closing up and making yourself small. Also using tools audio.

voice memos a mirror video. These are wonderful tools to prepare before you do your presentations. And then number five, surrounding yourself with confidence boosters, all right, you know, getting yourself. in a squad of people. These are your coaches, your mentors, accountability partners, masterminds, who are not your friends.

All right. These are not your girlfriends, ladies out at a glass of wine. Hey, I'm going to try this. You'd be there because they will tell you you're amazing and fabulous. I just had this happen with one of the university girls. Who sang at the graduation. I didn't realize our university here actually has six different graduations this campus and lo and behold, I'm so blessed.

I'm so [00:27:00] grateful. Thank you. Kudos to both Leah and Kiki who's saying at two of those six graduations, the National Anthem and the Alma Mater for UCSB. All UC schools, I believe. Hail California. When I did the math, it was interesting to know that I actually helped. a third, one third, right? Yep. There's my math of those graduations with their presenting singers.

So that was kind of fun. Anyway, my point is your family and friends are not necessarily the best people to ask for feedback. Right? This is why we invest in ourselves, right? If we want to really up our game, I mean, you can, but and your family, your friends, your girlfriends are going to be very loving is as was the case with one of the university singers, her roommates and her buddies all said, you know, you're great.

But she reached out to me for that very purpose is that I'm not getting anything constructive. Sloane, what can you give me constructive to help me take this to the next level and really hit it out of the ballpark when I deliver it at the [00:28:00] graduation? So, so all of that to say five ways to do that in your recap here the first finding your unique voice.

It is truly unique to how you're wired, you know, how tall. you know, how you use your voice, your personality, you know, our weight will contribute to that. You know, good, bad, indifferent. It all affects the tonal quality of those vocal cords. Nailing down your elevator pitch, whether you've got 2030 or 60 seconds, get really clear about, first of all, knowing who your client is.

Right? We're not speaking to everybody. We don't want everybody for a client. There's not enough room on the calendar and it's not sustainable, but finding, you know, who are your ideal people and speak to those people direct. You might get some other people from some of these other areas that maybe they're not your ideal person, but you can still be of service.[00:29:00]

To other people that aren't in that ideal category, but the more you know about who your ideal person is The easier things will really start to get number three embracing the power of storytelling I think testimonials are a great way to do that. It's just easy You know, if you, if you've had your business for a while, you, you've got hundreds of them.

I'm sure if you're just starting out there's a whole nother podcast that will address how to build testimonials before you have a ton of clients to work with. Number four, mastering the art of body language. It's not just about your voice. It's not just about. You know, standing in that one spot.

It's really embracing that space that your aura around you And then surrounding yourself with other people that are going to help you with your own confidence So i've gone a little bit over today I hope that you've gotten something if you just take one nugget from today's podcast. Please go share that with somebody that you care [00:30:00] about.

Someone that maybe that is just starting out in their own business, someone that needs help with their podcast. This is a whole new product that I'm going to be sharing with you real soon. What I'd love for you to do as well is to go pick up. The complimentary audio gift. This will be in the show notes for you.

A link. You can also find it on the website and it really is just an audio tutorial that is it's about nine minutes long and it's great for warming up your voice. You can do this in the car. You can do it before you walk into your next meeting. It engages your solar plexus. It gets you breathing.

It gets you centered. It gets you thinking about what are you doing with your instrument up here, your jaw, your lips, your teeth, the shape of your vowels. Go pick that up. And then of course another link available for you is to, if you're not sure about vocal coaching, maybe you have some issues that I have not spoken to in any of the podcasts yet, please go get on my calendar for a [00:31:00] complimentary discovery call.

That's where we can, or there are a few questions on there that I'd like for you to answer. Before we jump on a call together, that will help our time be really productive. But if you're considering, you're wondering, you haven't heard your vocal issue just yet, please go pick up the link, get on my calendar, and let's have a conversation and see if vocal coaching is right for you.