Tips to Boost Your Vocal Confidence as a Professional Woman [Video]

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Welcome back, episode two. Today I'm going to be sharing some tips to boost your vocal confidence as a professional woman, so whether you are in business for yourself, whether you work for someone [00:01:00] else. Whether you are in a management position or a teacher, or an author or a doctor, or any of these professions that I have helped women, men to, but.

Things are really gearing up for the women. This is the place to be. I'm so glad that you are here. If you are just tuning in, I am Sloane Reali. I am an expert voice and confidence coach. I have been teaching, oh my goodness, for over two decades, and part of why this show has been created and born I've given birth to a new baby is because.

Have spent over two decades working with people from all backgrounds, all different professions, all different reasons for coming for voice. If you tuned into the last episode, I shared a little bit about my journey there. It really [00:02:00] started out. First as working with people to help them learn how to sing and do it confidently.

And I've spent some time in Los Angeles with emerging artists and groups and touring bands and all of that. And what has happened is I am seeing a lot more need and. People needing assistance and just in learning how to use their voice appropriately use their voice safely. And the end goal, the ultimate icing on the cake to step in and use your voice.

With confidence, and I just have so much information and content and there's only one of me, and there are many, many, many of you. And so this was the next logical way to get this information out on the airways. So, today we are talking about just three, three simple things that I'm gonna share with you.

But before we jump in there, I [00:03:00] want to share the story of Alice. Alice is a woman that I know who is, has withheld her thoughts and her experiences, either out of consideration for others or from fear of being embarrassed. She's now able to contribute to and speak up at meetings at work. She's learned by speaking up or sharing another point of view in a conversation on a project or.

Whatever it is, she's a, a meeting or a community effort, something that they're putting together. She has learned that she can speak up and share her point of view in a conversation, and that she actually may be providing some wisdom and encouragement. So know that if, if you are a woman and you're listening to this, [00:04:00] some of you might be able to relate to.

Whether it's at work or at home in your own home, not feeling heard, not feeling acknowledged, not feeling valued, and I personally can speak to that. My own background. I, I remember, wow, when we were in the thick of it, three kids. All elementary school age if, if you are that woman listening, I hear you, sister.

I'm here. I get it. I've been there. I've done it. I didn't do it well, and I, I, I'm sure I had moments in my frustration and my anger and I, I remember so many days, you know, at the kitchen sink, you know, doing dishes and, and thinking, God, is this all there is? Is this what my life has amount? Is this all there?[00:05:00]

This is my life, dishes and laundry and kids back and forth in school and sports and, and I remember being so frustrated and, and, and this was while I had my vocal coaching practice, so I loved. Being able, and I, I still do, but going to work was a treat for me to be able to get my hair, my makeup, get my clothes on, and, and go work with voice clients.

Still to this day is so satisfying. I absolutely love what I do, and I love the clients that I get to work with. Ev every, everyone is different and wonderful, and I'm still learning even, you know, over two decades in this, this profession. But I remember being so frustrated and depressed. And just feeling like I was stuck, feeling like, God, you know, I have so much more to offer.

I have so much more to give. And even in my own home feeling like, you know, my kids didn't appreciate me. You know, my, my husband is a startup guy and he has [00:06:00] always had his own stuff going on and just not feeling valued. And I think what that did for me, It was actually a trigger for growing up in a home where I, I, I literally had no voice.

I was not allowed to speak up or share my opinion. I was never asked what I thought, what I wanted. It was just, you know, do as I say. And you were told, you were given instructions about everything from menial tasks to things that were still men. I was told how to do it and I, I was, there was only one way growing up it was, it was one way or no way.

And if you didn't do it the way you were being told to do it, there were repercussions and sometimes severe and. You know, fast forward, you know, all these years later and all the work that I've done with my [00:07:00] own voice, with my own confidence with clients that I've served now for years I, I think one of the most exciting things is to learn.

There's actually more than one way to get anything done. There's more than one way to accomplish any task and. I think a lot of the challenges I was faced with, you know, raising my own family were, I was stuck. I, I only learned the one way. And so I think I got stuck in that, not realizing, oh wait, there, there is more than one way.

And I tell you who really taught me that, it was my kids. My, my kids are All very different and all very different energy levels, very different vibrations that they, they operate at, but, and very creative and I, I learned from them, you know, there could be a task that we need to accomplish as [00:08:00] a family and to let everybody get in there and accomplish it in their own way, sometimes, often.

Much better, more efficient way than I could have given them is so exciting. So I wanna encourage you, if you are listening today please note, no matter how you were raised, no matter how you grew up. No matter how wonderful or awful you, you know, we all have our different backgrounds, you know, the people who raised us did the best they could with what they had.

I've had to work through a lot of anger and a lot of forgiveness and a lot of acceptance in my own way that I grew up. And I think I have a lot of compassion now moving forward. You know, they just, they really were doing the best that they could with what they had. But it's very exciting to learn and know, man, one task, 20 different people in the room.

You might have 20 different ways of getting it [00:09:00] accomplished. So, but I digress. Coming back to boosting your vocal confidence as a professional woman, the story that I shared earlier, Of Alice. I think what keeps us quiet and shut down is that fear, again, of being judged. The fear of making a mistake. Oh my goodness, what if I don't do it right?

And. You know, it's, it's all part of the journey, but we don't have to get stuck there. We don't have to let that rule, every decision that we make, we don't have to let that rule whether we speak up and contribute to in a conversation or not. And I guess that's where I was going with the digression there.

We don't realize we actually might have the missing link. We might actually see the task or the project, see something [00:10:00] in there that nobody else is seeing. This happens so much to me nowadays because I'm, and I'm so open to feedback and what others have or what others have to contribute and, and if I'm asked if I'm invited, And asked for my contribution and especially, you know, there is a big key right there.

Ladies, if you are being asked, what do you think that is your invitation to share? What do you think you know? Right, wrong, indifferent, whether it may, if you're being asked, you're being. And that is not the time to be shrinking back and they, oh, well, you know, well, I don't know, but you know, but maybe, well, you know, no, speak up.

Share your truth, share your thoughts and your ideas. Now, this is the thing, your thoughts or ideas may not be used, [00:11:00] but better that you share them than holding and keeping them to yourself. Make sense? So if you're asked, you're being invited. That is an open door. And do not take it personally if they don't use your idea.

The important thing is that they asked, and even more important that you spoke up and you shared. Very important. So confidence really is a key. To, to our success, to the, to, to any success in the professional world, especially for women. Three things that you can do, that you can practice. I shared that story there.

One, three simple things, three quick things, right to boost your confidence as a professional woman. One is to [00:12:00] practice speaking in front of the mirror, and I know this feels so weird, and I share this with all of my clients, every voice client I've ever worked with the mirror is an excellent tool to actually see what you're doing.

How you're using your voice. How, what are you doing with your jaw, with your lips? Is your mouth closed? And, and, and if you are listening on the podcast you can't see this, but if you're on video, I'm demonstrating right here of somebody who doesn't open their mouth very much. There's a not, not a lot of energy able to escape if I'm not opening my mouth all of the way.

There's a technique I use called open forward placement. You might know the term as projection. You've heard this term in, in theater and over the years, you know, seeing like you have a grapefruit in your mouth, open all of that up, move all of that energy, so, so. The mirror is a great place to catch that.

The other thing that the mirror catches is other things that we're doing. Our posture, our body alignment. Are [00:13:00] we hunched over when we're speaking, when we're hunched over? You are actually constricting. We're we're closing up in your body, your solar plexus, which is connected to the diaphragm, which is connected to your lung capacity.

You're now, you're playing small, you're trying to, you're, you're, Space that you take up. Again, the mirror is a great tool to practice getting bigger, taking up that space. I love, I'm a, I'm a weather channel. Junkie. I watch the weather every day for, for all over the country. And it's so interesting to watch all of the different weather channel people, all of the newscasters and how they carry themself on the stage, on the camera.

Make a note of that. If you're, if you're into the Weather channel or you watch news or anybody who's giving any type of a report, watch how they take up space. They didn't get there by playing. By shrinking. So the [00:14:00] mirror, I can't say enough. It's a wonderful tool using power poses again one way to boost your confidence before a meeting or a presentation.

Now, another thing I love to do, I call it getting into state. So we get into state by doing any number of things. I, I have a, a thing I've done for years. It's called a vocal swoop. I literally, we are drawing air and energy. We're usually standing when we do this exercise. We're drawing air and energy up from the planet through the bottoms of your feet, up through your legs, your solar plexus, your lungs, out the top of your head, making a whole.

Sound, and then we're bringing it all the way back down through the body landing back into the planet again. It's very silly. It's weird. We laugh a lot. We have a ton of fun. But if you imagine your body is much like uh, a garden hose. And let's say that you're out there, not that we need to be watering our plants right now with all the rain we're having, but let's say that you're out there in a, in a, a dry spell and you're [00:15:00] watering your flowers around the corner and, and all of a sudden the hose runs dry.

There's no water coming out of the hose. What has happened to the hose, right? It, it's got, you've gotten a kink in it somehow. And so we go back and we're wrangling with the hose and we're throwing that thing around until you get the kink out of it. Our body. Is the same thing, acts in the same way. It's very easy.

We have energy centers in the body. It's, it's very easy for those to get kinked up either, you know, we're, we're, our posture, we're not, we're not sitting correctly, we're not breathing correctly. If you're under a lot of. Stress constriction would affect the body. If you're worried, if you're depressed you know, mental health and wellness.

That's a whole nother episode that we're gonna get into at a later date. But all of these things affect whether or not energy is flowing. Correctly in your body or not. [00:16:00] So, power poses are one way to open up and move energy out of the body, especially unwanted energy, energy that sucks the life out of you Energy.

And then the third thing, acknowledging your strengths and your accomplishments and remembering to bring those things up when you are in a conversation or you have some special skill, maybe that you're the people that you work with, or if you're on a special project, maybe they're not even aware that you've done this before, right?

So again, it does not serve you or anybody else. If you are not speaking up, if you are not sharing your truth, if you are not saying what works for you and what does not, I am currently, as we speak I've been practicing the power of no. Oh, [00:17:00] so hard, especially for a person like me. I, I, you know, spent my life being everywhere and everything to everybody, and, and I've had a lot of success.

I've done a lot of different things. I. And, and I've, I've had success in a lot of them, and so I think it gets, it gets tricky if you've been successful in many areas and with many different jobs or professions. It's, it gets tricky to say no, and I've, I've been practicing that as I am. Moving into the next level with this vocal coaching thing.

Again, I, I, I shared in the last episode I never expected this to be what it has turned into. I am so incredibly grateful and the people that I'm serving today has really evolved. I do still work with singers and presenters and [00:18:00] emerging artists and and professions all across the board. It's, it's way deeper.

It's, I'm, I'm way more at this point. There's a fire in me that I've never experienced and it, it comes back to stories like Alice's that I shared with you earlier who. Didn't feel heard, didn't feel validated, too afraid to speak up. Living under that, that cloud of fear every day going to a job maybe that, that you really love, that you enjoy, but you just, you're not, you've reached that ceiling and you know, there's more.

It was me, you know, the dishes and the laundry and the kids, you know, 10 years ago, oh my gosh, is this all there? Getting to that place of there has to be more, but I, I wasn't using my voice, I wasn't speaking up, I wasn't asking for help when I needed it. I wasn't setting boundaries where there needed to be boundaries [00:19:00] set and the power of no scary.

But wow, the results it's freeing me up to be able to do this podcast for y'all. It's, it's been very, it's been very interesting experiment to see the results and when I actually put into practice those things that I coach my clients to do, the, the results are amazing. So, just in a quick review for you ladies tips to boost your confidence as a, especially as a professional woman, Place, or if you're starting your own business and you're just, you know, you're just lacking that little piece that, that says, yes, I can do this.

And, and this is across the board. I mean, intelligent women like rocket scientists, women in aerospace, lawyers, teachers, authors, doctors. Intelligent, successful women having a hard time with this stuff. So today's tips were very [00:20:00] brief, very short. Number one, practice speaking in front of the mirror. The mirror is a wonderful tool.

Don't worry about what your hair looks like. Don't worry about, you know, that extra weight that you got on. That's not what we're looking at. We're looking at what are you doing with your voice? And by, by the way, you know, you can make yourself three inches taller, just. Practicing good posture. Use the mirror as a tool in your favor.

Number two, power poses. We talked about taking up space, right? Practicing your talk or your presentation or what you have to cover in a group meeting in front of the mirror. Do it in front of the mirror. And number three, acknowledging your strengths and your accomplishments. And do not play small. Do not.

Make them. Oh, it wasn't that big a deal. You know, I worked on that aerospace project, you know, back then, but no, that's a huge deal, right? Oh, it's not a big deal that I've got my PhD in this thing. You know, it was Hello? Yes. [00:21:00] First woman in your family to get their PhD. Right in this generation, these are the clients, these are the people that I'm working with.

So if you have struggled with any of these things, please know that you're not alone. We're, we're all in this together. This community that we're creating jump on in both feet, you know, all the way. I'm re, I'm releasing new episodes every single week. If you haven't some other places, you can go grab some resources and I'll put all of these in the show notes, the website, vocal Coaching by Sloane, the YouTube channel, Sloane Reali Vocal Coaching by Sloan.

If you are a woman watching listening here with me right now, please head over to the Find your Voice, rock your. Facebook group. I have some extra special things coming in that group. We've got some free gifts. I've got some trainings on the horizon. A lot of, lot of just, just, I'm just giving it away. I'm giving you, because y'all all, I, I can't [00:22:00] continue to meet one-on-one with people and get it out fast enough.

I am a resource for you. You are welcome to Send me message through the website, dm questions about any of this. You just wanna jump on a discovery call with me. Reach out. We'll get you on the calendar. But in the meantime, thank you so much. I would love it if you would subscribe if there's someone that you care about that, you know, that could use a couple of tips, just a little extra support around their voice, I'd love for you to share this with them.

And until next time, keep calm, keep breathing. And if you're a singer, Sing a song.

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