Episode #022 - _Why Vocal Coaches Don_t Lose Their Voice_ (VIDEO)

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[00:00:00] Oh,

Alrighty, welcome back. Find your voice, rock your confidence. I am your host, Sloane Reale. I'm really excited about today's topic. Why vocal coaches don't lose their voice. I'm going to share with you my secrets. My trade secrets. But before we do that, quotable of the day, also another fan favorite, this is Oprah Winfrey.

Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe. And I do believe that very much. I'm a big believer that thoughts are things that we [00:01:00] create. More of what we focus our attention on, both positive, negative, if we are living in a constant state of fear, which there was a period in my life, there were lots of things to be fearful of today.

I do not live in that place anymore. I know there's lots of, talk right now. going into another election and just on and on. I personally, I watched the news for the weather. Some of you know that about me. I'm a weather channel junkie, but I, I don't want to say that I've never been affected.

My business professionally has not been affected by a recession, but it's been very minor, very minimal because I don't stay focused on all of the things that I'm not able to do. I merely pivot and change direction and try other things. And, there are at least. A half a dozen times in my almost 25 years of having my practice, [00:02:00] my vocal practice, that I truly thought it was the end.

I thought this is it. It's been a great run. I'm excited for what's new. And I'm at the 11th hour. I mean, I'm closing down shop. I'm withdrawing. , I'm shutting down any expenses that are connected to the business. I am giving notice at my place of a step, whatever. And at that 11th hour, something will happen has happened consistently that keeps me in business.

And I, I might've shared on this podcast at some point, I, the pandemic was the last time I thought I was losing my business. And I truly am so grateful to this day, to all of the singers that were with me. Kiki Reyes was in the group Phil Gunner. There were just as handful was a very small group, but these people, you beautiful people, if you happen to be hearing this, I am so eternally grateful to you that you are the reason I am still in business today.

You, [00:03:00] you are the ones that asked me to please figure out a way, make this work. If we have to get creative, I had never done voice online or remote ever. And now I have worked with voice clients as far as, oh gosh, the other coast New York London, Australia San Francisco, San Francisco, New York, I've had a few people in and out of there, but this is only possible because I work online and remote now where before the pandemic, it didn't exist.

So anyway, all of that to say, to come back to, if we are focusing our thoughts on what is still good and beautiful and wonderful on the planet. And if we are hanging out with those, some of those did a podcast a few weeks back, we are the sum of the five people that we keep company with. If we are hanging out with naysayers and people living in constant fear, friends, you're going to.

Become that. So I [00:04:00] personally don't do that. I hang out with, people that caused me to level up, I have to get up to their level. In fact, last story and I'll continue. When I was training to become a voice coach Debbie Nelson Fisher who may she rest in peace. And bless her, she taught me so much.

But I remember when I was training and I was in the teacher training component, when I was getting my certification and I was having to start teaching and leading classes and I was not certified yet. But I remember being in classes with other women who were not operating at the same level that I was.

And they were newer, and they didn't have the tools in their back pocket yet. And I remember asking her, should I like tone it down? Should I like, not be all of that? Should I not exemplify and show all of the skills I've been learning? And I will never forget her words telling me, no, not now, not ever.

You do you, and the other people will rise to the occasion. [00:05:00] You. Show up as the expert in your field or whatever your craft is that you're working on and don't ever and that went so deep and I've never forgotten it and it's resurfaced in other ways, but to never lower myself to somebody else's level of accomplishment or achievement in order to have them feel better or make them feel better.

That just does no good for anybody, and it's certainly not being of service to those that we are in the rooms with or ourselves. That is all I will say. Let's come back to why vocal coaches don't lose their voice. Now, let me think about this for a second because I've been doing this now for over a couple of decades.

Have I ever lost my voice? I did lose, to my recollection, I did lose my voice one time. It wasn't that long ago. I want to say it was just like maybe a few years ago. And it was a virus. That I had caught [00:06:00] in everybody I had clients that were losing their voice. It was very random. It was a very there were no other Symptoms that I would call there was no fever.

There was no coughing. There was no fun There was none of that but there was a virus going around where people were just losing their voice And I remember being mortified because, the vocal coach losing her voice, that is no good. But that is the only time, friends, in over 20 years that I lost my voice and it was a physical illness that I had no control over.

Let's come back here. These are the reasons why. So first off, my fabulous friends, welcome to a new jam packed world of vocal coaches and the secrets that we all possess that keep our voices smooth as butter, even after hours of coaching. And this, to this day... continues to surprise myself because I've had some weeks where, I've, I mean, there were times where I was seeing five or six clients in a day.

That's several hours in a row. [00:07:00] There were days where I was teaching, gosh, three, four days a week, 20 something clients in a week. And part of the reason I've moved into trying to launch things online and creating courses is because of the sustainability of it all. I worked with over a hundred clients last week and, excuse me, not last week.

Oh my God, I'm good friends, but I ain't that good. I worked with over 100 clients last year and it really was a turning point for me is, if I'm going to keep going at this rate. What am I going to do for myself that I can sustain that physically, mentally, emotionally, vocally, and that's, hence, fast forward, I've been trying to get some things up online.

I've made a lot of things available for free on the website and all kinds of goodies available for you. So I don't work with that many clients anymore. In fact, my spaces are [00:08:00] limited now. I'm moving into a wonderful. new world of being of service not just to my clients, but also to myself for longevity.

So let's come back to, I just, I would say by raise of hands, by show of hands, if we were all in a zoom together or meeting, but you know, I'm guessing that you're probably wondering, what does vocal coaching have to do with you? Or if you are a business owner, why you should even be listening to this, right?

This is the thing, hold on to your hats because today we're diving into the delightful world of vocal prowess, where you're going to discover how you can use it to increase your vocal results, revenue, and even your relationships. So the first one, and I feel like a broken record, but I need to keep saying it because there are still people that don't get the value Of warming up your voice before you do anything.

It is [00:09:00] imperative, right? If you are, especially if you're a singer or you're going to be using your voice in any certain way, presentation skills or leading meetings or anything, out of the ordinary that you would use your voice for. I cannot say enough about warming up. Just, I mean, just imagine starting your day with a powerful vocal warmup, right?

Just like any other rock star getting ready to perform in front of thousands of adoring fans, right? Our Taylor Swift's, our Beyonce's I even heard, Oh, who was it? One of my L. A. friends, he saw Janet Jackson is still performing, apparently, and did an amazing show. She was awesome. Janet is still warming up her voice, friends, right?

Anyway, even professionals. Even high paying ticket touring the Christina Aguilera's, the Mariah Carey. They're all still warming up their voices, right? In order to have that pristine condition any, anything [00:10:00] that helps to benefit what they are about to embark on with their voice. So one thing I want to offer to you, speaking of warmups, and I've done a lot of little things in past podcasts.

I do little mini courses if you are a woman and you haven't hopped over to the Find Your Voice, Rock Your Confidence Facebook group, go jump in there. I do little mini tutorials over there, two, three weeks at a time. But if you haven't, and I haven't even promoted this, so there's no way you can know.

On the website under on the website under free stuff and goodies. There is a vocal tutorial. Now it's nothing fancy. It is different from my I am that is also available. The I am 26 ways to access your voice instantly using I am breathing meditations. This is a very specific. It breaks down at least four different exercises that I do with the voice as a [00:11:00] vocal warmup.

It's called the vocal tutorial and you can go pick that up for free. It's a little download. You can have it on your phone. You can do it on your computer. I love having vocal warmups. Workouts my playlist. If I have a show coming up, I love having it on my phone. I can travel with the phone. It can go with me in the car.

It's in the bathroom when I'm getting ready to for work, whatever. It's very convenient. It's not like having to sit at my computer and do it. So I want to advise you suggest you go pick that up. So before you dive into any daily tasks, just take a few moments to stretch your vocal cords out.

Like any other muscle, if you work out or if you're an athlete or you go to the gym do yoga, any of that your energy will change and you're going to be ready for your day vocally, just by taking a few minutes. That tutorial is about 10 minutes long. Even if you only did five minutes of it, every other day, it will make a difference.

You will see, feel, and hear. a [00:12:00] difference. Most recently, I have a woman she's in her early 70s. She's a brand new client. She used to be part of the NPR news network. She had her own show for years. She is I think that she's a photographer. She has her work is featured at the Getty Museum. So this is a very successful, intelligent woman.

She was actually referred to me from the therapy institute for vocal cord issues. And she came in and we did her initial session, loved it. Wasn't sure, you a lot of questions and, wasn't really sure if it was going to work. So she just. took off with her initial evaluation and she spent, I don't know, I think she spent about two or three weeks just playing with the initial workout that we created for her voice.

She is now on my schedule. She is going to be coming back to work with me in person and What is so exciting is just those two or three weeks that she spent on her own, [00:13:00] just using the few exercises I laid down in the initial session, she could already start to hear the results. And the feedback I'm getting from her is it's really helping her with her strength with her endurance her lower range is starting to come into play again.

She can start to reach some of those lower notes and it can completely. Disappeared. So very exciting. And I'm looking very forward to working with her. And, with regards to age friends, it is never, too early. It is certainly never too late. I've worked with clients from four to 84 years old.

Now at this point, I will say I do have, I have probably the youngest. Little baby boy coming to see me, a long time family friend reached out and she has actually has a three year old. Now, I am not going to work with this little boy as a client. She is bringing him for the main purpose of doing an initial evaluation.

To see, what is he really [00:14:00] capable of? Does he, how's his ear houses, what are some exercises he's just already naturally doing intuitively as a little boy that he is. But mom reached out because apparently he's very advanced in everything. He walked early, he talked early.

She's put him in some classes with, older kids and he just kind of gets lost and shoved to the side. No one knows what to do with this kid. She is bringing him to me, but like I said, three o'clock is three years old. is still a little bit young, three, four, five if anything, I will work with, kindergarten level age I'll work with them for, three or four weeks.

We'll make some fun workouts for them. I'll send them away, go play with that. If they want to come back later, they can, but really with regards to age and vocal coaching ideally like the best age where I really start to see things kick in. Right when the reading level is really happening, 8, 9, 10 years old, right in there, 8, 9, 10 like they're learning their focus of attention, their reading and [00:15:00] literacy skills, all of that is connected.

And I just see those younger clients graduate and go, they grow by leaps and bounds at that particular age. So that's all I have to say about age on that. So coming back to first. Warming up vocal coaches do it too. And I think one of the reasons that I don't have vocal issues is because I'm doing this work all the time.

Every time I work with a client it's the teacher benefits just as much as the people, right? So the. Next thing. So your action tip there, go over to the website, pick up my free vocal tutorial. It's different from the other things. Look for the words, vocal tutorial. The second thing is breath control.

All right. Vocal coaches are masters of breath control. Just like opera singers, holding that breathtaking note, entrepreneurs as well, need to master your breathing for your peak performance. [00:16:00] It's all about finding the rhythm that keeps you going. even in the most challenging moments. You might have heard me speak about asthma.

I, anybody dealing with upper respiratory issues, singing is an amazing, it's just amazing. It's amazing for your immune, boosting your immune system anyway. It's incredible for creating a consistent and positive mental health, but specific for breathing and breath issues, vocal cord dysfunction, which mimics asthma.

So growing up, I had my first asthma attack at about six months old, I sadly was medicated and hospitalized for probably the first 10 years of my life. And back then we had, you get on those air machines and then I spent many hours, many days in, it was like an oxygen tent. Not fun.

It's always cold and it was drippy and it was just look but [00:17:00] fast forward. When I was a kid, I did not know what I was doing at the time. I could stop an asthma attack from happening when I felt an asthma attack coming on. The first thing that would happen is. If I don't take the medicine, which I hated because it always strung me out, prednisone and lots of anti inflammatory steroid stuff that would make me jittery and then I couldn't sleep and I absolutely hated the medicine.

What were my options? Either take the medicine or, figure out a way to stop this asthma attack from happening or stop breathing and die, which that didn't, that was never an option. We all inherently want to live, but I had taught myself how to slow my breath down so much mentally connecting my mental brain to what was happening in my physical body that I could prevent an attack from happening.

And other people who have dealt with breathing issues have found great success. with vocal coaching and vocal work and singing. Other things that compliment [00:18:00] that you know, swimming, jogging running, yoga, most forms of yoga. There are other types of yogic breathing that can cause confusion with the kind of breath work that I do for singing and for voice.

But most yogic breathing work, anything where there's a pattern, where there's a rhythm. where you're doing something physically in your body that, that forces you to have to breathe in some sort of a pattern are all great compliments, supplements to vocal work. So breath control. So here's your action tip here.

Whenever you encounter a stressful situation, pause, We talked about power of the paws in a previous episode. Take a deep breath. Remember when we breathe, we're not breathing, short, shallow breathing, creating tension up in your neck and your shoulders and your back, your scapula, right? You're keeping your shoulders relaxed.

If [00:19:00] you are on YouTube, you got a nice visual of that keeping shoulders relaxed, lots of distance between your ear and your shoulders, breath through the nose or mouth down past the lungs. Thank you. Into the solar plexus muscle, moving your belly button away from your spine on the inhale and then exhaling the hand towards the spine.

Now I love my quote, inhaling confidence, exhaling doubt. Inhaling calm, exhaling stress, anxiety. Whatever the issue is that you're dealing with, you will be surprised how much calmer and how much more focused that you will feel ready to handle any situation that comes your way. And it doesn't take a lot, friends.

Five breaths, 10 breaths. We're [00:20:00] talking. Less than two minutes, depending how quickly or how slowly you do that breath. Number three, embrace the encore, your vocal resilience. So if you've ever seen a vocal coach take the stage after coaching for hours, nowhere, we would see that I have done that. I have coached all week long and then gotten on a stage on a Friday or a Saturday night to do a corporate event or a concert or something.

Vocal resilience is the key. to the success there, right? And it's available to all of us. We all have access to this. It is not just for the gifted or the special people or music royalty or, the wealthy. It's, this is available to Everybody. So here's your action tip here. Let's do a mantra.

So we're going to go back to the I am. I might've done this last week. It's okay because I never [00:21:00] get tired of it. We're going to go with, let's start. We're going to breathe in the words. I am in on the exhale. We're going to start with the letter E and we're going to exhale whatever comes up for you personally.

For me, I'm going to exhale the word today, effervescent bubbles in my drink. I am effervescent. Let's do another one. Let's breathe in the words. I am moving that hand on your belly away from your spine with the inhale. And we're going to exhale the letter F. That's

fortunate,

functioning. So you get the idea, right? Even in your toughest days or moments, something as simple as breathing in [00:22:00] some positive affirmation or thought and then exhaling out. Now, another way of using this is breathing in something positive. I am completely supported. And then on the next breath, releasing some negativity, some negative thought, something that does, that is the opposite, some contrary thought or action, versus I am not supported versus, I don't have the help that I need, right?

Inhaling. I've got this and releasing. There's nothing that can stop me here. So much of this, a lot of this today is mental. The stuff that we're going into now is mental. Where are you focusing your attention? Number four, sing in harmony. Communication is key. Let's talk about communication for [00:23:00] a second.

Vocal coaches know how to connect with their clients. Most of us anyway, most of us should know how to connect with our clients on a deeper level. Vocal coaching is very personal. It's very there's a lot of old wounds around voice coaching and singing and putting yourself out there. It's you're making yourself vulnerable.

It's like being naked in front of a bunch of people. that that's even worse, right? It's not just about hitting high notes, okay? It's about creating harmony through effective communication. As an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, it's a skill that will set you miles apart from your competition.

Yo. When people come in, a couple of stories for you, real people, real examples, when people come in for that initial evaluation to work with me, this is the curious to confident session that's also on my schedule and the website and you can go, [00:24:00] schedule and pay and all that stuff online to come meet with me for an initial session and often when they're coming in, I have a whole intake form of questions and things that I ask because yeah, I can't tell you how often a new client will come in and they have one thing on their mind, right?

I need help learning how to use my voice. That is a huge spectrum, right? And in the course of that time, when I'm asking questions and I'm getting the intake form, I, sometimes I will hear, kid you not, 10 different things. that this new client wants to work on with their voice. Now, my, my feedback and my encouragement is we can work on all of those things, just maybe not all at the same time.

Now I'm pretty good and I can multitask and we can work on two or three things simultaneously, but I am a big believer in breaking things down step by step in a system, in a certain format [00:25:00] in order to gain the greatest. Result in the quickest amount of time. That's just how I'm a results girl.

I love results. I love when my clients get results, but so much of that first session is really being able to not just listen to what they're sharing, not just listen to what it is they want to do. I'm also listening. What are the things that are going to cause them challenges? As we start to get in there and unpack what's going on with their voice, whether it's a physical issue or it's an old an old trigger, I'm listening ahead of time.

What are the things that we might start making progress? What are the potential roadblocks? That we might come across. One of the questions I ask and in the interview, it might seem completely unrelated, but I want to know, I don't always ask it, but I want to know questions like when you were growing up, were you allowed to make a bunch of noise growing up in your house?

Or, did you [00:26:00] grow up in a home where you had a parent who worked graveyard shifts? And when you got home from school, you needed to be quiet and not create a lot of noise because mom's getting ready to go to work, right? She literally needs to sleep before she gets ready to go work that night. Another question I ask always a fun one to get the answer to is where are you in the birth order?

Are you an oldest? Are you a youngest? Are you in the middle? Because Those birth orders make a difference. If you were an oldest like myself, like my husband we tended to be a little more bossy. I don't know about my husband, but I know I was bossy. I, I was running the show a lot.

I was. I was taking care of my siblings when my mom was doing the graveyard shift. If you are a youngest and you had a lot of siblings, I, they just kind of got lost. They just, everybody answered for them. Everyone made decisions for them. for them. They really didn't have much of a voice.

They really weren't taken seriously. They were like, [00:27:00] Oh, run along and go be with, with your other siblings. I noticed with younger or youngest there is a not always, but quite often there is this thing in them that needs to prove themselves. I see it with my own daughter. She was the youngest of three.

She's the only girl and whatever her older brothers were doing, she was going to do it better, faster more, more prettier. It just and these are things as parents. We don't raise our kids this way, right? We're not thinking about these things when raising. This is just the natural order of birth orders.

It just happens this way. So it's not good or bad. It just is. It's an observation. So these are the sort of things that I asked when it comes to communicating and really knowing when this new client comes in. How can I best serve this person in the quickest amount of time? So here is your action tip, friends.

Transcribed I'd love for you to embrace some active listening [00:28:00] skills, right? And whatever it is that you are doing with your voice today is a mixed bag, for singers, but I have a lot going on for business owners here. So the next time that you are in a sales call, or you have an onboarding call with a prospective new client try using some of these if you aren't already, right?

Sprinkling some empathy. Into every interaction that active listening mirroring back, confirming, that you did, in fact, just hear them say whatever that piece of information was really tuning into your clients needs, you're going to be hitting all the right notes in no time, right?

Remember that communication is a two way street. It's listening, active listening, receiving feedback, right? When we get ourself into trouble is, especially if we are in a, an uncomfortable situation that could get heated really easily, so often, and I've been there. Where I am thinking about, what, how am I gonna respond back to this uncomfortable situation instead of [00:29:00] really listening to what they're saying?

I've, I'm guilty, I've done it. I try not to do that anymore. I hope that I'm living in a very different, and practicing and modeling very different communication skills, even from just, four or five years ago. And that's on a personal level as well as professionally. And then number five, friends, belt it out.

Confidence is contagious. Here's a question. Have you ever seen a shy vocal coach? Have you ever seen a vocal coach who's holding back? I can't say that I have, right? I can't, right? They exude confidence like a rock legend ready to conquer the stage and you can do the same friends. Okay.

Action step today. I'd love for you the next time self doubt enters or tries to silent your inner diva friends. Remember that confidence is a choice. It's something that we can practice. It's something that we never, there's so many new skills and things for us to [00:30:00] try to embrace new unique talents.

Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to get out there and try new things. I mean, if not now, then when? We only have today. We look at the state of the world in the last few years, right? I'm all about, if I haven't tried it or done it, almost anything, not everything, but almost anything.

My, my new skill. Now I'm really first thing I'm really hunkering down on my guitar and piano playing skills. I'm a voice coach primarily and I can play guitar and support on piano, but I really want to up level those skills. And my new thing now is it's all about water sports. And I used to ski and I'm back to water skiing and that has nothing to do with singing.

My point is that it's been rough going it's not been as easy as I thought. And I need the little trainer thing to put the tip of my ski and it's, they call it an easy app to help get me out of the water. But I could just sit back in the back of the boat and say, oh, [00:31:00] I'm going to pass today.

Oh, I'm not going to do it today. Oh, I'm not feeling it. But you know what? Forget that. We only live once. anyway, your confidence will inspire others to follow your lead.

And don't I know that personally. In conclusion, vocal coaches have a bag of tricks that keep their voices soaring, and you can use their techniques, my techniques specifically to skyrocket your business. From warming up your entrepreneurial spirit, from warming up your entrepreneurial spirit, to embracing communication harmony, these tips will transform your business from average to chart topping.

So my friends, it's time to hit that high note and conquer the business world with vocal coach level finesse. Embrace your unique voice, your unique talents that are unique to you, not somebody else, not your neighbor, not the other person on the other end of the office that's doing it. Do you. And remember, [00:32:00] you've got all the makings of a superstar entrepreneur, right?

Get ready to shine like a vocal coach under the spotlight and watch. Your results soar. So a couple of things today, a lot of new things happening. My video gift, discover the power of your voice. Now, this is a three part gift. It is a total of. 38 videos right now. Go grab the first eight. There's a little welcome in there.

And then there's a little how to where I break down the first four parts, vocal method technique, technical stuff for you. Go pick that up. And then if you are a woman, guys, we love you, we need you. But if you are a woman, you can pick up the next video Set of videos, two more modules. One is on the, all of the elements connected to the voice.

The other are the seven energy centers in the voice. You can also get those. When you [00:33:00] register, you have to register for my live workshop coming up here in a couple of weeks. Radiate confidence, the ultimate vocal transformation. We are going to have a good time ladies. So lots of goodies, lots of stuff available.

Go sign up, check in, grab your gifts, get your goodies, and I will see you next time.