Are You Authentic?

July 22, 2015 by admin

It’s mid-July. Wow! How did that happen? Wasn’t it just January??
Time to reflect on our goals for the year, see how far we’ve gotten (or not gotten), and refresh and re-focus ourselves to make the fullest, best use of the rest of the year!

Here’s a tip to open things up for your year. Open up to speaking in your authentic voice.

I’m all about authentic voice. I work with clients to open up their full range of self-expression, and their ability to speak in their authentic voice.

Often, when I ask a client to try a new level of expression, or a new way of speaking, they get uncomfortable, and say it doesn’t feel authentic.

This issue came up again with a client just the other day. I was coaching her to use more expression, and she said “That doesn’t feel like me.”

So, what does it really mean to be authentic? What does it mean to speak in your authentic voice? Continue Reading

What Do YOU Want To Say?

July 15, 2015 by admin

Our need to “self express” is deeply human. It is a key to our creativity and having a life that has meaning.

It’s also key to both our spiritual growth and our worldly contribution.

Your voice is your primary instrument of self expression, yet you normally take it for granted.

So much of our culture conspires against your full self expression – cultural expectations of women (and men), the things you were told as a child, traumatic events that caused you to shut down, your own perceptions of how you’re “supposed” to sound.

I call these “voice stories” – unconscious decisions you’ve made about how to sound (or NOT to sound), and about how you can speak, that cause you to hold your voice back.

I’m on a mission to bring back your full self expression, and I’ve discovered that opening up your voice is an overlooked, underutilized way to do it.

When Connie came to work with me, she had a very small, quiet voice. We met in Zumba class, and she would always stand in the back. She never smiled. If she came in late, we never noticed her coming in.

She felt that people didn’t listen to her, and told me that people would often talk over her.

Now, she was not a tiny woman, nor was she any kind of dummy. She was a CFO in between jobs.Continue Reading

Tonality And Making Your Offer

June 24, 2015 by admin

I find that many coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs, when they deliver presentations from the stage, on webinars, or during 1:1 sales conversations, totally shift the tone of their voice when it comes to asking for the sale!

Here’s an excerpt from a free video training I created last summer in the lead up to my first Voice Your Value™: How To Charge What You’re Worth and Get It! group program.

In this free video, I share a highly effective technique at about the 2:21 mark that helps you dramatically shift how you’re using your voice in sales conversations and presentations.
Continue Reading

Zip It

May 19, 2015 by admin

by Ariana Newcomer

I’m an advocate for speaking up, speaking out, and being authentic.

That doesn’t mean I think you should spill whatever you’re thinking all the time, or that you should dump your feelings all over others indiscriminately.

To succeed in being truly heard and understood when you speak out, there are definitely times to zip your lip. Button it. Hit pause. Step away from the keyboard. Just don’t say anything.

I’m not talking about suppressing yourself, swallowing insults, silencing yourself forever. Nor am I talking about ignoring things. I’m talking about taking some time to pause, breathe, think.

It’s a temporary ZIP IT so you can succeed in truly communicating.

Instead of responding immediately to a flaming email, urgent phone call, or upsetting remark with your own flaming arrow, WAIT. Those flaming responses can end up costing a lot of time, and creating confusion and resentment. They don’t create true communication (they actually put barriers in the way of true communication). After them, you have to repair relationships, apologize. You often have to back-track, and clarify what you really meant to say.

Also, when we give those flaming or sarcastic responses, we’re automatically creating the same kind of response in the other person that they just created in us – irritation, frustration, anger and resistance – which equals NO COMMUNICATION.

No matter what awful thing somebody says, we have the opportunity to choose how we’re going to respond to it. That opportunity comes during the ZIP – the pause to breathe and think.Continue Reading

The Voice of Your Soul…

May 14, 2015 by admin

by Ariana Newcomer

You think that your voice is just the way it is and there’s nothing you can do about it. Mostly you take it for granted.

But really your voice is an expression of your entire essence. It is a window into your soul. It contains more information about you than almost anything else.

Just from how you sound, people know more about your beliefs, your confidence and your essence in 5 seconds than you could ever tell them just with words.

Since communication is central in life, your voice is your pathway to opportunity and a key secret to success in this world.

When you learn to control the elements of your voice, strip away things you have layered on top of it, and stop holding your voice back, you come into an authentic, confident and powerful expression of all that you are through your voice.

You can become influential beyond your wildest dreams, impacting people, drawing them in, using your new powerful voice – the voice of your soul – to create the life you most deeply desire.

I would love to work with you so you can step into your embodied, authentic voice, and into your calling. Book a free Voice Your Value Breakthrough Session, and let’s talk.

The Secret To Following Your Calling

May 8, 2015 by admin

Shhhh. It’s a secret.

Want to follow your calling? Embody your voice.

You know you want to succeed doing your heart’s work and making a difference in the world. That thing – a calling – you’ve got it. It whispers your name in the night, tugs at your soul, and tells you to do things you’re scared to do. So you resist.

But there it is again the next night, next day, next week. Still, you resist.

You know that if you don’t follow that calling, you’ll regret it. You already regret the time you’ve spent serving other people’s dreams (except your kids’ dreams – you love serving your kids’ dreams).

You take a few steps into it. It’s scary, and different, and hard. You back off.

I can’t, you say. I don’t know enough. I’m not good enough. I don’t have enough credentials and certifications. Who am I to think I can _______ ? (Fill in the blank with your calling.)