How Your Voice Impacts Your Leadership Effectiveness (feat. Arthur Joseph)

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Hi, I'm Susan Drumm and welcome to the enlightened Executive where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. This episode is brought to you by Meritage Leadership. At Meritage, we strengthen leaders and empower teams to achieve high performance. Go to meritageleadership.com to learn more. Today we're focusing on communication mastery with my guest Arthur Joseph. Arthur is the founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute. Recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on the human voice. Arthur's mission is to change the world through voice. His voice and leadership training program called Vocal Awareness and is intended to teach communication mastery through disciplined regimen of highly specific techniques designed to cultivate and enhance leadership presence as well as personal presence through body language techniques, vocal warm ups and storytelling skills. Arthur has taught globally for over five decades. His client list includes international leaders in politics, business, entertainment, broadcasting as well as world class athletes, motivational speakers like Tony Robb, actors and singers. So welcome Arthur. I'm so excited to speak with you.

I can tell. I'm moved. Thank you so much. Nice to be with you, Susan.

Well, I love that you say your voice is your power. I used to say your word is your power, but it is your voice because it conveys everything. So tell me a little bit more about your work, your philosophy. Let's dive in there.

I'm a classical singer by training. As we were sharing before we got on together. I have a master's in voice and so everything I do is informed through art. But when you're speaking about the word and voice, I'm teaching that it's not just the message, but it's the messenger. It's not just what we say, but how we say it. Notice I didn't just say it's not what we say but how we say it. I didn't say that. I said it's not what we say but how we say it. Because the mouth is where the words come from, but the eyes tell the story. So the inflection changed, the color changed expression. So I teach that if I say to you, Susan, it's really nice to be here with you today. Thank you for making Time versus Susan. It's really nice to be here with you today. Thank you for making Time. Now we don't know why the first one is bogus. We just get that's disingenuous. But why? We didn't think the pitch was too high, spoke too fast. All we get he's not trustworthy. The second one, you didn't get that I breathed, I slowed down, my pitch was lower. All you got was Arthur was more genuine. And so I teach mastery. And mastery in any discipline is only integrated when you achieved, when you integrate mind, body, spirit. When I was observing you with your introduction, you're so passionate, you're so excited, and you love what you do, and you genuinely care and give. I got that. And as you were doing it, your pitch was here because you're excited. And because when we speak to people, we tend to do what I'm doing right now. I'm speaking at you, even though I know my camera's here and I'm supposed to look up there, but I don't see your eyeballs when I'm doing that. So I choose to do this, even though it's bad zoom technique, but whatever. So in vocal awareness, there is no spatial relationship. There are people who actually teach. Get your voice from here to the last row in the house. Well, when I do that, I raise pitch. I don't want to raise pitch. I want to speak in a more grounded, authentic way. If I ask you, sit up nice and straight, please, Susan, because you said we could play. So sit up. Attention, please. And give me two Susan drum sentences.

We focus on strengthening leaders and empowering teams.

Not as much as I need. Okay, now, but first, sit at attention, please.

Okay.

And notice how you hold your breath, because that's what happens when we present. Because subliminally we want to be approved. There are even techniques that say we got to bond with your audience. Well, what if this person has one POV and somebody else has another? I can't serve you both. So in vocal awareness, we don't do that. Watch what happens when I ask you. In a moment, we're going to pull a golden thread, Susan, from three inches below your navel. It's going to look like this as we do it together in a moment. And I want you to use that to help you embody an extraordinary woman of stature. Now, tell me those two sentences again, please. But I'm going to help you breathe first. Slow. Silent. Deeper, deeper, deeper. In your sentences.

We focus on strengthening leaders and empowering teams.

Any different?

Yes, because I had taken a full breath in particular.

And you hear your pitch has just changed.

No, I didn't hear that.

You watch it. You watch this back. Pitch has just changed pitches. Different. Pace is different. Resonance is enhanced. And did you notice that your space is quieter?

Yes.

I teach a great number of elite athletes in myriad sports. My 29th students being inducted into the Pro Football hall of Fame this August. And Dwayne Wade, one of my basketball champions, is being inducted this August as well. And I only say this because I write all their speeches with them and then help them in performance, perform them. I'm a singer. I look at words and they tell me everything to do. I look at the music, Crescendo here, create piano there, mezzo forte there, attack it here. It tells me everything. But as leaders, we just have words. We have PowerPoint slides, whatever else, and they're just words, but they don't tell us anything to do. So in one of the trademarked elements of vocal awareness is something called visceral language. I help us make voice visual. What word did you just see underlined?

Visual?

Uh huh. And also there's a letter in that word that's also underlined. I help make voice visual. Oh, the V. Yeah, yeah, I help make voice visual. Do you hear it now? Because it brings out the gravitas, the warmth, whatever it is, I'm intending to interpret. So you saw it underlined? Because I do. And so if anybody looks at Duane's retirement speech on my website, his entire speech is annotated on the prompter in visceral language. For example, if you watch any of the hall of fame speeches on my website, they're all hard copy annotated. Years ago, I taught at ESPN for a number of years, and one of my senior leaders there was third or fourth in the company under John Skipper, who was the chairman at the time. And when we first met, he never wrote out a PowerPoint presentation in his life. He had bullets, like most people do. Our first town hall that he ran, he wrote out his entire performance for the first time in his life, and he read it from his mini iPad. Over the next couple of years, every town hall, I was sitting next to a woman who soon became a student. One of his direct reports, and she had her laptop there, and everything that she was typing was underlined in his presentation. It's called subliminal persuasion. Only 8% of everything we talk with everybody about, you know, the statistic, yes. Is retained from the words themselves. 92% is conveyed to the sound of the voice and body language. So we want to alert the unconscious mind, pay attention new information, but we don't know how to do that. So I make it visual. So when I'm talking with you, I teach us how to tell story because it evokes man's four basic emotions.

I have a master's from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. And I understand the power and the resonance of voice. I have a lot more work to do in that arena, but I understand the reasoning behind it. But share with our listeners. Why should this matter to the YPO entrepreneur all the way up to the C suite executive in a Fortune 100 company?

Well, I find it interesting you mentioned YPO because several years ago, after this last academy I'd done in Edinburgh, I was voted YPO Resource of the Year and doing all the stuff that I do because as you know, in ypo, if there's even a glimmer of something, I want it, if it's going to help me be better. And so we understand intellectually, voice is powerful. When I own my voice, I own my. Sociologists tell us, however, the greatest fear in society, that bogus trope, is public speaking. I don't care if you're the chairman of the company or an EVP or whatever you are, at some point in the day, something's going to get your attention and make you uncomfortable. The greatest fear in society is not public speaking. Greatest fear of two fears. Fear of abandonment and ownership of my power. Fear of claiming myself and being. Not being. Afraid of what you think of me while I'm being me. As we get all this mixed, all this, these mixed messages. Oh, don't act like that. What will people think? Oh, don't say that. You sound arrogant. And especially for women, as you know, far better, it's not a level playing field. And so we give our power away all the time. Yes, because of these old trainings, it's just incestuous. So in vocal awareness, we've reframed the word hubris, which we know means blaspheming the gods or extreme arrogance. But I don't know one elite athlete, I don't know one great artist who in the moment of their performance or competition is not fully hubristic. Yeah, not arrogant, but owning their power in that moment. And if that artist on stage hopes you like me in the fourth row, I'm screwed because I'm not in my art anymore. And that artist singing Schumann or Schubert is all technique. While we're performing, as you know, I'm in the fourth measure, anticipating the seventh and thinking about support and releasing. All of this is mechanical in my head. While performing art, that athlete is trained in such a finely tuned degree that their body becomes a thinking organism. And if that's a running back and they think to move in a certain way, they notice because they've trained their body to pay attention. So out here, speech is habit. We never think about any of the.

Things I talk about or how I talk about them.

Right, right.

Definitely how I talk about them. Wonder why am I not influencing my team in the way I need to influence my team?

Ask me that again and let's set up a breath and really ask the question. Don't ask it rhetorically. Really set up with a silent, loving breath. Deeper, deeper. And really just ask, but don't exhale the breath. Breath is fuel. We speak at the apex of it.

The rhetorical part is we need to influence our teams. We want to influence our teams.

Now, what's the most important word in that? What's the most important word in that sentence?

Influence.

So let's underline that. 3, 2. Deeper, deeper, and use your eyes.

One of the things we know as leaders is we want to influence our teams.

Hear the difference. So now that alerts my unconscious mind. I'm going to write down that critical word influence.

I notice I slow down a lot more.

Yes.

And so I'm curious to know, because so much of it is mindset. What is the mindset that has me? I get excited and I speak fast. How do I.

Tell me the same thing again with this breath, because it's a brilliant question. I want to answer it. Place one hand in the middle of your chest and the other hand. Place third and fourth finger on your Adam's apple. Right up on the bum in the middle. Right there. And your index finger right here against the base of your tongue.

Right here.

Great. Yes. Now take a nice deep breath. You feel your chest rise and you feel this flex, Correct?

Mm.

Now, this time, don't take a deep breath and take this hand that's on your chest and put it under your armpit and wait for me, please. Sitting in stature. Because you are an extraordinary woman, we want to embody that. We're not going to take a deep breath. We're going to allow, and I'm going to guide it for five to seven seconds. A slow, silent, conscious, loving, Even if it makes no empirical sense. Here we go. Loving. Slow. Allow it. Deeper, deeper, deeper. See, that's fundamentally different. This did not flex and the chest did not rise. Your rib cage expanded. Did you notice that?

Now I do. Yeah.

Hear the pitch of your voice.

Yes.

It's deeper, is it not?

Yes.

You can put your hands down. So now talk about speed for a moment, but we're going to begin the question with this conscious, loving breath. Slowly allow it. Don't take it Excellent. Excellent, Susan. Thank you. And ask it at the apex, your question about speed.

So why do I tend to talk fast and I'm going to stop.

Because you already feel that's hugely different, is it not?

Yes. Yes.

Did I ask you to slow down?

No.

No. All I did was change the quality of your breath.

Okay.

And you feel your space is quieter again, isn't it? And you feel. Well, this is interesting. I'm feeling something kind of energetically awakening here. Now, for you, that doesn't intimidate you, but for many people, that would get our attention. And so it awakens the two greatest fears. Why the heck does that even scare me? Why does that. Because it's powerful and it's our power. So if I say to you, because of all the mixed messages, vocal awareness is extraordinary work and help you change your life in moments, now that's stupid and arrogant. But if I say in response, vocal awareness is extraordinary work, it can help you change your life in moments is not arrogant. It's my truth. So helping people understand the size of this opportunity to claim their power, we then create what's called a Persona statement. The root of the word Persona is an Etruscan word, which literally means through the sound. One's identity is largely conveyed through the sound of a voice and an opinion, as we all know, created instantaneously. So it awakens us to a really powerful tool. So the Persona exercise, you write, how do I believe I'm presently perceived? Then you write, how would I ideally like to be known? Wow. There's a choice for you. See, every single thing in life, Susan, revolves only around two things. To choose to do something or to choose not to. Never matters. How scary, how seemingly daunting. All that matters is how badly I want it. You've made hugely empowering choices in your life. They didn't come without sacrifice, but the choice was far more important than the challenge. And so you did whatever it took, and you still do, because that's who you are. So this Persona statement is hugely important because then that becomes part of our brand. This is how I want to be known. My voice becomes my brand. We create thousands, spend thousands of dollars on websites and color palettes and font, and then we end up speaking like Pee Wee Herman or some runaway train or something like that. We don't reflect what's on the screen. In my last book, Vocal Leadership, I have an acrostic at the back of the book that's on leadership. An acrostic is where each letter of the word has a meaning that Reflects that word. The L stands for leading by example. So if I'm going to talk all this stuff at you.

Yeah.

It's just a bunch of loud, noisy, white noise, streaming data. I'm not embodying myself as an example, because when I hold my space, I ennoble you. I hope you discover your possibility because I'm holding mine. Does that make sense?

That makes sense. And how would someone who doesn't have the benefit of you working the way you just did with me, which is phenomenal, how would someone go about.

Could you. I'm gonna make. Would you ask me this again with your eyes on me, even while you're gathering your thought?

That's one of my hardest things. And I've noticed it even when I watch.

Did you notice your pitch just changed? Yes. Because you made eye contact. It literally changed the sound of a voice. So because speech is habit, we never think about any of these habits of ours. Yes, but the body speaks. And so as an exercise, I train people to just look at me. Even when you're gathering a thought. Then when you want to break it, look wherever you want, but don't speak there. Because these are just our behaviors. But the axiom here, Susan, is we are not our behaviors. That may be how we behave, but your Persona statement says this, ideally, is how I want to be known. If as an athlete, I've got a hitch in my game, I ain't got a gig unless they fix the hitch.

I would say the reason that occurs when I look away is because I am gathering my thoughts and I need a moment. Otherwise, I'm almost distracted looking at you.

But you just did it so elegant. And I get it, but no, old tape. You just did it so beautifully. You noticed that. And as you were doing it, did you notice you were subtly tuning into yourself? Because you teach about awareness, you speak about consciousness in vocal awareness. I'm teaching conscious awareness, which is a360. Intra and interpersonally. We have seven rituals. The sixth ritual is pay attention. Deeper listening. I'm paying attention out here. My responsibility, my words, everything. But I'm listening deeply inside. So I'm living within the integrity of the message and the messenger. So when you were just doing this, you weren't censoring, you were listening. What a huge opportunity. Feel the breath that just came. Because when the body hears the truth, it does what yours just did. It breathes to acknowledge that.

And so how can someone take.

So sorry for you. No, you're so great.

Look, this is awesome for me, but I also Want to make it really valuable for, of course, listening who don't get the this benefit of what a gift you're giving me now.

So I have numbers of online courses, of course, vocalawareness.com and if anybody chooses to write to me, they write to support@vocalawareness.com I answer every email that is sent to me. And I'm excited about this course I've never offered before that I'm launching on June 13th called Visceral Language Making Voice Visual. It's a three week course online where I'm teaching everything I'm teaching today, but in a teachable way, where we have a beginning, a middle and an end with deliverables and study guide and everything else. And it's a game changer. So that's how people can do the work. I'll be in London in, in May, but this will air until I return to London, but I'll be back in London in October teaching. And so this is my passion.

Yeah. And the mastery you've developed is extraordinary. I'm wondering what's one thing someone could do tomorrow to help find their voice or have their voice have more power?

Well, let me reframe that. Let me help them find that today. And everything in vocal awareness is about breath. Everything. We don't just take a breath, take one and just allow a conscious loving, enjoy it. Feel the totally different impulse in the body. Because everything I'm teaching is physiologically connected or I'm blowing smoke. That breath is your intercostal diaphragmatic breath. It's the primal breath of a noble. Everything expands as a bellows automatically. But we've circumvented that as we mature in life. But I just use the word love the word allow to take us back to that beginning breath. And it's safer, grounded, conscious, deliberate and effective. And so the single most important way to control the flow of the story is to control the flow of breath. And the breath is only physical, as you're discovering, it's also spiritual and emotional. So that's why it's a conscious loving breath. I've taught Holocaust survivors. I've literally taught deaf people to sing. Conscious loving breath is the mainstay of the technique that would be the takeaway.

Well, it fits right in the theme of what we focus on here. And I have to tell you, this podcast is unlike any other one I've ever done.

I hope that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

It is a good thing. I liked it a lot. And as you mentioned, I am very courageous and say, bring it on. I'd love to do it. I find it more of a curiosity. Oh, what do I have to learn here? Versus a fear of knowing what's behind that? Because with that discovery comes extraordinary breakthroughs.

And that's the entrepreneur. That's the entrepreneur. Exactly right. It's going to make me better. I want to learn it.

Yeah, for sure.

Remember the. I know we have to go, but first time I met Commissioner Goodell. Roger Goodell is commissioner of the National Football League, who wrote the forward for my last book. And the meeting was set up for Tuesday at 11, and I go into his office at 345 Park Avenue, and we have seven rituals. I'm going really fast through it. Seven rituals, Roger. We thank Source and we allow a conscious living breath. And we go as we warm up our voices. And I could have been a snack. I could have gone in thinking, my God, I'm sitting with this powerful leader. My God, I can't share all this craziness of mine. But I don't think like that. This is the work. And two and a half hours later, we'd begun to build a real relationship. He could have just checked the box and said, God, who use this crazy. But he didn't because I was in the integrity of the work. And so whenever we go in to run a meeting or to do something that may seem out of one's comfort zone, we simply claim our power. We use our conscious, living breath to be there. And we prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare.

Amazing. Thank you for taking the time to share this wisdom that clearly needs to get out into the world. I'm going to do your course. I think it's incredible.

So thank you very much. Thank you, Susan.

Thank you. Thank you for coming.

God bless and have a happy day.

And if you like this episode, you're not going to want to miss my interview with Barry Goldstein, who specializes in the power of music, helping people improve their health and quality of life. Let's lead the way. Hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the enlightened Executive.