Finding Your Voice: Vocal Exercises and Their Impact with Sammi Siren

Imagine if the power to totally transform your communication skills, was right there in your voice! That's what we explore with our guest Sammi Siren, a classically trained singer, voice coach, and public speaker. Sammi takes us on a journey of vocal discovery, sharing her expert insights and practical voice exercises. She emphasizes the art of speaking with purpose and intention, and how this can leave a lasting impression on your audience. Plus, get ready to hear some fascinating stories from her time as a cruise director and professional singer.

Communication is an art, and as Sammi explains, the key to effective communication lies in understanding your voice. She delves into her experiences from the cruise industry, where she learnt the power of storytelling and connection. Listen to the stories she spun, and the songs she sang to bring joy to people’s lives, while overcoming the challenges of maintaining high energy performances night after night. You'll hear about her unique approach to voice care and the techniques she uses to maintain vocal stamina - insights that anyone can benefit from.

Lastly, Sammi touches on the transformative impact of singing and shares how it can influence various situations. She takes us through the importance of voice exercises and how they can help deal with vocal fatigue and enhance your speech and singing. Plus, don’t miss out on her poignant thoughts on the role of gratitude in communication and how it can inspire others. Get ready to unleash the power of your own voice with Sammy Siren! Your voice is your superpower, so let's tune it to its maximum potential.

Sammi
Website: https://www.superpoweryourvoice.com/pages/freepower
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sammithestorysiren/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sammisadicario

Philip
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Have you ever wondered if your voice sounds weird or what you can do to make sure that your voice is there in the moment to be powerful and project a message that's going to screen confidence to your audience without you literally screaming? Well, today we have the voice expert herself, sammy Siren, offline. I said Sirene, she wanted that recorded, so I'd make sure that I said that right here. But Sammy Siren, she's calling people in as a classically trained singer, teaching artist, thought leader, voice coach and event speaker based in Austin, texas, woo, texas. I'm from Texas. I love that. She specializes in creating unique and personalized transformational voice experiences, from private coaching to confident communication workshops and live educational performances. She has something for creators and listeners alike. So, sammy, tell us a little bit more about yourself before we dive into the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Hello, hello, hello, hello, phillip, it is so good to be here on this very hot day in Austin Texas. Yes, you're very funny. My music name is Sammy Siren. My full name is Sammy Sadaquerio. That never felt like it was going to be something I would put on an album. So a while back, my friends started calling me the Siren and because I would just get up and sing for everybody when they would invite me to. And then I realized that that's also what I'm doing with leader. With leaders, I'm calling in the aligned, authentic, compassionate leaders who want to be the best versions of themselves and want to perform at a rate that gets people to listen and have that magnetic stage presence that increases impact. That the dream is working with a policymaker Right, we talked about that. It was somebody who was like wow, I have really great ideas, but I'm just not getting the votes because I'm not very likable. So turning those people into the rock stars, the superstars. So I started calling myself the Siren and later realized that it was one big, adorable joke, that that's the main exercise I actually use and teach people, and I've done before every show.

Speaker 2: 2:35

I was a professional singer for many years. I have a background in musical theater. I actually sang on a cruise ship for two years and I was a cruise director, so I sang over a hundred songs per week and it was four weeks on, four weeks off. That was my rotation, except for the dreaded 10 week summer that I put in just to make that extra cash. And so it was very important that I took care of my voice and I was a public speaker every day, and for the first time in my life I was speaking as myself, not as a character, because in musical theater I was always a character.

Speaker 2: 3:09

As a cruise director. It was super vulnerable. I was speaking to 90 year olds. So try to get the attention and keep the attention of somebody falling asleep in front of you. If you can have the attention of a 90 year old and a six year old, then you can have the attention of anybody. I've learned that, so that the Siren exercise was what I did before everything, and it is still what I do, and I have all my clients do it. I taught in a workshop yesterday, and so it's very much become a part of who I am, as both a coach and as an artist myself. Nice.

Speaker 1: 3:42

And I have some questions about the cruise, but we're going to get back to that in a second. Let me ask my first canned question of the podcast, and what is your definition of public speaking?

Speaker 2: 3:53

Hmm, vulnerably speaking my truth in front of people so that it leaves an impact, whether that's one on one and I'm giving a speech, or I'm giving a speech at a wedding to people and wanting to leave an impact, want to tell a story, have it be a memorable moment, or I'm getting up on stage and telling a story that I want people to actually go and discuss afterwards and I want them to think about and take home with them.

Speaker 1: 4:26

I like that and you're the second person that's actually mentioned one on one being a part of public speaking, because everybody that I seem to talk to besides people that come on the podcast and I interview them they really talk or they think. The first thought they think is, oh, I got to be on a stage in front of thousands of people. And while, yes, that is a part of public speaking, that's not the only place it is, and I try and really educate people on the fact that you can do public speaking one on one. The way that you are presenting yourself in your message, that is public speaking. It may not be in that public setting like we think, but I like that. You mentioned impact as well. That's so important and when we think about our speaking, there is impact one way or another. We're speaking with emotion, but we're, we're in that emotional state in our mind and we're just speaking out of the fact that we're frustrated or we're scared. That comes off a different way and really can impact a relationship and you can say some things that you never meant to say. And so the way that you do speak in public there on that one on one, however you're doing that public speaking is so important. It can create impact in good and bad ways.

Speaker 1: 5:39

But I want to go back real quick to the cruise, because I remember when I went on my honeymoon, we went on the cruise and we had this guy I think it was from Australia or something, I don't know. He had a. He had a different accent than obviously all Americans and what we realized is that pretty much everybody on the cruise was non-American for the most part, or at least the main people they see. Maybe Americans aren't crazy enough to go do that, I don't know, but they had people that were non-American on these cruises and that cruise director was very energetic, was always talking, was. He was everywhere. It seemed like he had costume changes. So you're probably already comfortable with that. But tell us a little bit like kind of behind the scenes. I'm curious. I haven't had anybody that's also been a cruise director. So you've got a lot of these like things that I haven't had somebody on here to do this yet, which is really awesome. But tell us a little bit about the cruise life. That sounds very interesting.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Well, first of all, phillip, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've worked in the film industry, I've worked in the theater industry, I've worked on big films, netflix films, and I've worked in the cruise industry and now in the coaching and public speaking industry, and so what you're talking about are those large cruise liners. I actually worked in American Cruise Line, so we worked. I was on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, and it was a paddle wheeler, so we only had about 85 crew members, which meant I can get off of the boat every day and I also had more of a say in what I was singing, which was really nice. So it was a very different experience than the thousands and thousands of people that you had. I have many friends who've done that, though that's going.

Speaker 2: 7:19

Working on cruises is very lucrative for a musical theater performer, because you go and you do that for a set period of time and then you have four months off and it pays really well and they feed you. You don't pay rent. Many people fall in love on those boats and then stay there forever. What to tell you about? I mean? Yes, it's about being very high energy, but my job was also about that one-on-one experience because it was a smaller boat. I spent a lot of time with veterans actually on that boat and that's when I became really passionate about working with veterans and about helping them find their voice. I'm just that's one reason I've called myself a voice expert, but with inner and outer voices, because I've often just been a safe place for people to tell me their story. So even on that, even on that boat, I had people coming up to me saying that a song that I sang, like Georgia on my mind, I would sing every week Georgia, georgia. I loved singing that song and it was because it's the reactions that you get from people who come up to you and say, well, I haven't listened to that in 30 years and it reminds me of my wife and it reminds me of this, my life. And so thank you, thank you for providing so much, so much heart and soul into what you do.

Speaker 2: 8:42

And at the end of the trip we would have a dance party, and so this is the most exhausting night. You've just done eight shows that week. I just did two 45 minute shows that night and that's just at night, like we still do trivia and bingo and all the things during the day. It's a small boat. We're doing all the entertainment as a cruise director. Once you, once you're a cruise director, you're doing everything. And we get to the. I haven't thought about this in a while. This is really sweet. We get to the dance party and so I'm still singing during the dance party. So you basically have three shows in heels in this, like 50s, like pin up dress all night and I'm dancing with people and changing their life. And you've people at the end of that who are widows, who've lost children, who've been through it, who've been through multiple wars, and they're like and over and over and over again. I'd hear thank you for getting me up to dance. I haven't danced in years. Thank you for singing for me. You made such a big impact.

Speaker 2: 9:44

So impact has always been a part of what I do, whether it's one on one, the conversation you have someone listening to their story, communication. I think one of the biggest misnomers about communication is that it's just about speaking. Really great communication is also about listening and also learning. How are you being received? How am I being received? Because if I want to be a great communicator, I need to know that my voice is. My voice can get really loud. So being aware that that happens, or my voice is monotone when I'm tired. So being aware of how to create more musicality in my voice, like I just did. I just gave an example while I was talking about it. That's an example of of musicality in a moment when I'm noticing I'm slightly monotone. So noticing what my communication style is, noticing how the person in front of me is receiving me and noticing if I'm listening to what they're saying and being able to make huge impact from a one-on-one experience.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Yeah, and I noticed what you said there too and how you described it. It wasn't just about literally listening, because when we think, oh, you should listen to somebody, let me put my ear up and I'm going to listen in. No, you were also watching them. You were listening to their body language. So, watching that body language, which is such an important piece when we do speak or communicate with one or hundreds of people, we need to look at that body language as well. Especially when you're on the big stage, you don't have the opportunity to have feedback and listen to them, literally listen. So you have to watch their body language and learn how to do that, and I like that.

Speaker 1: 11:22

You mentioned as well about how you would fluctuate your voice. I forgot what word you said exactly, but how you would make your voice change as you got monotone, because we all do that. If we're an hour, hour and a half into a speech, you're going to start getting tired, and how do you continue to bring that energy? So I do want to ask that question because clearly you, being on the cruise, you had to find that energy somehow, and you're probably doing these same acts, if you will, over and over and over again. So how do you continue to find that energy and pull it out of you, especially when you don't feel like having the energy in your voice?

Speaker 2: 12:02

Great question. The answer that I would have given you then is going to be a different answer than I'm giving you now. It's been years it's been three years since I left the cruise industry and I've grown an exponential amount. I've done so much personal development work and work on my health and my energy and on knowing myself at a really deep level and also becoming a trauma aware and trauma informed mentor and coach. And on the boat, none of that was true. I was just starting my health journey.

Speaker 2: 12:35

So on the boat, when I was a professional musical theater performer, it was really about faking it. It was really about just Grit in my teeth and making it happen, because that was my job. Now, when I'm giving a speech, now when I have hours and hours and hours of calls like today I've had many calls today and several interviews it's about breath. If I could go back and tell myself that, then I would. About taking that breath, about using that breath to create energy, about how to ground down and own my energy rather than giving giving. Giving my interview or my speech at the beginning of the day is not going to be the same as my interview or speech at the end of the day and that's okay. It doesn't need to be. I can have just as much impact if I slow down and give the full range of my breath.

Speaker 1: 14:26

I like that. I want to go now a little bit back to the cruise. I still stay on the cruise here. You mentioned something about having to save your voice. I know, whenever I've had to scream a lot because I'm excited at a game or whatever, that my voice tends to go out very quickly and then I've got to go speak somewhere. Or maybe if I'm speaking and I have a long-winded speech, all of a sudden my voice starts wanting to crack at the end and I'm like I need some water. I need something right now.

Speaker 1: 14:55

When you're on a big stage like that, sometimes you can get it, but when you're performing as you were, you probably couldn't get a drink of water while you were there on stage. Where is? If you're speaking on a stage, sometimes you can have a water and it's okay to take a sip here and there to help with that. But how did you go about saving your voice? I think that's an important thing for people to be able to learn and understand when it comes to using their voice and then saving that voice as well.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Great question. Well, yes, I could drink water on stage. We definitely found ways to drink water on stage or backstage. You find ways. It's just part of it. But if you're thirsty, you've been dehydrated for three weeks, so by the time you're thirsty, it's too late. Start hydrating now. If you have a speech coming up this weekend, if you have a keynote coming up this weekend, start hydrating right now. If this is something that I just want to drive this point home over and over everywhere I go if you're a public speaker, you're an athlete Welcome. If you want your voice to last your whole career, start taking care of it now. You are an athlete. It is harder on your voice to speak than it is to sing.

Speaker 2: 16:09

Because, chances are you're not using proper breath support. Chances are you're not doing agility exercises to be sure that you're making it through to the end of the day. If you're losing your voice by the end of the day, I would bet that you're sitting on your vocal cords. You're not using enough breath, your vocal cords are slapping together and in 15 years from now you might have some sort of rasp, but you can have longevity in your voice. Tony Robbins has several voice coaches. It's so funny. I've now, like I, told this research about who the big voice coaches are in the industry, one of which I have a certification with Roger Love Coaching and they're all like Tony Robbins voice coach. Tony Robbins voice coach. Tony Robbins works with everybody because he lost his voice from yelling for so long. So, although he's great and wonderful, he sees the value His voice is how he makes money. He's a motivational speaker. He knows that he needs a coach. He needs somebody to help him have the best quality possible, and that's what I say. That's another part of being a voice expert is I have 10,000 hours of classical singing and classical vocal health under my belt that I am applying to public speaking and being able to.

Speaker 2: 17:20

What happens if you lose your voice a night before? What happens if you? How do you? I hydrate incredibly quickly If I didn't drink enough water, like, let's say, I drank a little bit too much wine the night before. At this four day event that I'm at, and I'm speaking on day four how do I rehydrate? We use a humidifier or get into the bathroom and turn on the shower. I know for me that ice cream not necessarily dairy, but ice cream specifically gives me small feels like asthma, but it's just because it's phlegm, so that's not something that's good for me to have the day of or the day before, knowing that certain little things like water or soda water is going to make your mouth a little bit more dry. So not having that. These are all just tips and tricks that you know along the way.

Speaker 2: 18:08

I have singers, remedies and it funny enough, like you know, I went through my life being in musical theater thinking everybody knows this stuff, and now I'm in this public speaking world where these, there are people, once again, who are athletes with their voice and not treating their voice like the athletic instrument that it is, which is totally okay. That's why you know people like me who come in and disrupt and say wait a second, do this, everything will change for you. And it's true, you become more magnetic. You become more empathetic, more emotionally intelligent. We're able to feel our own emotions in our body when we sing. We're able to recognize the emotions in other people. We're able to build trust when we have that sort of tone in our body. I compare a lot of this to when you have a daughter. When we sing to kids, it calms their nervous system, singing, humming and it's not just because it's calming their nervous system, it's calming our nervous system. So, although I'm on it a little bit of a tangent here, but it all feels relevant.

Speaker 1: 19:18

No, you're fine, Keep going, keep going.

Speaker 2: 19:20

I say that one of my not one of my, but my mission in this lifetime is disrupting generational trauma and disrupting oppressive systems with the voice, with my voice, and by supporting the leaders who need my support to unleash their most powerful voice possible. And part of that, I've discovered, is through singing. Part of that is when we sing together, we heal together. Why do all of these different religions have a singing mechanism? And I wrote I wrote a one woman show and my thesis about this in undergrad was a question. It was just questions. I was like why do all these religions have singing? Why do they all have choreography? Why do they all have directors and and what are all of scripts and all of these things? That just felt like a show, it felt like a performance and I asked are we performing for God? Are we performing for ourselves? Who are we performing and communicating with? And it was all questions at the time.

Speaker 2: 20:18

And then over the past few years, I've become really into psychology and polyvagal theory and the vagus nerve, which is our fight or flight mechanism, and humming and toning. It helps us down, regulate, it helps us calm down. So if we're nervous or we're anxious or we're angry or we're about to get on a stage and, oh man, I just. I'm supposed to be here and stay quiet until it's my time to speak. Whoa, you're going to go there with a whole bundle of nerves. But if you stop and you take a deep breath, you hum to yourself a little bit, hmm, you'll notice that you'll be able to go on stage being more in touch with your own inner voice and outer voice. So simple. I do that when I'm about to teach a workshop on Zoom and I'm muted, my mouth is closed just humming to myself, keeping myself calm and warmed up and ready to get on the field.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Yeah, wow, so many things there I want to touch real quick. You mentioned like warmed up. I think it's something that a lot of people don't think about with their voice is that you do need to stay warm. I mean, just like it's. It's another muscle at the end of the day, because, yes, your throat muscles, the vocal cords and everything there that need to be able to work. And if you just all of a sudden like we're gonna 300 pounds of squat, like oh, your body's gonna be, like oh, okay, although I got a buddy, now it's on bench, he'll come in there and do like 315 on bench, no problem, like no. Actually one time it was funny and I got a little tangent here we were sitting there trying to like max out on dead lifts and we were up to like 500 pounds on dead lifts, and he comes off the street like just came into the gym and we're over there, like you know, maxing out, we've been warming up, and he comes over and he's like, huh, he just lifts it up, no problem. We're like really, dude, really, and and so what you're talking about in the training you do is that's what. That's what we're doing Essentially. We're coming in and we're just like, boom, we're just going to start speaking, we're going to just start slapping those vocal cords together and while, yeah, I can work that time, that longevity, it'll end up hurting you so bad. And so that guy like, yeah, he might be able to do it one time or two times or 10 times, but eventually it will get bad.

Speaker 1: 22:36

And then Tony Robbins as well. You mentioned him. I actually use him as an example for people that feel like their voice is weird, because obviously it's his very raspy, it's it's not an attractive voice. He's obviously makes millions of dollars still and has invested into voice coaches to help out as much as possible. But your voice, no matter if it's weird or not, other people, if you have a great message, you're going to listen to it. So continue to share your message, no matter what. But I do want to ask you, speaking on those voice exercises, could you share, like another, you mentioned the humming there. Then could you share any other voice exercises? Like maybe, as our voices going out, perhaps that we've been at this retreat or this event or about to speak, or I mean this could even be for somebody who's not speaking, but they want to make sure their voice stays with them throughout the whole thing. What is like one exercise we could do to help our voice from going horse.

Speaker 2: 23:29

Yes, oh, such great question as well. I like your questions.

Speaker 1: 23:35

That's what I do best. I just ask lots of questions and that's good.

Speaker 2: 23:39

A great coach, a great podcaster, ask great questions. I'm also. I often get the compliment that I'm a great question asker, but this is my time to answer and not ask. Yeah, there's a lot of exercises that you can do. One is the I'm going to teach you to right now. So one is is the humming. This is the siren exercise, but, so that I'm not blowing out the microphone, I'm going to teach it as a hum, but usually you would do it on a, on a whoa noise, so, but I'm just going to do this on a hum.

Speaker 1: 24:12

Hold on one sec.

Speaker 2: 24:18

Hold on one sec. I have to turn my sound on so you can hear the only picked up a little bit of that yeah here we go.

Speaker 2: 24:24

I have a sound for musicians on now. Now I have a very wide range. I already know how to get into those parts. So if you're new to this, it would just be something as simple as get weird. The weirder the better, but make it easy flow. And the point of this is to check where you have gaps in your range and that's like. That's like having a knot in a muscle that you get to learn how to massage out. So that's one basic one that I teach. I actually, like I said, I just taught it as a hum, but typically I teach it as a full, full, full out. No marking is what we say in theater, and that exercise will also calm you down. It'll get you more playful. A lot of people say they feel a lot more energy to then go and speak and feel a lot less scared to use their voice after that. And then another one if you're feeling a lot of vocal fatigue. So if you're exhausted in your voice, let's say you're on your third day of a ritual.

Speaker 1: 25:41

Hey, real quick. I'm having a little trouble hearing you. I think you turn your volume down or something. I don't know. It's really quiet all of a sudden.

Speaker 2: 25:48

There you go. Where'd you lose me?

Speaker 1: 25:50

There we go. You're good now yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:52

Good, now it was real quiet.

Speaker 1: 25:53

I could still hear, but it was. It was getting hard to hear.

Speaker 2: 25:55

So Sorry for that.

Speaker 1: 25:57

You're fine.

Speaker 2: 25:59

Yeah, let's say that you're on your on day three of a summit or day three of a conference. You've been talking to people the whole time and your speech is on the final day. Your voice is tired, your, the absolute worst thing that you could do for your voice is talk over loud music. It is the worst thing you could do for your voice. And little side note tip here If you want, if you do have to talk over loud music, or for you, maybe a bunch of screaming kids right Like you're at a birthday party with your daughter like a bunch of screaming kids speak really nasally. If you speak really nasally at the loud thing, you're putting less pressure on your vocal cords while still your voice is cutting through the air. Obviously this cuts through. It's annoying, but nobody's going to notice that in like that's in in that situation. I do it all the time. My voice feels in loud restaurants. No one notices, it's totally fine, okay. So there's that.

Speaker 2: 26:55

This is the key and this is if you walk around New York City at any part where you see like people auditioning for Broadway, you will see this and the key is the straw. I wish I had one near me. I put all of my singing supplies over there, get a straw, a plastic straw, a metal straw, whatever ever kind of straw you want, and you're going to sing and hum through it and blow through it and that helps heal vocal fatigue faster because you're going to learn how to use your breath support to create more ease through your vocal cords. The vocal cords work. They're like two muscles slapping together and air is moving through them and that is how you make sound. When there's too much air it gets very breathy and if there's too little air you have vocal fry and they slap harder. So finding the right amount of air is one going to be amazing for your nervous system and two be a lot better for vocal fatigue. So often on show eight of a week of an eight show week, we're humming through the through the straw.

Speaker 2: 28:00

Now for singers and for professional speakers, if you're at that level where you're doing keynotes all the time, they actually make certain devices you can use to support this and learn with this unnecessary unnecessary. I get ads for them all the time and I'm like I know I've studied with some of the best in the country. I went to one of the best schools for learning how to sing speech level singing. That's what I'm trained in. It's funny that I'm now teaching speeches, speech level singing.

Speaker 2: 28:28

Use a straw, hum through that straw, do different exercises through that straw. If you want to go to my YouTube page, sammy Siren, I have a whole warm up series that you can do for free. Go for it. I'm not going to ask you to put your email into anything. It's just my, it's just my YouTube and you can do that. Some of the exercises and it will make a huge difference, one in your, your speaking skills and your ability to have more. I use the word musicality earlier cadence If you're looking for a different cadence or you're like, oh, what is what? Is that charisma that that person just has? Often it's their voice, their essence, their energy, and that straw will make a big difference in your life.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Interesting. I'll have to get a straw, for sure. I guess we have to make sure it's not a plastic straw so we can save the turtles, but we can get us a straw either way. So does that need to be like the full length of the straw, or can you like cut it down in size, like maybe it's like three or four inches, does that matter?

Speaker 2: 29:26

I would use the full length because part of it is the way that the airflow moves out. You're learning how to use a certain amount of dialed air rather than the full capacity of your breath. All the ones that you go to the incense so often I'm listening to people who are giving speeches and I go to a lot. I go to pitch events I go to. I go to a lot in Austin. There's a lot of entrepreneurial events I go to at least one per week, often two or three, and there's they're pretty good speakers around here, honestly, like people do pretty well, and one of the biggest things I hear is people losing breath at the end of their sense and you're not hearing everything that they're saying. So they're losing energy at the end and it sounds like their pitch is just going down but really they're running out of air. So by practicing with that straw you'll be able to build your breath support and that's one of the biggest things that I do with my clients.

Speaker 2: 30:23

I have a client right now that she's getting ready for really big keynote in four weeks. She's awesome and love working with her. She's like you know, you've got ideal like center of the bullseye clients. She's totally that and she's just singing with the straw. I'm like just sing, sing with the straw, because she's of course she's not going to sing in her in her office, although she did. I think it'd be fun. I think everyone would like it. So just sing through the straw so she can build the breath capacity for her 20 minutes speech. 20 minutes is a long time if you've never done it before.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Yeah, oh, yeah, and I want to go back real quick. One other question I have. There's so many great things here, but you mentioned that singing is easier than speaking and I kind of feel the opposite, because there's times where I'll lead at church, so we do acapella singing at church and so I have to lead singing, and maybe it's because I do kind of go to, my breath runs out on that versus singing and speaking. I will find places where I can pick a breath. So explain how that is, because I feel like it's opposite. But obviously I'm not the expert, but I'm just curious for my own sake.

Speaker 2: 31:33

Well, functionally speaking and singing are the same thing. Speaking and singing are the same thing. In college, in undergraduate, we would sing all of our speeches and speak all of our songs. So what I teach? When I teach people to sing which I don't do anymore I'll teach some of my friends who are like, can you teach me how to sing? I'm like sure, but I'm not really interested in helping people be better at karaoke. We're here for impact, as I said. Impact and learning how to sing I can.

Speaker 2: 32:06

If I can speak anything here, I can sing anything here. If I can speak anything here, I can sing anything here. It's the same thing. It's the same part of the vocal cords. It's the same functionality of the vocal cords. It is easier on your vocal cords to sing than it is to speak, because speaking has more of like a slapping quality to it typically. So it is healthier to sing song just a little bit. So often when I get tired which honestly, because I'm tired now, I probably should, which I am a little bit adding a little bit of sing song into it is going to be easier on my vocal cords and the audience is going to like it a little bit more, because otherwise I'm just sitting on my vocal cords, so it creates more ease for everyone. Let's see, is there any other reason to share with you around that?

Speaker 1: 33:04

I guess you just love to sing. That's why it's also better. Well, for me, for me for sure, and that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 33:11

People enjoy listening. I like to think, I hope.

Speaker 1: 33:14

Yeah, I've been loving the little here and there where you're putting the singing in. Like I said, a couple of firsts on the podcast. I love it. It's awesome, it's random. That's how I am, I'm random, I'm corny, so all that works for me.

Speaker 2: 33:29

You want to hear a funny story? Yeah, let's hear it. So, like I said, I've been going to these tech events because I also have some other projects I'm working on. Like, I want to create a nonprofit called the somatic singing school, which is singing for healing trauma, for veterans and domestic violence victims. So I'm just, I'm just going to these events. I'm like I'm going to learn. I've been in arts and coaching for so long. How do I learn? So I go to this event and we're at the end of it and I'm talking to one of the funders, one of the investors, and she was just hitting it off, and we're talking about some woo woo things and some non-profit ideas and saving the world, one person at a time.

Speaker 2: 34:07

And somebody gets on the microphone and they're like excuse me, we need everyone to leave. They're kicking us out, it's time for us to go. And I'm watching him struggle to get attention and I make a habit of this. Singing is my superpower, it's part of my key notes, it's part of what I do, it is my gift. So I'm going to sing, right, I'm not telling everyone else to sing. It's not, it's not for everyone. In that, it's my thing, right? So I look at him and he's so desperate, like can you help me? And I was like give me the microphone. All I need is a microphone. That's it. Just give me the microphone and I know what to do with it. So I get on the microphone and I sing hello, hello, hello. I'm not sure how much you heard of that, because my musician yeah, I think I heard about some yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:00

That's okay, I heard the first couple of hello's. Something like that. I just started singing hello and improv and see how it goes and get everyone's attention, and everyone pauses, everyone stops talking and looks up at me and I'm like thank you for your attention. We are being asked to leave the room. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. And, by the way, I'm an executive voice coach and I can help you 10X the impact of your next speech or pitch. So much and left, went outside, had amazing conversations.

Speaker 1: 35:34

Nice.

Speaker 2: 35:34

Amazing conversations. Had gotten to a conversation with somebody who works at a tech startup co-working space and they're looking for public speaking mentors. So, going out there and knowing it's my superpower and just singing, I'm just. Let me just break the ice by singing. And, plus, people often challenge me.

Speaker 2: 35:55

I'll have a smart aleck once in a while that's like oh so you're a singer and I'm like you want to play? Yeah, and I'm sound probably really cocky right now. But I also want to say for years I would hide, I wouldn't sing. No one was allowed to hear me sing for years unless it was perfect. It had to be perfect or I wouldn't let myself do it. And now I'm like screw it, I'm going to. Sorry if that's cussing for anybody, but whatever, I'm going to have fun. I'm going to sing. It feels good in my body. I'm going to use my voice. This is my truth, this is what I love, and I'm going to change the world doing it, and do it in a way that's actually impactful. This is not for commercialism. This is for how do we have better leaders? One of the songs that I've written is called I don't know what it's called, but it goes we need leaders who communicate. It's like a whole jingle around that Like we do.

Speaker 2: 36:49

We need leaders who know how to use their damn voices and not just to manipulate but actually influence, and also listen to their own inner voice and heal their stuff and have some emotional intelligence. We're desperate for those kinds of leaders, and I've unlocked this code for it, and so I'm calling them in once again with the siren.

Speaker 1: 37:12

Nice. I love it and I can only agree so much with that. The fact that you're saying that we need better communication, and that's a lot of why I got into the public speaking communication space because I realized just how much it's impacted my life, because I was that guy that would never talk. I was super shy. I always go back to third grade where I missed a day of school and I came in the next day. My teacher didn't even know I missed school because I was that quiet, that shy. I never talked and I always got passed over.

Speaker 1: 37:45

For all sorts of things sports girls, the chance to be on the team, whatever it may be Always got passed over, always got looked over, never became the leader, except for when somebody needed a leader.

Speaker 1: 37:58

Then, all of a sudden, I was there to step up and as I started speaking more and communicating better, I became more and more that leader and more and more that person that could create the impact, and so that's why I got into it myself, and so it sounds like we're on that same path, right there where we realized it is a superpower and we want to go teach other people because it's created so much impact for us, and so I want to go into our last question here, because I mean, this has just all been great. So, guys, if you all need a voice coach, definitely reach out to Sammy. She's awesome, as you can tell from here. She's got a lot of knowledge, so definitely reach out there, and we're going to get that here in a second. But I want to go to our last question, and that is if you could only share one message for the rest of your life, what would that message be?

Speaker 2: 38:51

Thank you for using your voice.

Speaker 1: 38:55

Hmm, care to elaborate on that?

Speaker 2: 38:58

The essence of gratitude, thank you, and when we say thank you, we inspire people to keep doing something. Language we didn't even talk about a whole language framework. We didn't even talk about the unlifted language framework and core language upgrade and being specific with your words in order to create specific influence, like we only just talked about the mechanism of the voice. Very different from saying please use your voice to thank you for using your voice, very different reaction. We're training our brain in a very different way and I often, even when communication is hard, even when communication is hard, when it's hard to receive, when someone's saying something to me that I don't want to hear, thank you for using your voice.

Speaker 1: 39:49

Yeah yeah, communication is key and whether we want to hear it or not, we need to hear it. I was actually having a discussion with a friend here recently about somebody doing work for us and I'll use a restaurant. So we went to this restaurant all at one time actually my wife and I and I was talking about this story as well where we went to this restaurant and I wanted my steak rare and it came out either like medium rare or medium, and so it was overcooked. And I wanted to let them know that, like hey, this was overcooked. Because I wasn't like, oh, I'm never coming back here because this not properly cooked steak, but I know there's somebody that probably would do that.

Speaker 1: 40:31

And then what was crazy is when I said that they're like, oh yeah, we have our chef that normally isn't on the it was like Saturday night or whatever, so the busy hours he's normally on like a less busy time, but we're putting them on the busy time to give him that experience and that exposure. And so I was able to help him out, or hope to help them out, because I'm like, hey, you didn't cook this right and you need to make sure that you're doing these things properly. Now, obviously they need to go back and do that, but if I wouldn't have said anything, they would have thought that hey, they're probably cooking fine, because nobody's saying anything, nobody's complaining. So using my voice helped him, and so the same thing with our communication. We can help others by communicating that, even if we don't like to hear what somebody has to say, it still needs to be said so we can learn and grow together.

Speaker 2: 41:20

Say the hard thing. Say the hard thing.

Speaker 1: 41:22

Yeah, for sure. So, sammy Siren, if people want to follow you, want to learn more about you and even work with you, where's the best place for them to reach out?

Speaker 2: 41:33

Absolutely. My website is superpoweryourvoicecom. That should be up by the time this podcast is up. If you want to check out my music, I'm going to keep that updated on sammysirenmusiccom and if you want my pre-public speaking ritual, this will activate your voice for power, authenticity and confidence. Get rid of that stage fright and imposter syndrome and just open up different ranges of your voice. You can go to superpoweryourvoicecom slash free power.

Speaker 1: 42:05

Awesome. Well, sammy, once again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been awesome to talk with you and get to know more about what it is that you do and how you help people, because it is a very powerful thing that you do there. No pun intended with the sirens.

Speaker 2: 42:21

Thanks so much, Phillip.