On the Brink (Literally): Evelyne’s Becoming

Voice and visibility coach Evelyne Brink returns with a story that’s part pilgrimage, part primal scream, and fully alive. From being told her voice was “dysfunctional” to getting into (and then kicked out of) musical theatre school, Evelyne follows intuition across continents—Thailand’s Sanctuary, New York cabarets, Brighton pubs—and even into an unlikely season as a #1 Madonna tribute artist. We unpack rejection, rewilding, and the moment you stop auditioning for approval and start embodying who you are. If you’ve ever felt “too much,” broke-but-brave, or called to say no to the shiny path, this conversation is your permission slip. Come for the glitter, stay for the grit—and leave with practices to trust your voice, your body, and your inner Wonder Woman.

Key Takeaways
1. Rejection redirects: Sometimes being “kicked out” is the first step toward freedom.
2. Different ≠ broken: A unique voice is often your greatest gift.
3. Intuition leads, logistics follow: The how unfolds when you listen to the call.
4. Voice is healing: Sound, song, and primal release move trauma through the body.
5. Art feeds art: Every gig, even the unexpected ones, refines your artistry.
6. Aliveness transforms how we speak and lead. (Yes, even in corporate)
7. Women’s voices are needed now: The world changes when we rewild expression.

Connect with Evelyne:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evelynebrink/
https://www.instagram.com/evelynebrink/
https://www.evelynebrink.com/

Soul Sucker Quiz

Take the Soul Sucker Quiz to learn which Soul Sucker screams the loudest in your mind so you can release them from being in charge and set your voice free!

https://voice-matters.com/soul-sucker-quiz/

The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz

Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most!

https://voice-matters.com/speaker-alter-ego-quiz/

Transcript

Buckle Up: Evelyne Brink is back

Lauri 0:32

Hello and welcome back to the Soulful Speaking podcast. Buckle your seat belts. I am back with Evelyne Brink for another experience. If you have forgotten, which I doubt, or you missed our first two-part episode, Evelyn Brink is a voice and visibility coach for high impact leaders, helping brilliant people sound as powerful as they are. And I'm going to save the rest of the juicy information for her story today. Welcome back, Evelyn.

Evelyne 1:04

Oh, thank you so much for having me. Hi, Lori.

Lauri 1:08

Hi. Hi. Let's go ahead and dive straight in. I'm going to ask you to start with where did your speaking journey begin?

Evelyne 1:29

Speaking journey began as an actor. I think it's an acting journey that began, similarly to you. We love to joke that we're soul sisters and we have so much in common. So I'm one of these kids. You know, when you go to the school plays, and there's always this one kid that's a bit extra. You either want it, but there's always the you know what I mean? I only see. That's me. Yeah. The one that they say, oh my god, you're gonna be an actress. We can tell you're gonna be an actress. So I bought that part from an early age. I was going to be an actress. That's what that's called when you have this kind of energy. So I had my first opportunities to go on a stage at five. I played in a theater and I was on television, and then at 13 I played in the National Theatre, and then so then it was the it was sealed. The deal was sealed. I was going to be an actress, and I met Astrid Lindgren. Do you know her? Yeah.

Lauri 2:30

I loved Pippi when I was a kid.

“Dysfunctional” Voice, Musical Theatre Dream

Evelyne 2:32

Well, I am Pippy. I I identify as Pippi. Now you can say, right? I identify as Pippi Longstocking. I did. Now I identify as Wonder Woman. Um so there was another part of me that knew that one day I would sit in a chair, a beautiful armchair, and I would read to lots of people my stories. So that's that's more of a speaking thing rather than the acting thing creeping in. Anyway, I um started doing one-woman shows because I'm a bit like that. I went traveling straight after school, me and my bestie, we took the bicycle and just rode it along the river Rhine. So I'm from Germany. I was born and brought up in Mainz in the middle of Germany. We rode along the river Rhine and stopped in any place that was a place and started singing songs. He played the guitar, I sang, and that's how we made our money. That's how we bought our dinner, and then we slept random places. When we passed a farm, I would knock on the door, said, Hello, we're traveling. Could we please put up our tent on your land? And people like, okay. So that's what we did for three weeks. We got discovered by the radio station, uh, we went on the radio. Anyway, after three weeks, we had such a good repertoire, and somebody picked up that story of these two young people traveling from Germany all the way to Switzerland, France. Um, that he said, Why don't you put that as a show? I'm like, Great. So I put that on as a show. Then I got hired by the local small theater. We have small theater in Germany, where you have one-woman shows, one man shows. So I staged my first one-woman show where I sang, I spoke, I told jokes, you know, entertained me and a pianist. So my guitarist was also a pianist, so we performed together, and then we were hired in a different theater. So that's how we became a one-woman show person. So I knew that I could do those three things: telling jokes, singing, entertaining, speaking. So I considered myself, I guess from that place a speaker, but I hadn't given speeches per se. And I was then I wanted to get into acting school, that was a whole different story, really hard to get in for me, took three years. But by that time I got um I got elected to go into musical theatre school, which was a surprise to me because my background is a dysfunctional voice. So only five notes to arrange as a kid, got picked to go into one of well, there's only two prestigious musical theater universities in Germany, and I got into the one in Berlin. So that was a massive.

Lauri 5:06

Yeah, I have to zero in on that one. So the dysfunctional voice gets picked to go to the musical theater school. Unpack that a little bit for me. What was it like when you you felt or were told you had a dysfunctional voice? And then what was it like to be chosen?

Evelyne 5:29

Okay, happily. So my voice was always different. I and you sometimes meet those kids with this really low, dark, rusty voice that was disproportionate to their bodies. So, those of you who can't see me, I am petite, I'm the size of a pop star, five foot two, and and I had this, and as a kid, I was extra small, really extra small, compared to everyone my age. But I always had this low gravelly voice, and it was a limited voice, it had around five notes. After that, it just wouldn't go anywhere. And I was told I sounded like a rusty water tap. So I knew that. I knew that when the other girls were singing, it was la la la la la la la la la, you know, so lovely and light, and memo's la la la la la la la la la. And that's all I had. So I knew there was something different and something a bit wrong, and it was frustrating, and nobody could talk about it, and that was that.

Lauri 6:30

Of course, in light of my theme for my theme for my talk, and you know, the wild theme that's emerging this year, what I hear when you say that is they all had good girl voices, they had the mainstream voice, and you had more of a wild, unique voice, which a lot of times out here, certain people love. Like they're like, oh, it's like when you have straight hair and you wish you had the curly hair, or you had curly hair and you wish you had the straight hair. If you've got the the good girl ingenue kind of voice, you're wishing that you had the more gravelly, sexy voice. And if you have the gravelly one, you're wishing you had the mainstream one.

Too Wild for School

Evelyne 7:17

Yeah, probably. I never wished for a different voice. Good for you. I that's funny. I I I never thought that. I thought I want to be able to do this thing, this singing thing. This there's a freedom in producing beautiful musical sounds. And when you hear a song and they belt it out, it just opens my heart and my spirit, and I wanted that, and it was like my wings were tied. So my then when people said, Oh, that's a sexy voice, so that's different. I was proud. I liked it different, I still do, but I didn't like not being able to do the thing I wanted to do. Yeah, so that was a limitation, okay, but whatever, you know, I'll I'll manage. And then I found um Edith uh Edith Piaf and Patricia Cass, they are women who had low voices, and when I heard them, I said, Oh, I can sing like that. And people were like, Okay, okay, okay, easy now, right? Easy now. I'm like, no, no, honestly, I can sing like that. And when I was 17, I was in music, music major in school, and I learned the song by Patricia Cass, and I sang it to my teacher, and he went, Oh, oh, oh, yes, you can. And and so I became a singer, but I still had this dysfunction that just couldn't do much beyond that thing. Yeah, so and then when I auditioned for acting school, z school z I was turned down by one for having my voice center slipped. They say, 'Your voice center has slipped.' I'm like, okay, so you're gonna help me uh realign it. No, that was a reason not to take me. They said your voice is dysfunctional, go get help. So I went to physicians and speech and language therapists and voice therapists, and some people wanted to put electrodes on me and give me electroshock therapy. Uh and I didn't want that. And then I went and did uh voice therapy, and then I did functional voice training, and with that, I slowly, incrementally started to heal my voice, and so that's how I freed it enough to be really interesting as a singer, musical theater school to to take me in, and I also did um come third in a singing competition where the competition in the singing competition were people in musical theater schools, and that was huge. So to say how did that feel to get chosen, that was you know, when you have those moments where you you have you ever dreamt of getting an Oscar and your name is called, and you're just like this is my moment, I sing it for the second time now. It's that it's not out of body, it's just suddenly my body is like heavenly expanded and like wow, miracle, yeah. Yeah, it was it was so huge. I couldn't bel I couldn't believe it. I believed it, I couldn't believe believe what? Yes, yeah, finally, three years of auditioning, Lori, so much rejection, and then you got in. I'm like, my name was on there. I'm like, oh yeah, oh my god, my name! It's only like 10 people on the list, my name, Evelyn Brink.

Lauri 10:53

Oh my god, it was massive, beautiful, beautiful. And tell me how you ended up transitioning or adding or you know, returning to speaking, and then also being a speaking coach for others.

Evelyne 11:11

Yeah, so um after a year, they kicked me out, they kicked me out of musical theater school, not being the right type. So in Germany at the time, they did not do cross-casting. Now we're talking 1999. Yeah. 19, right? Uh so the idea is that you need to be that type for the roles. And they said to me, Evelyn, where would we cast you? And I said, Well, I'm an Epennine, clearly. Don't you, Monsieur Marius? I don't feel any pain. Come on, I'm Eponine. And they said, I could see I'm not that cute. And I and they did ask me in the during the course to show myself. Now, here's one for a photo for your wild thing. I played musical theater. I thought, now let me shape myself into musical theater version of Evelyn. Jazz Ans, you know? And they said, No, we can feel you're holding something back, Evelyn. We need to really see you so we know if we can work with you. And I'm like, Oh shit, are you sure? They said, Yeah, bring it. So for the second term, I excavated what shall we call it, the darkness, the Evelyn that I like to hold back because I'm afraid that they won't be able to take it. So I allowed myself to uncover the really wild, aggressive, sexual, not pretty, like the not mainstream, the edgy, the dark, the uh parts of me, and showed them. And guess what happened? They kicked you out. Yeah, they kicked me out, they couldn't take it. They said they were worried about me when they watched it because it was so dark and so edgy. And I you wanted me to show you. I told you I'm holding stuff back on purpose because I don't think it's musical theater, I don't think it fits. They said, show us. I went deep and dark, and they went, What the hell?

Lauri 13:15

Yeah, and I'm gonna chime in and say, I'm sure you know this by this point, and for people listening, if you fear that when you show people the real you, it will be too much for them, and then it is that is about them and not about you, yeah. And I feel like Evelyn knows this, and I want to chime in and say it for anyone listening. Don't allow that to mean, oh, see, I can never show people who I really am because I have that dark. It means those people in that musical theater program could not handle it. I can handle it, and there are a lot of people, and I have a feeling Evelyn's story is gonna go here a bit, who also could handle it.

Evelyne 14:02

Yeah.

Lauri 14:02

Tell us where it went after that.

Primal Scream & Processing Trauma in Real Time

Evelyne 14:06

First off, that was really important what you just said. And I was 20-something, 22 at the time. All I wanted was the external validation from people who know to say, you're okay, you're super talented, you're gonna make it, you're great. And so to be rejected in my vulnerability of showing them my what I've got was so freaking painful that if you told me it was about them, not me, I still would have not been able to receive that at that point. And there's beauty in maturing because over time I have learned exactly that lesson. It wasn't about me, there was nothing wrong. But musical theater wasn't my genre. Musical theater has how do you say that? Is that an edge, a line? It's just too small for that kind of personality. Yeah. Musical theater is color by numbers, so it's a craft more than an art. And I love art, I love discovery, uncovering, going to places I haven't been before, watching from the outside, trying to do something new. And so, and that's important to know because had I not known, I would have spent my life in a place that would have really boxed me in. So they did me a favor. I know that they did me a favor a year later. So, what happened after that being kicked out and the very primal scream when they told me that was that was the opposite reaction of the getting in. I literally screamed like a pig was slaughtered. People heard it was away. It was such a shock to the system.

Thailand’s Sanctuary: Siren of the Rocks

Lauri 15:54

Yeah, and there I've studied uh trauma. I mean, just a little. I had a client with complex PTSD, and she recommended some resources. And one of the books that I read, which just popped into my head, was a lot of what makes the trauma have a lasting impact, is that we human beings don't process it in the moment the way an animal might. So the screaming, a primal scream in the moment was the beginning of digesting and moving through the experience rather than sitting there and going, okay, and like trying to hold it inside.

Intuition, synchronicity & trust on the road

Heart vs. Money: Turning down the shiny record deal

Evelyne 17:40

Yes, so true. And having that experience in the first place, when we go straight into a freeze response, we cancel out the experience. So you're right. I definitely felt it. I felt the pain, it went all the way through my body, I screamed it out. Um, and then there was still more to process. And so what happened was I went um fast forward and went to Thailand. That is logical because I followed my intuition. I said, fuck this shit. I really tried, I really tried to do this get certified, officially talented thing. I need to listen, I need to listen. There's some deep guidance that's coming in. So the signs accumulated because I said, What am I supposed to do? I had just so this is my my voice healing story continued. I'd worked with a wonderful woman in Berlin on my voice, and as we worked together on these opening my voice, shall we say, I had all these insights and experience, spiritual experiences, of guidance, of of thin uh threads taking me upwards of my third eye opening or my soul opening as I explored the higher layers of my voice. And and I told her some of my experiences, and she said, Hmm, I think I'm gonna refer you to a friend of mine, uh healer. So I went to this friend of hers, the healer. So this woman was a Reiki healer and Reiki master, and she did some crazy shit with me. Back in the day, that was that I've never done woo-woo to that extent. She had a crystal in her room, and she did angel card readings, and she took me into meditations and past life regressions, uh, and um and she there was there were stones, rocks that she has crystals that spoke to me that she then let me have, so I could have a they were buzzing in my hand, and I could feel them. And I had a relationship with the crystals, you know, energetic, just to make that very clear. Yes, focus woman. Yeah, and so the intuition became very strong, and the guidance became very clear. Go to Thailand. So I followed the signs, went to Thailand, and literally followed my intuition in Thailand to go to Copanyang. And there was a resort called the Sanctuary, it was tiny and it said yoga. So I went there. Now it's a really big spa retreat. I I need to go again, I haven't been there since 1999. It changed my life. So from there I spent three months in Thailand. Now, I might want to add that this is not something that people did at that day. In England, they did, so I met lots of English people traveling, but German girls do not travel by themselves to Thailand at that time. Really out there. But that's Evelyn. She had this intuition, she wanted to go to Thailand, so that's what she did. Took a backpack, booked a flight, and off she went. Really adventurous. I loved it. And in that place, I I did all these vocal, they called me the siren of the rocks. I sat on the rocks and I did my little exercises every day because I had that vision and that dream that one day my voice would glide from low to high without this nasty break. I had this, you know, this really hard break. So every day I would be there gliding my voice over the waves, and songs would come through me, and I'd write them down. And I downloaded 16 songs, and I started writing a book because I thought I'd write a book. It's not a book, it was a stream of consciousness, and it was really healing for me. But anyway, from there I put on a show in Thailand. Just me, one hour singing these songs that I've written and telling stories that had come up for me, and it became very clear that that was my path. I had my own path. I was being called forward for something different, and then the vision came go to New York. New York, find your teachers, make your way. I'm like, okay, I will do that, for I now follow my intuition. So New York, I'm coming, New York. So sublet the place in Berlin, go back from Thailand. I had fallen in love with an English man, so that was a bit an added layer of complexity, but took two suitcases, went to New York, and that's a great story in itself because I didn't have a place to stay until three days before going to New York. I was just gonna just gonna go and figure it out. Three days before I got an apartment from somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who happened to be in Frankfurt, who had an apartment with a key, gave me the key. Here I went, New York. I found my teachers and I started training. Um, and there's lots of magical stories around that. So that's how I got more of my of my magical path. And from there I did a one-woman show in New York City, which was a really big, huge deal, in a cabaret theater that usually the West End, the Broadway stars, they do at some point they do their one-woman shows when they've done enough Broadway and they take it to the stage by themselves. Well, I took my show there, I was 24 by now, and I got and it was it was New York was pure magic, Laurie. Pure magic. And from there to Brighton and from Brighton I went to that's uh and I went to very humble places, waitressing my ass off, trying to get gigs at all, not going anywhere, then starting to learn stand-up comedy because I understand that in England you don't get glamorous theatres, but you can do uh comedy in a pub, and I needed to go on stage, so fuck it. Let's learn stand-up comedy. That's a natural thing to do for a German female.

Lauri 23:35

Uh, yeah, there's so much like the intuition and the synchronicity involved in your story, which I know we talked about this in our last episode. When I say wild woman, it does not mean rabid, crazy, which is what we have been conditioned to think of our own innate nature. It means to me more of what you're talking about that you healed and your intuition got incredibly strong and you were committed to following your intuition, and then synchronicities of the, you know, intuition comes. And then for some of us, our mind wants to go, what? Okay, but how? How I can't, I don't know how. So I'm that's one of the reasons we say no to our intuition, and you were listening to it and following it, and the how presented itself when you needed the how to present itself.

Evelyne 24:40

Yeah, isn't that lucky? It did, it did really do that a lot. The place where it didn't do that so well for me was financially. So I want let's talk about that because that's also something where people get worried about. Oh, this woo-woo stuff. People said to me, follow your heart, and the rest will follow. And I followed my heart, and then I got broke. And I was I felt really let down by spirit and by intuition for that. I thought that following my heart, I had all these songs, surely it just should work out, but I had to work so hard as a waitress to then pay my way to make my music. Okay, we can understand the first part. But then when I followed my intuition to go to England and leave New York behind, and there's a whole $60,000 record deal um offer before that, and need then I needed to turn down my intuition said so, and it was it became clear, it just had it's such an icky way to it was a really it's a really strange story. But at the end of the day, I was tested by spirit, that's how I felt it. It was a test. Are you gonna go for what looks like the thing you want, success, money investing through your album and LA life, or are you going to follow your heart and the and love and go to Brighton and be with a man that you love and that you've loved Finland and trusting that the universe will provide, and that you know, if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere. So I should be able to make it in England if I'm so damn talented that they're you know throwing the money at me in the States, then let me follow my heart and go to where the love is and not where the the luring and the there was a lot of sticky web energy. So followed my heart.

Lauri 27:45

Which feels like something that you learned from the musical theater experience. Like, yes, it was intuition feeling the weight of it, but the like one path is something kind of traditional, something where there's a box or a one way of doing it that's sticky and it's pulling you, and you're now feeling no, and you're choosing the carving your own path route.

Becoming Madonna (and More Herself)

Evelyne 28:21

Yeah, I hadn't actually considered it that way. That's lovely. I wanted to be a pop star very much, but not at any expense, and I was primed, I knew that sometimes becoming a star is laced with not so clean energy, and things that as a woman you might not want to do, like when the person who wanted to get me to LA said things like, Oh, I'm gonna hire us to place together so we can get up at 3 a.m. in the morning if we're inspired and we want to write, I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, that is not what I want. I at night at 3 a.m., I sleep. Yeah, write at 9 or at 8, but not at 3 a.m. And I'm not wanting to sit in the same place with whoever is sponsoring me. I need space and not a lot of space, and and that it just started to feel a bit weird. I found out later on, because we did lots of research on what's going on, and I had friends and they got worried as well, because you know, trafficking is also a thing, and luring young women into things is also a thing. Yeah, we found out that the the person was genuine, but actually dying. And they thought that maybe one like if they produced me and they got me out, it would be like like a second, second life for them. There was a lot of fantasy fantasy involved with that, and that's why it felt so weird. I'm like, what's going on? He was in a fantasy land, uh it would have not been a sexual problem that was safe, but yeah, it wasn't right. So I did the right thing saying no at the end of the day, but I would have thought, having been that brave, that I would be rewarded with opportunities in England. Like, what about a record deal with Universal or a top manager or just uh something great? No, nothing, nothing, just emptiness, yeah, and back to waiting tables, yeah.

Lauri 30:25

You know, and I know this is yeah, this is something that a lot of artists, yes, artists who are not doing cookie cutter, are carving their own path, are creating their one in eight billion things, um, struggle with, including myself at times. How how did you deal with that? How did you navigate it? And where are you now?

Evelyne 31:00

So lots of waitressing. Then there was this fateful day where the woman at I can't even pronounce the restaurant anymore. It was a long, funky name, but she said, Do you know who you remind me of? And I knew what she was going to say because a lot of people have said it before, especially in New York City. And I said, No, do tell. She said, Has anyone ever told you you look like Madonna? Yeah. No, you really do look like her. I mean, do you really look like Madonna? You should be a Madonna tribute artist. Now, I've heard plenty of times you look like Madonna, you sound like Madonna, your energy reminds of Madonna. We met Madonna when she was young, like in New York, that was that was really fun. That was a running gag for me. And I think that as a good omen that I was really gonna get very famous. Because if I'm like Madonna, that's gonna happen. But nobody had ever said you should be a Madonna tribute artist. That sounded like an insult. Because I'm a songwriter as well. I don't know if yeah, I did mention that a little bit. Yeah. So if why would I sing okay, first of all, what is that? And she said, it's where you dress up as the as the pop star and you sing their songs. And I was disgusted. I mean, why would I want to do that? I write my own songs. It's like, remember, I had my own show at the Firebird Cafe in New York City at 24. I'm not gonna lower myself to some cheap ass tribute act. Like, I didn't say that. You could probably read it in my face because it's quite.

Lauri 32:38

Yeah, you and I both have no very little poker face. Unless I'm playing a character that has a poker face, I don't have a poker face. I have played a character recently who had a pretty good poker face with lots of leaking, because that's what the moments were where, you know, there was just nothing but a little head move while still so you know. But when we're just sitting here or someone in a cafe says, you should do this, no poker face. Yeah. How did you end up becoming a Madonna, a number one Madonna impersonator?

Evelyne 33:14

And I want to go back to that other question you just asked about how I navigated this artistic path of really struggling to get what I want or how to handle not getting what I wanted. I want to go back to that. So um she said that thing. I had my reaction, and then I realized I was carrying coffee.

Lauri 33:40

I love coffee, but I don't want to carry it for other people.

Evelyne 33:44

I'm making four pounds an hour here plus tips. That was the rate back in the day. So if I if I if I if I if I did if I did sing and I just I really I just had to so I would wear her costumes. So that's dress up, that's acting that okay, that would be acting, but I could be acting Madonna. Huh. Okay, so I would sing her songs. That's singing, her songs are good, she's got good songs. So that would be singing. I would act and this dancing, she's a she's she dances, she moves her hips, I move my hips. I like that. She's a proper, she goes on, she's a she's good on stage, like she's a proper whore on stage, like like me. I love that's my that's my I've got this stage whore, I call it, and she loves coming out. She doesn't always feel safe to come out, but I'm like, ooh, I could let her out and wait. So that's an so if I saw it as an acting role, what how would I relate to oh my god, that's like the coolest acting role ever. That's not the girl next door, that's a fucking queen of pop. I could be the queen and and then it just it was really that slow. Dawned on me that this might be an epic opportunity as an actress, as Evelyn the star, to embody herself in a safe way. Because you know what, Lori, I'm terrified of being rejected, so it was hard for me to really let her out that wild stage horror. But Madonna does it, right? Because she I'm like, oh my god, this is so cool. What a great idea, epic. So that's how he got into it. Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, it's been a lot, it's been a long journey, okay? Nobody's born the best Madonna impersonator. I guess where I have a top advantage is my voice naturally sounds like hers when she seems more relaxed, shall I say? So in the frozen, you know, when when she started to relax her voice and engage the lower registers, that's my natural home. And so on my own Sony Music CD, people said, You know you sound like Madonna. And I'm like, Oh, that's great. Now, when I became a tribute, having to learn all her squeaky bits from the 80s, that was freaking hard, and I lost my voice a lot of times over that until I worked it in. The whole difference. Um, and then I I look very I I looked like her. I mean, it's like just if now you look at me, you're like, really, do you maybe not? Just type in Evelyn Brink, Madonna, you see pictures, and then you can decide whether I do or don't. Lots of people thought I did, and that worked for me. My energy is we're we have some similar vibes going.

Lauri 36:39

And you're an actor, so you don't have to be her doppelganger. Having some similar vibes and having the desire to do it is, you know, when you're an actor. I remember um seeing an interview with Whoopi Goldberg way back when the movie Ghost came out, where that character that she won an Oscar for was originally written for a man, and somebody asked her, like, how did that come about? And like, how did you end up taking it, or why did you even say yes? And she said, Because I understand what it means to be an actor. You embody the character, you don't pull the character to you, so it might have been written for a man, but the character is fully created when an actor plays it. So you were playing Madonna, not her doppelganger.

Evelyne 37:38

Yes, and I got most successful when I stopped trying to be Madonna and I started letting out my stage whore in her costume, and that's when people went, Whoa, you are so much like her. And I'm like, Yay, I'm getting away with it. I need to be myself, but I'm wearing cones, and so then it's okay because if you don't wear cones and you're like that, people might go, like, who's that girl? Ha! Dad, I see what I did there. So that's how that happened. How did I become number one? There was a TV show written out with uh Graham Norton, who is a very famous TV presenter over here. It was called the One and Only, and lots of people auditioned for it. By that time I had a job in corporate. I had finally found my feet in the real world and got a job and did well and had a career and had a regular income, and I was proud of myself. And then I had this vision at one time in a in a in a motivational speaking event. There was lots of male speakers, and they were all talking lots of wonderful things about how to be rich and how to be happy, because that's the same thing apparently. And I got this whole body uh visceral kind of and I because I asked myself, where is that woman who speaks about how life actually is and what it's really about? Because surely it's not just about how we got rich and then got happy and we were poor and we couldn't read, and now we're rich and wealthy, and we can do everything, have everything we want. Where is the woman who talks about life? And then my whole body started tingling, and I was suddenly in a different uh dimension in a way, and whether it's a voice or feeling, who cares, right? But it was well, she's sitting in your seat.

Lauri 39:28

Yeah. I went, whoa shit, yeah, she's sitting in your seat.

Evelyne 39:37

She's sitting in my where I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just got out of this hole. Uh I finally landed in real land. I have a handbag now. No, not this calling shit again. Uh we're done with uh finally done with this. And Lori, you will understand it, and I'm sure lots of people are watching this. You maybe you know this feeling in yourself when it's so deep in your soul that your entire being reverberates. Do not dare to go against that. You cannot when your heart calls you forward. You must say you must follow. And I don't want it, it's not patronizing must, but for me, and maybe that's this call it what you want, the artist. I cannot not follow my heart once it speaks up that loudly.

Lauri 40:34

Yeah, me too. I can try not to, but it usually doesn't work, or it's a process similar to the process when someone told you to be a Madonna impersonator. I actually have that when my heart and soul show me what's next, and I and I have the like, no, not this calling shit again, you know, and it takes me um a moment to it's like my first response is oh fuck. That's it, and then eventually I become fully on board with the unfuck, with the oh fuck and the unfuck, and it's kind of an unstoppable energy to that.

MFA meets MBA: Bringing aliveness into business

Evelyne 41:15

That's it, and so I've I stepped up and spoke to my boss and said to her, boss, I know I said I'd stay with you for a long time in this company, but um I've had a vision. I've had a vision that I would inspire a million or millions of people, and it's not gonna happen with me sitting in this office, I'm afraid. So I'm gonna have to leave. And she said, Wow, well, if anyone can do it, it's you. And I went, What? Because I expected the worst. I mean, that's crazy talk to talk like that to your boss. I had a vision, I'll be inspiring millions of people. Yeah, and she said, Oh, I you know, follow your dream. This is great. She said, if it doesn't work out or you had enough, the licensing industry will always be there for you. Go, do your thing. And so first I worked part-time, then this opportunity with uh Graeme Norton came up, and that's when I jumped. And so I knew that was uh that was the time of. And I'm like, the time to jump, but how does becoming a Madonna impersonator on a TV show lead you to inspire millions of people and still answer your question? How did you become a speaker? Now I would identify as a speaker all this time along, I just didn't have the stage yet to speak. Yeah, so it was just about moving from it's moving from calling to calling, from opportunity to opportunity. I thought I go on this TV show, I'll become famous. When I'm famous, I'll be inspiring millions of people. That's how we do it. I will be sharing how you do confidence and how you do truth and spiritual path and trust. That's how we're gonna, I'm like, duh, that's how it'll work out. Guess what, Lori? It was a little different than that. Yes, it was a little different than that. I got kicked out quite quickly out of that show. Um, it's they they all warned us take your phone numbers off the internet because people are gonna go crazy, stalkers, la la la. Nobody called me. Nobody called me. I was recognized exactly one time when I bought a train ticket. Damn it. Yeah, you were like girl on the TV show. I'm like, yay, you're the first. Uh anyway. I know we could talk forever, and we're heading to the end of our time. So let me make sure I wrap up then the questions quickly. Is that yeah? Okay, yeah. So, how how did I go from the Madonna thing to speaking? Eventually that happened. From Madonna to coaching to life coaching, business coaching, stage coaching, performance coaching, and eventually speaking coaching, bringing all my entertainment material back into the coaching after having coached for 20, 20 odd years. I brought the whole performing thing back into there, and now it just makes sense to go into places where people are not used to that world and help them enliven them with all this backstory that I have, because they have a very different world. So that's how I got into speaking, coaching, and now speaking. And then I get invited to whatever, do a TED talk or do a talk here or there. That's how that works now. And and with the artist thing, it's an ongoing path of growth where I do struggle and I did cry an awful lot, and I still do, and then I write a song usually to release what you would call the trauma and experience healing. And I yes, it's the spiritual path, working with my shamans or working with the music, working with the sound of my voice that takes me through, and then I write, I create. Creativity is my medicine.

Pivot Pivot

Lauri 44:56

Beautiful. And I do have to point out before we slide into the pivot pivot, the when you were watching and saying, where is the woman who's like talking about life? And now you're in you go into a male-dominated space who I believe is far more intellectual and like from the neck up, and they're craving aliveness in their speaking, but they cannot lead themselves to it. They need the wild, the women, the intuitive, the performers, the people with MFAs in the United States, Master of Fine Arts to help the MBAs, Master of Business Administration, or whatever that stands for. Um, so there's a full circle to that. And it like now, of course, totally makes sense looking at it.

Evelyne 45:50

Yeah. And helping other women to uncondition and rewild themselves and to be to come alive and to step up. Because I think we are in an age where where women find their voice and they want to find their voice, they need to find their voice, and they can find their voice. I'm I'm really passionate about working with women. So the corporate space is one part, and then working with women leaders, whether they are in a business or they are founders, entrepreneurs, creatives, creative entrepreneurs, artists, even, to come alive, really step into their hmm.

Lauri 46:29

Yeah. We're not gonna change the world from a cookie cutter template or like two plus two equals four. We're gonna change the world with more of an art, creativity, intuitive, revolutionary feeling to it. And here sometimes we say in the theater, the ensemble, the group creating together is where two plus two equals five.

Evelyne 46:52

Yeah, at least. Or 22.

Lauri 46:54

Or 22. Yeah. All right, one more time. How can people find you when they're leaning in and they want more from you?

Evelyne 47:03

Oh well, we'll play hide and seek, shall we? Never stop until you got me. That would be the general tip. My website is www.evelynbrink.com. And that's Evelyn with three E's, E-V-E-L-Y-N-E. And Brink as in on the brink or beyond Evelynbrink.com. You find me on Instagram, Instagram forward slash Evelyn Brink on LinkedIn under Evelyn Brink. Yeah, forget Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, website, tada. You will find me on the interweb. You will find me in commentation. Hello. I would love to connect. Awesome.

Lauri 47:45

And now let's slide into our Pebo pivot. Evelyn, what is your favorite word?

Evelyne 47:54

Pleasure.

Lauri 47:56

What is your least favorite word?

Evelyne 47:59

Should.

Lauri 48:02

What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?

Evelyne 48:09

Possibilities.

Lauri 48:12

What turns you off? Obligation? What is your favorite cuss word? Fuck. What sound or noise do you love? What sound or noise do you hate? What profession other than the ones you've already tried in your life would be fun to try?

Evelyne 48:56

Psychologist?

Lauri 49:02

And what profession would you not like to do? Accountant! And Evelyn, what do you hope people say about you on your 100th birthday?

Evelyne 49:16

She really is Wonder Woman. Her pronouns are wow and amazing.

Lauri 49:23

I love it. Wow and amazing yet again in this episode. And I look forward to having you back many times over the life of Soulful Speaking. Thank you, thank you very much.

Evelyne 49:34

Thank you so much, Lori. You really bring out the soul in people. I love the way that you see me and the way that you've asked the question and dug in on the spaces that most people is just roll over. You see, you see the fine nuances, and I really, really appreciate that.

Lauri 49:53

Thank you so much. And I am remembering this year to say to the listeners: if you loved this episode, liked this episode, cried during this episode, giggled during this episode, snorted milk out your nose during this episode. And you want more, please like it, rate it, share it with a friend, and come back and listen to the next one. That is all how we spread this different, wild, intuitive, creative way of being in the world to the people who are out there hungry for it.

Evelyne 50:27

Thank you so much. Thank you. Reviews are always good, right? And you can put reviews on Apple Podcasts and wherever you listen to your podcast, make sure to write a review. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. And we'll see you back here next time.