Voice Is

In this special series, Julie and Casey sit down together to look at the elements of executive presence: Polish, Poise and Power . . . what they are, what they represent, and where they go wrong. They also look at new tools and alternate pathways as we work toward a more inclusive definition of leadership.

EPISODE 3: POWER

Power is not only demonstrated through external presentation, of course . . . but the way we're judged for whether or not we have it is often via cultural or surface-level standards.

Power is measured by:

• Your effect on others: Do people listen to you and take you seriously?
• Are people willing to be led by you? If they are unwilling, can you convince them, accomplish your goals, or manifest your will anyway?
• How do you handle obstacles? When you encounter them, can you overcome them, destroy them, or ignore them . . . or are you weak?
• Confidence — do you have it? Do other people think you have it?
• Charisma — are people drawn to you?

Translation: Power is about pretending that "real leaders" don't get scared or feel unsure of themselves or their ideas. It's knowing how to gain buy-in and/or control over others by any (socially acceptable) means necessary, whether that's positive (charm, charisma, confidence) or negative (force, dominance).

Top Takeaways:

• Power is about whose voices get heard and whose perspective matters
• Clinging to politeness or manners to avoid the friction of your edges has limits for how far it can take you
• We don't have control of other's perceptions of us, but we do have some agency in setting up our own conditions for success. Spend your time there to find the power that doesn't require anyone else's buy in.

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

In this special series, Julie and Casey sit down together to look at the elements of executive presence: Polish, Poise and Power . . . what they are, what they represent, and where they go wrong. They also look at new tools and alternate pathways as we work toward a more inclusive definition of leadership.

Watch the episode on youtube.

Episode 2: POISE

If polish is about how you look and how you act, poise is about how you REACT. How do "leaders" respond to stimulus?

According to an article in Forbes:

"A person with good executive presence never lets people see her sweat. She's not harried running from meeting to meeting, she's not flustered when she speaks, and she seems like the person who, even in the wake of a crisis in the middle of the night, could still show up looking put together. . . . Be calm, collected, and the person with all the answers, and you'll be seen as a leader."

• Showing what we expect you to show: warmth, gravitas, decisiveness
• Not showing what we expect you to hide: control over "negative" emotions, control over your response to conflict, control over fear or discomfort.
• Control over uncertainty: Always know the answer, and if you don't, be able to meaningfully fake it.

Translation: Poise is about self-control: pretending human beings don't ever feel negative emotions and are not meaningfully affected by other people, challenges, and circumstances. It's also about being a human version of Janet from The Good Place, with the correct answer to any and every question anyone may have for you.

Poise can become a nearly impossible standard to meet — mainly because human beings simply don't and can't have all the answers all the time, and because there is no such thing as "neutral". Human beings are not neutral in how we ourselves respond to stimulus, and we are not neutral in how we are perceived by others. Demanding perfect calm in the face of all conflict sets people up for failure, emotional shutdown, and burnout.

Join us as we dissect, laugh, call bullshit and brainstorm some practical strategies and solutions to what for many is a landmine of impossible expectations.

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

In this special three-part series, Julie and Casey sit down together to look at the elements of executive presence: Polish, Poise and Power . . . what they are, what they represent, and where they go wrong. They also look at new tools and alternate pathways as we work toward a more inclusive definition of leadership.

Watch the video version here.

Episode 1: Polish

Calling someone "polished" seems to be shorthand for:

• Looking the way we expect you to look — looking expensive, "understated", "neat", fitting into whatever spoken or unspoken standards this industry has for clothing and appearance
• Speaking the way we expect you to speak — eliminating accents, regionalisms, speech we consider too "youthful", slang, and dialects like African American Vernacular English; eliminating "problem words" like just, like, sorry; eliminating verbal fillers; using "good speech"
• Acting the way we expect you to act — knowing your cultural etiquette, manners, and hierarchy. Being rehearsed . . . but not in any visible way - effortlessness is key

Translation: Polish is about looking (and sounding) financially well-off, about pretending human beings never sweat or get dirty or disheveled, and about pretending that we come from the same culture (or at least can learn to seamlessly fit into the dominant culture).

The problem is that this extremely narrow definition often only leaves room for those who learn to dress, speak, and act like those who are ALREADY leaders: i.e. white, wealthy, cisgender, straight, conventionally attractive, able-bodied men (and ocasionally women). This has enormous consequences for anyone who falls outside any of those categories. If you are seen as lacking traditional polish, you may not advance.

Join us as we dissect, laugh, call bullshit, and brainstorm some practical strategies and solutions to what for many is a minefield of double binds.

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

Casey Erin Clark and Julie Fogh, founders of Vital Voice Training and co-hosts of the VOICE(is) podcast, host a panel discussion on executive presence. In it, they explore the nebulous definition of executive presence and how our idea of what leaders should look and sound like has marginalized so many. Along the way, expect corporate horror stories, tales of triumph, and big laughs . . . along with truth bombs and mic drop moments that blow the idea that leaders need to look and sound one particular way out of the water.

Phnam Bagley is building the future . . . literally. She is a speaker, educator, and founder of the firm Nonfiction Design, taking on everything from headphones to furniture to space architecture to turn science fiction into reality. http://nonfiction.design

Kelly Hoey is the author of BUILD YOUR DREAM NETWORK, speaker, community builder, and world-renowned expert in networking. She also has an extensive corporate background in both law and finance. http://jkellyhoey.co

Christina Blacken is revolutionizing the modern workplace with her company New Quo, introducing how narrative intelligence can be used to tackle inequities and make work work better for everyone. http://thenewquo.com

Patty Alvarenga is on the ground every day running conversations on equity and inclusion that are shaping the future of work with The Collective. http://hello-collective.com

Watch the video version here.

Phnam Bagley is a French Industrial Designer and Space Architect with 15 years experience designing hardware in Audio, Wearables, Biotech & Healthcare, Luxury Goods, Transportation, Sports and Aerospace. She has designed and led teams at varied design consultancies including IDEO, Lunar, Matter and Lifestyledesign. Phnam's work spans 4 continents, and companies ranging from Fortune 500's to startups. Clients include Intel, Comcast, Facebook, Atari, Halo Neuroscience and more. She speaks internationally on the subject of "Design for a Better Future", covering stories of groundbreaking technologies, responsibility, design thinking and education. Phnam is the CEO and Design Director at Eternal Luxe, a brand of luxury goods made in USA. She also teaches industrial design at California College of the Arts and mentors at Founder Institute.

Networking expert Kelly Hoey is the author of Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships In A Hyper-Connected World (Penguin Random House). She's working on her second book which focuses on the unique networks women need for career success. A frequent speaker and source for networking insights, Kelly has been lauded from Forbes ("1 of 5 Women Changing the World of VC/Entrepreneurship") to Fast Company ("1 of the 25 Smartest Women On Twitter") to Business Insider ("1 of the 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter") and Inc. (1 of "10 Most Well-Connected People in New York City's Startup Scene"). Empowering A Billion Women By 2020 included her on their list of the "100 Most Influential Global Leaders Empowering Women Worldwide". Not bad for a former corporate lawyer. Connect with Kelly via www.jkellyhoey.co.

Christina Blacken: I'm a public speaker, performer, and founder of The New Quo. The New Quo is a leadership development and inclusion consultancy helping leaders create inclusive cultural and organizational change through their narrative intelligence. I have helped 1500 leaders at Fortune 500 companies and VC backed startups leverage the psychological power of story to transform behavior, build inclusive culture, and communicate new ideas with deeper connection and influence to achieve status-quo breaking goals through training, courses, consulting, and coaching.

In my early career, I worked for 10 years across four industries, using stories to drive change including inspiring 300k teens to take action on social causes, and closing 6.5M in sales with the teams and household brands she's worked with. The New Quo has been featured in Elle.com, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Huffington Post, Forbes, Business Insider, and Thrive.com among other outlets. I graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors Degree in Policy Analysis and Management. As an Utah native & NYC resident for 10 years, I know far more uses for jello than she'd like to admit.

Patty Alvarenga (she/her) is a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant and Sr. Strategist at Collective. She has deep experience in building DEI programs from the ground up across the tech industry, ranging from large corporations to high-growth startups. She now works with clients across many different industries, helping them distill complex DEI concepts into impactful and executable strategies that advocate for meaningful change. Her lived experiences as a Latina woman and an El Salvadoran immigrant fuel her commitment to create equitable organizations where everyone can be their full authentic selves and thrive. Patty holds a B.S in Marketing from the University of Florida. In her free time, she loves to explore national parks with her backpack and tent, ride her bike, and eat pupusas from her favorite LA restaurant.

Julie chats with Casey Erin Clark (her co-founder) about her winding path from "small town girl trying to make it in Broadway" perfectionist to multi-hyphenate rebel. Along the way, they cover the profound joy of using your voice, embracing your edges, seeing possibility all around you, and finding your "I want" song.

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

TOP TAKEAWAYS

• Casey was born a classic people-pleasing perfectionist. It took her years, a few serious bumps in the road, and one devastating election to finally clarify what was really important. (Hint: the answer was not "what other people think.")
• Articulating what you want is powerful. An "I want" song in musical theater tells us about the character's desires and ambitions and needs…and spending your life and career exploring this kind of material is awfully helpful when you need to express your own wants. (Try finding your own "I want" song!)
• Every human being contains infinite possibility and potential—seeing more in ourselves and each other requires self-exploration, curiosity, a supportive community, and a willingness to see what's beyond the surface.

Casey Erin Clark is a voice, public speaking, and communication coach, performer, author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and leader in both the entertainment and business worlds. She is a fierce advocate for gender justice and spends her days speaking, teaching, and writing about the power of women's voices, while seizing fulfilling opportunities to perform on screen and stage. In 2014, Casey and Julie Fogh co-founded Vital Voice Training, a voice and speech coaching company on a mission to change the conversation about what leaders are "supposed" to sound like and empower everyone to own the power of their full vocal instrument and presence. Casey hails from the cornfields of southern Illinois (where she grew up singing with her family Von Trapp-style) and has a BFA in musical theater from Illinois Wesleyan University. She also coaches musical theater pros of all ages, is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA, performed on the 2021 Tony Awards and at the 2013 Oscars with the Les Miserables movie cast, and sings with the Grammy-nominated and Tony-honored Broadway Inspirational Voices choir. Recommending books and breakfast restaurants is her love language. Will perform the Lafayette speed rap from Hamilton on demand.

Casey chats with Julie Fogh (her Vital Voice Training co-founder) about lessons learned from studying acting all over the world, the gifts of introversion, and being a grown-ass woman. Along the way, they cover the superpowers of neurodivergence, and why sometimes, you just know you need to shake up the Etch-A-Sketch of your life.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

• Growing up in the Pacific Northwest gave Julie her particular brand of slow-burn humor, her deep appreciation for the negative space of conversation, and a community-building style that takes awhile, but truly lasts.
• Learning how her ADHD brain worked has led Julie to embrace the traits that used to be frustrating, and unlock her own unique superpowers of observation and idea-connecting.
• Thinking about making (or going through) a big life change? It's ok to be "in the goo" for awhile — that's when your life is becoming a work of art.

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/vois and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

Julie Fogh is a voice coach and interpersonal communications specialist who works with actors and business leaders helping them navigate their individual tensions and blocks, revealing the personal power and unique and captivating humanity that exists in all of us. Through Vital Voice Training, Julie and her co-founder Casey Erin Clark blend the toolbox of the professional actor with their powerful frameworks for embracing one's authentic speaking voice to businesses, schools, and organizations all over the country. Julie was raised in Seattle and earned her BA in Theatre and Women Studies from University of Washington. She earned an MFA in acting from Northern Illinois University, a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum that engaged with the physical body, the emotional life, imagination, use of language, character construction, non-verbal communication and the truth of the moment. She has studied with the Moscow Art Theatre and University of Copenhagen and has studied Meisner Technique with Kathryn Gately, Michael Chekhov Technique with Deborah Robertson, and Movement and Period Style with Lloyd Williamson. She loves YA novels and her cranky rescue cat, Ashland.

Julie and Casey chat with Lindsay Scola about her unique career path from TV-jingle-singing, CSPAN-watching child to impact strategist / political operative / entertainment production / entrepreneur. We cover the intersection of pop culture and culture change, how storytellers move the needle, and how activists of a certain age REALLY need to learn to take care of themselves. Along the way, we get stories about 1st grader-driven revolutions and finding your community by dropping your filter.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

• TV shows are a unique vehicle for cultural change — something that really hit home for Lindsay while working on the Obama campaign in 2007 and encountering college students who couldn't believe candidates weren't behind gay marriage, because they'd grown up watching Will & Grace.
• You never know what kind of work is out there that will combine your interests and curiosities and passions — especially if you've internalized a narrower career narrative. What happens if you step out of that box?
• How do we teach activists (especially elder Millennials and older) that their needs and health are just as important as their cause (hear some STORIES about Lindsay's time in the political arena…)?
• Mini-lesson: Being called "intimidating".

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Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/vois and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

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Lindsay Scola is an impact strategist, public speaker, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of AUDEAMUS. With over 20 years working in political operations, advocacy campaigns, and entertainment production, Lindsay brings a depth of knowledge and experience to the social impact sector. Lindsay is an expert on the nexus of entertainment and advocacy. She is passionate about inspiring businesses of all sizes to engage in conversations and concrete actions on conservation, civic responsibility, and social justice, especially with non-traditional audiences.

After staging her first walkout over unfair lunchroom treatment in first grade, Lindsay knew she was meant for a life in activism. When she took on her high school for teaching "abstinence-only until marriage" sex education, she became the youngest board member in NARAL Pro-Choice Washington's history. Upon graduating from college, Lindsay worked for U.S. Congressman Adam Smith in Washington, DC, but quickly became disenchanted with how broken the nation's Capitol really was. So, in early 2007, she quit her job, bought a car, and moved to Iowa to work for then-Senator Barack Obama. Following President Obama's historic win in 2008, Lindsay joined the administration working for Energy Secretary Steven Chu. She later ran the scheduling and advance office for UN Ambassador Susan Rice, oversaw Michelle Obama's advance operation during the 2012 re-elect campaign, was part of President Obama's advance team, and executive produced the 2013 Inaugural Parade.

Since then, Lindsay has nested her work at the intersection of advocacy and entertainment, working with organizations like The Television Academy (Emmys) and has spoken on the topic at the ATX Television Festival, SXSW, The Riveter, and more. Named a 2015 "40 Under 40" recipient for City and State New York, Lindsay couples creativity and actionable organizing with political savvy to shift the social needle, Lindsay continues to advise entertainment entities on their social impact causes as well as working with political campaigns and nonprofits to authentically engage with artists and influencers. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

https://www.lindsayscola.com

https://audeamus.net

Julie and Casey sit down with Anne de la Croix to talk about soft skills, making unmeasurable things visible, and how to use extrovert powers for good in meetings so all voices get heard.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

• Language is more than the words we pronounce: it is shared connections, context, body language, and can be used to create connection.
• The "skillification" of concepts like empathy creates teaching pathways that don't work. Some ideas need to be taught experientially. Soft skills are human skills.
• What people talk about at meetings isn't always what the meeting is about: often there are layers beneath of what is really going on between people, and the hidden subtext, wants and intentions.

Join us Thursday December 2nd at noon ET OR noon PT for THE POWER AUDIT, a 90-minute workshop where we'll check in with our definitions of power and give you mental, physical, emotional, and social tools to feel more powerful right away in any situation. Get your tickets here.

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Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

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Anne de la Croix has a background in linguistics and educational sciences. She works as assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Vrije Universeit Amsterdam. Anne is fascinated by the way we try to teach medical students 'unmeasurables' such as reflection, empathy, communication, and professional identity formation. She is worried about 'skillification' of elusive and unmeasurable concepts, and believes the antidote to this trend lies in activities that celebrate amibuguity: comparing contrasting experiences, using the arts, embracing 'aporia' (yeah, you can look that one up). Outside of the University, Anne can be hired as 'conversational pyromaniac', to facilitate group discussions.

• Website: www.annedelacroix.com
• More Content from Anne:
  • "How to Grow a Professional Identity"
  • The Reflective Zombie – about reflection becoming a tick-box exercise

Julie and Casey chat with CEO, speaker, author, and multi-hyphenate Hitha Palepu about her new book WE'RE SPEAKING: THE LIFE LESSONS OF KAMALA HARRIS. Along the way, they talk about the importance of names, the absolute necessity of supportive friends (check in on "the strong ones!"), a needed revolution in how we remote work, and the transcendent joy of romance novels.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

• Hitha's multiple jobs and pursuits all inform each other: her years of content creation make her an awesome communicator in her job in the life sciences and her work in the life sciences brings rigor and discipline to her content creation. Where do your multitudes support and enrich each other?
• In the push/pull of negotiation, context is everything, so curiosity is a powerful tool. What do they want, what's their "red line", and WHY? Why do they care about what they care about? This helps you build your case.
• When it comes to both confidence and taking care of yourself, sometimes you need a little external help. Who can you trust to be your cheerleader when you need a little borrowed confidence and who can be your accounta-buddy to remind you that sometimes, you just need to drink the water / do the workout / get the blowout WITHOUT doing work at the same time . . .
• Mini-lesson: Redefining power.

Join us Thursday December 2nd at noon ET OR noon PT for THE POWER AUDIT, a 90-minute workshop where we'll check in with our definitions of power and give you mental, physical, emotional, and social tools to feel more powerful right away in any situation. Get your tickets here.

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Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

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Hitha Palepu is a woman of multitudes—a feminist, a lifelong politics enthusiast, a daughter of immigrants, and a mother raising feminist sons. These multitudes spill into her multi-hypenated career as an entrepreneur, investor, writer, and speaker.

Hitha's passion for the news and politics is captured in #5SmartReads, a Webby-honored social series that shares 5 must-read articles every day to keep her community informed without being overwhelmed. Hitha's longtime blog, Hitha On The Go, established her as an authority on lifestyle topics and gave way to her book and collaborations with leading brands such as Headspace, Google, and Northwestern Mutual. Her book, How To Pack, was published by Clarkson Potter in 2017.

As CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, Hitha oversees financing, partnerships, and strategy for the company. Hitha also puts her money where her values are through early stage investing. A partner in Adama Ventures (her family office), she has invested in innovative companies primarily founded by women and focused on women (MM.LaFleur, Girls' Night In, Brightland, and Heymama among them). She is a sought-after speaker on politics & the news, investing, entrepreneurship, work-life juggle, and motherhood.

Hitha has spoken at The Riveter Summit, Fohr, Global Brands Group and was selected to speak at SXSW 2020. She is represented by AllRaise's Visionary Voices speakers bureau.

• Instagram: @hithapalepu

• Twitter: @hithapalepu

• Website: https://www.werespeakingbook.com/

Julie and Casey sit down with fellow public speaking and communication coach Sherhara Downing to talk all things charisma, finding your edges, and personal responsibility for creating environments and cultures that allow everyone to shine.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

• The Great Resignation is a moment to be able to reevaluate and articulate your value. Not understanding yourself combined with our societal conditioning is a combo that contributes to making self advocacy a terrifying proposition- and what to do about it.
• Being conscientious of others is always welcome, but appeasing chips away parts of you. Learn to find the balance.
• When you don't INVITE intentionally, you are excluding. We are all responsible for building more inclusive cultures.
• Mini-lesson: Likeability

Thank you to our Season 3 sponsor, Armoire! If you're ready to try a new look, Armoire's high-end clothing rental service (full of amazing women-owned brands) will hook you up! For 50% off your first month's rental + a free item, go to http://armoire.style/voiceis and use VOICEIS in the referral box!

About Sherhara: Sherhara Downing's mission is to make human interaction and connection effortless.

For INDIVIDUALS

From panels to podcasts, conference keynotes to crucial conversations, Sherhara helps business and thought leaders grow their public profile and attract more career changing opportunities, through confident and charismatic speaking. Through an 8-week virtual group coaching program, Sherhara develops leaders, so their speaking skills match their dynamic experience and expertise.

For COMPANIES

My company, Level Comm LLC, offers customized virtual trainings and workshops on how to improve performance and engagement through improved public speaking and effective communication skills-- empowering professionals to learn something new, use something new and have a good time doing it.