Voice Lessons Podcast

Crosby Noricks is a pioneer in the Fashion PR industry. In 2006, she founded PR Couture, a career platform and sourcebook for lifestyle communicators, as a way to highlight where strategy and fashion intersect. In this "lesson on being seen", we learn how she was able to pivot personally and professionally along the way to help more women become visible in their own businesses. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• It's common for creatives to be multifaceted.
• Feminist Fashion
• How Crosby got into her field.
• Why Crosby wanted to figure out where strategy exists within fashion public relations.
• The mindsets about PR that PR Couture is trying to change.
• PR is such a feminized field and it also reflects a lot of the ways that women are socialized to be these supporting characters only working behind the scenes.
• *70% of the global PR industry is women.
• **Only 2 of the 10 largest PR agencies worldwide have women running their North American operations. And the salary for a woman in PR is $20,000 less compared to her male counterpart.
• The thought-leadership piece around PR and how it has evolved in the digital world.
• What being a thought-leader means to Crosby.
• How to pivot in the culture of the conversation.
• How to recognize the time to pivot.
• How to thrive in an agency environment in the PR industry if you're an introvert.
• You can ease into your own visibility.
• True visibility is internal.
• How certain career choices are subconscious decisions based on our own visibility issues.
• How personal decisions turn into personal branding.
• Active listening with your audience and yourself is key as you evolve and your business grows.
• Filling a gap in the market around service rather than profit.
• When men market to women they typically try and solve problems that don't exist.
• Being in service to your creativity and curiosity to help move your business forward.
• Finding a PR professional who aligns with your mission and values.
• Women often go into entrepreneurship roles because they face diversity and wage gap issues.
• We cut off our ability to be accepted and loved in a certain way by not allowing ourselves to be seen.
• Feminine leadership leans toward collaboration and inclusivity.

Women face misogyny at work every day but the construction industry is like the Wild West and has the second-highest rate of sexual harassment complaints in North America. Natasha Fritz experienced that harassment which is why when she heard a misogynist clip on a construction industry podcast, she decided to do something about it. In this episode, "A Lesson on Doing the Right Thing", she shares why her choice to publicly call out the offensive remarks was the only choice.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Natasha's experience growing up as sometimes the only female in her shop classes and on her job sites.
• Feeling like an outcast in your field, just by being the only woman.
• How Natasha broke out and created her own business.
• Why the construction industry is resistant to change in areas like gender equity, technology, & sustainability.
• Natasha's Instagram post that went viral.
• Change does not have to be risky, it's just unfamiliar.
• Sexual harassment towards women, especially at work is still a major issue.
• **The industry with the 2nd highest rate of sexual harassment in the workforce is the construction industry.
• How Natasha found confidence in her industry to speak up for herself more.
• The double standards women face when trying to speak out when something is not right.
• The particular masculinity associated with the construction industry and the toxic work environment it unfortunately presents.
• There are corporate ways to handle sexual harassment that have not been adopted by the construction industry.
• Sexual harassment incidents need to be called out more by men.
• What language do you use when you're in a situation that is uncomfortable?
• Why some men don't realize the importance of breaking gender roles.
• What Natasha learned from this experience.
• The internal misogyny women face at work and how to undo the jerk reaction to accept that kind of treatment.
• Why forgiveness is key to industry shifts.
• What feminine leadership could look like in the construction industry.

If your mind, spirit, body, and soul have been out of alignment for a long, or even a short time, it's going to take adjustments to get you back into the flow and that usually means stepping out of your comfort zone. In this episode, host Kim Kuhteubl shares powerful tools on how to get around your inner gatekeeper, unconscious beliefs and chart a course forward. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Kim's definition of alignment.
• One of the most powerful tools that you have when it comes to stepping out of your comfort zone is receiving.
• Confirmation Bias and why it keeps you stuck.
• If you can't see anything new when it comes to your life and vision, your inner gatekeeper is the reason why.
• Stepping out of your comfort zone requires conscious decision-making and making new decisions will likely be in direct conflict with your old, unconscious beliefs.
• Growth doesn't have to mean grueling or dangerous but it always is unfamiliar.
• Certainty is a flawed concept.
• Limiting beliefs and cognitive shortcuts
• How to own your own creative vision.
• Kim's process on how to step outside of your comfort zone.
• Awareness is more powerful than thought.
• Smartcut your thinking by replacing old thoughts that no longer serve you.

Opera Singer turned Interior Design Founder @lanemcnabinteriors runs a thriving interior design firm and sustainable furniture company that is creating the next generation of heirlooms. How did she get there? By giving herself permission to keep embody her life and creativity fully. In this Lesson on Living Your Own Story, Kim talks about her early working relationship with Lane, how Lane built her firm as a designer, and how she's embraced her role as both a mother and creative and industry leader.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• How creatives can embrace spirituality.
• Lane's first profession was singing and how she made the transition into design.
• Why lane decided to go with a sustainable business model.
• What "sustainable" means to Lane.
• Creating timeless pieces.
• Dealing with pushback from customers regarding budget and premium offerings.
• Designing with purpose to make products more beneficial to the environment.
• Lane's 3 principles to her business.
• Not using motherhood as an excuse to not be your full self.
• How Lane speaks to issues that are important to her while keeping her brand value and reputation in mind.
• Being a mom and creative entrepreneur.
• How the shift happened for Lane to embody her own story.
• Transitioning from one career to the other.
• How women can step up and make their vision a priority, even in a family unit.
• How Lane views feminine leadership.
• How we can use feminine leadership to align principles with practices.

Beverly Jenkins never planned to be an Author. Growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, her mother passed along a love of books and history and she decided to become a librarian. In this episode, she talks about the journey from first-time author to becoming the primer writer of historical Black fiction in the United States with 49 books in an industry that rejected her. Beverly also shares intimate moments of her past, her process, and why she's rooting for women writers to get off the sidelines and just "publish your damn book". TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Beverly didn't plan on being an author.
• Beverly's mother passed along her love of history and reading to her at a very young age.
• Black history was very important to Beverly's great grandfather on her Mother's side which can now be seen in her books.
• During Beverly's childhood, libraries were still segregated. African American authors were never shelved in with the rest of the collection.
• When Beverly first started writing, Black characters were not prevalent in romance or history stories. There was also no place to get published as a Black author in these genres until the 1990s.
• Plotters vs. Pantsers
• Beverly's writing process
• The point that Beverly knew she could write.
• How and why she started her first book.
• Beverly has written 49 books in her lifetime, typically in the Historical Romance genre.
• What is a sweet romance?
• How Beverly handled the rejections she faced in the publishing industry.
• How Beverly found her editor.
• How the portrayal of strong and determined Black women has changed in the model in the romance genre.
• Black women's three gifts and how Beverly highlights these in her heroines.
• Beverly's newest book Wild Rain and why her character came to be.
• Beverly's new Women Who Dare series.
• How Beverly views feminine leadership.
• If you have the writing bug, it's not going anywhere. It's up to you to decide that you're strong enough and brave enough to pursue your dream.

Lyra Satyanarayana and her family packed up their belongings and headed to a new life, virtually overnight. Why? Intuition. In this episode, you'll be taken along Lyra's journey from leaving her multi-million dollar real estate business by connecting with her spirituality to realize the bigger vision for her life.

• How do women balance work life with personal life?
• The decision Lyra had to make between being a CEO and being a mother.
• Why it's ok to start over and create the life you want.
• Your intuition leads you into darkness but sometimes that's part of the growth.
• Divorce is not necessarily a bad thing.
• Why Lyra decided to close her multi-million-dollar real estate business essentially overnight.
• The shifts that happened to Lyra and her family and where her intuition led them next.
• The moment Lyra knew she would show up in the world differently.
• The teachings that Lyra uncovered on her new journey in Crestone, Colorado, and why she went to that particular town.
• How Lyra and her husband handled their divorce and how intuition tied into this decision.
• Why we are anxious about slowing down and focusing on our soul.
• Lyra's new spiritually focused business.
• We are so far removed from the spiritual in today's society.
• The separation between religion, government, and capitalism and alternative solutions around their messages.
• People have separated out divinity from humanity to the capacity that we compartmentalize it so much it's unrecognizable.
• Lyra's definition of the Unholy Trinity
• You can never exit the system while living inside of it.
• What is it that's truly missing is something we need to get in touch with more.
• Your spiritual connection to yourself and how to extract yourself from your truest way of being.
• Whatever you're doing today is for you. It is the thing that you're supposed to be doing until it's not.
• People with their purpose use it as an excuse to not work hard in the moment and to not show up in the present.
• Women who are so successful often feel like something is still missing.
• Future Forecasting vs. Manifestation and your sense of the larger vision.
• Lyra's definition of "Direct Knowing."
• The unfolding of the larger vision can be fun and joyful because you're not committed to the path because it rarely works the way you expect in the first place.
• Live in the present, even in the bad moments.
• How to turn "why is this happening to me" into "this had to happen to me for a reason."
• Lyra's message for what it means to be a woman leader in this moment.
• Feminine leadership principles and what they mean to Lyra.
• Intuition lead vs. Heart lead and how that applies to feminine leadership.

"Friendly-feminist "and author Erynn Brook posted a tweet about a lesson she learned from her mom. It went viral. She posted about a concept that seems simple, but in reality is very hard for most of us to do, especially women. Leave. This lesson on leaving isn't just for women. It is for all genders. Practicing and putting up boundaries is a human right. No one should be deprived of it. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• How Erynn got into professional writing.
• The first post of Erynn's that went viral.
• Why Erynn is a "friendly-feminist."
• The story that prompted Erynn's viral tweet.
• Why is it radical for women to set boundaries?
• You don't have to tolerate another girl being mean to you.
• The social contracts women feel obligated to partake in.
• We need to give ourselves permission to leave.
• What was becoming instantly visible like for Erynn after her tweets went viral.
• Writers tap into things that are unspoken but felt, and they're able to give a voice to those things whether it's an emotion or a movement.
• Writing is a call to leadership.
• Does Erynn consider herself a leader?
• Leaders are coming in unexpected places and look different than they did before.

Yogi, Dancer, and Activist Leslie Salmon Jones went on a journey of healing to West Africa to find her roots. She not only came back with a newfound love for herself but with the foundations of new practice: Afro Flow Yoga®. Created in 2007 with her husband Jeff, Afro Flo blends yoga and meditation with dance movements from across the African Diaspora and creates an inclusive and diverse environment, free of any judgment for the Black community, and celebrates the beauty in diversity. (Additional original music by Jeff Jones) TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• What is Afro Flow Yoga® and its mission?
• Leslie's background in movement and how it set the foundation for her work today.
• The lack of positive images representing Black women while Leslie was growing up and the self-esteem issues she had as a response.
• How Leslie rebuilt her self-image and never turned back.
• Leslie's experience in Canada versus the United States.
• Leslie's mission is to bring together our roots and to celebrate the beauty and richness and brilliance genius of people from all walks of life.
• Leslie's viral Reebok ad and how she became a positive body image.
• How Leslie met her husband Jeff and how their journey to West Africa was the catalyst to finding her roots, healing deep trauma, and eventually the creation of Afro Flow Yoga®.
• There is an invisibility of Black people in yoga, in leadership positions, and in teaching.
• In the patriarchal system and colonized system, there's having power over. And in the divine feminine system, there's doing power with collectively thinking about the circle.
• What Afro Flow Yoga® has done for the Black community.
• Many of the transformative movements happening to uproot the system that is very broken have been started by Black women.
• Feminine leadership really is about care, how we care and how we systemize care.
• Divine feminine wisdom will help us find harmony and balance with nature.
• The 4 V's of the Omega Women's Leadership Intensive.
• Leslie's work in women's leadership and her advice for facing your fears.
• Beauty comes in many forms.
• When you come into self-love you are a light for others as you just reveal the fullness of your nature.

Together with 5 plaintiffs and the law firm Emery Celli Brinkerhoff, Laura Strausfeld and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of New York for taxing tampons. Since 2016, their organization Period Equity has helped 20 states repeal the tax. In this episode, Laura talks about the winding creative road that lead her to this fight and asks women to join together and speak up about taboo subjects that women are uniquely poised to solve. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• How being a twin tied into Laura's career steps and her mission to get women to collaborate.
• Laura's non-toxic perfume business started as an accident and turned into a passion.
• What Laura learned about environmental risk in the perfume business and how these government regulations started her interest in manufacturing practices.
• Why creatives often become unexpected entrepreneurs and how they succeed.
• What is period equity and why does it matter?
• States collectively make over $150 million annually from taxing menstrual products.
• The tipping point that got the legislature to take action against the period tax in the NY state case in 2016.
• Women were excluded from medical research until the 1980s and early 1990s.
• We need to overcome being embarrassed about the issue of menstruation and use our voice to ask for necessities such as menstrual products.
• Scotland has made period products free.
• The goal of Period Equity and how women can get involved in their own communities.
• How litigation can alleviate menstrual inequality and fund free products for those in need.
• Whey menstrual companies aren't doing their job when it comes to fighting for period equality.
• Why are most of the world's billionaires male?
• Why feminine leadership often represents those who don't have a voice.

In the wake of the 2016 election, activist, social entrepreneur, and organizer of the Women's March, Jenna Arnold, one of Oprah's SuperSoul 100 hosted listening circles around the country to understand why 51% of white women voted for Trump. She wrote a book that captured those learnings called Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Frontlines. In this episode, Jenna tells us how the Women's March changed her and how white women can show up in this critical time in our history, accept responsibility, and find their place on the new frontlines.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The common theme in Jenna's body of work and how she finds simplified, creative solutions to solve the world's problems.
• How being dyslexic changes the world view.
• The founding story of the Women's March and the most surprising thing Jenna learned about herself during the process of organizing it.
• What is a leaderless movement? Can they work?
• Women are trying to lead and topple systems at oppression at the same time.
• 74% of white women don't engage in political conversation because it's too uncomfortable, because it doesn't keep the peace.
• What sparked Jenna to write her book, Raising Our Hands.
• Women are hesitant to step in and engage out of fear of not getting it perfect.
• How a woman's self-worth, or lack of it, gets translated to our political actions and our world views.
• Why we are not willing to take responsibility for history.
• Why we are intentionally invisible in our daily lives.
• Money is an expression of an internal belief that we hold value.
• Things white women can do to take action and join the fight on the frontlines of change.