Embrace the true power of your voice

Hello Monday is LinkedIn News’ weekly career podcast hosted by me,?Jessi Hempel. ?You’ll hear from thoughtful experts, authors and business leaders about the changing nature of work—and how that work is changing us. Each week, this newsletter shares learnings and practices connected to the conversations.?Subscribe to the show's newsletter?here . This week our guest is voice coach and author Samara Bay .?

Samara Bay will help you sound like the most powerful version of you

I have a high voice. When I’m nervous, it climbs higher. I’ve always been a little self-conscious about it. I remember a magazine colleague at my first journalism job aid to me once that I sounded like “a baby doll.” He meant it as a compliment, I think. But it’s stuck with me.

A baby doll is a child’s toy. It doesn’t even make a sound. A baby doll just sits around and waits for others to play with it. I don’t want to sound like a baby doll. I want to sound like ME. I want people to take me seriously as ME. But what does that even mean?

We know that voices convey power. There is a direct relationship between the sound that comes out of our mouths and the way we get treated. Today’s guest is Samara Bay , and understanding this truth is her work.?Samara is an author and a voice coach. Did you see Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman? Samara coached her. She’s worked with actors in Hollywood on accents for specific roles, and with hopeful female politicians whose voices carried their political futures. Now she has a new book for all of us. It’s called Permission to Speak: How to change what power sounds like, starting with you. ?

Today, we’re going to focus on how our voice stories are formed. We’ll learn how to honor the things that used to work for us—the fake accents, or lowered tones. Samara will offer up small shifts that help us sink into a more whole expression of ourselves. I hope that by the time we’re done, we’ll aspire to listen to other people differently. And we’ll speak the truest version of our own voices. You can find the episode anywhere you listen to apps , or listen below:

Be sure to make it to Office Hours this week!

We meet Wednesday at 3pm EST , and we always bring a coffee and catch up. Every once in awhile, we invite a guest. Samara will join Sarah and I for a coaching session and a chat on how we can all develop the most authentic version of our voices. So come meet Samara, ask her your questions, and hear her speak for yourself!

Join our?Hello Monday Group !

A lot of you come to Office Hours regularly. As 2023 gets started, I can say with confidence that it is my favorite time of the week. It's a deeply restorative time when we connect with each other, offer help when we can, share the hard news and the good stuff.?Sarah Storm ?and I are starting a Group on LinkedIn for anyone who'd like to be in touch a bit more than just on Wednesday afternoons. Consider this your invitation, and we are invitation only. We aspire to be the kindest, most supportive place on the Web. Join us . Then, introduce yourself by sharing?five things that aren't on your LinkedIn Profile .

And, it's been awhile since I mentioned The Family Outing :

Last fall, I published my first book. It's the story of how every member of my family came out of the closet, but more than that, it's the story of our attempt to come back to each other after struggling a good deal. And I'd like to think that it's the story of how any family attempts to pull this off. None of us are all that different at the end of the day. If you want to learn more about it, here's a five-minute documentary that TIME produced and here's my interview with Al Roker Roker on The Today Show. Or you can just buy the book!