The Power Within You - Using Your Voice is Not a Choice with Julie Fogh
In This Episode…
Using your voice is not a choice
How improv and acting classes help with workplace interactions, flowing in situations, and personal confidence
Why finding and using your voice helps you in everyday life situations
About the Voice (Is) podcast
Success is...
There's more than one "right" way to do something
Key Points
You don't need to be fixed. Learning how to use your voice will expand your power move toolbox.
The key to really hilarious improv is the concept of "yes, and," which means that I'm hearing what you're saying and building on it. When done correctly, it requires you to pay attention to the person you're speaking to. So often when we're having conversations we get in our heads and we're watching ourselves and doing the exact opposite of making these connections. Also with improv, you get to practice making choices while you have nerves. And that's an important skill to practice because there is no right, there's only the decision you're making.
We live in a post breath culture: we breathe very shallowly. We live from our necks up in most desk positions. So part of finding your voice is learning how your breath is functioning to carry your words out energetically. As a culture we suppress emotions by suppressing breath and thus suppress power. You need to access parts of you that you may not have known were there, that's a pathway into finding your voice.
You don't have to search outside yourself for what you need, you have to discover it within yourself. I think is something acting teaches you and when you find that it's yours forever. It doesn't it's not like you can get access at once and then the door slams behind you, it's yours and you get to take that with you and just bring more of you into any situation. You're never the same after you discover the power that you already have!
What You Can Do
This is a period in time [during COVID-19 lockdown] where we absolutely need to speak up. There are decisions being made right now that are going to affect us for generations. It's important to speak up about what you believe is true when it comes to your humanity, when it comes to how people are being treated, and when it comes to protecting our society as a whole. It's absolutely not a choice to use your voice right now. There's always been this compartmentalization between our public facing persona and our private self, and working from home [due to Corona virus) is bridging that on so many levels. We have different voices that we use with different people. So I think if you're just getting into that, that is a part that needs to be practiced.
You have to practice having emotions in your body, and what acting teaches us is that you have the power to choose that want. We call that objective in the work that we do. And being able to choose your objective suddenly means you can access that thing we were talking about, you have control over your energy you have control over what you bring in the room to galvanize that whole body system to help you communicate using your voice. So when it comes to work situations or situations that we feel like we're "faking it till we make it," you can actually find the resource and you that you don't have to fake it at all. And then, when it comes to personal confidence, it comes from accepting all of who you are, which both improv and acting force you to do in sometimes uncomfortable ways.
While you're working, speaking, acting and making decisions, you need to trust yourself and trust your partner. Sometimes people spend so much time pleasing other people, and second guessing themselves, they haven't learned to trust their own gut.
Connect
Julie Fogh holds an MFA from Northern Illinois University, and a BA in Theatre and Women Studies from University of Washington, and a certified Associate teacher in the Fitzmaurice Voice Technique. She has studied at the Moscow Art Theatre and University of Copenhagen.
As an actress, she has worked in Seattle and the Bay Area. She has studied Meisner Technique with Kathryn Gately (1st generation graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse), Michael Chekhov Technique with Deborah Robertson, and Movement and Period Style with Loyd Williamson. Julie believes strongly in developing each individuals’ authentic voice. She has worked with actors of all ages helping them navigate their own individual tensions and blocks, revealing the personal power and unique and captivating humanity that already exists in all of us. As an acting coach, she can help you at any point in the process- auditions, diving in at the beginning of a role pre-rehearsal, or, helping to refine a role during rehearsal. She has taught Voice and Speech and Intro to Acting at Manhattanville College.
As a professional voice coach with Vital Voice Training, she specializes in working with introverts, and has helped clients from companies such as BlackRock, Roche, L'Oreal, Smeal Executive MBA program and many more find ease and power in their voices.
Resources
For more on improv on building your confidence, listen to this interview with Jessica Guzik.