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One of the things that I hear from clients and potential clients and podcasting community members is that a lot of people really don’t like the sound of their own voice.

~Andrea Klunder

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Lately I’ve honestly been feeling a little bit apathetic. I’ve had a hard time connecting with things that I love, things that inspire me, things that energize me, things that bring me joy.

And so I am genuinely happy (finally) to be exploring this series with you and I’m curious:

How do you feel about your own voice? 

Is it a tool that you feel like you have command over? Is it something that feels vulnerable?

Do you enjoy speaking or presenting? Does it make you feel nervous? 

Do you never really think about your voice? It’s just a thing that comes out of you when you need to use it?

What questions do you have about voice? 

Would you like to learn about ways that you can become more comfortable or more skillful with using your voice?

Email me your thoughts, questions, fears, desires around voice: Andrea [at] thecreativeimposter.com. 

This can be written out in text or you can record a voice memo on your phone or fancy microphone and send me the recording I can play on the show.

One of the things that I hear from clients and potential clients and podcasting community members is that a lot of people really don’t like the sound of their own voice, or they don’t feel confident using their voice, or they worry that their voice just isn’t compelling enough.

Why are we in a position where so many people feel vulnerable and uncomfortable with using one of the most powerful tools that you have for connection, for influence, for sharing experiences, and for making an impact?

Read on for more…

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She Podcasts Live is the conference for you!

Atlanta, Georgia, October 11 through 13 2019

I will be co-facilitating a workshop on how to use YOUR VOICE.

I’d love to see you there — get your ticket.*

*This is an affiliate link, meaning when you buy your ticket, I’ll get a little thank you commission from the organizers. Thank you!

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Article Continued

This year has been a doozy of a year and I don’t use that word lightly.

If you are tired of hearing about medical things and surgeries and whatnot, don’t worry. This episode isn’t about that. But this episode is coming from all of the reorganization that is happening in my mind space that has been triggered by this entire experience. 

One of the things that I have started doing that I have never done before during this recovery is working with a psychotherapist.

Her name is Miriam. She’s fantastic  and finally in session number 7, we started to address the thing that is way down deep. All of the surface level frustrations and problems and issues that I’ve been dealing with and talking about and working through and that fundamental thing that is underneath.

All of this is a fear of running out of time.  

A fear of not making the most of the time that I have. 

What does that mean? Yeah — fear of death. 

I remember reading that every fear you can think of, every fear imaginable under the sun — if you boil it down to the root of that fear, it all comes down to this fear of death. 

And I know for sure in this society that we live in, we try to pretend like it isn’t a thing, or like it’s a thing that happens to other people, or it’s a thing that happens in the wake of a tragedy, but we don’t really address the fact effectively that it is a thing that happens to everyone all the time every day and no one is ever prepared for it.

Recently one of my clients Robyn Conley Downs on her podcast Feel Good Effect had a guest on named Bronnie Ware, best known for writing this book quite some time ago called The Five Regrets of the Dying. 

I was editing Robyn’s episode, listening to Bronnie speak right after having this therapy session with Miriam where we were talking about the fact that most people at age 40 haven’t yet confronted the fact that you are not guaranteed another 40 years of life.

What does that mean for how you live? For how you structure things? 

One of the things that Bronnie said was that when she was working in palliative care for people who were dying, it didn’t matter whether they were in their 40s or whether they were in their 90’s. Most were surprised to find themselves here at the end of life with not much time left.

And so I was thinking what would it take? No matter what age, no matter how soon or how far away, for me to be able to say, “Wow. What an awesome life. Wow. I really feel that this was all worthwhile. I really am content — happy with the life that I’ve had!”

That I wouldn’t be sitting there feeling like I had missed something. 

I don’t know the answers to this. I don’t know if I’ll ever know, but one thing became really clear and that is that in my work, probably the most important thing is that it all centers around the voice. 

This should not be a huge light bulb moment.

I grew up singing. I remember my first solo being at age 4 when I sang Tomorrow from the musical Annie at the mother-daughter banquet at my church.  

I remember as a child making a fake radio show and recording it on an audio cassette that probably no one heard, but me.

I remember being in theater and being in choir and being in musicals and being in plays.  

I remember going to college to study vocal music performance and music education and then hating it and having a quarter life crisis  at the young age of 18, trying to figure out what the heck I do with my life if I’m not going to be a voice major. 

I remember learning how to do behind the scenes media production including skills for scripting and writing. 

I remember moving to Chicago and starting out in the ticket office at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and then working behind the scenes in production and Tech feeling like I didn’t have a creative voice even though I was around all of these creative people.

I remember getting back into acting and performing and then learning how to use my voice as a yoga and meditation teacher.

And then circling all the way back to media production and using my own voice to make podcasts. 

And now here I am producing editing coaching and consulting for other podcasters and pod-dreamers. 

And now in October of 2019, I will be co-facilitating a panel workshop on how to fall in love with your voice as a podcaster at She Podcasts Live in Atlanta, Georgia.

So yes, no matter what format it takes on, it’s all about the voice. 

And so we are embarking together on a journey — exploring the different aspects of voice, why it is so important to us, how it can be one of the most powerful tools that we have available to us no matter what kind of work we’re doing or art we are creating or connections we are making.

I think that it is the beginning of me really finding my creative purpose in a clear and useful way.

Remember to send me an MP3 file or email to share a little bit about your relationship with your voice and what challenges or questions you have on this topic. Maybe together we’ll find some clarity, some solutions, and have a little fun in the process.

Wishing you  the courage to let your voice shine,

Andrea

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Connect with me!

1. Send me an email. You can write it or record a voice memo on your phone and attach it to the email.
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Email or Voice 
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The Creative Impostor