Sonja Nannan's Voice in Balance

"Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else." Judy Garland

In the entertainment world no first class performer would dream of going on stage after a whole day at the office, taking care of the household, eating a sandwich on the bus that takes them to the venue, wearing an old sweater, carrying their equipment.

They stay at the finest hotels, go to the venue by limousine, have a caterer prepare them a first class meal, have a stylist pick out or at least take care of their outfit, have a hair and make-up team and a masseur, to make sure they are their very best at their performance.

They treat their asset (themselves) as the star they are and they know that if they don't take good care of themselves, their performance will suffer.

In this week's video and podcast episode I share with you what this can teach us about how we want to show up for our audience (no worries, you don't need to hire a personal chef or stylist).

www.sonjanannan.com

"Don't take criticism from people who aren't brave with their own lives." Brené Brown

Sharing our voices bravely and confidently also means exposing ourselves to potential criticism. It is definitely safer in the background - or so it seems.

But in my experience sharing my voice more openly and creating weekly videos has not invited more criticism (at least not to my face and maybe not yet ;)). What it has done though, is that it has made me feel more confident in myself. It has made me more creative and sure of the value that I add, by making content creation a priority. I have given myself more permission to play with different ways of sharing my voice and I am actually having fun doing this.

In this week's video and podcast episode I share with you what has helped me speak with more confidence and how I handle criticism on social media and in my life.

www.sonjanannan.com

A lot of times when it comes to showing up with confidence we completely disregard our bodies. Our relationship with our body plays a huge part in how comfortable we feel standing in front of an audience. How comfortable we feel drawing attention to it. How comfortable we feel exposing ourselves to potential judgement.

And culturally we get exposed to a lot of judgment.

Our body holds our deepest truths and our most authentic self.

Our body has been through every experience we have been through and even when we have pushed memories to the back of our minds, it remembers.

Being the center of attention can awaken such memories and make us feel unsafe. It can be the reason we avoid sharing our voice in public and prefer to stay in the background.

In this week's video and podcast episode I speak about the role of our bodies in sharing our voice and how you can become more conscious of your relationship with it.

www.sonjanannan.com

You have to value first what you want others to value in you.

Believe me, I spent years waiting to prove the opposite to be true. At some point I realized that I would be waiting forever, if I held on to this belief.

Bottom line in anything you want others to approve of is that you need to approve it first. Especially when it comes to creating content, whether that's a video or a presentation.

We are brought up to believe that others are allowed to determine our worth or value. But as adults we can allow ourselves to decide that this is just simply not true. Nobody can decide our value for us.

If we undervalue ourselves others will too. If we value what we have and what we have to give, others will follow that, too.

If you are waiting for somebody's permission or approval to start sharing your voice, this week's video and podcast episode is for you.

www.sonjanannan.com

"Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are." Brené Brown

Despite all our efforts to be more perfect. Make no mistakes and come across as competent and knowledgable. What our audience really wants is for us to be ourselves.

In the content I am creating I am not aiming for perfection, but I want to get better at what I am doing. I know that by consistently sharing my voice and producing content, I will get more and more confident in doing exactly that.

Maybe this is also something you would like to do?

So in this week's video and podcast episode I share with you exactly what it is your audience wants and how you can give it to them. 🎁

www.sonjanannan.com

"You cannot not communicate. Every behavior is a kind of communication." Paul Watzlawick

So, bad news if you thought that by not sharing your voice, your genius was safe👻. By not speaking or not sharing your voice, you are also communicating something. And you are most likely communicating that you have nothing to say or to give.

This is obviously not true, so in this week's video and podcast episode I speak about how you can use this knowledge to your advantage and share your voice with confidence.

www.sonjanannan.com

"Adding value to others is the surest way to add value to our own lives." John C. Maxwell

The thing is, in my opinion we always have a choice to either give in to what we are telling ourselves in the name of others (like "who do you think you are? or "this is embarrassing" or "you will make a fool of yourself") or we connect with our higher selves, our purpose and what we were put on this earth to speak about and just go ahead.

If you are someone who is doubting themselves, afraid to speak in front of others or embarrassed to make a mistake, you are most likely someone who has a lot of value to give.

And sometimes focussing on the value your voice can give to others, can help you feel less afraid.

This is exactly what I speak about in this week's podcast episode.

www.sonjanannan.com

"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."

When we translate this to sharing our voice in front of an audience, it means that when we are not in tune with our authentic frequency (AKA the frequency of who we really are and all that we are capable of) but with the frequency of fear and discomfort and that of being an impostor - then our audience will match that reality and perceive us with that very energy.

Luckily there are steps you can take to be in the frequency of what you want to achieve. And in this week's video and podcast episode I share with you what you can do to bring your authentic frequency outward and have your audience receive it.

In this episode I share with you how you can take a step away from the noise in your head and use stillness as the point of departure for every time you use your voice. It will make you feel more grounded and connected to yourself.

www.sonjanannan.com

Creating content, whether that is recording videos, preparing a presentation or writing a blog post can be something we dread.

It can feel like homework that we HAVE to do.

Creating content (or pretty much anything for that matter!) with this kind of energy will neither give you joy nor the people at the receiving end of your communications - AKA your audience!

From what I have learnt there is a lot of focus usually on what your audience wants and creating content in a way that speaks to their pain points. I have always found this a bit on the manipulative side and it never gave me joy. So I was never consistent with it.

Since I have started focusing on what brings me joy as well as what I have helped my clients with, it has become really easy for me to be consistent. And it has become an enjoyable process.

So in this week's video and podcast episode I give you the elements that have improved my content creation process and have helped me to be consistent.

If you would like to find out more about my work, check out my website: www.sonjanannan.com

One of the most common ways to deal with nerves or nervousness is to attempt to calm down. I am definitely in favor of deep breathing, relaxing, and letting go of any tensions we might feel in our bodies.

In fact I think our voice - especially singing and humming - can really help us calm down and let go of stress.

And yet, sometimes calming down is just not on the menu. And it can sometimes even be counterproductive pressuring ourselves into calming down ("calm down, dammit!").

So in this week's video and podcast episode I give you 3 ways you can transform the nervous energy and help you feel more confident WITHOUT having to relax.

There are days when we feel like we can take our time to say what we need to say. We feel at ease, confident and in control.

And then there are the times when we feel like we need to rush through our content as if we were being chased by some invisible whip, ready to strike should we ever take a moment to breathe.

In this week's video and podcast, I share with you some tips on how you can work on slowing down on a physical level and also on some mindset shifts that could be beneficial to you taking the time and space you need to share your voice.

As much as I hate generalisations and "beauty standards" for the voice - it is imprinted in us that a lower voice equals a confident voice.

And it is true from a vocal health point of view, that when we try to project our voice in a higher range, we risk damaging our vocal cords.

So in this week's video and podcast episode I share with you the secret to a lower voice.

Creating content consistently is not easy. It takes time, practice and know-how to get to a level of feeling confident and authentic in sharing our voice on a regular basis.

What it also takes is knowing what feels good FOR YOU so it can become easy.

Knowing and owning your strengths, knowing what format is the right one for you, what level of preparation or spontaneity - can help you to create a process that makes showing up consistently easy.

We are wired to make things hard on ourselves, so they count as work. And when what we do counts as work - we DESERVE to be rewarded for our hard work.

As a result I used to force myself into creating content a certain way. The way I thought I was supposed to create it. I found out that knowing what lights me up and gives me energy is far more efficient than trying to do what others expect of you.

And it actually turns sharing my voice into a joyful activity.

In this week's video and podcast episode I share with you what has helped me show up more consistently and with joy.

Sometimes it's good to think. To plan, to structure, to be clear before you speak.

And sometimes we can overdo things by trying to stay in control of every step of the way of sharing our voices. And how we do that is to: OVERTHINK.

We second-guess what we are saying, we imagine we can read people's minds and what they think of us. And even though we pay extra attention to do everything right and the way we prepared it, we mess up and lose our train of thought or forget half of what we originally wanted to say.

In my video and podcast this week, I give you 3 tips that can help you stop overthinking when it comes to sharing your voice with your audience, so you can show your audience the best version of yourself.

I love to use metaphors and I sometimes compare public speaking to leading people on a guided tour. When people book a guided tour, it is usually quite clear where the tour will take them.

And when you are the guide you know exactly where you are heading, you know what details you want to show your visitors and you are attentive to their needs.

This week I give you 3 ways how seeing yourself as a guide, rather than a performer can help you feel more confident sharing your voice with your audience.

Creating videos or speaking in front of a live audience is not easy. It takes time, practice and know-how to get to a level of feeling confident and authentic in sharing our voice.

What it also takes is knowing what feels good FOR YOU. 

In this week's video and podcast episode I show you live how after 10 minutes of stop and go of creating my video, I explored what I could do to feel better, more confident and more authentic. And by showing you what I did, I hope to inspire you what you can do.

You can listen here and watch the video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/5iEikTw7qew

If you are creating videos for your work and you feel like there is not enough resonance, there are 3 areas where tweaking might increase the number of people watching and get your audience more involved with your content.

Do you know this feeling of freezing in front of a live audience or a camera? You feel like a deer caught in headlights and have no clue how to gain control of your senses, let a lone your voice? I give you 4 tips how you can gain control again.

If you want to initiate a huge shift in sharing your voice confidently, it's stopping the negative prep-talk and instead meeting yourself with love and kindness.

When we allow ourselves to make mistakes, to not be perfect, to be human, to meet ourselves with love and kindness, whether that is for singing or for speaking - we can show up authentically and allow ourselves to grow and by that allow others to grow, too.

In this episode i talk about how it has become very apparent in my work lately that we are extremely critical when it comes to sharing our voice. We think that it is outside forces holding us back, but what is most likely the case is that it is our own negative thinking. I share with you a tip on how you can set boundaries with your negative thinking so you can share your voice freely.

One big part of my coaching process is the conscious re-integration of our creative side. The reason for this is that I have seen it time and again in my clients and myself, that when we feel nervous about sharing our voice, we really feel nervous of showing who we really are.

Our creativity is the key to our true selves.

In this episode I speak about the fact that we are often so focused on doing everything right, when it comes to sharing our voices, that we forget to just BE. Sometimes being can create the space and right frame of mind for us to be able to speak from a place of authenticity and confidence.