043: Finding Your Voice Power with Renee Grant-Williams

Pete Mockaitis
Renee, thank you so much for joining us at the how to be awesome at your job podcast.

Renee Grant-Williams
Thanks for having me Pete.

 

Pete Mockaitis
So you’ve worked with many of the greatest singers around. Could you share with us maybe a story of a time they worked with you and a breakthrough they arrived at?

Renee Grant-Williams
I’ve been very blessed with a spectacular clientele and I find that the professionals didn’t get there by accident. They got there by hard work. I’m reminded of Miley Cyrus.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
She was 12, she worked with me for a year and would come running in to every lesson. Throw her legs around my waist and jump in my arms.

Pete Mockaitis
Aw.

Renee Grant-Williams
She was bigger than the cat though. Which is a problem sometimes. She had already become a real little professional. She had her own assistant and she had her own manager and she wrote songs with the best writers in Nashville. She was singing way too loud. She was a little tiny thing, but she could belt it out and peel the paint off the walls. But that’s not, that’s hollering.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah.

Renee Grant-Williams
That’s not singing. As soon as I got her to settle down. She started really doing well and fought me tooth and nail about settling down and not hollering every time. But in the long run she was happy that I made her do it. I was thinking about Tim McGraw who came and worked with me at the beginning of his career. He had a crush, I think, on my secretary.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
Cute little blonde.

Pete Mockaitis
So there’s some songs about her, maybe.

Renee Grant-Williams
Probably.

He would come in every week for his lesson. He was taking two a week or something like that at the time. Every week he would turn up and he would say, “Have you found me a wife yet?” He was looking for a wife. I think it was just his way of flirting with Candy, my little secretary. I think he’s done pretty well for himself.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh yeah.

Renee Grant-Williams
On his own. We never did find him a wife, but he found one on his own and could hardly do better.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh certainly, yeah. That is fascinating. Thanks for kind of sharing a bit into that world. I think it’s just encouraging that even super famous people … Miley Cyrus today, whatever we might think. She has some singing ability and even in the early days, it wasn’t perfect. You were able to highlight some things and make it better.

Renee Grant-Williams
Linda Ronstadt’s another one. She likes to work with somebody, sort of all the time. She has this inquiring mind that seems to feel there is always something new to learn. I hadn’t seen her for 20 years and she called the other day, out of the blue, and said, “Renee, it’s Linda.” I would say, “Okay, do I have students named Linda?”

It was like, she didn’t say this was Linda Ronstadt calling. She said it’s Linda and she wanted some help with some speaking things. It just amused me that she was still so much in student mode that she thought she was still a student. It’s people like that who are better because they take the time to get there. I’d rather work with an excited armature than a bored professional anytime.

It’s the ones who think they have nothing to learn that fall off the map.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh amen. You are talking to a group of folks who love learning and are excited about doing so. I will proceed to hopefully extract as much good stuff as we can cram into these minutes we have together, with regard to making your voice more powerful, more resonate, and effective in all sorts of professional environments. Maybe to start off with, you’ve also coached a number of professional speakers and professionals. Can you share with us how do the skills of singers, and that voice work, translate over to professionals.

Renee Grant-Williams
That’s good question Pete. It’s because it’s the same … It translates easily because it’s the same thing.Your body is an instrument. It has the same resonance. It responds to the same stimuli. It has to be cared for and trained into a kind of muscle memory that allow it to operate on autonomy. Autonomy? No. What’s the word I want? Automatic!

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
Speaking is just singing on random rather than on organized pitches.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
If you think of it that way it’s just singing. Singing is just speaking. The best singers are the ones who speak to us. Who touch the heart. Not the ones who sing the loudest. Just like the loudest person in the room is not necessarily the one that everyone listens to. Sometimes the use of silence is important. Silence is just another sound. It’s like any other sound. It just happens to be real, real quiet. Silence in business is very important. The person who has the courage not to keep rambling on when they’re in negotiation is the one who holds all the power. It’s the same in music. If you can take someone to the end of the line and make them wait. It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop. It has a kind of personal power.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh I like that. I like that. Okay so I’m on board. Talk to us a little bit about this power. What are some of the ingredients, or components, or segments, of our voices or our vocal expression that lead to it being perceived as powerful versus the opposite, I guess impotent?

Renee Grant-Williams
Right.Well there are two main branches of voice training, I feel. One is the physical gymnastics of training the voice, the body, and the breath, to work together. That involves breathing, support, and resonance. The other is the second branch, is the elements that make up the expression, and the communication, and the things that bring us together as people. If you master both of those it sounds natural. If you can hear technique in somebody’s singing or speaking. Then it probably wasn’t very good technique. Those techniques should be invisible. You should feel the benefits. You would miss it if they weren’t there but you should not be able to put your finger on it, except for me.

Pete Mockaitis
Uh-huh(affirmative). Okay so, in practice then if I’m doing some training what am I trying to do? I guess … I’ve heard advice that to be an engaging speaker your voice should have some vocal variety in terms of your pacing, the speed at which you are speaking, your pitch, your tone, as well as your volume. But is that a good prescription? How should we think about the variables in what we’re shooting for?

Renee Grant-Williams
Right, we have options. We have pitch as you mentioned. We have volume. We can speak loudly, we can speak softly. We have change of timbre, change of the voice color also. We can be speaking along very fluidly and suddenly get raspy and angry as can be. You can use consonants and you can use silence. If you use silence … you have people waiting for you. Like I did just then.

Pete Mockaitis
I was waiting, I’ll admit.

Renee Grant-Williams
It’s like conducting. An orchestra conductor has to signal everything one beat ahead of the orchestra so they have to set up, get set up by consonants. If you remember from 4th grade consonants and vowels. What are vowels, a, e, I, o, u, sometimes y and w. Consonants are everything else. You can use a consonant. If I want to say something and I really like you. I really like you. You don’t say that word necessarily louder, but you say it longer and it gives the impression of louder.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay and so for the consonant point there. You said I really like you.

Renee Grant-Williams
I said I really. I went immediately to the er. I really like you. I didn’t hold an … I really like you. I didn’t hold onto the vowel. I held on to the consonant. Consonants are my favorite thing in the world probably.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
Consonants have so much power and they turn a song, an ordinary song, into a letter of communication or something. They make us wait for … We create a kind of silence when we .. A kind of silence.

Pete Mockaitis
Wow. I just felt that. Nice job.

Renee Grant-Williams
You have … When we speak we speak in a kind of cadence beat.

Pete Mockaitis
Uh-huh (affirmative).

Renee Grant-Williams
Like a rhythm. If you speak in that cadence and someone interrupts the cadence. You’re left there hanging on, waiting for the other shoe to drop. That’s what consonants do for a person’s speech. You could say the same thing many different ways. If you were to talk to maybe, what, to your teenage kids. You were saying you weren’t crazy about the kids they were hanging around with but, “I still love you.” Is the sentence I’d like to use.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
Or, how about ‘We still love you.’ We still love you. That’s better. We still love you. We’re you’re parents and we still love you. It doesn’t matter what those other kids parents think. We still love you. No matter how bad you’ve been we still love you. We don’t hate you. You’re wrong. We still love you and we don’t care about what those other kids care about. We don’t care that their parents don’t keep an eye on them. We still love you.

Pete Mockaitis
I hear you.

Renee Grant-Williams
Renee Grant-Wi: So there are four different ways to say that, at least four. By lengthening the consonant you direct how you want your material to be digested. The consonants are the most powerful tool I know of for speaking.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. I’m hearing that in a way you’ve emphasized different words in that sentence, ‘We still love you’. But you’re saying the key to emphasizing it well is to linger on the consonants instead of the vowel when you do so.

Renee Grant-Williams
Yes, because ‘we still love you’ doesn’t get it.

Pete Mockaitis
Uh-huh (affirmative).

Renee Grant-Williams
Just speaking out loud, we still love you. That doesn’t get it. We still love you. We still love you. We still love you. We still love you.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah. Okay. I’ve never thought about this before. It’s really kind of eye opening and fun. Thank you.

Renee Grant-Williams
It is I love it.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah.

Renee Grant-Williams
I’ve always been taught … See most of us singers have been taught to sing in the bowels and to present … I remember one teacher saying present your vowels on a silver platter dear and just try to get through those pesky consonants until you can open up your voice on another vowel. People don’t talk that way to each other.

Pete Mockaitis
No.

Renee Grant-Williams
They use a good combination of vowels. Vowels, you have to have them because they carry the tone. But you’re always going to have something carry the tone. If you sacrifice your consonants you might as well stay at home.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Quote it. That’s really powerful and eye opening. I’m on board. Enunciate the consonants. What are some other gems along those lines?

 

Renee Grant-Williams
Well the breathing is important. I think that’s another one of the things that sets me off.

Pete Mockaitis
Do tell.

Renee Grant-Williams
I’m still alive. I have a system I call passive breathing. It’s like no effort because you just open your throat and feel your tongue drop back down your throat and let the air come in.

Pete Mockaitis
Huh. That feels kind of weird.

Renee Grant-Williams
Instead of sucking it in, instead of pulling it in. Instead of drawing it in, you just open. You know those grandmother sink drain … rubber, what are they called? Rubber …

Background
Drain plugs.

Renee Grant-Williams
Right, plugs. Drain plugs.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh right, right, right. Plugs in the bathtub or something.

Renee Grant-Williams
[inaudible 00:17:37] has them around. There’s a flat kind that’s like a flat pancake. If you had a sink full of dishes and water and you pulled the plug away, what would happen to the water in the sink?

Pete Mockaitis
It would drain down.

Renee Grant-Williams
Exactly. The same thing will happen with air. If you give it a space it will take it. If you open up your body and imagine that you’re lungs are somewhere down around your naval, and you just drop the air down there. You don’t have to fill. You don’t have to do anything except squeeze it back out again to make a sound. It’s passive breathing.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, that’ll actually come in really handy in this podcast. When I record the intros and the opener closer tidbits, I’m watching my wave form and I can see that it gets a little bit shorter as I’m running out of breath until I take another big breath. You’re saying that I don’t need to take a big breath at all.

Renee Grant-Williams
Just open and take enough air in to satisfy your oxygen needs. Don’t go beyond your oxygen needs.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. I’m sold. What else you got for us? Elongate the consonants. I’m sorry, elongate the consonants and just drop the tongue and open the throat to let passive air come on in. Those are great. What else you have along those lines?

Renee Grant-Williams
Phrasing and rhythm. They’re more important than you think and they’re more important in public speaking than we realize. Because people are affected by the rhythm. We tend to move, as I said before, in a cadence. A cadence that’s like free form, but still on a cadence none the less. That means there’s a rhythmic structure to out sentences.There certainly is in music and there is also a rhythmic structure to speech. You can take and make a person hold their attention over a break of quite a substantial break, and if you leave a person up and catch them on the backside, you’re leaving like an arch. The trick is to leave them up and then pick it up and bring it back down again. Because if you let it drop down, and let it drop down, it’ll go nowhere. It’ll just drop. But you can bridge over a chasm by leaving it up and then picking it up at the exact same pitch you left.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. So that’s particularly if I’m looking to have a pause in there for them to think about it for a while. I want to say, “How about you think about this?” … Now, don’t you regret your decision? I don’t know. I’m using an example there.

Renee Grant-Williams
You did right. [inaudible 00:21:18] think about this. This is what I was talking about.

Pete Mockaitis
Uh-huh (affirmative). Okay. That’s a little bit … At the same time, we’ve learned from [Foreign Name 00:21:30] who helped design the speech coaching app UMO. In a previous episode, 24-ish. A number of voice coaches warned about up-speak. When some sentences can sound like a question. But you’re not … It’s not as dramatic as that up-speak. It’s more of a subtle taking it up.

Renee Grant-Williams
Taking it up, obviously not as far as the up-speak that they were discussing. We’ve all been traumatized by the valley girl.

Pete Mockaitis
Traumatized, yeah.

Renee Grant-Williams
By the valley girl syndrome. Where it’s leaving it up, and it’s leaving it up, and it’s leaving it up. Relentlessly. None of these are tricks you want to use every time. You want to choose your battles wisely.

Pete Mockaitis
Understood. Well, I think I could passively breathe all the time. I’m looking forward to doing that. Anything else beyond-

Renee Grant-Williams
Do you do spots? What exercise do you do?

Pete Mockaitis
Exercise? Like for fitness?

Renee Grant-Williams
Yes.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, this morning I had a good little run. It’s mostly a combination of running and sort of strength training.

Renee Grant-Williams
It’s a good time to practice your breathing patterns. If you’re lifting weights or working on machines, the equivalent of working on weights. Take advantage of that time to work on your breathing and it’s easier to remember when you’re going [breathing 00:23:11] … it’s easier to remember to use your body and practice your breathing during your down times. Where you’re still awake and moving around.

Renee Grant-Williams
Your body is your instrument and that’s the bottom line.

Pete Mockaitis
All right.

Renee Grant-Williams
With your body. Everything that goes into your body and into your brain effects your voice. You all know the rules. No smoking. No excessive caffeine. No dairy products if you find you have an adverse reaction to them. If you think of your body as being an instrument … Oh I remember what it was.

Pete Mockaitis
Do tell.

Renee Grant-Williams
If you want to improve your speaking start listening. If you start listening to other peoples voices and the way they express themselves and what seems to work and what doesn’t seem to work. I don’t think people are listening with their ears quite enough, or speak with their ears. You have to hear the phrase. You have to hear where you want to go with it. You have to know in your mind what you want to accomplish with it. You have to know how long you want it to take to get you there. You never give up the ship.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. That sounds good. You’ve given us a few things to start doing with regard to elongating consonants and such. Are there a few things that speaker should stop doing? Like some mistakes, some bad habits, they should work on cutting out.

Renee Grant-Williams
In general speakers?

Pete Mockaitis
Right. I’m just thinking about, you’re in a professional environment. Maybe you’re doing a presentation or you’re just communicating, collaborating, with your colleagues. What are some speech things to stop.

Renee Grant-Williams
The ums [inaudible 00:26:21].

Pete Mockaitis
Ums. Okay.

Renee Grant-Williams
They’re hard to … I was watching a political rally the other night and I was noticing how so many of the politicians and speakers said ‘Um’ on a regular basis. If your voice is pitched too high …You want your voice to represent your vision of you. If it’s pitched too high then you’re talking up here like this all the time and people can grow weary of a higher pitched voice. High pitched voice signals inexperience because it’s the voice of children and young women. It signals lack of experience. But a deeper more resonate voice signals experience and age. There’s a tradeoff there.

Pete Mockaitis
It’s youthfulness versus experience. It’s like the just for men commercial-

Renee Grant-Williams
Right.

Pete Mockaitis
For having a little bit of grey hair.

Renee Grant-Williams
Right.

Pete Mockaitis
Understood. Anything else. There’s the vocal pauses, the ‘ums’ those should go. Then watching the pitch, what else?

Renee Grant-Williams
Use silence. Silence is a very powerful sound. It’s just as important as all the other sounds you would make, except it’s just a whole lot quieter.

Pete Mockaitis
What are the best times to incorporate silence?

Renee Grant-Williams
Negotiation is a great time to incorporate silence.Asian business partners seem to know how to create silence that will make Americans squirm. Because we’re always such good guys. We want to rush in and fill up what we perceive as an embarrassing hole in the conversation. It’s because we flinch first. We’re so willing to accommodate everyone. We take our responsibility. We feel responsible for the accommodation of everyone’s ideas and comfort that we let ourselves wide open to being trumped because we don’t … because we give up our right to silence. Silence is very powerful, very powerful.

Pete Mockaitis
Negotiation makes great sense. They squirm a little bit, it’s uncomfortable. Are there other times that silence is also handy in professional settings?

Renee Grant-Williams
Well, I think if your child comes asking for something she doesn’t want, she doesn’t need, and shouldn’t want. I think instead of negotiating with her, you could try silence.

Pete Mockaitis
That makes a statement.

Renee Grant-Williams
It’s such a powerful tool. Especially if you leave a question in the air.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh good, yes. Okay. This is a nice collection here. Is there anything else you want to make sure that we discuss about speech power before we shift gears a little bit and hear about some of your favorite things?

Renee Grant-Williams
Well let me see. [inaudible 00:30:17] … I think we’ve covered a lot.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh me too. It’s so good. Let’s hear then. Can you start us off by sharing, what’s a favorite quote of yours? Something you find inspiring?

 

Renee Grant-Williams
Doris Lessing. “That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, excellent. How about a favorite study, or a piece of research?

 

Renee Grant-Williams
I did at the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Research Center. They did three experiments for voice that was to go in the space shuttle, after Challenger. Challenger was next in line and then this one. They used my voice in three experiments. I always had this feeling that I could … That maybe aliens were smart enough to know how to piece a whole person together from the voice and that this is my one opportunity to get out of this world alive. That if I could get my voice to outer space I would be okay. Then the darn Challenger exploded and they scrapped the program. There went my one chance at immortality.

Pete Mockaitis
Well that’s fascinating. Thank you. How about a favorite book that you’ve enjoyed reading?

Renee Grant-Williams
Oh boy. I’m a big reader. I don’t know if I have a favorite.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s fine. How about a favorite tool. Whether that’s a piece of hardware or software or a gadget or something that you find helpful?

Renee Grant-Williams
I still am old fashioned enough that I use cassettes to tape my lessons. Because it’s so easy to go back and listen to a little snippet. I just got my first smart phone last weekend.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh. How about that.

Renee Grant-Williams
It’s good fun. I had a Motorola Razor. That was [inaudible 00:34:24]. Remember them?

Pete Mockaitis
Yes I do.

Renee Grant-Williams
I just got an iPhone this past weekend. It’s not my favorite tool yet.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Maybe it’ll get there, maybe not. How about a favorite habit? Is there a personal practice of yours that’s been really key for your effectiveness?

Renee Grant-Williams
Just, I’ve been an exerciser all my life. I even taught aerobics for 4 years. Your body is your temple.

Pete Mockaitis
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Renee Grant-Williams
When I discovered consonants. I was walking through the bedroom and saw on television Jefferson Star ship. Nicky Thomas was out there singing, “We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. We built this city.” I had one of those epiphanies where a lightning flash comes and hits you right between the eyes. I stopped mid step and said, “Oh my goodness. You mean it’s not vowels after all, but consonants that are important when you sing?”

Within a week I had created a system to teach it and define it. Yeah, consonants are still my favorite thing ever. I found a way to teach it and to grow and have it spread out to all forms of communication. I seem like I’m obsessed with them but it’s true I am obsessed with them.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s the way it works with innovation. Great minds become very focused on a narrow thing and then great things happen from that. I think the world is blessed that you’ve been obsessed with them.

Renee Grant-Williams
I remember what it was. I was going to talk about phrasing. Most, if you’ll listen carefully, most of the songs you’ll hear on the radio. No matter what genre, have a push at the end of the bar. At the end of the phrase. [Singing 00:37:02].

Pete Mockaitis
Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Renee Grant-Williams
A singer of the band is going to play with the push. Those singers don’t follow the bands lead. Most singers take it very straight and don’t push ahead. There’s a disparity between the band and what you’re doing. If you don’t push toward the end you run the risk of having your music feel like it’s dragging. That’s what I was going to tell you before. It needs to push and carry the energy over the bar line. So you don’t sing, [singing 00:38:03]. You don’t sing just straight. It’s more like, [singing 00:38:12]. Does that make any sense?

Pete Mockaitis
Oh I hear you. Yeah, certainly. You want to be in the right groove and matching up there.

Renee Grant-Williams
Exactly and the same thing works well in speech. You can pull your ideas together and a consonant at the beginning of the word is the signal, the heads up, that something important is about to come. A consonant at the end of the word is to give you time, the listener time, to reflect on what has just been said. We have two ways that we highlight. It’s like taking a yellow highlighter and highlighting the worlds to push ahead and also determine how much attention you want to give to the consonant.

We don’t need consonants on ‘ah’, ‘an’, ‘ing’. The money words are the only words we really need to put in consonants. Be careful you don’t push … See I’m talking about consonants again.

Pete Mockaitis
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Renee Grant-Williams
Careful you don’t push too far with the consonant.

 

Pete Mockaitis
Would you say that there’s an ideal way if folks want to learn more about you or get in touch, where would you point them?

Renee Grant-Williams
I’d say go to my website. Which is my voice coach …

Pete Mockaitis
Myvoicecoach.com

Renee Grant-Williams
Dot com.

Pete Mockaitis
Great.

Renee Grant-Williams
I have books. I have a CD package. DVD package. I have warm-ups and all this stuff is discussed in the new membership site I’m building and you can find a lot of information about me there. More than consonants.

Pete Mockaitis
Lovely, lovely. Do you have sort of a final challenge or call to action that you’d like to leave people with that are seeking to be more awesome at their jobs?

Renee Grant-Williams
Yes. Be arrogant with your consonants.

Pete Mockaitis
Arrogant. You just mean like, bold, and out there.

Renee Grant-Williams
Bold and out there.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Can do. Well Renee, thanks so much. This has been a ton of fun. I wish you lots of luck with your website stuff and enjoying all that Nashville has to offer.

Renee Grant-Williams
Thank you Pete.