[00:00:00] Welcome back to Own Your Impact. I have to be honest with you about where this episode is coming from because I almost didn't record it, not because I didn't have something to say, but because the world feels really loud and chaotic right now. There's a war that is days old in Iran. As I'm recording this. Last night there were elections in the US that were disrupted in various ways. There is fear and confusion and real uncertainty, and I think a lot of people, including honestly me, have had the thought this week, what difference does my voice even make in all of this? But that question is exactly why I felt like I needed to show up and record this. Because I think it's the most dangerous question any of us can sit with right now. Not because it doesn't deserve an answer, but because the silence it produces is exactly the wrong response to the moment we're in. So that's what we're talking about today, what it actually means to create a clear signal when the environment is this loud and this chaotic. And [00:01:00] I want to make a case that your voice, your point of view, doesn't matter less when the world gets noisy, it matters more. And to start, as always. A story about music because they're my favorite to tell. A few weeks ago, I went to watch my son, who is a drummer, perform with his two friends in their jazz combo at a listening lounge that's near our home. It's a small venue, really cushy, squashy, couches, rugs on the floor, the kind of space that is designed specifically for listening to music. At one point, the bass player in the combo was playing a solo, playing these really low rich notes on his upright bass, plucking the strings. And I noticed that the glass pane in the door next to me started rattling, not because he was playing loud, you can only play an upright base when you're plucking the strings. Like it can only get so loud. It was because of the frequency. Of what he was playing, matching the natural resonant frequency of that piece of glass in the door. And when that [00:02:00] sound wave from the base met the glass, the glass moved without being touched, without extra force, the right frequency, the right sound wave, and the glass responded. And this was in a room full of sound. There were other instruments, other notes, other frequencies filling the air, and that piece of glass sat completely still through all of it until the bass player played the note that matched the noise in the room. Didn't prevent the resonance from connecting the right frequency. Still found its match, and I keep coming back to that story when I think about what it means to show up with your voice anytime, but especially right now, most people respond to a noisy room in one of two ways. They try to get louder, and the thought leadership equivalent of that is more content, more platforms, more urgency, more volume, or they go completely quiet. They decide the noise is too much, the risk is too high. So they stop sending a signal altogether. And I understand both of those [00:03:00] impulses, especially because the noise isn't just noise right now, it is charged. There are real stakes. We see real consequences of people saying the quote unquote wrong thing or being misunderstood or finding themselves on the receiving end of someone who's decided you got it wrong. And when noise carries that kind of weight, going quiet can feel less like giving up and more like wisdom and preservation. But here's what I want you to hear. The pull towards silence is almost never about the environment. It's about fear. Fear of getting things wrong, fear of not mattering, fear of saying something and having it bounce with no response. And right now there's a very real additional fear that standing out could be dangerous. That's not a small thing, and I don't wanna minimize it, but the people we admire, the people whose names we know, the people whose voices have shaped us, the people who have really had an impact over the years felt that fear and they showed up [00:04:00] anyway. Another way to think about showing up in a noisy space. Think about the teacher who had this one move when the classroom got too loud, instead of raising her voice, she lowered it. She didn't stop talking. She got quiet and she got focused and the room leaned in. Not because she demanded it, not because she forced it, because the contrast created the pull. All the noise was still there. She just refused to compete with it, and that refusal was the very thing that made everyone wanna stop and hear what she was saying. That's not coincidence, that's resonance. A louder signal is not necessarily a clearer signal. Frequency is not the same property of sound as volume is. The opera singer doesn't out shout the orchestra. They find the frequency gap, the range where the human ear is the most sensitive and the instruments aren't producing sound, and they fill it with precision technique and clarity of source. An opera singer's voice in that environment cuts through the 50 [00:05:00] instruments in the orchestra without a microphone, not because they pushed harder singing, but because they found their frequency and sing it with conviction. A noisy room doesn't prevent that. The orchestra is actually part of how her voice gets heard because of the contrast, and I think that's what so many of us are missing right now. We look at the environment and we conclude the con conditions are wrong for our voice to matter. There's too much noise, there's too much chaos, there's too much risk. But the people who most need to hear what you know, the people who are already tuned and waiting for your frequency to match theirs, they are actively scanning for you right now. They are also exhausted by the volume. They are looking for something that feels true, something that cuts through. And if your voice goes quiet at this moment, they'll never find a signal. They were already looking for. Clear voices and chaos are not a luxury. They're what chaos necessitates. It's more critical than ever. Now I need to [00:06:00] say something personal because this truly is the part that made me press record today. I have the privilege of working with people who have built real platforms and have demonstrated and created real impact across years, across decades, and some of those people are really tired. Not because they've stopped caring, but because they've been carrying this longer with higher stakes and in a lot of cases have been doing more than their share. I think especially of the Black women in my life and in my work who know how to show up in community, who have been doing it and who are exhausted, and even as I've been able to support them in doing that work, watching that happen has been convicting to me. ' cause what I keep coming back to is. It is not sustainable and it is not right for a small group of voices to carry all the weight of speaking truth while the rest of us stay quiet and consume what they produce. We need to take turns. We need to listen, and we need to show up. [00:07:00] Rebecca Coley. a disability rights advocate, has a phrase that my one of my clients uses a lot, and I can't stop thinking about it because my client said it again the other day. Spend your privilege, use what you have. The platform, the relationships, the credibility, the expertise you've built, not as a debt to pay, but because using your voice for good doesn't diminish it. It amplifies it, and it helps others. But I also wanna reframe what using your voice actually looks like. Because I think when people hear, quote unquote, use your voice, especially right now, they picture something specific like a public declaration, a stage, a viral post. And if that's not who you are or how you're wired, it can feel like the only options are to be performative. Or do something that isn't really you or stay silent, and that's a false choice, and that's against everything I teach. So to share an illustration, a client of mine recently, she is a brilliant brand strategist and messaging strategist, and has done that in corporate for years. This [00:08:00] client has a friend who is an author with a very important book coming out soon. This book has a genuinely important personal story and message. That so many people, specifically women who are underserved need right now. And this client used her gift for branding and message and clarity, her expertise, truly her voice in the very truest sense of the word. Spent a couple of hours with this author to look at her messaging and look at the things she was going to be saying in interviews and part of her book launch in such a way. That it's clear and it's more universal, and it's going to dramatically expand the group of people who are going to hear this author's message. Now, my client didn't go up on a stage. She didn't post a manifesto. She showed up exactly as who she is doing what she knows and leaning so beautifully into the gifts that she [00:09:00] has. In cooperation and service of a voice that needs to be heard on a stage more clearly, and because of what my client did, more people are going to be reached by something that matters. That is also using your voice and spending your privilege, and maybe that's where you are right now. Maybe you're not ready to step into the spotlight. Maybe you're not sure you have something to say that feels big enough to stand alone. But here's what I know from years of making music and conducting other people making music. A soloist sounds better when there are other instruments supporting them. Acapella music notwithstanding the background, vocal, makes the lead vocal more compelling. It gives it texture, it gives it more interest. The rhythm section makes the melody, land, the orchestra, makes the singer soar. Every one of those musicians made a choice to show up, play their part, and add their signal to what was already being created. And the music is richer because they did. You don't have to be the soloist. You don't always have to be the soloist. If you have been the souls, you just have to [00:10:00] decide to play. So here's the question I want you to be thinking about, because I think it matters more than, should I speak up or am I ready, or will anyone listen? That question is, who do you wanna be in a moment like this? Not how many people do you wanna reach, not whether your timing is perfect. Who do you want to have been when you look back at this time? Because your voice doesn't have to travel across a broadcast to matter. It can be shared with one person in a conversation, in a letter in the specific way that only you can share it with generosity. The scope and breadth of your impact aren't the point. When I say own your impact, I mean own your impact in close proximity and in a huge scope across big stages. If that's what you want. But the point in this moment, I think, is whether you showed up as who you are with what you know when it mattered. I've [00:11:00] talked about the fact that I was a choir teacher early in my career, and I had a rule in my classroom. If there was an empty chair in my classroom and you were willing to show up and sing, there was a place for you in the choir. You didn't have to be the best singer. You didn't even have to read music. You just had to be willing. I knew that I could teach you how to sing. And as I look at the world right now, I think what we need more than anything is not perfect voices and polished performances. We need willing singers, we need people willing to open their mouths and add their voices to something bigger than themselves. Jacob Collier, if you haven't heard of him, find him on YouTube. He's one of the most gifted musicians I've ever seen perform, and he does this thing in concert wear. He builds a spontaneous choir out of the audience. It's remarkable to watch thousands of strangers, no auditions, no sheet music, just his hands conducting and guiding, and people willing to show up and add their voice to what is being created. It really is [00:12:00] miraculous to watch and it works not because everybody's perfect, but because everyone is present and participating. That's the choir we need right now. Your voice, the one that is specifically and only yours, the way you are wired to share it, the thing you know that nobody else knows in quite the same way. That is one of the parts the choir is missing until you decide to sing. This is how good people have always created change in the world, not by waiting until the conditions were right, not by waiting until there were the loudest voice in the room, but by showing up in whatever way they were able with whatever they had to offer because they loved their neighbors enough to try and doing the next right thing. That is what has always moved the world toward good people deciding that their part mattered and showing up and playing it. So what I wanna encourage you to do, and what I will keep trying to do, is send your signal, keep sending it, trust the physics that it will land with the people that it's meant to land with [00:13:00] because your ideas matter and your expertise has deep value. The world needs the signal that only you can send. Next week we'll be back to talking about the resident thought leadership system and the archetypes and , the how behind building a platform that works for how you are wired. But for now, before we get back to the strategy, before we get back to the framework, before we get back to the archetypes, I just want you to think about where you can show up. However that looks for you, your voice, your way, because it matters. Thank you for being here today. If this episode resonated with you, I would love to invite you to share it with someone who might feel like they needed to go quiet. ' cause sometimes I think the most important thing we can do , is remind each other that our voices are worth using. Especially right now, I.