Episode 013: Arthur Samuel Joseph

Full Transcript 

Intro: 00:01

Hi. I’m Rock Thomas, the founder of M1, the tribe of healthy, wealthy and passionate people, also known as fulfillionaires. You’re listening to the I Am Movement podcast, where we believe that the words that follow, I am, follow you. Join me and the world’s greatest thought leaders, as we discuss the power of transformation and making success a part of your identity.

Rock: 00:33

Today’s guest is Arthur Samuel Joseph. He’s the founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute. He’s widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost communication strategists and authorities on the human voice. His leadership and training programs, Vocal Awareness teaches communication mastery through a disciplined regimen of specific techniques designed to cultivate an embodied, an enhanced leadership presence, and personal presence as well.

Rock: 01:01

He’s coached Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Jerry Rice, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and many, many more. Please welcome to today’s show, none other than Arthur Samuel Joseph.

Rock: 01:17

And welcome to the podcast, Arthur, I’m excited to have you here.

Arthur: 01:21

Well, we were just speaking before we got on, and we have a history I didn’t even know about. So, I’m doubly thrilled to be here. Thank you.

Rock: 01:30

Well, being involved in Tony Robbins’ world, and you have trained Tony Robbins decades ago with voice, your name is often brought up in our community as the go-to guy. So, it’s a bit of a dream come true for me to actually get this chance to have this conversation with you and to personally be able to benefit from it. But for the time being, 54 years you’ve been doing this, tell us a little bit of how you came into it and why you think it’s so important?

Arthur: 01:59

I don’t think it’s so important. I actually know it’s so important. And I preface this by saying, part of the technique of this work is words matter. And we tend to say, I think a lot, and I take it out of our vocabulary. Because if I’m not sure I substitute the phrase I believe. But we tend to emotionally say I think because we don’t want people to think we’re arrogant or too aggressive, but it only creates equivocation. I want us to own our power. So just a sidebar to that.

Rock: 02:33

I like it.

Arthur: 02:34

I knew… I began as a classical singer. I have a master’s in voice. And when I was 15 years old my first voice teacher, Mrs. Julia Kenzo, to who my first book is dedicated, she was in her mid-70s. I’m now 73, so maybe she was my age or a little older. And in the middle of my lessons, I would actually behave oddly. And someone would say, “Stop, no. I don’t want to do it like that. I hear it this way.” Manually clamping my hands from hers like some crazy person. And she allowed this bizarre behavior because she knew something about me I didn’t yet know.

Arthur: 03:09

I hear the vocal sound, unlike anyone I’ve ever met. When I hear a voice, I hear who you are. It’s what I refer to as a perfect pitch. Can’t tell B flat from D anymore, but when I hear you, I hear you.

Arthur: 03:22

And so, her lack of dogma helped me create a new way. Vocal awareness is actually a paradigm shift in communication. And many elements of the work from empowerment to voice, to visceral language, too many other elements of actually trademarksment. And I’m proud of that because of the copyright of this original thought. You get to keep this stuff, but it begins with Mrs. Kenzo allowing me to define a new way to communicate.

Rock: 03:53

So what is it that you can do for people in their communication, because the voice is what we all measure each other through, consciously or unconsciously? How can you help people find a voice, enhance their voice, have longevity to their voice? What exactly is it that you bring to them?

Arthur: 04:11

May I play with you?

Rock: 04:12

Of course.

Arthur: 04:14

Okay. Ask me the beginning of that again, and I’ll stop you midway.

Rock: 04:18

What exactly is it that you get to bring to people? What is your niche? What is the piece?

Arthur: 04:24

So now, Sit is a man of stature. And I’m going to help you literally with your hand, as I move mine, from three inches below your navel, which is where cord begins, slowly and gracefully pull this thread right up to the top of your crown chakra. Really slowly. Here we go again, it’s bar work it’s not calisthenics. And notice right there how you inhale. Did you notice that?

Arthur: 04:50

Keep pulling. Taller, taller. And there, when again, hand down but stay in what I call stature. Neck, shoulders loose, chest open, core engaged. And now we’re going to inhale for five silent, loving seconds, and at the apex, you’re going to ask me the same question. In five, four, three, two.

Rock: 05:16

What exactly is the niche that you have, that you believe affects people?

Arthur: 05:23

You feel or hear any difference?

Rock: 05:24

Yeah, of course.

Arthur: 05:25

And all we did was sit up differently and breathe.

Rock: 05:28

And then, I recognized the posture that Tony has.

Arthur: 05:32

Yes. And thank you. Also, watch what happens… Sit at attention, please.

Rock: 05:38

Sit at attention?

Arthur: 05:40

Sit at attention. Sit up straight.

Rock: 05:41

I thought I was.

Arthur: 05:42

No. I’m doing it like this for a purpose. Just sit at attention. And notice how you hold your breath. That’s what we do when we present ourselves.

Rock: 05:53

Right.

Arthur: 05:54

So now embodying a man of stature, the first impulse is to inhale. So I teach communication masterly. One of the articles I wrote a couple of years ago for Huffington Entrepreneur, was entitled, Leadership, can it be taught? Just because we put our name on the door and we’ve got letters after it, and we have a title above the name, doesn’t mean that we’re leaders. It just means we’re the boss, or we have X number of degrees. But we haven’t learned how to be leaders specifically. So vocal awareness, because it’s communication mastered, teaches communication in a fundamentally different.

Arthur: 06:42

As you may know, I teach a lot of elite athletes, a lot of superstar performers. And I’ll say to an elite athlete in the first lesson, you bring the talent to your sport, but someone literally teaches you every single thing you do. But who teaches us to be ourselves? We don’t realize how much work it actually takes to be ourselves, while others watch.

Arthur: 07:08

We tend to present. We’re actually taught you have to bond with your audience. What if somebody over there has a different POV, I can’t serve you both. And because as you work with Tony, your know-how in these loud, intense, high energy environments, you raise the pitch a lot, trying to get from here to the back of the room.

Rock: 07:29

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 07:31

But it harms our voices. Where’s the mic? You’re wearing it. And so, we want to be able to be mindful of the pitch for example. If I say to you it’s real, it’s genuinely very nice for me to be sharing this time with you today, thank you so much, versus, it’s genuinely very nice for me to be sharing time with you today, thank you so much. We don’t know why the first one feels disingenuous. We don’t realize it’s only because of my pitch and I’m speaking to fast. We don’t know with the second one, Arthur breathes, he slowed down. His pitch went lower. All we get is, that’s more authentic.

Rock: 08:11

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 08:14

And I didn’t just say that’s more authentic. I said that’s more authentic. Because I put a downbeat in that last word of, an accent grog over the E, authentic, and I underline the word, and I see it clearly. That’s called visceral language. I’m a singer. I look at music, and it tells me everything to do. What word was just underlined there? But we look at words, and they don’t tell us anything. They’re just words. So I teach us how to make voice visual. It’s a game-changer, I can assure you.

Arthur: 08:51

And if you look on my website or go to YouTube and look at some of the Hall of Fame speeches I write for some of my clients, LaDainian Tomlinson, Terrell Davis, Emmitt Smith, et cetera. They’re all annotated in the visceral language on hard copy on the podium, and also annotated in visceral language on the prompt. And then… So not only have we written this, they’ve learned how to interpret that, and then I help them with their performance and body. Not just a great football player or a great basketball player, whoever. But to embody a champion.

Arthur: 09:29

I use that word specifically. You clearly are that. Tony clearly is that. The people who aspire, who are listening in on this podcast, aspire. But I learned when I was writing LaDainian’s speech, that the root of the word champion is not a sport centered term. It literally means dazzling skilled in any field.

Rock: 09:52

Hmm.

Arthur: 09:54

Yes. So I’m awakening our inner champion.

Rock: 09:58

I love it. Would you consider that Obama was a good orator?

Arthur: 10:04

Would you ask me that again? We spoke about I think. We illuminate it from our vocabulary. It’s part of what I referred to as white noise.

Rock: 10:13

Okay.

Arthur: 10:13

So.

Rock: 10:14

Do you believe… Do you believe?

Arthur: 10:16

No, no. That part’s fine, but take out the um’s and u’s.

Rock: 10:20

Do you believe that Obama is a great orator?

Arthur: 10:27

Now, you clearly notice the difference, but what I most are pointing out, and then I’ll answer the question, is that you became a better listener. So the six of the seven rituals in vocal awareness is, pay attention, deeper listening. We connect interpersonally to our communication simultaneously. Quite often, yes. Did he always access it? No. But clearly gifted, no question.

Arthur: 10:58

One of the most compelling moments was when he came when he was in the White House and made that announcement about the assassination of Bin Laden. And the gravity toss he brought to that moment for itself. If you look at President Clinton, at his last State of the Union, after he’d just been impeached, you don’t know anything other than what he wants you to know from his performance.

Arthur: 11:25

And I use that word performance specifically because these are presentation. We walk out in front of people, a PowerPoint, whatever it is, they’re not their performances. Because someone is watching for listening. But we look up in the back of my last book, Vocal Leadership, seven minutes a day to communication mastery. One of the appendices at the back is a glossary of root sources to words.

Arthur: 11:51

Presentation, for example, means to introduce formally. To bring before the public. Performance means to carry out, fulfill, to do. So we’ve misconstrued a presentation is actually less authentic because we’re hoping you like me. Performance is claiming our power. And in our work I teach, voice is power. And that when you own your voice, you own your power.

Rock: 12:24

So talk to us a little bit about the steps, if you would. There’s a process, yes?

Arthur: 12:31

Absolutely. And did you notice as I just said that last part, you inhale? I don’t know if you noticed.

Rock: 12:39

I didn’t consciously notice.

Arthur: 12:41

We’re taking notes. And I point it out because when the body hears a truth, it breathes to acknowledge that.

Rock: 12:47

Okay.

Arthur: 12:49

So we have seven rituals. Tony used to refer to my rituals as pattern interrupts.

Rock: 12:55

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 12:56

He would say to create a new pattern, you have to exaggerate behavior to establish a new pattern… To break an old one, excuse me. And so, these are pattern interrupts, because speech is a habit. We never think about that. But if a dancer can’t do turns to the left, they don’t have a gig. If a ballplayer can’t hit a curveball, he doesn’t have a gig. But here we could be the walking wounded, and we still function. But this is mastery. So it begins with statures, preparation for everything we do. And there is no off switch.

Arthur: 13:37

In the first of the seven rituals, we have three ways to approach it. One is to say thank you to God, one is to say thank you to the source, or one is to simply say thank you. So, if you would choose to do one of those within yourself, and really embrace the notion of thank you. And as with stature, the first thing you did was inhale, and your external and internal space is suddenly quieter.

Rock: 14:07

True.

Arthur: 14:08

I don’t know one athlete, one artist, who doesn’t have rituals before they walk out. The ritual always has a spiritual component. It’s not just biomechanics. It’s something that’s warming up on the rings. I’m not just scratching on the sidelines. May I ask you to stand and sit at two different times?

Rock: 14:28

Sure.

Arthur: 14:30

Stand up please, just in place. Now, just sit down and relax, kickback. Forget all of the stature mature nonsense. Notice how you feel, notice how the room feels. Got it?

Rock: 14:44

Got it.

Arthur: 14:45

Stand in place one more time, please. Don’t try to figure this out, just turn off your left brain and don’t think about who or what. And just feel what it might be like to love and let go. Just hear the words love and let go. And when you choose to, sit down. And again, before you even move, the first thing you did was inhale, and you sat down differently. And your space internally, externally required.

Rock: 15:16

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 15:17

The first ritual was to say thank you. The second ritual is to love and let go. You don’t know what love and let go is in front of a lens, but you’re unconscious does.

Rock: 15:27

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 15:29

So when we put ourselves in stature, we thank the source. We love and let go. The body’s first impulse is to inhale. It’s the body’s way of saying thank you for giving me permission to be a being, I breathe and acknowledge it. And it helps us change these pattern interrupts that Tony so acutely understands.

Arthur: 15:51

The root of the word spirit, the spirit tells us to breathe. I don’t want to motivate, I want to inspire. Inspiratory is to breathe into. The Hebrew word, “neshamah” is both solo and breath. So we use the breath in a very fundamental and critically important way to help us claim our power. Then we breathe differently. The phrase, I’m an extraordinary man, if you’d repeat that, please.

Rock: 16:23

I’m an extraordinary man.

Arthur: 16:26

Now, take a nice deep breath, and at the apex say the same thing.

Rock: 16:31

I’m an extraordinary man.

Arthur: 16:33

Great. Now this time, sitting in stature, feel the thread, and I’m going to help you breathe. It’s called a conscious loving breath. We don’t take, we allow, then we’ll take five seconds with your eyes on me. And five, four, deeper, deeper, loving, deeper, deeper, and the phrase.

Rock: 16:58

What was the phrase again?

Arthur: 16:59

Yeah, we’ll go again. I’m an extraordinary man, and unlined extraordinary, and see I period after the word man.

Rock: 17:07

Okay.

Arthur: 17:08

Stature. I’m helping you. In five, source, four, three…

Rock: 17:16

I’m an extraordinary man.

Arthur: 17:19

Not more naturally for yourself, and believe it and feel it. Three, two… No rushing.

Rock: 17:26

I’m an extraordinary man.

Arthur: 17:29

Yes. You feel and hear the difference.

Rock: 17:32

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 17:33

So breath isn’t only physical, it’s also emotional. None of us got anywhere on life unscathed. This journey is not for the faint of heart. We all know the statistics. Trauma is often trapped in our breath. And when I’m tense, when I’m feeling inadequate or I’m feeling judged, I tense up. If I say, I’m an extraordinary man, it sounds just fine, versus, I’m an extraordinary man. You didn’t know the first time my tongue and jaw weren’t talking. That’s all.

Arthur: 18:11

Watch my face. I am an extraordinary man, versus, I am an extraordinary man. The second one, because my eyes were engaged, literally changed the sound of my voice. So what I’m illustrating here is that the mastery lies in the subtlety. These things we never think about. But again, that player, that athlete has been taught the subtlest and the most fundamental techniques, and reinforced year after year, after year. But we just walk out and talk.

Arthur: 18:50

So, should I keep going?

Rock: 18:53

Yes.

Arthur: 18:54

So, then, how many of your listeners, your viewers warm up before they perform? Zero. But what is a singer doing before they go out on stage? What is that athlete doing before they walk on the court or the field? They’re stretching, they’re warming up. So we warm up in vocal awareness. I’m in my work, sounding just great. On my website, I keep a sweet little video clip somewhere. The NFL network is one of my clients, and I teach the GameDay morning team of Michael Irvin, Mooch and Kurt, and Rich.

Arthur: 19:36

And so, I was at this year’s Super Bowl and the year before I wasn’t there. And so I wake up, Super Bowl Sunday, and I get this little homage on my text, with my men doing this, all three collectively. Mooch saying, “Ready boys? Haaaaaaa….” Because we’re warming up our voices. That’s what I do on Sunday mornings with them in the football season, beginning at 5:00 AM, as they live at 6:00. You hear the additional resonants and presence in my voice, just from one of those. That’s the first aspect. That’s a warmup.

Arthur: 20:22

Then the second aspect, I take those same words, Haaaaaaahaaaaaahaa….”. How ridiculous do I sound of course? I am an extraordinary man, however, it does not sound so ridiculous when I’m done.

Rock: 20:37

Yes.

Arthur: 20:38

So I apply all of this to the words, to everything. So it isn’t merely about what I do. It is conveyed through who I am.

Rock: 20:50

That’s very appropriate for the I am movement.

Arthur: 20:55

And also because I teach empowerment through voice… I used to say to Tony we cannot empower people Tony. That’s arrogant for us to think we can, but we can help them empower themselves. It’s the fishing metaphor, we know that.

Rock: 21:10

Right.

Arthur: 21:12

One of the words in the back of my book is hubris, it means blaspheming the gods or extreme errors. People say to us throughout our lives, “oh, don’t act like that. What will people think?” Why you shouldn’t say that, you sound arrogant. So if I say to you, vocal awareness is extraordinary work and it can help you change your life in moments. I’m not stupid and arrogant. But if I say in response, vocal awareness is extraordinary, it can help you change your life in moments. That’s not arrogant. It’s mastery.

Arthur: 21:45

So I teach in vocal awareness that hubris is positive. I’m teaching us how to be ourselves without approbation. We don’t need permission. A sociologist has fed us this empty bill of good for generations. But the greatest friend of society is public speaking, completely ridiculous. However, the greatest fear is two fears. Fear of abandonment, and ownership of my power. Blaming myself without worrying about you think of me while I’m being…

Arthur: 22:21

So that athlete isn’t hoping the coach approves or the teammates like what they do. They’re totally hubristic at that moment. That performer on the stage, to be able to own that level of art, that’s courage, that’s hubris. It’s about the work. Capital W. So, we then create a “persona” statement. What is my brand? How do I want to be known? Wow, I have a choice? And I teach that every single thing in life evolves only around two things. To choose to do something, or to choose not to. It doesn’t matter how scary, how daunting. All that matters is how badly I want to. Even an application and make a choice by walking away.

Arthur: 23:13

All I care about however it is, does that choice empower me, or disempower me? For anything in life costs something. Which price do we want to pay? Am I making any sense?

Rock: 23:26

You’re making a lot of sense. I’m taking a ton of notes, and you have me somewhat mesmerized as you’re walking me down this path. I like it a lot.

Arthur: 23:36

Thank you so much. Also, I do this often times in seminars, because the fifth ritual is to take my time. I teach people that it’s never how fast, rather how effective. So I read a phrase any time, and I do it four different ways. When we realize that nothing is gained by going too fast, but potentially living is lost. And in this what I call fingers and thumbs time in our lives, we have lost the art of public discourse. We don’t even know how to look at one another in the eye.

Arthur: 24:11

And so, this is critically important. We have an election next year. Critically important. We’ve advocated our responsibility as global citizens. So I’m doing the movie network, and I’m traveling the globe and I don’t want to take us anymore. I’m lifting up windows where ever I can get a chance. Because we have to stand for what is right. And we need the most powerful political figure in the world, truly communicate it in a way that’s integral, and reflects our values, not just a narrow nitch. And I’m making a political statement, but we are in the most dangerous time in our world since World War Two. And we have to take notice.

Arthur: 25:00

And so, because voice is power, words do matter. And in vocal awareness, I’m teaching it’s not just what we say, it’s how we say it. It’s not just the message, but the messenger.

Rock: 25:14

So you’re bringing a strong awareness to that. I’m guilty, maybe some other people as well, of speaking very rapidly.

Arthur: 25:23

Can you tell me this again with your eyes on me?

Rock: 25:26

Yes. I am.

Arthur: 25:29

And without the um, we’re going to breathe there.

Rock: 25:32

I am guilty of speaking rapidly, and I’m thinking now maybe because if I speak quickly enough, I’m going to feel that I am enough.

Arthur: 25:45

What a good observation. It actually gave me a chill. And you felt the fundamental shift as I made… have you sustained your eye contact. There’s more sovereignty there. For many of us, however, it’s also scarier.

Rock: 26:03

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Arthur: 26:04

Because we’re claiming something. Now we have to convince ourselves that “I am enough”. What an astute observation. And so, in our practice in vocal awareness, because I said the sixth ritual is paying attention, deeper listening. And in my work, you read any of my books, sometimes I spell voice with a capital V, sometimes with a lower case. But capital V is my inner voice. The lower case V is my speaking voice. My inner voice as I refer to my deeper self.

Arthur: 26:40

If you’d write the seventh ritual down right now, please. Be myself. Tell me when you’ve written it.

Rock: 26:48

Yes.

Arthur: 26:49

Now write it as it’s actually intended. It’s three words. The third word begins with a capital S. See the difference. That’s this one. And it doesn’t say presently. And so this work really is about empowerment through voice. It’s not going to happen however by tomorrow at 5:00. Michael Irvin has been a dear friend and student for over 20 years. He’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver from the Dallas Cowboys.

Arthur: 27:23

And I was at his home in Plano a few years ago. We’re working on something, and he told me that, “I have to do a speech for my men’s group at Potter’s Church in a few weeks.” So I write all my speeches my clients, we put on the recorder and I draw things out and then I ship. So it sounds like it’s their voice, not as told to voice. And Michael told me, as he’s one of 17 children. The middle of the pack. And he’s amazing mother was widowed when Michael was in his early teens.

Arthur: 27:57

And when Michael started kindergarten, there was no money for preschool or time or anything. To enter kindergarten, not knowing his colors or numbers. So he was named dumb. First or second grade, he didn’t remember which, he’s sitting after school with the teacher doing homework, and the teacher says, “Finish your homework. I’ll take you out onto the playground and we’ll toss the football around.” He finished his homework to go out on the playground, tosses the football. Step back. Step back again. Now Michael is named a football player.

Rock: 28:36

Oh.

Arthur: 28:37

So he wrote a speech for his men’s group at Potter’s Church called, Who names you?

Rock: 28:44

Goosebump moment.

Arthur: 28:50

So when we create our “persona” statement, it has two parts. The first part we answer is, how do I believe I’m presently perceived. The second one we answer is how do I ideally want to be known. The root of the word persona literally means through the sound. One’s identity is largely conveyed to the sound of a voice, and it used to be an opinion that was created in three seconds, now it’s virtual and instantaneous. So there is no warmup time. So if I walk out through feeling anxious, I blew my moment.

Arthur: 29:28

In one of my books, I tell the story of a CEO of a division of this global, this Fortune 50 company, that her division was responsible for a billion dollars of business. And in college, she was an all American basketball player. And she was so intense playing basketball, that one time she was playing a pick-up game in Santa Monica out of the beach, and the same guy was ragging on her from the sidelines, and he wouldn’t shut up, so she decked him with the basketball, and he came out and clocked her. But she was not going to back down.

Arthur: 30:06

But in the office, there was a subordinate she had been attempting to fire for some months, but couldn’t do it. A male subordinate. So I would tell her, you left your tennis shoes in the locker room because the same women did not show up in the office that showed up on that court.

Arthur: 30:26

So we spent a couple of months orchestrating it, warming up. Rehearsing it. What to wear? How to set the room? He was gone before the end of the business. Because she had her brand, she had her persona, she had the work. We don’t want anybody to name us. We have to name ourselves.

Rock: 30:48

So that’s a very, very crucial point because a lot of what I teach, and I believe has shaped my life, is a lot of the naming of other people of us and one of my stories was, I was named pizza face. And I repeated pizza face to myself many times as I had acne and I thought I was ugly. And this resulted in my self-esteem going down and my confidence going down, until later when they came across a new programmer that encouraged me to change the label and to self-label myself. And I changed it from pizza face to ruggedly handsome.

Arthur: 31:35

Tell me that again. Those last me to what.

Rock: 31:38

I changed my persona, that was offered to me by my bullying brother, from pizza face, to ruggedly handsome.

Arthur: 31:48

No, no. Embody those last two words. To what?

Rock: 31:51

From pizza face to ruggedly handsome.

Arthur: 31:55

Slow it down, please. In three, two…

Rock: 31:58

From pizza face to ruggedly handsome.

Arthur: 32:03

See, they’re not just words.

Rock: 32:06

Yes.

Arthur: 32:06

Do you hear what we just did?

Rock: 32:08

Yes.

Arthur: 32:10

So I’m not making you into somebody you’re not. I’m helping to bring out what’s possible.

Rock: 32:15

Yes. And it’s all you. I like it. It’s subtle.

Arthur: 32:20

That was… But you just didn’t… Thank you for sharing that with us.

Rock: 32:24

So I love the way you frame it, is… What did you call it again? Once the persona, and… So the label that’s given to us, and then this self-appointed one. Can you say that again?

Arthur: 32:38

We answer the question how do I believe I’m presently perceived?

Rock: 32:42

Right.

Arthur: 32:43

How would I ideally like to be known, and then there are two other parts of one chooses. They’re drawings. One drawing that reflects the first image. One that reflects the second. They could be stick figures, they can be complex. I’ve received everything from stick figures to collages. That doesn’t matter. But you’ll see that they are very different. Even when they appear similar, they’re still different. I’m going to say what. And so then, in our practice, we learned to show up like this.

Rock: 33:19

I love it. Love it. This is such beautiful stuff. So I want to be respectful of your time.

Arthur: 33:26

I already overstayed my welcome by 15 minutes. I’m sorry.

Rock: 33:30

No, don’t be sorry. We’re grateful. Appreciate that. This will be our longest episode, but it’s totally worthy. If somebody wants… Let’s say somebody is not a public speaker, but they want to claim their own persona, their own voice. They want to have a self-perception of themself that is congruent with who they can be. What is the best way for them to get in touch with you? What is the best way for them to follow you, be taught by you, et cetera?

Arthur: 34:03

I’m a third base coach, but you felt what was happening, correct?

Rock: 34:05

Yes. Because I have cameras up top, and you’re down the bottom of my screen, so that’s why I’m toggling back between the two.

Arthur: 34:12

Of course. But I was talking to your unconscious. It doesn’t know whether you don’t empirically know, but I’m relaxing your tongue, and releasing and jaw tension. It just helps you feel safer.

Rock: 34:24

Okay.

Arthur: 34:25

And so, my website is vocalwareness.com, and people can find me that way of course. They can write to support@vocalawareness.com. And my team forwards me every email, and I personally answer every email. And this is my life’s work. When you say 54 years, this is my life’s work. And of course, everything is on Amazon, my books and my online courses. And very importantly, we’re speaking off-camera, I’ve earlier this year launched a certification program, because this is my legacy time. And I don’t want this work to pass when I do. Hopefully not for decades to come yet, but never the less.

Arthur: 35:12

And so, I’m training people in this work, as Tony has trained people in his. But you begin to see how this interface could actually work as we were speaking.

Rock: 35:21

Yes.

Arthur: 35:22

And it compliments, it doesn’t take away from. And so, that’s how. I do all of my material for it to be self-contained. So if you actually read my book, you’ll understand how to do this work. During my VIP club, Voice is Power, lots of videos. You read some of my articles on my website. There’s a TEDx talk, it’s 18 minutes on my home page. Teach you everything about vocal awareness. But the challenge is that it makes complete intellectual sense. You understand anything that I’m saying, but doing it to paraphrase the Wizard of Oz, was a horse from a very different color.

Arthur: 36:05

So, this is not calisthenics, this is art. It’s the bar work. How many ways are there to do the first position if you’re a ballet dancer? And so, we’re self-correcting all the time. Not self-judging, self-correcting. And we video, we audio. We take small steps. Wow, like an infant, he sat up today. He rolled over. Every seemingly insignificant discovery is a milestone because it never happened before.

Arthur: 36:40

Wow, I just maintained eye contact in that last conversation. I remembered to stay in stature. Look how it makes me feel. I walked out and I was anxious, but I allowed a conscious loving breath, and I immediately calmed down. Little pieces. That’s the key to our success.

Rock: 37:01

So you have a… I think you have something special for our listeners, yes?

Arthur: 37:05

You know I do. And, I’m sorry about that. And yes, because my vision is what it is, I don’t want this podcast to be one-off where I just come and babble for a few minutes. So I create an offering for a course I created a couple of years ago, called Visual Voice Pro, which teaches visceral language, which teaches this work that I’ve shared with you today, with me. It’s one on one with me and you, you and me. And it’s quite effective, and I offer it at a 50% discount. Just for your audience. And it is a game-changer.

Rock: 37:46

Tell us a little bit about how that will work? So people can wrap their heads around it, and they can come to a decision?

Arthur: 37:54

They get this online course, and it’s… As you can… One of my paradigms is that structure does not unhinge, it liberates. Freedom without direction is chaos. So, as you can imagine, it’s very structured, it’s very linear. However, I may be the most linear teacher anyone will ever meet, but there’s nothing linear in the work. Breath isn’t only a breath. It’s mind, body, spirit because it’s mastered. It’s not merely sitting up straight, it’s stature.

Arthur: 38:25

So the video breaks down each of these elements and then teaches you the visceral language. I’m working off of one of Emmitt Smith’s speeches, and show you how the visceral language impacts the communication and teaching you how to do it.

Rock: 38:41

So this is all recorded and we watch it, and then we learn through the recording, is that correct?

Arthur: 38:47

Exactly. You do it right along with me.

Rock: 38:50

And how long is it?

Arthur: 38:51

I don’t recall actually.

Rock: 38:53

Okay. Well, I’m excited. I’m signing up, that’s for sure.

Arthur: 38:57

Well, you get a free one, so you know.

Rock: 39:00

Wow, even better. I’m going to double down.

Arthur: 39:05

Yeah, just sell it. I want you to respectfully do so only if you feel there’s value because you’ve experienced it.

Rock: 39:14

And that’s how I do it all, I’m a guinea pig of things that I dive into, and then when I really embrace it and believe it, and have that transformation myself, then I become a great advocate.

Arthur: 39:29

For me that again, and don’t take your eyes off me until you’re done. And I what?

Rock: 39:33

And I become a great advocate.

Arthur: 39:34

Because we just discarded it. But we see a period in the end. And then we break away.

Rock: 39:42

Okay. So hold, finish, and then move away?

Arthur: 39:46

Yes.

Rock: 39:48

Beautiful. Well, I’m excited. I’m very excited. You’re a beautiful soul. I can feel your soul. I can feel your passion. I can feel your commitment to giving people… letting people feel safe in their journey to their own empowerment, which is… I guess it’s that famous talk that… I forget who did it, but it’s like we’re afraid of our own power, right?

Arthur: 40:11

No question.

Rock: 40:12

And being given permission to be ourselves, be safe, and be enough beating ourselves, but then in the glory, I feel then we become even more.

Arthur: 40:23

Take out the I feel, but in the glory…

Rock: 40:26

We become even more.

Arthur: 40:28

You see, we don’t need to qualify.

Rock: 40:31

I’m going to enjoy working with you. I feel this sense of clarity. I feel this sense of subtle nuances that have been beckoning at my door, but I haven’t known how to implement them, and I have a feeling you have the key to helping me do that. I really want to thank you for pouring into this podcast in the way that you did. It was almost like coaching for me personally.

Arthur: 40:56

Almost?

Rock: 40:57

It felt like coaching to me personally.

Arthur: 41:01

It felt?

Rock: 41:02

It was coaching for me personally.

Arthur: 41:03

Exactly that. And when you see Tony, send Tony a note and just say I send hugs. If you’d do that, I’d appreciate it.

Rock: 41:13

I will do that. So let me remind our listeners that the words that follow I am, follow you. So choose your labels wisely, or maybe go out there and recreate some new ones that aren’t empowering you. Claim your own power. And you’ve just experienced a beautiful episode of my dear friend Arthur Joseph.

Arthur: 41:37

Thank you so much. God bless everyone.

Outro: 41:41

This is the I Am Movement podcast. To find out more about how you can join the I Am movement and take your life to the next level, go to gom1.com. G-O-M-1.com.