Owning Your Voice - Jen in conversation with Jacquelyn Atkins

This is no halos here hosted by Jen Lang and Jane Stark, the place to inspire a change in your consciousness to elevate the world. We're to heart centered business owners nourishing our inner rebels while growing our respective businesses. No halos here is the result of bringing together an opera singer turned spiritual mentor and a marketing professional turned well being coached to meditate daily. Together we unite physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies into a powerful presence to lead, heal and inspire. We love exploring the shadowed edges of life, the universe and beyond through honest and thought provoking conversations. Let's dive in.

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of no halos here with Jen Lang and Jane Stark. We have a very special episode today. A couple of weeks ago, I was a guest on the biz alchemy podcast with Jacquelyn Atkins. And we thought it would be really fun to share that episode content here because it is about the power of owning your voice. So Jacquelyn is a female entrepreneur, she helps female entrepreneurs remove the energetic blocks in their business so that they can easily attract their ideal clients. And we'd love for you to listen in as we talk about embracing the new paradigm of business which involves leaving the patriarchal business model behind listening to your intuition, developing your inner voice and claiming that power that we all have inside us to support our voices so we can show up in our lives. really true to ourselves. Enjoy the conversation that Jacqueline and I have. And Jane and I will be back in the next episode. Have an awesome day. Ciao.

Welcome to biz alchemy, a podcast about creating a new business paradigm by women. For women. I'm your alchemical host, Jacqueline Atkins and I'm going to take you on an extraordinary adventure to create a business filled with ease. Fun spaciousness and abundance. Hustle, be gone. Let's birth a new way. Welcome back to the alchemy podcast. Now the last two episodes on the throat chakra are actually a perfect segue into this episode, where I have an inspirational chat with Jen Lang about all things voice, and how all things in life and business channel through into your voice. As you know, if you've listened to the last couple of episodes, I have a passion for the power of the throat chakra. So I absolutely loved this conversation with Jen. Jen guides, both women and men in business to tune into and align to the inner voice so their outer voice can shine. how fabulous does that sound? Jen has an amazing, fascinating background as an opera singer, a sound healer, a Reiki Master and you know what, let's just throw in a black belt in karate to spice things up a bit. It was a great conversation we covered so much. So enjoy this conversation with Jen Lang. Chen, what was the turning point when you realize that it was time to make a shift away from the patriarchal business model and create a new paradigm for your business?

Oh, thanks for asking Jacquelyn . Reflecting on this question in advance, I feel like there wasn't a single event that led to this point. However, it was a series of stepping stones and transformations that led to this letting go of the old patriarchal business model. And I think one of the things that came up for me was that the patriarchal business model just wasn't working for me. And I, you know, in spite of all these, quote, unquote, promises, and formulas and step by step processes, and this coaches thing, there were just certain things that weren't in alignment with how I wanted to do business. And for a while, it was like this great mystery. It was that sense of like, Okay, well, I'm doing sort of the things that they're talking about, but I'm not getting the same results. And I believe part of that is a little bit connected to my human design as a projector. And the other piece of it was that this patriarchal business model no longer served, where I was headed and who I was becoming, again, not a single event, but a very gradual process and an awareness that built up around this.

Yes, because I found that with business as well, especially when you you're learning, and you're adopting other people's ways of doing things or other people's suggestions and recommendations. Because you're in that learning phase. It takes a little while. Sometimes doesn't it to to be implementing that. And then realizing Actually, this isn't quite sitting with me there's something about this not sitting with me.

Yeah, there was a moment, I remember a very interesting moment of when I was working with my very first business coach after I'd finished the school. And it was about a year after we had started working together. And I was in the process of, I guess, sort of signing a new client. And I was living in Abu Dhabi at the time, and this new client was in Dubai. So it was quite a long drive to see this client, we were an hour and 20 minutes each way. And I was talking about, you know, with my coach and saying, you know, this man seems keen to work with me and on, you know, voice work and these pieces, and I said, what, there's just something about it that isn't sitting right with me. And so my coach asked me what was going on and, and he said, Oh, Jen, he's like, you've got this guy. He's like, he's in like, he's, you know, just bring him in, bring him in. And so he did, you know, I've met drove an hour, 20 minutes for our first session together. And he was trying to divide our money between divide the payment between his employer and himself. So he hadn't paid me up. And it was Mistake number one. However, that part of it, I got there, and we sort of going through things. And of course, like the session went over. And that, you know, obviously was like a half a day to see this one client. And I drove home. And I was like, Oh, you know, I've talked about with my coach again, oh, no, no, this is fine. So I drove up for the second session, and I was like, can you please have the 50% ready, because, you know, we're doing this session together, and got there and didn't have it ready. And I drove home from that session. And I just felt like, resentful. And I was like, This is bad. I'm not I'm not doing this. It was that listening to my intuition piece about working with that client, and blindly following what my coach had said, in terms of you've got this person, you've got him, like, bring him in. And that's that those words in that language no longer resonated for me, because it wasn't the way I wanted to do business. Mm hmm.

Yeah. And so the, the listening to the intuition is obviously a big part of your work, because that's something I read Is that you, you guide women and men to tune into and align their inner voice, so their outer voice can shine. So is that what you mean by inner voice? Like, how would you describe the inner voice?

Or has many different forms? It's a great question. So there is that intuition, inner voice, which we're not trained to listen to, or to pay attention to, in fact, we're often trained to ignore it. So there is that aspect of the inner voice. And then quite often, you could call it the inner saboteur or your inner critic, that's another form of your inner voice that keeps you small, or keeps you safe. And then for some people, in fact, for some of my clients, they're actually creating a whole chorus of inner voices that are keeping them that serve multiple purposes. You know, sometimes, sometimes an inner voice is there to keep us safe. But it also keeps us hidden. But it still serves a purpose for a specific period of time. So that's what I what I mean about those inner voices is learning to identify, manage, and thank you for what they've brought you. And then either letting them ago or some voices need more of a voice. Some voices need to come to the forefront and they need that solo, and they need the spotlight on them in order to create a balanced experience.

Hmm, yeah. So I'm fascinated with your history around that, Jen, because you are not pressing out. But no, you're not working as an opera singer now are you

I'm not working as an opera singer. I still do sing. I have a proxy. I have a just this past week. I've just been scheduled for a performance in March 2022. With with another singer, so we're preparing a recital. She and I are sharing a recital of songs and pieces and it that really cute part is that I'm preparing music composed by Josefina Lange composers is a 19th century German composers composed a bunch of songs. And the man who's put it together as a scholar of her music and has done a lot of work translating. And the other singer her last name is grim. g ri m m. So it's long, sings long and clim sings clim. And the scholar is and is going to play the piano for all of us. And we're just going to pick the pieces and have a beautiful fun evening of song and music. So yeah, I still perform. And it's so rewarding to do that and dive into it with fresh eyes and fresh ears and fresh enthusiasm.

Well, yeah. And that sort of ties in with what I was going to ask, which is when you when you started singing when you as an opera singer was your inner voice an important part of that, or was that all about the outer voice and the journey with the inner voice came later?

You know, they kind of go hand in hand. And even though this wasn't talked about as obvious Honestly, when I was training in the early 2000s, early, mid 2000s, it was, it's just a hand in hand process. And you learn, you know, we studied and read a lot of performance, like actually sports performance books, because they actually approach a lot of those concepts that you can then apply to music, there's a really wonderful book called The inner game of music. And it was based on a series, the first book was called the inner game of tennis and the inner game of golf. But the inner game of music applies those same concepts to music. So it is about identifying those selves, the ones that help you move ahead, and the ones that keeps you small. So that inner voice develops hand in hand with that physical voice, but you have to allow that inner voice to sing through your physical voice. Otherwise, you don't get the same human experience that makes that's what makes live music so special.

Oh, wow, I just got tingles. And so is that what you are doing with your clients?

In some ways? Yes, in many ways, there is a lot of hand, I wouldn't say call it hand holding. Usually, when my clients come to me, it's they find me through various channels, and they, you know, they get to know me better. And then all of a sudden, they just sort of say, I just know I need to work with you, I just think I need to work with you. And it's learning to trust that inner response that draws them to the work I do. Usually, when I start with a new client, I always start with the physical going with anatomy and physiology, teaching them how to breathe, and breathe into new and exciting ways, then that opens the doorway, to identifying those critic, voices that we hear, and sometimes champion cultivating that inner champion, as well as the inner mentor. So there's multiple ways of doing it. And then usually, something will come up that needs some healing or needs a little bit of extra TLC. And so I have all those healing modalities like Reiki and soul transformation, healing, and akashic records work that I can bring into the whole process so that they can move from this space of just a intellectual understanding of how their voice works into a more soul embodied way of communicating.

Wow. And as I'm listening to you speak like that, it's you have really successfully brought all the facets of yourself into what you do now. Yeah, it's been a process. So one of those facets is that you have a black belt in karate. How do you bring that in? Yes. Oh, that's

a great question. So yeah, I've studied martial martial arts and music, though they might not seem like good partners are really are wonderful, wonderful partners, because I need more and then not just karate, but martial arts in general, teaches one how to move one's body through space through physical space. But it also teaches you about your mental limits, as well, because you always have a coach, you know, yelling it to do one more push up, or one more setup, or, you know, you know, really getting into this this inner warrior space that isn't, it's not about, they say it's about quote, unquote, killing people. But it's not, it's really, the whole purpose of studying martial arts is to not get in the fight in the first place. So music and martial arts together are wonderful, wonderful teamwork type of thing, because it is those limits, but it also teaches you about how your body works. And any one of those pieces, like how to breathe. You know, I have years of I had years of breathing experience before I ever started singing. So you have the discipline of the martial arts, which lends itself really well to the discipline of music. And that is the self discipline of, you know, daily practice, or the self discipline of knowing when enough is enough and shutting down for the day. And learning that learning those aspects of limitation. That so that you can learn how to push them a little farther each time. Hmm.

And you know, I mean, obviously, a lot of what we talk about in this podcast is about this new paradigm of business was these, which is actually about knowing yourself better so that you could follow your own unique path instead of a prescribed path. So this is where as I'm hearing you speak both about the voice work and about the martial arts and it seems to all be a part of that isn't. It's all a part of that knowing yourself better so that you can show up in your life true to you.

Yes. And it's not like you have to, you don't have to study martial arts. To be good at being you, you will have to just simply find the and discover and explore those crafts, whether they're physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual or otherwise, those crafts that help you Really tune in with who you are on the inside, and then have the confidence and courage to share that with the world. So yes, people come to me for voice work, but what they're really coming to me for is increased confidence and courage and communicating their truest self with the world.

Yes. And I know from my work I've done with the throat chakra. In fact, I just didn't meditation this morning on insight timer, and all the audience there, you know, they were struggling with this one, how do I find out who I am? And then to how do I communicate with that, that with the world? Because we're not taught that? Are we? No,

no, we're taught these really structured ways of being with the world. And this is also where, you know, martial arts might not seem to be a great fit. But there's so much fluidity and flexibility within those structures. But we're not necessarily encouraged to explore that fluidity. And this is also where I believe that this new paradigm business is necessary, because we need that flow. We do not need more grids and structures, we need to find the flow within and beyond those grids and structures that take us to that next level. One could compare it with creativity and exploring the boundaries of creativity, you need those moments of messy creativity, to move beyond today's current challenges.

Yes, so Jen, covered a couple of aspects of you. But of course, you're also an amazing sound healer. Something else I've explored in a past life, and and sound from my own experience, I know that sound is incredible. Shifting energy, it's so powerful, it's shifting energy. share a little bit about this other part of you,

this other facet of your diamond, as a sound therapist, all this work is so it's so deep with who I am. And what I've come to this space to do. It's just It's so beautiful. And I remember I had an intuitive astrologer reading about five years ago. And he told me that I would be working with sound bowls. And I was like, okay, cool, you know, never really remembering at the time. And then I, three years ago, almost three years ago, I trained as a sound therapist when I was living in Dubai. And sure enough, the astrologer I'm friends with his wife, and she pointed out, she's like, do you remember his appointment is his recording so that you would do the samples, I'm like, I know. So it's really, it's really his full circle, because I get to use my voice, I get to use my ears. And I get to use the healing arts to support my clients. And there's my gosh, I could talk for hours on frequency and density and you know, chocolate from the work you've done with sound therapy, that I use my ears because I can hear the way a sound or frequency changes I can hear when there's a density in the certain part of one's energy body, so that I can use the bowls and serve I just again, use intuition. Don't make any necessarily conscious decisions. I use the bowls and tones to help shift those densities no matter what they are, whether they're physically manifested illness, or if there are, you know, a mental block or something in the heart that needs needs support, one of the biggest, most beautiful transformations like I have witnessed it is supporting people through grief aware, no matter what it is, whether it's death of a parent or loss of you know, a loved one or a relationship. The the sound provides the cushion on which the emotional frequencies of grief can be expressed without judgment. And that is just it's such, it's so humbling to facilitate that for a client. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful experience.

Um, so in the way that it helps shift some of that grief without you sort of the client having to consciously process it or, you know, talk about it, is that how it affects it

as part of it. I think sometimes, sometimes they can't cry, there will be a whole myriad of reasons why they can't cry to express their grief. And sometimes it's social conditioning. Sometimes it's just there's too many other stresses going on in their life and they just haven't got the ability to cry. And someone I worked with in the past six months. both of her parents died in a quite a compact period of time. And she knew that she needed the sound to process to step into that process of grief. And it was such a beautiful experience to provide for her because when I started singing with the bowl and creating the overtones and multiple overtone and sing with frequency, it gave her permission to say Sound her grief through the tears, if you're familiar with the Irish tradition of keening, and there's so many grief traditions that allow sound to be expressed through grief or grief to be expressed through sound. But there are also so many other traditions, particularly I think, in North America, you know, usually the traditional British colonists traditions that don't allow the Saudis are supposed to weep in silence for that person, or revere to silence. And so it doesn't really give anyone that permission. They don't give themselves permission to express that grief through sound. And so this is a really powerful and cathartic way to provide that cushion for that person to express that grief.

I can just feel the power as you talk about that. I can feel it in my heart. My heart's going Oh, give me some of that sound.

Like this week, actually, I've decided I was like, I need to create a soundscape specifically for processing grief. Awesome. So

So talk a little bit about a soundscape for any listeners who don't understand what a soundscape is?

Oh, yeah, so some people have called it a sound bath, you can call it a sound journey. I like calling it a soundscape because like a landscape where you look at a landscape painting, and you see all the different colors and the features of the landscape. A soundscape is the Adi to auditory version of that, where you are taken on a journey through sound that creates different frequencies and tonalities and allows your, basically your brain to take a break. And so the soundscapes that I create, I usually create a new and a full moon one twice a month. And then I create soundscapes for specific purposes like this one for processing grief. I have some for just basic stress relief, I have some for sleep. And I love playing with technology. So sometimes I will put the recordings into Adobe Audition and apply some different filters and play around that way. So I really do enjoy all aspects of the creation of these journeys for people. And actually one woman I sold her a couple of different soundscapes, she's like I've got some hip pain, I'm like, Okay, well, I've got a bone and tissue frequency soundscape. You know, she bought it off me. And two weeks later, she's like, Jen, you've saved me 1000s at the physiotherapist. She's like, I can walk. It was like, awesome. So, you know, I'm not keeping scientific track of these things. But based on the results that I'm hearing from people who've bought them, they can have really transformative experiences.

Wow. So something I was going to ask you was I when clients come to you, what are they looking for, but it sounds like they could be looking for anything.

Any anything, most of my current one to one clients right now usually have a, not all of them. But they'll quite often have an autoimmune condition quite often associated with the thyroid, and but not always. And usually, it manifests in other thyroid conditions. Sometimes it's a reproductive or a digestive disorder. And so the work that I do with breath, with voice with sound, and with with supporting a client to really claim and embody their voice generally softens the edges of those autoimmune or those medical conditions that they come to come with. So I don't set out to cure it. But through this work indirectly, it brings them more into wholeness with themselves, which then enables their bodies and their all of their energy bodies to work more cohesively together.

Do you think many of us have claimed our voice?

From what I hear people use their voices, but they really haven't gotten into the depth of what's available to them. It's kind of like if I was to put it into Visual terms. If you were to go and look at an original artwork in an art gallery, and look at the canvas on the wall and see all the details on the canvas, and the colors and the brushstrokes that's using one's full voice. Most people are using a black and white photo of their voice of that campus. And that's partly due to conditioning, the way they've grown up the messages they hear growing up, either whether it's from your family member, sometimes bosses, people who have, like really despotic managers or bosses have a tremendous effect on how one uses her voice. And usually I'm thinking of this in terms of women, but it's not an estimate. I've worked with a few men as well who've had horrific experiences. And yeah, so I think there's always further and deeper to go.

Hmm, yeah, I can see that too, just from my work with the throat chakra because I don't think I've ever looked at a person who didn't have some story in it. chakra holding, closing it up in some way. Because it as society controls what we speak about from a very young age, and certainly our education system controls our speaking our truth and what we believe in. So it is really a journey to find that again,

yes. And you don't have to have want to have a singing career to be able to have to do this work. I taught singing for years, I still, you know, teach one or two clients, and, you know, in the terms of straight singing, but some of my adult clients, some of the stories they had growing up, you know, like the whole messaging like children should be seen and not heard. Well, you tell that to a child who's seven years old and highly impressionable, and all of a sudden, they're taught they take on that they shouldn't be heard period. Yeah. Or my other favorite example, which I've heard from multiple adult singers was, you know, when they were in school choir, and the teacher really wants the class to win the competition. So they tell certain kids just to milk the words, dear, because your singing voice isn't good. Or you're kicked out of choir because your singing voice isn't good enough. It is just my heart breaks whenever, whenever I hear that. So if you if you've heard that know that it's not true, that everyone, everyone has a singing voice. And scientifically speaking, only 2% of the population are clinically tone deaf. So if you think you were one of those 2% by all means, go and get tested. But I pretty much guarantee you that there is a singing voice in there waiting to come out.

Oh, you're inspiring me. I'll find mine one day. I'm sure I've told you about my experience. You talking about the choir, I'm sure I've told you about my experience when, when I was in my second last year of school, and I did a lot of acting at school and I loved I love stage shows. I love musicals. And I was playing Anna in the King and I and they brought the choir in to sing my parts because my voice wasn't good enough. So. So even though I could act, I certainly didn't believe I had a good singing voice and obviously that reflected, so they let me sing one or two lines. And then they brought the choir in to sing No. Shall we dance and all the songs from the king? So yeah, you're right, that had a massive impact on me.

Yeah, I think everyone's everyone's voice is worth reclaiming and embodying. And really, we won't get any further as a human collective until we are all begin to understand both our own inner dialogue and our own inner voices, and then cultivate the courage and the skills and the wherewithal to share that with the world. Yeah, no matter what you're here to do beautiful.

And you know what, Jen, that is embodying this new way of being in business. Because what's our business, our business is a way of magnifying our gifts to the world of magnifying who we are to the world of magnifying our voice to the world. So that's just a perfect way of summing up why we're auditing this new way. So exciting. So any of our listeners if they want to know any more about you? Or do you want to share anything more about your work? For sure.

So I'm in the process of have an invitation period opening for my new membership, which is called the sound body sphere sanctuary or just the sanctuary for short. And you can certainly just reach out to me by email is probably the best Hello at Jen Lang. JN la ng.com. That's, I'll be sharing more about that through my various channels. And I'm on Instagram at Jen Lang underscore sound body sphere. That's an easy enough way to get ahold of me Of course, I'm on Facebook as well. So you can find me on all the usual social social channels. And it's usually under I am Jen Lang, what is

your takeaway for our listeners? What what's your parting message,

trust your voice, really, truly, even if you've still got the busy mental pieces, and trust that it will carry the aspects of you that are needing to be here. Thank you, Jen. It's been an absolute delight chatting with you. Thanks for joining us for these conscious combos. If you're ready to dive deeper head on over to we are Jen and jane.com to continue the conversation.