Tag: voice

Connecting with Your Soul’s Voice

by Chantal Pierrat

A wild variety of voices influence us everyday.

How do we know which to listen to as we work to live our truths? Harvard trained scholar Sera Beak joined us for May’s Emerging Women Power Boost to help navigate the jungle, connecting us with the gem of all voices – the Soul.

We’ve all absorbed a myriad of external voices over the years: from our family, our upbringing, our schooling, religion, media, culture, friends, and other entrepreneurs. We’ve also got a chorus of internal voices: our shadow selves, our wounds and fragments, our beliefs and our complexes, like the infamous Inner Critic. There are negative aspects of our ego that like to shame, judge, blame, and compare in dogged pursuit of success and admiration, creating fear and stress. There are even aspects of our more spiritualized ego – which Sera calls a “tricky little sucker” – that can come across holier-than-thou and kick our butts for not being spiritual enough.

In short, there’s a virtual cocktail party of voices inside of most of us, most of the time.

But there is one voice that knows us best of all, says Sera. It’s eternal and infinite, connected to all that is, yet also awesomely unique for each one of us. It’s the root of our inner guidance and grace. It knows us better than any teacher, tradition, coach, therapist, friend, or woman named Sera Beak, Sera says with a mischeivous smile. It knows when and how we can emerge into this world and offer our unique gifts while staying in integrity and in alignment with our inner truth.

That voice is our Soul with a capital S. And it wants to spend more time with us.

The Soul is the wisest and most loving aspect of ourselves. It is often quite subtle, more of a gentle whisper than a “big cosmic light show.” It is there to remind us what we already know. You may feel it poking at you through mundane channels – a song on the radio, a sign on a bus, an overheard snippet of conversation. When we take the time to create the space to connect with our Soul, Sera says, it shows our Soul that we’re ready to listen, allowing us to turn up the volume on those little nudges.

And turn up the volume we did. Sera’s beautiful guided meditation helped us pump more life-force into our bodies and this earth by tuning in to the warmth, expansion, and unconditional love of the distinct divine being that is seeking to incarnate through each one of us.

We asked questions to our Souls, and practiced recognizing the flavor of the reply.

“It feels and sounds familiar,” Sera says, “like Oh yeah. This is me. This is my truth. This is my Soul.” Which is not to say that it will always sound “spiritual.” It has nuance and flavor, showing up as what we need in the moment. “And sometimes we might need a dirty joke,” she laughs. We ended the meditation feeling more grounded, devoted, present, alive, real, and connected to our truest selves.

Try the meditation for yourself (and your Soul) by watching the archive video here. There’s a 30 day free trial if you’re not already a member, so you can join us live for the next Power Boost, too.

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And just a reminder from Sera: she uses the word “imagine” in the meditation because imagination is an excellent tool for greasing the wheels between our human consciousness and the divine.

But, she says emphatically, this is not make believe. 


We can’t wait to see Sera Beak in her 3rd appearance at Emerging Women Live 2017, October 5-8th in Denver, CO. Alicia Garza (co-founder of Black Lives Matter), Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love), Esther Perel (author of Mating in Captivity), and so many more will be there, plus workshops, practices, a fire walk (!), coaching, dancing, connection with amazing women… it’s 4 days you’ll never forget.

Reclaim Your Voice Story

by Chantal Pierrat

Wokie Nwabueze knows how to communicate. Negotiation, facilitation, mediation – you name it. “If it exists, I’m certified in it,” she says.

She started her career teaching kids, parents, and teachers in tough communities how to communicate clearly and without violence. After her first year of law school, she began to work in corporate spaces, and became very interested in women who were having trouble communicating their needs in the workplace.

She noticed a trend. Women were leaving the sessions knowing what to say, but not knowing why they were hesitant to say it. She quickly realized that the existing communication frameworks and execution strategies (“be assertive” “be confident”) weren’t addressing who we are deep down. 

That realization changed everything for Wokie. “Who I was was SHY, well into my mid-20s. I was a people pleaser without revealing it outwardly. I thought I could sacrifice more than everyone else, and I thought that was ‘strong.’ I was unwilling to rock the boat, and somehow that felt empowering, or even felt gracious. But the truth was I was disconnected from my voice.”

As she began to mine her own Voice Story, she was able to cultivate the self-awareness and personal transformation crucial to truly effective communication with others. She now dedicates her work to helping women do the same, as she did in our Emerging Women Power Boost (if you’re a member, click HERE to watch the archive). Here are some takeaways from that memorable event.

What is a Voice Story?

Studies show that for girls, confidence in voice starts to slip around age 9. While our confidence is falling, Wokie says, we are also starting to look out at the world to determine our value. For a lot of us, that’s when things start to fall apart, and it takes some serious work as adults to get our Voice Stories sorted.

Wokie started the Seen and Heard project, interviewing women to find those points in time when their voices had been hushed. This isn’t limited to times someone told you to be quiet. For example, Wokie remembers being in 6th or 7th grade. Her class took an IQ test, and it was announced that she had the highest score. For painfully shy 11 year old Wokie, it was humiliating – it made her feel different and alone. She calls it “the moment I got the handbook for playing small.” She stopped pushing herself outside of her comfort zone, believing there would be negative consequences if she was “smarter” or in any way different than everyone else.

Our Voice Stories color every communication we have. They can tint the outcome of conversations, negotiations, and conflicts if they are left unexplored.

Exploring Your Voice Story

Exploring your Voice Story means mining for the moments when something shifted.

One way is to identify discomfort in your body. When you have hard conversations, where do you feel it? In your stomach? In your hands? In your throat? Try to connect the dots. When else do you feel that way? When did you first feel that way?

Be sure to explore with love and curiosity. Sit with these memories and watch yourself without judgement. Journal, take a walk, cry, make art, talk with a friend – whatever helps you process. Come to understand what was lost, and begin to take it back. We can reclaim what was lost to shift our future. 

Another approach is to look at certain periods of your life. When was the last time you felt like you could express yourself fully without hesitation or fear? Young children don’t struggle with their voices. “We are not born quiet,” Wokie says. Something happens that changes the way we see ourselves and our right to be seen and heard in the world. Look at those moments when you stopped feeling that you could communicate without apology. Think about the points in time when something happened to make you feel less valuable, or that you should be less bright and shiny, or that you should be quiet.

When you get there, remember that this process involves some pain, but our goal is curiosity and reclamation. We have to go back and identify with real compassion what we lost. You can’t change the past, you can’t judge yourself or others for it, but you can understand it. Start to follow the threads with curiosity and compassion, and it will all begin to unfold.

How much of reclaiming what we lost is about grieving?

Grief is important, Wokie says, but we need to do that grieving from a place of hopefulness for the future. Transformational grieving means moving the grief through our bodies (Wokie says music helps her) and letting it go, because on the other side of grief there is possibility.

If we can move grief through us and find a good nugget, then the grief was not for nothing. If the things that have happened to you allow you to become who you are, if we can mine for those nuggets in our Voice Stories and use them to heal ourselves and bring us more fully into our voices, then the hardship wasn’t without reward.

And remember: Saying what you want to say, getting what you want – it’s not about cultivating power over someone else, it’s about being centered in YOU.

Thank you, Wokie Nwabueze!


Want to watch the archive of Wokie’s Power Boost? Start your 30 day Free Trial on the Emerging Women Leadership Platform to get access.

Sera Beak: Igniting an Intimate Relationship with Your Soul

by Chantal Pierrat

The list of powerhouse speakers at Emerging Women Live just keeps growing! This week we are thrilled to announce Sera Beak will be joining us in Denver, October 5-8th. We can’t wait to see what hot new truths she brings to this year’s event.

Sera is a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions who spent years traveling the world studying spirituality with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Croatian mystics, shamans, and more. She’s given tender and wise keynotes (including In All Fears and Trembling Boldness) at past Emerging Women Live conferences. Here’s a tidbit:

“Our soul’s voice reveals our deepest wisdom and our deepest wounds, which is why unleashing our soul’s voice is often our deepest desire and our deepest fear. We ache to be self-expressed, to be authentic, to totally let ‘er rip and yet we are terrified of being that vulnerable, that raw, that real. So we edit, shape or even shut up our unique soul’s voice in order to be accepted, successful, and even loved. But deep down in our bellies, where our power burns the brightest, we know we cannot be of service, we cannot be free, we cannot truly come alive if we aren’t sharing the truth of who we are.” – Sera Beak

Amen, sister! And have you heard her Emerging Women podcast Red Hot and Holy? She vulnerably speaks to the double-edged sword many of us have faced while trying to make an impact:

“I know for me, in my own experience, it’s been through delivering my truth to the world that I have most often lost my soul. That’s the kind of crazy paradox, that it’s been through trying to actually serve other women and serve the diving feminine in this modern day that… I thought I’d been in contact with my soul, but the reality was there was actually some part of my own spiritualized ego kicking in, or there were other aspects of me that were really more at play than my own soul.” – Sera Beak

Want to go deeper with this stellar sister before the conference? Join Sera Beak LIVE on May 3rd for the Emerging Women Power Boost Soul Fire: Ignite an Intimate Relationship with Your Soul.


Sera will lead us in creating a more intimate and expressive relationship with the universe, in trusting our unique paths, in becoming our own spiritual authorities, and in creating some delicious, divine mischief along the way. A community Q&A/spot-coaching sesh with Sera will follow. Save your virtual seat now and receive a 30 day free trial to the Emerging Women Leadership Platform.

See you (and your beautiful soul) there!

Are you owning your voice? Answer these 3 Power Circle questions to find out.

by Chantal Pierrat

A lot of us are experiencing the call to leadership in big ways. It’s exciting, thrilling even, but it can also feel uncomfortable and risky. Getting in touch with the power of your own voice is a great way to create some solid ground to stand on.

On Saturday morning at Emerging Women Live, we did a Power Circle exercise to facilitate just that. Women got in small groups to answer the questions below. What seemed like simple answers led to some deep discoveries around old patterns and beliefs. 

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There’s an energy that gets sparked when women come together to explore their leadership stories. The Harvard Business Review has cited this connection as an integral step to increasing the number of women in positions of power today.

“Companies should encourage [women] to build communities in which similarly positioned women can discuss their feedback, compare notes, and emotionally support one another’s learning. Identifying common experiences increases women’s willingness to talk openly, take risks, and be vulnerable without fearing that others will misunderstand or judge them.”

Intentional conversation facilitates deeper authenticity and a lot more poetry in the way we speak to one another about our own lives. That’s why Power Circles are one the of the most powerful tools we have at Emerging Women. The quality of how we share our experience is commensurate to the quality of how we are able to show up in the world.

Take a moment to investigate your relationship with personal expression by answering the following questions. Remember, this is not a test – self-discovery is best served with tenderness and sweet curiosity. Let yourself free associate, and jot down or voice memo anything these prompts bring up for you. 

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We’d love to hear any insights you have. Why not start a mini Power Circle in the comments section? Sharing your voice is the first step to owning it, and there’s nothing quite like hearing a kindred spirit say, “I see you.”

And if you’re interested in the full-strength version, join a facilitated group of 7 women for Emerging Women Power Circles. Applications are being accepted now. You can email Carole Lundeen at [email protected] with any questions, or click the link below to check out more Power Circle themes.

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Anne Lamott joins Emerging Women Live 2016!

by Chantal Pierrat

More tremendous news on the Emerging Women Live 2016 front!

You know that the Emerging Women community is all about sharing our true selves so that we can shine as the uniquely impactful leaders we are meant to be.

That’s why we’re so excited to announce Anne Lamott as a Keynote Speaker at this year’s national event in San Francisco, CA.

Anne Lamott, author and activist, is a model of compassionate faith, unwavering humor and a voice that tells it like it is, on good days and bad.

As a memoirist and as a non-fiction writer, Anne has a gift for being irreverent and profound at the same time. She is equal parts raw honesty and real hope, with an uncanny ability to glide from heart-wrenching to hilarious without irony or detachment from the core of the matter.

She’s prolific about it, too. She’s written seven novels, several books of non-fiction, and three collections of autobiographical essays. She’s a New York Times bestseller, a prestigious Guggenheim Fellow, a nationwide teacher of her craft, and an inductee of the California Hall of Fame to boot. Rock star!

As Cheryl Strayed mentions in the video below, her work transcends itself. Bird by Bird is as much of a guide to life as it is to writing. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith resonates with religious and non-religious people alike. We can’t wait to see what she brings to the intimate stage at EWLive16 to inspire and ignite the audience.

To get a glimpse of Anne Lamott’s style, watch as she talks with Cheryl Strayed about shitty first drafts, doubt, vulnerability and the universal impact of sharing your personal story:

We hope you’ll join Anne Lamott, Glennon Doyle Melton, and rest of the amazing Emerging Women community on October 13-16th at Emerging Women Live 2016 in San Francisco. Save your seat now!

Sahar Paz Celebrates Her Independence

by Chantal Pierrat

On the 4th of July, we couldn’t help but remember the story Sahar Paz told at Emerging Women’s Power Night Boulder.

Not just because Sahar is a firework of a woman. Which she is. “Smokin’ is the word that comes to mind,” said Emerging Women founder Chantal Pierrat.

When Sahar walked out on the stage, she was absolutely owning it. Don’t believe us? Just take a look at her amazing shoes:

But she didn’t start off owning it.

Sahar was born in war-torn Iran, where she never knew from one day to the next if all of her classmates would show up at school, or if the sidewalk in front of her apartment would still be there. She got the feeling that if she just stayed very quiet and very still, everything might be okay. Despite the bombs.

When she moved to America as a young girl, she was stunned by 4th of July fireworks displays. How could these sounds mean celebration and Independence when to her the soundtrack of explosions had always said live in fear and know your place?

In that environment of fear, her personal inner voice was shamed and shushed out of existence before she was 10 years old.

Instead, she aimed for perfection and quiet in an attempt to mitigate “the burden of her existence.” As she got older, the voice of perfection turned into wanting to please not just parents, teachers and friends, but also men. She habitually turned to others to define her value.

Looking around, the direct line to that value seemed to be MONEY.

Her tireless work ethic eventually took her to a corner office in NYC, complete with a view of Manhattan and the Queensboro bridge – the whole bit. From the outside, she appeared to be living a  “Sex and the City” life. She was check, check, checking all the boxes, but she was not happy.

What was once a hopeful sadness turned into a hopeless depression.

But Sahar turned things around. How did she do it? She found her voice.

“We all have a war of words within. I learned how to get out of my war way faster because I was dealt a lot of shit way earlier. But that’s probably the only difference between you and me.” Now, Sahar has stepped into a state of permission.

“Turns out Maya Angelou was my guardian angel,” Sahar said.

She bought a ticket to Emerging Women Live 2014 specifically to see the incomparable poet. And though Maya Angelou passed before the event, Sahar knew she needed something and decided to go anyway.

And she didn’t just go casually. She showed up. “I needed to be in the spit zone,” she said. She sat in the front row as woman after woman reflected versions of her own experience back to her, albeit in different contexts and with different words. She found strength in those women. And strength in herself.

She especially connected with the theme of permission.

“Chantal gave herself permission in front of all of us. She was vulnerable, right at the start, and gave herself permission to eff up during the weekend.” Sahar was moved and gave herself permission to do the same – to show up as her true self, to let her inner voice speak, and to trust that if she eff-ed up, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I was not holding on to that voice of failure,” she realized. “That’s only one voice within me. That is not all of me.” She knew her inner voice had more to say than just censorship, criticism and judgement.

Sahar’s journey has led her from a quiet perfectionist to a fierce woman, embracing her inner voice and encouraging others to do the same. We are thrilled to share her voice with you as an Emerging Short speaker at Emerging Women Live 2015.

“We exist in a world of abundance. All scarcity is here,” Sahar said as she pointed to her heart.

“There is an abundance of pain in this world,” she echoed,  “so that means there is also an abundance of opportunity.” Are you ready to take it?

Sahar Paz is going to change the world, but she knows she cannot do it alone.

In one of our favorite moments, she said, “Do not take the voice of comparison – we gotta hold each other’s hands. I’m standing on your shoulders. And I’m reaching for the UN.”

Then she gave herself permission to deliver a badass rap, full of her voice and straight from the heart. And it was smokin’.

What are you reaching for? And whose shoulders are there for you while you do it? We would love to know – please share with us in the comments.

Why Share Our Voices with the Tribe?

by Chantal Pierrat

Dear Emerging Women,

One of my favorite things about Emerging Women is the honesty and vulnerability with which presenters speak to the tribe. No one is offering any quick-fixes, there aren’t any gimmicks or pitches, just an open sharing of personal experience in hopes of pointing towards the truth.

As Dominique Christina says in one of the amazing videos we share with you today, “I could offer [my voice] into a space and not teach you anything, necessarily, but show up BIG and in so doing maybe, maybe it becomes instructive. Maybe you recognize that it is also belonging to you.”

It energizes me when women share their stories, and it inspires me to continue on my path towards self-alignment. Do you feel this power of connection when you listen to a woman speak her truth? Then continue the connection, join in the conversation and aim to share your most authentic voice with this tribe. We will all benefit!

Big love,

Chantal Pierrat

Founder, Emerging Women

“I could offer [my voice] into a space and not teach you anything, necessarily, but show up BIG and in so doing maybe, maybe it becomes instructive. Maybe you recognize that it is also belonging to you.”twitter

Read more about Dominique Christina – she’s this week’s Featured EWlive14 Speaker.

Check out Christine Arylo’s Power Practice #10 to see what she takes 3 minutes to do every morning.

>>Like what you’re hearing? Join me at Emerging Women Live 2014 in NYC this October for a truly unforgettable weekend of dialogue and connection. Make the leap now!