Called, Not Planned: My Path to Soulful Speaking (mini-sode)

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This one’s personal.

In this solo episode, Lauri pulls back the curtain on the winding, unexpected, soul-led path that led to the creation of the Soulful Speaking Immersion and the Speaker Studio.

What started as an urge, a whisper, a “no way,” became a calling she couldn’t ignore—blending theater, coaching, voicework, and entrepreneurship into something entirely her own.

If you’ve ever wondered how to follow your deeper ‘yes’ (even when it doesn’t make sense), this story is for you.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. The Soulful Speaking Immersion wasn’t born from a business plan—it unfolded like a calling.

2. Resistance can be part of the process when something truly matters.

3. Sometimes the best business strategy is listening—really listening—to what wants to emerge.

4. Voicework isn’t about learning something new; it’s about remembering what we came in with as babies.

5. Public speaking rooted in soul can transform lives—starting with your own.

6. The Speaker Studio blends bursts of creative growth with long-term integration to create lasting impact.

7. Presence, not performance, is the key to authentic communication.

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Episode Transcript

Lauri (00:00):
Welcome back to Soulful Speaking, where we explore the
messy, magical path to findingand freeing your true voice.
In today's episode I'm sharingsomething on the personal side
the story behind how the SoulfulSpeaking immersion in the
speaker studio came to be.
It wasn't part of some cookiecutter grand business plan.

(00:25):
It unfolded like a calling,through unexpected turns and
resistance and theater degreesand coaching, certifications and
a whole lot of eventuallyfollowing what felt true.
If you've ever felt pulledtowards something but didn't
quite know how or why this storyis for you, why did I start

(00:54):
this?
I was called that's the shortversion resisted it.
I was teaching theater.
I was teaching theater and keptgetting this urge to go get a
degree in theater and saying no.
And then I met with a mentorwho said you know, theater jobs

(01:15):
are really hard to come by,except for voice teachers.
And my response at that timewas like, because there are kind
of two different worlds in thevoice teaching for theater world
, one of them, if you imagine,newscasters and like the way
people talked in the movies inthe 1930s, it's that like one

(01:39):
good sound.
And then there's the new wavewhich, after my there then I was
, you know, called again andagain and again and went toward
it and stumbled into.
Stumbled into was led by astudent, a theater student, into
coaching and right before thecertification exam I called up

(02:05):
my old boss from when I was anexecutive assistant because I
wanted to make myself nervousand I coached him.
And he is an entrepreneur.
So he started giving me lots ofadvice like you need to raise
your prices and what's yourniche, and all that kind of
stuff.
And he said you were alwaysvery fit and that's all the rage

(02:27):
these days.
This is like 2007, 8, 9.
And I was like no, but you knowwhat it could be?
It could be bringing like allthe good stuff from theater to
leaders to speak.
And it then was like you knowthe journey of being an

(02:49):
entrepreneur, where you driftaway and come back and you keep
trying to coach everybody oneverything and um, very thankful
to him for that moment.
And I remember also going on ahike with a friend of mine who I
had met in graduate school andsaid I'm thinking about weaving
it all together into publicspeaking.

(03:09):
And she did a double take onthe trail and was like yes,
there's something about that andeven the like my story on my
website has this moment ofplaying a goddess character, and
she was there in the room thatday where it was like this
primal finding of my voice.
So at first I was just leadingone day workshops with people

(03:34):
and then had a group that waslike what else do you have One
day is great, but one and done'sare kind of like they don't
last.
And that has morphed severaltimes into what is now the
speaker studio, where I'mpairing together play shops and

(03:56):
immersions with this regularmeeting every couple of weeks
for a year, so that you'regetting like bursts of new stuff
and then expand it or maintainit over the course of time.
And it really took its shape in2023 when some things fell apart

(04:17):
and someone was like, well, ifyou couldn't do what you're
doing now, how would you do it?
And I was like, well, I woulddo it like acting studios
because that's the only way itworks.
So it's kind of been the samethe whole time and it's kind of
morphed into.
It is more now what I reallyreally, truly believe works and

(04:39):
creates lasting change andconfidence and magic.
And I did about a year, yearand a half of the studio without
this immersion and it justenergetically felt like, oh, it
would be even better if westarted with like, let's get in
and get immersed.
And we've done one immersionand it feels like, oh yeah, this

(05:04):
is awesome this way.
So that is what led us here andI believe like my biggest,
biggest why for doing this workis it's like I was born to and I
have this image of like man,humans, going from Cro-Magnon

(05:24):
man or whatever it is, tostanding upright.
And when it comes to the voice,it feels like humanity is trying
to raise consciousness and it'strying to change the world and
it thinks it's standing uprightin terms of our voices, but,
depending on who we are, we'reactually one or two levels

(05:44):
backward, like more imploded,more suppressed, and there is
this possibility of the soundthat comes out of our bodies and
our ability to spread thechange that we are here to
spread on our voice and on ourpresence, going up by actually

(06:05):
recapturing what we came in withas babies and connecting that
to our why or our life purposeor our soul's mission.
So we're relearning it.
It's not like I use the StephCurry metaphor all the time.
It's not like I don't know howto shoot like Steph Curry the
Steph Curry metaphor all thetime.
It's not like I don't know howto shoot, like Steph Curry.

(06:27):
When it comes to voice, we knewit as babies.
Someone told us, consciously orunconsciously, to not do it
that way.
So it's a matter of rememberingand it can feel safer as an
adult and like there's a pointwhen it's connected to a sense
of purpose.
So that's how we all got here.

(06:52):
As you can see, the journey tothis work wasn't linear.
I actually think it never isbut somewhere along the way I
stopped trying to build mybusiness and started listening
to it.
I started letting it speak tome and through me.
That's what the soulfulspeaking immersion is built on

(07:15):
Not strategy alone, but soul.
Not performance, but presence,not in doing it the right way,
but doing it your way.
That's also what we do here onthe Soulful Speaking podcast.
If that's the kind of pathyou're walking to, I'm so glad

(07:35):
you're here.
Keep coming back for morestories, more sparks and more
soul to come, more sparks andmore soul to come.
And please take a moment andshare this with other people
just like you who are walkingtheir path to authentic soulful
speaking and impact.