April 15, 2025 • 31 mins
Opera singer and vocal coach Ekaterina Kardakova shares powerful insights on how voice techniques from the stage can transform business leaders' communication and presence. She reveals her journey from performing at prestigious venues like La Scala to helping executives harness their voices to build trust, credibility, and influence in the corporate world.
• Most business professionals underestimate voice's crucial role in communication and influence
• Voice training isn't just technical—it's deeply connected to emotions and self-expression
• Creating a "Future Self" avatar helps clients envision their potential and make small daily changes
• Voice reveals our true emotions, regardless of our words
• Confident voices typically sound deeper, slower, and clearer, instantly signaling authority
• Allowing yourself to make "loud and ugly" sounds is the first step to vocal freedom
• Body consciousness—awareness of how your physical instrument produces sound—is essential
• "Leadership is an acting skill"—knowing when and how to embody leadership qualities
Start exploring your voice today—it's a diamond waiting to be shaped into something brilliant and uniquely yours.
Connect with Ekaterina
LinkedIn: @EkaterinaKardakova
Website: www.ekaterinakardakova.com
Youtube: @EkaterinaKardakova
Thanks for listening! To book a free consultation with Aideen visit https://www.confidenceinsinging.com/contact/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Aideen Ni Riada (00:03):
Welcome.
This is the Resonate podcastwith Aideen.
I'm here today with EkaterinaKardakova.
She is an accomplished operasinger, vocal coach and
presentation coach.
From an early age, she immersedherself in music, following her
passions across Europe andScandinavia, gracing prestigious
stages like La Scala in Italy.
Over the past decade, ekaterinarecognized the power of voice
(00:28):
coaching to elevate trust andcredibility in business.
Drawing on the vocal techniquesused by top performers, she now
empowers executives and leadersin the corporate world to
harness their voice and make alasting impact.
And I'm so excited to share youwith my listeners, ekaterina,
because I know from my own workas a voice coach how valuable
(00:54):
the voice and understanding ofthe voice can be for building
confidence and for expansion.
And I'm really curious abouthow you figured out and
discovered that you would bevaluable in the business world,
not just on the beautiful stagesaround Europe.
Ekaterina Kardakova (01:12):
Well, thank you for the question and thank
you for the invitation to thispodcast.
Basically, it was prettyunplanned.
I just, you know, I started tothink how can I start my
workshops?
And I found a bar where they,you know, did different things
workshops, concerts and I justasked if I can do my workshop
(01:33):
there.
And pretty many people came andwe had lots of fun, because I
always do all my workshops in,like you know, like what we do
on stage or usually how we doour workshops for opera singers,
it's not only singing, standing, doing exercises, but it's a
lot about acting.
And I did all these actingexercises and people loved it.
(01:56):
We had a lot of fun.
And just one guy came to meafter that and said you know
what?
I'm an engineer and I think mycolleagues would love or really
need your training.
And this is how it started oh,that's so amazing.
Aideen Ni Riada (02:12):
So you were basically invited to do it
through through one of yourclients.
I was actually quite surprisedwhen one of my singing clients
said I'm coming to singingbecause I want to be a better
speaker for my work and becauseat that time I had just set up
(02:32):
my business teaching singing.
I knew it would buildconfidence, but I hadn't quite
joined all the dots.
How did that come across to you?
Like?
Ekaterina Kardakova (02:41):
did you find that surprising that the
impact that you were able tomake with people in business I
think it's surprising for themnot for me, because as a
professional actress I dounderstand how influential is
the voice, how much you can dowith your audience on an
(03:02):
emotional level when you knowhow to use your voice.
It's very powerful.
So for for people, of course,vocal training is mostly time.
They think they come to mytrainings and think like they
will work on their voice.
But we will work not only onmuscles but we work a lot on
emotions, how to speak so peoplelisten to you, how can you
(03:23):
express your emotions throughthe voice.
So it also has a lot to do withacting, with muscle training I
mean voice, muscle training, etc.
So for people from business, itmight be something new because
they never think about howimportant the voice is for
communication and forinfluencing other people, for
(03:46):
sales, for career, for promotionetc.
So the voice is a big part ofself-presentation.
And when they start working onvoice and first of all, also
knowing more about themselves,about their talents, about maybe
(04:06):
some struggles, inner strugglesor limiting beliefs because
voice and limiting beliefs, youknow, play very, very close
together they do understand howimportant it is and they
immediately see the result.
So as long as they startworking their voice and they
sound differently, they feeldifferently, they express
(04:28):
themselves differently becausethey just know consciously how
to do that.
They see immediately the impactand the difference and this is
the goal.
They feel that they are moreheard by other people.
They see that people morelisten to them while they're
presenting or doing some reports, especially now online, where
(04:50):
you only basically see the upperbody and listen to people.
So you be, you have to be veryprecise how you use your voice,
not only words, because peoplebasically don't listen to to the
words.
They listen to the emotion youyou're saying, you are giving to
them and this is very importantah, I love that.
Aideen Ni Riada (05:10):
I'm curious was this something that you had to
cultivate yourself, or did youinstinctively, as a young person
, put a lot of emotion into yourperformance?
Was it something that you hadaccess to early on?
Ekaterina Kardakova (05:28):
Yes, I think so, Because for me, from
very little, it was veryinteresting to play different
roles, because all of myprotagonists, all the roles I'm
playing, they're so differentfrom me and when I create a role
, I think how can I do it thebest?
Or who is this person, why isshe doing this and reacting on
(05:52):
this situation Completelydifferent than I would react.
So I create this avatar fromthe very beginning and of course
, I think about the emotions andthe music which I'm singing.
It helps a lot to to tounderstand all these causes and
results.
So it's easier to expressemotions.
And because I'm very emotionalperson, it's easy for me to
(06:14):
express emotions.
But for my work, I know thatfor many, many people it's
pretty hard to express emotions.
That's why they soundmonotonous, quiet, you know.
They kind of hide themselvesand when we start working, I
explain that it can be differentand people start again.
(06:35):
I repeat, people start to learnabout themselves more the.
Aideen Ni Riada (06:42):
There is an impression sometimes that in the
business world, we have to bemaybe more formal or to fit in
in some way.
But what I loved about what yousaid was that when you were
working with new roles, youwould try to get into the mind
and the why, like why are you,why is that person acting that
(07:03):
way?
Is that something that you alsodraw out when you're working
with your clients, like are youtrying to find out more about
what their reasons are for, forsharing?
Ekaterina Kardakova (07:14):
um, yes, actually, I always start my
trainings about where youwouldn't be.
What's your future you?
We always create this avatarfuture me where you want to be.
What's your future you?
We always create this avatarfuture me where I want to be.
After 10 lessons, after thetraining ends, where is the be
like we are in?
Here's the start.
This is the finish what youwant to learn and who you want
(07:39):
to be when you finish.
And here also I ask lots ofquestions like what's your goals
?
It's not only about the voice,by the way.
People come to the voicetraining and think that they
want to work on the voice, butactually, while the training, we
dig deeper.
People understand that theywant to have a new job, they
(08:01):
want to have a promotion in thecareer, or they want to have a
promotion in the career, or theyhave to want to grow the
business, or they want to showthemselves in a different role,
differently, etc.
So there are so many thingswhich come up and, of course,
the beginning is who am I?
Where I want to go?
Aideen Ni Riada (08:24):
I love that you do it as a visual a when you're
.
I mean, is that something thatwe could even do with our
listeners right now as a littleexercise?
I'm kind of wondering how youmake that, how you help people
embody that new future versionof themselves.
Can you tell us a bit more?
Maybe give us a little sneakpeek into that exercise for
(08:46):
anyone listening yeah, I youknow.
Ekaterina Kardakova (08:49):
A couple of years ago I did a course at
mind valley.
Maybe you know mind valley yesby vision.
You know this course um wascalled the book of life, but by
butchers this is a couple ofbutchers they created this
course Future Me how to CreateFuture Me and basically they say
imagine or allow yourself.
(09:11):
First of all, allow yourself toimagine that you have
everything you want and allowyourself to dream big.
Where will you be in 25 years?
Like really allow yourself.
This is also a very importantthing.
People don't allow themselvesto dream big.
They always limit like okay, Ialready have my apartment, a
(09:34):
house, I have my car, I have ajob we just paid.
End of dreaming.
Aideen Ni Riada (09:40):
No.
Ekaterina Kardakova (09:42):
It can be even more and even big and even
better.
So, and then, when a person ormy client allows him or herself
to dream where he or she wantsto be in 25 years, then we do
the decomposition 15, 10, 5, 3,1 year.
(10:03):
Decomposition 15, 10, 5, 3, 1year.
And then the task is to thinkabout what can I do, with little
steps every day, to achievethis goal where I want to be in
one year, step by step, withlittle steps, 10, 15 minutes per
day.
Yeah, this is the technique wejust called the book of life.
(10:25):
Create your future like futureme.
Aideen Ni Riada (10:29):
This little small steps, but daily steps
that must feel amazing whensomeone actually allows
themselves to to really dreamthat, because I know, I think
each of us nobody actually knowsexactly the full potential of
what they are becoming like.
(10:50):
We can guess, but there's somuch more possible.
We don't know whatopportunities exactly are going
to come our way and to imaginein a very expansive way um, must
, uh.
Maybe for some people couldcreate some anxiety, but it
could create a lot of excitementand a lot of positive emotions
as well of course, this is the.
Ekaterina Kardakova (11:11):
This is the idea, because when people start
dreaming, they gain so muchenergy.
Yeah, they gain so much.
Aideen Ni Riada (11:20):
Uh, this power of imagination and this power
gives you lots of energy to dothings, to act, to achieve goals
yeah, and that brings youreally very clearly to why you
would take on some of thesetechniques, like why you can use
(11:42):
your voice in a way that maybeis a little more serious or is a
little more direct or a littledeeper.
So what do you think?
What's the?
What kind of clients do youfind you need, need your help
the most like?
Are they like squeaky highspeakers that need to deepen
their voice?
Or are there?
What kinds of people do you doyou like to there?
(12:05):
What kinds of people?
Ekaterina Kardakova (12:06):
do you like to help?
Well, any kinds of people whowould like to develop themselves
.
This is, for me, the mostimportant thing, because I can
help them with techniques, butthey do the job.
This is the most pleasantpeople who are conscious about
that.
They have to do their homework.
Aideen Ni Riada (12:21):
If they don't do, nothing will happen, because
I'm here just to help, but theydo the job is there anything
you'd like to say about theprocess of how you work with
people over the course of those10 weeks that you think might
give an insight for ourlisteners?
Ekaterina Kardakova (12:42):
yeah.
So my course is 10 weeks, 10lessons, and I usually also have
a like pre-conversation withthe person to understand why
this person is here and why whatkind of goals he or she has.
And at the beginning, usuallypeople, as I said before, don't
(13:03):
have a clear vision why they'rehere.
They just, you know, havesomething, want something, and
they think that the problem isthe voice.
But actually no, not.
And I, in these 10 lessons, wetell, so I explain how the voice
works, how the body works.
We work a lot on body language.
(13:24):
We we work a lot on creatingthis new avatar.
I call it avatar because Ialways say leadership is an
acting skill.
So leadership means that I showmyself in public and I'm
confident, I love what I do andI share my love with other
people.
So we create this avatar andduring this process, lots of
(13:49):
different topics come up.
Some people, for example, say Iwould like to work more on
creating this avatar.
I need help on creating thisavatar, like a new role.
Some people say I want to learnmore about body language
because I feel that I'm verygood in speaking but I don't
(14:12):
know what to do with my hands,with my legs.
I mean my body is sodisconnected.
Some people say they want towork more on emotional
intelligence to sound lessmonotonous.
So the voice is by itself isgrowing and getting strong,
powerful, but also moreemotional.
(14:32):
Lots of different topicsdepends on what really people
want that's fascinating.
Aideen Ni Riada (14:38):
Tell us a little bit about your own um,
your own journey with yourbusiness, because I know that
there are many stages todeveloping this kind of an
offering.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how your journey came from
that first workshop where theengineer comes up and says my
colleagues need you.
What has it been like for youas a business, as small business
(15:03):
owner?
Ekaterina Kardakova (15:09):
like for you as a business, as small
business owner.
Yeah, there were many up anddowns and in this, uh, in these
10 years, basically I reallyliked that.
I started it because when I wassinging the opera and I was
singing until the covid came,because here in europe
everything was closed andsomehow intuitively, I
understood before a couple ofyears, before five years before,
that I have to try somethingelse.
(15:30):
I have to try something elsebecause I love singing.
However, if you're not Nitrepkoor a very big star, it's not
always easy.
So I thought, like, okay, Iwill start my business and I
will learn about business.
I mean, it was a really journeyfrom an opera singer to a
(15:50):
business owner.
Yeah, I bet I learned a lot,because I didn't have a clue
about, firstly, what else I cando except singing, playing piano
or conducting or making music.
And then I figured out that Iactually can do many other
things and I love to learn.
(16:10):
So I learned fast and I didsome courses and also went to
some classes about marketing,about how to create a business
or business plan, how to makeanalysis, so all this business
stuff Also, and then I startedmy business somehow in, I don't
know how.
But I feel all these tendencies, I feel what people need and
(16:32):
how to package it.
And then I also did my secondmaster degrees in marketing and
business development and, duringCOVID, did completely only
online business.
So I I gained more and moreexperience and now I have to say
that I love having clients andI love teaching speaking, but I
(16:55):
also love this business sidebecause I learn every day so
many new things and it's allabout people people basically,
business is all about people,helping people.
Yeah, how I can sell my servicewith my helping people, with
(17:17):
voice and public speaking andconfidence, and how to package
it.
Basically, it's all aboutworking with people.
It's interesting.
It's interesting.
It's like again on the stage, Ihad all of my roles and now I
just communicate with so manydifferent people and this
experience on stage helps a lotJust to understand people,
(17:39):
because I created so manydifferent roles.
Aideen Ni Riada (17:43):
What would you say to someone who's just
starting on their journey withtheir voice or they're feeling a
bit stuck at the moment?
Ekaterina Kardakova (17:52):
I think that the first step should be
allow yourself to be loud andallow yourself to sound ugly,
not beautiful, that's okay.
It's just the beginning.
Because this is where peoplethink like, oh, I cannot sing
because I don't sound perfectly,that's okay.
I mean, everyone can sing,because singing is just knowing
(18:14):
your body.
Vocal cords are just muscles.
If you go every day to a gym,you train your muscles, the
muscles are growing.
The same is with singing.
So you practice, you're gettingbetter.
Just you know, don't expect toomuch immediately.
It's a process and just enjoythe process, that's all.
Aideen Ni Riada (18:35):
I love that idea of the loud and ugly
because I have one of thetechniques I used a lot when I
was teaching singing.
Mainly was the primal sounds.
And the primal sounds aresounds that you would make as a
child, like yelling orscreeching or doing animal
noises and all of those, thoseprimal sounds, and they're quite
(18:57):
instinctual and when we usethem and when we as an adult,
and especially as an adultperhaps who doesn't use their
voice freely yet, it can be soliberating to make a loud noise
that when you haven't maybe madea loud noise in decades,
absolutely, absolutely.
Ekaterina Kardakova (19:15):
And the most interesting thing is that
when you haven't maybe made aloud noise in decades,
absolutely, absolutely.
And the most interesting thingis that when people uh, allow
themselves to be loud and ugly,they're also getting oh, is it
me?
Can I really produce such bigsound?
Is it okay?
Yes, it's okay.
It's very good, keep goingdefinitely it is.
Aideen Ni Riada (19:39):
It is okay.
I think it's sometimes um, whenwhen you learn, say, fitness,
they talk a lot about you knowif you're, if you're um, you
know a certain type of uh, anathlete, for instance a javelin
thrower, so you just throw thejavelin.
None of those athletes onlytrain that one part of their
(20:00):
body.
They always train the wholebody.
And I feel like that with thevoice, that, even though you may
want to just do speaking, thatyou need to explore your voice
and find out what it's capableof at the high end, at the low
end, at the soft end, at theloud end.
And by exploring it, then youhave more.
(20:21):
The word, I guess, is moreknowledge of who you are and
what you are.
It's a different feeling ofcompetency when you've tried
many ways of using your voicewell, I call it body
(20:42):
consciousness there is a goodway yeah, basically you learn
about your body because operasingers are also athletes,
otherwise you cannot.
Ekaterina Kardakova (20:51):
you have to train your body so much and be
so conscious about every singlemove.
You have to know about yourbody so well and this is also a
very interesting journey todiscover what kind of potential
has your body.
It's very interesting for manypeople.
Aideen Ni Riada (21:12):
Tell us more about that.
I'm not sure if I know exactlywhat you would mean by that.
Ekaterina Kardakova (21:16):
No, exactly what you said before.
When you practice and youexplore your voice, how high you
can sing or how low or howpowerful you can sound, it's all
about observing your body.
It's all about what am I doingor what is happening in my body
right now that I can producesome beautiful, loud sound.
(21:38):
What muscles are working?
So basically, I call it theinner eye is observing my body
and tries to remember the goodthings.
That's what I mean.
Aideen Ni Riada (21:51):
Yes, so there's a kind of an awareness growing.
Yes, so there's a kind of anawareness growing.
There's something that I speakup to a lot is the idea of
presence, and presence is a wayof being, you know, having, as
you said, the inner eye, thatyou're conscious.
You said body consciousness,but it's like being aware of who
you are, how you feel, whilealso being aware of what's
(22:15):
outside of you, which is a realskill, I think yeah, and it
helps a lot, not only for vocaltraining but also for any kind
of physical activities.
Yeah, and even for publicspeaking, anywhere where you
have to express communicate.
(22:36):
Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeahand I'm finding this so
interesting.
There's something that Ithought we could touch on as
well is this idea of accepting.
You know, when we do that kind,those kind of loud noises, and
we play with our voices a little, we start to accept ourselves
more deeply, and to me, I feellike self-love and
(23:05):
self-compassion are veryimportant in order to fully step
into your power.
Would you feel the same?
Ekaterina Kardakova (23:10):
Yes, but I think that from my experience,
this is already the advancedlevel to express love and et
cetera.
The first is that allow this tofight or to embrace your fears,
and the first step is anger.
So just be loud and ugly andthen, when the you know person
(23:37):
is used to this ugly sounds likenow let's form it.
I will say that every voice isa diamond.
Imagine that the diamond isjust raw diamond and now we have
to make a form for this diamond.
And then comes love, because atthe end is something very
beautiful and shiny and warm.
You understand.
Aideen Ni Riada (23:59):
Let's all go on a journey to explore ourselves,
explore our voices, explorewhat our potential is.
And that's, I think, what youwere saying about having that
avatar of who you are becomingin 10 years time, in 25 years
time.
It's potential, right.
It's like we can stay where weare and some people are like,
(24:21):
well, I've got the job, I've gotthe car, I'm pretty happy.
But if we can explore and maybedream a little, then we can be
inspired to take those smallactions on a daily basis that
could dramatically change thetrajectory of our lives yes, and
(24:42):
I also think that, um, it'simportant to have in mind that
working on voice is also workingon yourself, on your mental
self, on your emotional part.
Ekaterina Kardakova (24:54):
so when people start start working on
the voice, they understand thatit's not only about physical
body, it's also a lot about theemotions, because the voice is
the most powerful instrument ofemotions and we people, we
communicate and we understandinformation while communication
(25:14):
through these emotions.
We remember not the words whichpeople say, we remember the
emotions or the pictures thesewords created, but the pictures,
you know, have also verysomething, a lot to do with
emotions.
So, how to express clearly,clear, clear, big emotions
(25:38):
through the voice?
For example, if you want tosound confident, how the voice
sounds, usually confident voiceis deep, slow, clear.
Yeah, so this beautiful bigvoice and, uh, when people
listen to this voice, theyalways say, oh, this is a voice
of a authority person, theperson with a high status or the
(26:04):
trustful person.
immediately, yeah, right and andif, for example, if we hear um,
um, loud and kind of shrillvoice, people think like, oh,
this is not so pleasant, so thisperson might be, you know,
doesn't feel well, you knowsomething like this.
So my idea is to work on thevoice doesn't only mean that you
(26:29):
work and train your muscles,but it also you train.
You also train your emotionalintelligence.
This is also important.
You train how to expressemotions through your voice.
For example, simple example,when you call someone and ask
how are you?
And the person says good, youunderstand that the word good is
(26:55):
okay, but how it sounds is notgood and you start asking, yeah,
what?
You don't sound so well, whathappened?
And this is exactly what I'mteaching for executive business
people you should soundconfident, with authority all
the time, because we everything,what we hear, we immediately
(27:20):
pursue subconsciously.
You cannot, if you're not aprofessional actor, a
professional opera singer, youcannot hide that something is
not good through your voice, howyou speak so if you want.
For example, if you want to havea promotion but but you don't
feel well, something hadhappened or you had a bad
conversation before.
You should be trained.
(27:41):
You should be very goodprepared and you should know how
to use your voice, soundconfident, in any stressful
situation.
You understand what I mean.
Aideen Ni Riada (28:04):
And I think very important for leaders as
well that when a business has abig problem, that they infuse
that confidence into theiremployees that they don't reveal
and I think parents as wellhave to do this.
You know that you don't want toshare.
You know financial stress withthe children that you have to
keep things a certain way,really a financial stress with
the children that you have tokeep things a certain way, and
they are listening to the tone,um, on the emotions in the voice
.
I think that's a.
It's a really lovely uh focusfor for how you work.
(28:27):
Um, I think that's so powerful.
Before we finish up today, isthere anything that you would
like to say to the listeners,any last gem, little piece of
wisdom that you'd like them toremember?
Ekaterina Kardakova (28:42):
um, today I was thinking, this morning I
was thinking about that.
So many people think that theycan communicate like what it's
like.
We all communicate, we justhave conversations, but in
reality, how many people canreally communicate, meaning that
, how many people can use thevoice correctly to be heard, the
(29:06):
use there are not words, butnon-verbal communication to
express themselves, like them,immediately like them and listen
to them.
So I just want to give the ideathat if you want to be
successful, think more about howyou communicate, because
(29:29):
success is all about people,business opportunities is all
about people and the key isright communication starts not
only with words, but first ofall with sound of your voice the
other thing that I think it'sworth reiterating is what you
said about people in businessand in leadership, that it's
(29:51):
almost like they are in a role.
Aideen Ni Riada (29:54):
Is that?
What was it you said about that?
That they have to be in aperformance.
Ekaterina Kardakova (29:59):
I say leadership is an acting skill,
so it's all about acting,because you cannot be a leader
all the time.
You go home and you sit down onthe couch.
You're not a leader, you justwant to relax.
But in some situations youshould show your leadership
skills.
Aideen Ni Riada (30:15):
Yep, I like that.
Leadership is an acting skill.
Yes, I love that.
Thank you so much, ekaterina,for coming on the Resonate
podcast today.
I love how you think aboutvoice.
I think it's so valuable and Iencourage our listeners to
connect with you, and there willbe some links available to
(30:37):
connect with Ekaterina.
And if you have anything you'dlike to say about today's topic
or anything you would like us toadvise you on, please get in
touch.
We would love to hear from you.
That's it for today from theResonate Podcast with Aideen.
I'm Aideen Urieta and I lookforward to having you join us on
another episode soon.
(30:58):
Bye-bye.
Welcome.
This is the Resonate podcastwith Aideen.
I'm here today with EkaterinaKardakova.
She is an accomplished operasinger, vocal coach and
presentation coach.
From an early age, she immersedherself in music, following her
passions across Europe andScandinavia, gracing prestigious
stages like La Scala in Italy.
Over the past decade, ekaterinarecognized the power of voice
(00:28):
coaching to elevate trust andcredibility in business.
Drawing on the vocal techniquesused by top performers, she now
empowers executives and leadersin the corporate world to
harness their voice and make alasting impact.
And I'm so excited to share youwith my listeners, ekaterina,
because I know from my own workas a voice coach how valuable
(00:54):
the voice and understanding ofthe voice can be for building
confidence and for expansion.
And I'm really curious abouthow you figured out and
discovered that you would bevaluable in the business world,
not just on the beautiful stagesaround Europe.
Ekaterina Kardakova (01:12):
Well, thank you for the question and thank
you for the invitation to thispodcast.
Basically, it was prettyunplanned.
I just, you know, I started tothink how can I start my
workshops?
And I found a bar where they,you know, did different things
workshops, concerts and I justasked if I can do my workshop
(01:33):
there.
And pretty many people came andwe had lots of fun, because I
always do all my workshops in,like you know, like what we do
on stage or usually how we doour workshops for opera singers,
it's not only singing, standing, doing exercises, but it's a
lot about acting.
And I did all these actingexercises and people loved it.
(01:56):
We had a lot of fun.
And just one guy came to meafter that and said you know
what?
I'm an engineer and I think mycolleagues would love or really
need your training.
And this is how it started oh,that's so amazing.
Aideen Ni Riada (02:12):
So you were basically invited to do it
through through one of yourclients.
I was actually quite surprisedwhen one of my singing clients
said I'm coming to singingbecause I want to be a better
speaker for my work and becauseat that time I had just set up
(02:32):
my business teaching singing.
I knew it would buildconfidence, but I hadn't quite
joined all the dots.
How did that come across to you?
Like?
Ekaterina Kardakova (02:41):
did you find that surprising that the
impact that you were able tomake with people in business I
think it's surprising for themnot for me, because as a
professional actress I dounderstand how influential is
the voice, how much you can dowith your audience on an
(03:02):
emotional level when you knowhow to use your voice.
It's very powerful.
So for for people, of course,vocal training is mostly time.
They think they come to mytrainings and think like they
will work on their voice.
But we will work not only onmuscles but we work a lot on
emotions, how to speak so peoplelisten to you, how can you
(03:23):
express your emotions throughthe voice.
So it also has a lot to do withacting, with muscle training I
mean voice, muscle training, etc.
So for people from business, itmight be something new because
they never think about howimportant the voice is for
communication and forinfluencing other people, for
(03:46):
sales, for career, for promotionetc.
So the voice is a big part ofself-presentation.
And when they start working onvoice and first of all, also
knowing more about themselves,about their talents, about maybe
(04:06):
some struggles, inner strugglesor limiting beliefs because
voice and limiting beliefs, youknow, play very, very close
together they do understand howimportant it is and they
immediately see the result.
So as long as they startworking their voice and they
sound differently, they feeldifferently, they express
(04:28):
themselves differently becausethey just know consciously how
to do that.
They see immediately the impactand the difference and this is
the goal.
They feel that they are moreheard by other people.
They see that people morelisten to them while they're
presenting or doing some reports, especially now online, where
(04:50):
you only basically see the upperbody and listen to people.
So you be, you have to be veryprecise how you use your voice,
not only words, because peoplebasically don't listen to to the
words.
They listen to the emotion youyou're saying, you are giving to
them and this is very importantah, I love that.
Aideen Ni Riada (05:10):
I'm curious was this something that you had to
cultivate yourself, or did youinstinctively, as a young person
, put a lot of emotion into yourperformance?
Was it something that you hadaccess to early on?
Ekaterina Kardakova (05:28):
Yes, I think so, Because for me, from
very little, it was veryinteresting to play different
roles, because all of myprotagonists, all the roles I'm
playing, they're so differentfrom me and when I create a role
, I think how can I do it thebest?
Or who is this person, why isshe doing this and reacting on
(05:52):
this situation Completelydifferent than I would react.
So I create this avatar fromthe very beginning and of course
, I think about the emotions andthe music which I'm singing.
It helps a lot to to tounderstand all these causes and
results.
So it's easier to expressemotions.
And because I'm very emotionalperson, it's easy for me to
(06:14):
express emotions.
But for my work, I know thatfor many, many people it's
pretty hard to express emotions.
That's why they soundmonotonous, quiet, you know.
They kind of hide themselvesand when we start working, I
explain that it can be differentand people start again.
(06:35):
I repeat, people start to learnabout themselves more the.
Aideen Ni Riada (06:42):
There is an impression sometimes that in the
business world, we have to bemaybe more formal or to fit in
in some way.
But what I loved about what yousaid was that when you were
working with new roles, youwould try to get into the mind
and the why, like why are you,why is that person acting that
(07:03):
way?
Is that something that you alsodraw out when you're working
with your clients, like are youtrying to find out more about
what their reasons are for, forsharing?
Ekaterina Kardakova (07:14):
um, yes, actually, I always start my
trainings about where youwouldn't be.
What's your future you?
We always create this avatarfuture me where you want to be.
What's your future you?
We always create this avatarfuture me where I want to be.
After 10 lessons, after thetraining ends, where is the be
like we are in?
Here's the start.
This is the finish what youwant to learn and who you want
(07:39):
to be when you finish.
And here also I ask lots ofquestions like what's your goals
?
It's not only about the voice,by the way.
People come to the voicetraining and think that they
want to work on the voice, butactually, while the training, we
dig deeper.
People understand that theywant to have a new job, they
(08:01):
want to have a promotion in thecareer, or they want to have a
promotion in the career, or theyhave to want to grow the
business, or they want to showthemselves in a different role,
differently, etc.
So there are so many thingswhich come up and, of course,
the beginning is who am I?
Where I want to go?
Aideen Ni Riada (08:24):
I love that you do it as a visual a when you're
.
I mean, is that something thatwe could even do with our
listeners right now as a littleexercise?
I'm kind of wondering how youmake that, how you help people
embody that new future versionof themselves.
Can you tell us a bit more?
Maybe give us a little sneakpeek into that exercise for
(08:46):
anyone listening yeah, I youknow.
Ekaterina Kardakova (08:49):
A couple of years ago I did a course at
mind valley.
Maybe you know mind valley yesby vision.
You know this course um wascalled the book of life, but by
butchers this is a couple ofbutchers they created this
course Future Me how to CreateFuture Me and basically they say
imagine or allow yourself.
(09:11):
First of all, allow yourself toimagine that you have
everything you want and allowyourself to dream big.
Where will you be in 25 years?
Like really allow yourself.
This is also a very importantthing.
People don't allow themselvesto dream big.
They always limit like okay, Ialready have my apartment, a
(09:34):
house, I have my car, I have ajob we just paid.
End of dreaming.
Aideen Ni Riada (09:40):
No.
Ekaterina Kardakova (09:42):
It can be even more and even big and even
better.
So, and then, when a person ormy client allows him or herself
to dream where he or she wantsto be in 25 years, then we do
the decomposition 15, 10, 5, 3,1 year.
(10:03):
Decomposition 15, 10, 5, 3, 1year.
And then the task is to thinkabout what can I do, with little
steps every day, to achievethis goal where I want to be in
one year, step by step, withlittle steps, 10, 15 minutes per
day.
Yeah, this is the technique wejust called the book of life.
(10:25):
Create your future like futureme.
Aideen Ni Riada (10:29):
This little small steps, but daily steps
that must feel amazing whensomeone actually allows
themselves to to really dreamthat, because I know, I think
each of us nobody actually knowsexactly the full potential of
what they are becoming like.
(10:50):
We can guess, but there's somuch more possible.
We don't know whatopportunities exactly are going
to come our way and to imaginein a very expansive way um, must
, uh.
Maybe for some people couldcreate some anxiety, but it
could create a lot of excitementand a lot of positive emotions
as well of course, this is the.
Ekaterina Kardakova (11:11):
This is the idea, because when people start
dreaming, they gain so muchenergy.
Yeah, they gain so much.
Aideen Ni Riada (11:20):
Uh, this power of imagination and this power
gives you lots of energy to dothings, to act, to achieve goals
yeah, and that brings youreally very clearly to why you
would take on some of thesetechniques, like why you can use
(11:42):
your voice in a way that maybeis a little more serious or is a
little more direct or a littledeeper.
So what do you think?
What's the?
What kind of clients do youfind you need, need your help
the most like?
Are they like squeaky highspeakers that need to deepen
their voice?
Or are there?
What kinds of people do you doyou like to there?
(12:05):
What kinds of people?
Ekaterina Kardakova (12:06):
do you like to help?
Well, any kinds of people whowould like to develop themselves
.
This is, for me, the mostimportant thing, because I can
help them with techniques, butthey do the job.
This is the most pleasantpeople who are conscious about
that.
They have to do their homework.
Aideen Ni Riada (12:21):
If they don't do, nothing will happen, because
I'm here just to help, but theydo the job is there anything
you'd like to say about theprocess of how you work with
people over the course of those10 weeks that you think might
give an insight for ourlisteners?
Ekaterina Kardakova (12:42):
yeah.
So my course is 10 weeks, 10lessons, and I usually also have
a like pre-conversation withthe person to understand why
this person is here and why whatkind of goals he or she has.
And at the beginning, usuallypeople, as I said before, don't
(13:03):
have a clear vision why they'rehere.
They just, you know, havesomething, want something, and
they think that the problem isthe voice.
But actually no, not.
And I, in these 10 lessons, wetell, so I explain how the voice
works, how the body works.
We work a lot on body language.
(13:24):
We we work a lot on creatingthis new avatar.
I call it avatar because Ialways say leadership is an
acting skill.
So leadership means that I showmyself in public and I'm
confident, I love what I do andI share my love with other
people.
So we create this avatar andduring this process, lots of
(13:49):
different topics come up.
Some people, for example, say Iwould like to work more on
creating this avatar.
I need help on creating thisavatar, like a new role.
Some people say I want to learnmore about body language
because I feel that I'm verygood in speaking but I don't
(14:12):
know what to do with my hands,with my legs.
I mean my body is sodisconnected.
Some people say they want towork more on emotional
intelligence to sound lessmonotonous.
So the voice is by itself isgrowing and getting strong,
powerful, but also moreemotional.
(14:32):
Lots of different topicsdepends on what really people
want that's fascinating.
Aideen Ni Riada (14:38):
Tell us a little bit about your own um,
your own journey with yourbusiness, because I know that
there are many stages todeveloping this kind of an
offering.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how your journey came from
that first workshop where theengineer comes up and says my
colleagues need you.
What has it been like for youas a business, as small business
(15:03):
owner?
Ekaterina Kardakova (15:09):
like for you as a business, as small
business owner.
Yeah, there were many up anddowns and in this, uh, in these
10 years, basically I reallyliked that.
I started it because when I wassinging the opera and I was
singing until the covid came,because here in europe
everything was closed andsomehow intuitively, I
understood before a couple ofyears, before five years before,
that I have to try somethingelse.
(15:30):
I have to try something elsebecause I love singing.
However, if you're not Nitrepkoor a very big star, it's not
always easy.
So I thought, like, okay, Iwill start my business and I
will learn about business.
I mean, it was a really journeyfrom an opera singer to a
(15:50):
business owner.
Yeah, I bet I learned a lot,because I didn't have a clue
about, firstly, what else I cando except singing, playing piano
or conducting or making music.
And then I figured out that Iactually can do many other
things and I love to learn.
(16:10):
So I learned fast and I didsome courses and also went to
some classes about marketing,about how to create a business
or business plan, how to makeanalysis, so all this business
stuff Also, and then I startedmy business somehow in, I don't
know how.
But I feel all these tendencies, I feel what people need and
(16:32):
how to package it.
And then I also did my secondmaster degrees in marketing and
business development and, duringCOVID, did completely only
online business.
So I I gained more and moreexperience and now I have to say
that I love having clients andI love teaching speaking, but I
(16:55):
also love this business sidebecause I learn every day so
many new things and it's allabout people people basically,
business is all about people,helping people.
Yeah, how I can sell my servicewith my helping people, with
(17:17):
voice and public speaking andconfidence, and how to package
it.
Basically, it's all aboutworking with people.
It's interesting.
It's interesting.
It's like again on the stage, Ihad all of my roles and now I
just communicate with so manydifferent people and this
experience on stage helps a lotJust to understand people,
(17:39):
because I created so manydifferent roles.
Aideen Ni Riada (17:43):
What would you say to someone who's just
starting on their journey withtheir voice or they're feeling a
bit stuck at the moment?
Ekaterina Kardakova (17:52):
I think that the first step should be
allow yourself to be loud andallow yourself to sound ugly,
not beautiful, that's okay.
It's just the beginning.
Because this is where peoplethink like, oh, I cannot sing
because I don't sound perfectly,that's okay.
I mean, everyone can sing,because singing is just knowing
(18:14):
your body.
Vocal cords are just muscles.
If you go every day to a gym,you train your muscles, the
muscles are growing.
The same is with singing.
So you practice, you're gettingbetter.
Just you know, don't expect toomuch immediately.
It's a process and just enjoythe process, that's all.
Aideen Ni Riada (18:35):
I love that idea of the loud and ugly
because I have one of thetechniques I used a lot when I
was teaching singing.
Mainly was the primal sounds.
And the primal sounds aresounds that you would make as a
child, like yelling orscreeching or doing animal
noises and all of those, thoseprimal sounds, and they're quite
(18:57):
instinctual and when we usethem and when we as an adult,
and especially as an adultperhaps who doesn't use their
voice freely yet, it can be soliberating to make a loud noise
that when you haven't maybe madea loud noise in decades,
absolutely, absolutely.
Ekaterina Kardakova (19:15):
And the most interesting thing is that
when you haven't maybe made aloud noise in decades,
absolutely, absolutely.
And the most interesting thingis that when people uh, allow
themselves to be loud and ugly,they're also getting oh, is it
me?
Can I really produce such bigsound?
Is it okay?
Yes, it's okay.
It's very good, keep goingdefinitely it is.
Aideen Ni Riada (19:39):
It is okay.
I think it's sometimes um, whenwhen you learn, say, fitness,
they talk a lot about you knowif you're, if you're um, you
know a certain type of uh, anathlete, for instance a javelin
thrower, so you just throw thejavelin.
None of those athletes onlytrain that one part of their
(20:00):
body.
They always train the wholebody.
And I feel like that with thevoice, that, even though you may
want to just do speaking, thatyou need to explore your voice
and find out what it's capableof at the high end, at the low
end, at the soft end, at theloud end.
And by exploring it, then youhave more.
(20:21):
The word, I guess, is moreknowledge of who you are and
what you are.
It's a different feeling ofcompetency when you've tried
many ways of using your voicewell, I call it body
(20:42):
consciousness there is a goodway yeah, basically you learn
about your body because operasingers are also athletes,
otherwise you cannot.
Ekaterina Kardakova (20:51):
you have to train your body so much and be
so conscious about every singlemove.
You have to know about yourbody so well and this is also a
very interesting journey todiscover what kind of potential
has your body.
It's very interesting for manypeople.
Aideen Ni Riada (21:12):
Tell us more about that.
I'm not sure if I know exactlywhat you would mean by that.
Ekaterina Kardakova (21:16):
No, exactly what you said before.
When you practice and youexplore your voice, how high you
can sing or how low or howpowerful you can sound, it's all
about observing your body.
It's all about what am I doingor what is happening in my body
right now that I can producesome beautiful, loud sound.
(21:38):
What muscles are working?
So basically, I call it theinner eye is observing my body
and tries to remember the goodthings.
That's what I mean.
Aideen Ni Riada (21:51):
Yes, so there's a kind of an awareness growing.
Yes, so there's a kind of anawareness growing.
There's something that I speakup to a lot is the idea of
presence, and presence is a wayof being, you know, having, as
you said, the inner eye, thatyou're conscious.
You said body consciousness,but it's like being aware of who
you are, how you feel, whilealso being aware of what's
(22:15):
outside of you, which is a realskill, I think yeah, and it
helps a lot, not only for vocaltraining but also for any kind
of physical activities.
Yeah, and even for publicspeaking, anywhere where you
have to express communicate.
(22:36):
Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeahand I'm finding this so
interesting.
There's something that Ithought we could touch on as
well is this idea of accepting.
You know, when we do that kind,those kind of loud noises, and
we play with our voices a little, we start to accept ourselves
more deeply, and to me, I feellike self-love and
(23:05):
self-compassion are veryimportant in order to fully step
into your power.
Would you feel the same?
Ekaterina Kardakova (23:10):
Yes, but I think that from my experience,
this is already the advancedlevel to express love and et
cetera.
The first is that allow this tofight or to embrace your fears,
and the first step is anger.
So just be loud and ugly andthen, when the you know person
(23:37):
is used to this ugly sounds likenow let's form it.
I will say that every voice isa diamond.
Imagine that the diamond isjust raw diamond and now we have
to make a form for this diamond.
And then comes love, because atthe end is something very
beautiful and shiny and warm.
You understand.
Aideen Ni Riada (23:59):
Let's all go on a journey to explore ourselves,
explore our voices, explorewhat our potential is.
And that's, I think, what youwere saying about having that
avatar of who you are becomingin 10 years time, in 25 years
time.
It's potential, right.
It's like we can stay where weare and some people are like,
(24:21):
well, I've got the job, I've gotthe car, I'm pretty happy.
But if we can explore and maybedream a little, then we can be
inspired to take those smallactions on a daily basis that
could dramatically change thetrajectory of our lives yes, and
(24:42):
I also think that, um, it'simportant to have in mind that
working on voice is also workingon yourself, on your mental
self, on your emotional part.
Ekaterina Kardakova (24:54):
so when people start start working on
the voice, they understand thatit's not only about physical
body, it's also a lot about theemotions, because the voice is
the most powerful instrument ofemotions and we people, we
communicate and we understandinformation while communication
(25:14):
through these emotions.
We remember not the words whichpeople say, we remember the
emotions or the pictures thesewords created, but the pictures,
you know, have also verysomething, a lot to do with
emotions.
So, how to express clearly,clear, clear, big emotions
(25:38):
through the voice?
For example, if you want tosound confident, how the voice
sounds, usually confident voiceis deep, slow, clear.
Yeah, so this beautiful bigvoice and, uh, when people
listen to this voice, theyalways say, oh, this is a voice
of a authority person, theperson with a high status or the
(26:04):
trustful person.
immediately, yeah, right and andif, for example, if we hear um,
um, loud and kind of shrillvoice, people think like, oh,
this is not so pleasant, so thisperson might be, you know,
doesn't feel well, you knowsomething like this.
So my idea is to work on thevoice doesn't only mean that you
(26:29):
work and train your muscles,but it also you train.
You also train your emotionalintelligence.
This is also important.
You train how to expressemotions through your voice.
For example, simple example,when you call someone and ask
how are you?
And the person says good, youunderstand that the word good is
(26:55):
okay, but how it sounds is notgood and you start asking, yeah,
what?
You don't sound so well, whathappened?
And this is exactly what I'mteaching for executive business
people you should soundconfident, with authority all
the time, because we everything,what we hear, we immediately
(27:20):
pursue subconsciously.
You cannot, if you're not aprofessional actor, a
professional opera singer, youcannot hide that something is
not good through your voice, howyou speak so if you want.
For example, if you want to havea promotion but but you don't
feel well, something hadhappened or you had a bad
conversation before.
You should be trained.
(27:41):
You should be very goodprepared and you should know how
to use your voice, soundconfident, in any stressful
situation.
You understand what I mean.
Aideen Ni Riada (28:04):
And I think very important for leaders as
well that when a business has abig problem, that they infuse
that confidence into theiremployees that they don't reveal
and I think parents as wellhave to do this.
You know that you don't want toshare.
You know financial stress withthe children that you have to
keep things a certain way,really a financial stress with
the children that you have tokeep things a certain way, and
they are listening to the tone,um, on the emotions in the voice
.
I think that's a.
It's a really lovely uh focusfor for how you work.
(28:27):
Um, I think that's so powerful.
Before we finish up today, isthere anything that you would
like to say to the listeners,any last gem, little piece of
wisdom that you'd like them toremember?
Ekaterina Kardakova (28:42):
um, today I was thinking, this morning I
was thinking about that.
So many people think that theycan communicate like what it's
like.
We all communicate, we justhave conversations, but in
reality, how many people canreally communicate, meaning that
, how many people can use thevoice correctly to be heard, the
(29:06):
use there are not words, butnon-verbal communication to
express themselves, like them,immediately like them and listen
to them.
So I just want to give the ideathat if you want to be
successful, think more about howyou communicate, because
(29:29):
success is all about people,business opportunities is all
about people and the key isright communication starts not
only with words, but first ofall with sound of your voice the
other thing that I think it'sworth reiterating is what you
said about people in businessand in leadership, that it's
(29:51):
almost like they are in a role.
Aideen Ni Riada (29:54):
Is that?
What was it you said about that?
That they have to be in aperformance.
Ekaterina Kardakova (29:59):
I say leadership is an acting skill,
so it's all about acting,because you cannot be a leader
all the time.
You go home and you sit down onthe couch.
You're not a leader, you justwant to relax.
But in some situations youshould show your leadership
skills.
Aideen Ni Riada (30:15):
Yep, I like that.
Leadership is an acting skill.
Yes, I love that.
Thank you so much, ekaterina,for coming on the Resonate
podcast today.
I love how you think aboutvoice.
I think it's so valuable and Iencourage our listeners to
connect with you, and there willbe some links available to
(30:37):
connect with Ekaterina.
And if you have anything you'dlike to say about today's topic
or anything you would like us toadvise you on, please get in
touch.
We would love to hear from you.
That's it for today from theResonate Podcast with Aideen.
I'm Aideen Urieta and I lookforward to having you join us on
another episode soon.
(30:58):
Bye-bye.
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