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Episode #8

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Patrick Muñoz
Voice & Speech Coach

Patrick is a highly regarded Voice and Speech Coach in Los Angeles. He has helped hundreds of actors, business people, and other professionals increase their vocal power, improve articulation, and become better speakers. As member of Voice and Speech Trainers of America, Patrick coached for top-rated series and big-budget and independent movies. For years he has been named as one of “LA’s Favorite Dialect Coaches”. Patrick is in private practice in West Hollywood and works with clients all over the world. Students include Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, Alan C. Fox among others.

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Patrick Muñoz
Voice and Speech Coaching

Mireia Mujika: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this new episode of ways to grow, where every two weeks, I will interview experts to help us understand and discern different disciplines that will help us grow, improve our well-being and be better leaders. With this aim, we will travel from east to west from the pure psychological studies to the ancient shamans. We'll look at every field and you will take what interests you. Join me on this journey of learning and discovery. My name is Mireia Mujika, I’m a personal and executive coach and for this episode, I have invited Patrick Muñoz to join us. Patrick is a highly regarded voice and speech coach in Los Angeles. He has helped hundreds of actors, business people and other professionals increase their vocal power, improve articulation and become better speakers. As member of voice and speech trainers of America, Patrick coached for CBS top-rated series without a trace, big budget and independent movies including Hostage, Van Helsing, TVs LA dragnet and KC undercover. Patrick is currently the vocal coach for business stuck in the middle and for years, he has been named as one of LA’s favorite dialect coaches. Patrick is in private practice in West Hollywood and works with clients all over the world. Students include Penelope Ruth, Eva Longoria, Allen C. Fox and others. Listener, if you dream of being more articulate or as the Collins dictionary explains that if you want to be able to express your thoughts and ideas easily and well or express yourself clearly, readily, concisely and effectively or if you want to have a more powerful voice and therefore presence, join us in this conversation but before we start, let me remind you of our website waystogrowpodcast.com, where you will find the details of all our guests and also the books and resources they recommend and if you like this podcast, please follow and rate us so that we can keep growing. Good morning, Patrick, and thank you very much for accepting my invite to be my guest today. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Good morning, Mireia.

 

Mireia Mujika: Thank you very much. So perfect. I’ve been thinking a lot since we last spoke, one question that has been in my mind, I don't know if this makes any sense but do people think that articulate people are smarter, are more intelligent?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, for sure. There's a complete bias in terms of how people perceive other people. First of all, thank you for having me here this morning, this is so great. Yes, the way that we are always judging people, we judge ourselves, we judge other people whether that's a good thing or a helpful thing, we can look at that later. I don't think it's necessarily helpful to be overly critical of ourselves or to judge another person because we're only separating ourselves from that person. However, it's our innate instinct to judge other people consciously, unconsciously and we do so on a number of levels, the way they look, the way they dress, the way they cut their hair or have no hair in my case, the way that they speak, the way that they stand, the way that their facial expressions are, their body expressions are, so an articulate person, somebody who speaks clearly can be perceived. Again, it can be there, a judgment could be oh that person's rather snotty or that person, oh that person has everything, whatever. Again, we can always, it's all perspective but the articulate person is going to be seen as that “more intelligent, more educated person” and as a Native American English speaker, there's a huge bias that we have for the brits. We love, we tend to, again, this is generalization but we tend to love the way, I’ll speak for myself, the way that the brits speak, especially that sort of receives pronunciation, right, and actually any version of that. And that's a big thing in terms of class divisions in England that was all so much based on the way they speak. Now, that's changed so much. In America, it's a very similar thing to the way that we would look at somebody, oh they're from this part of the country or from that part of the country depending on how they talk. So, do we look at somebody who's more articulate as being more intelligent? We do, and there are two parts of that too. The articulate part can also be in how they express themselves, not only the clarity of their speech but how they express themselves and it certainly can be that idea of yes, I think wow and it could be I say this out loud to myself or I just think this destroyed us, feel like I trust this person and it's due to the way that they speak.

 

Mireia Mujika: There we go. So, that's extremely important then.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yes. It's very important. Right, especially depending on what your role is, what your position is that we are able to and there are different parts of that. One is just being able to be understood and then the next levels of being able to have an effect on your listener and being able to match the way that you look in the role that you have and the things that you want to communicate with how you sound. So, yes. I get very excited when you ask me these questions. 

 

Mireia Mujika: I’m thinking that the good thing is that we can actually coach and we can improve the way that we speak and this is what you do. This is what you help people do. So, what exactly does a voice and a speech coach do? What do you do?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Well, again, that's really great because what you started to say was that we can improve. Now, you know, thank god that for most of us, from most people, we speak, every day we speak, we talk, we cry, we communicate, we shout, we beg, we plead. When we talk, why would we go to a speech and voice coach? Why would we want to improve our voice or our speech? I came through it because, well, you asked the question, which is what is a voice, what is voice and speech coaching, what is that? So, I’ll answer that. I can go into all of the background later but a voice coach, a voice and speech coach, in my case, helps a person with the three C's. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Okay. The three C's? 

 

Patrick Muñoz: The three C's; to be clear, to be confident and to be connected. So, to be clear is to remove or identify and remove any obstacles to how you speak. So, if it's articulation or if it's nasality talking too fast or if the voice is right here or if you're too quiet or if you're too loud, all of those things or if everything sounds exactly the same when you're talking, that's about clarity. It's not really matching what you're saying. Confidence. I work with a lot of people for public speaking but it's not just about public speaking. It could be for an interview, it could be about in your own relationship at home with your husband, with your wife, with your children, with your parents, how to be confident that you can speak up for yourself and say what you want to say and to be able to say it in a way that is constructive and it also goes with what your intention is so that you can speak, let's say, if you're a public speaker with power, with persuasiveness and maybe even with some passion, if that's what you want to do. And finally being connected, so many of us speak from our throat. We just talk right from here. There's not much impetus or need to use a lot of our voice, just on our daily basis. We're in a very connected age of the internet, we're on social media, we're filming, we're talking over the computer, we're talking, it's close situations, we were at an office, going back to the office, where it's very quiet. We just don't have much time to use our voice. We tend to talk from here. So, in that moment, when we really want to make an impact on a larger audience, we're still talking from here. So, yeah, I’m connecting to you but am I really connecting from, am I connecting to myself? I’m not connecting to my full voice. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Wow, I see a difference. Crazy. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Right?

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: You can see it, you can hear it, you can feel it and when you connect to your own voice, when you connect to your body, the embodied voice then you can really connect on a deeper level to the other person. As opposed to that superficial where you're like, oh my god, I’m so excited, how about you, I’ve talked about it, I want to tell you something, okay, but really having that moment and it's so many of the things that you talk about as a coach and in your podcast about yoga, meditation, psychology, so it's those three C's. A voice and speech coach, in my case, helps for the three C's; clear, confident, connected. Yes.

 

Mireia Mujika: Amazing. Okay, so now we know. A voice and speech coach, that's great. So, let's take that one like let's say that I want to be more articulate and more articulate not just like so that people can understand me better because that happens obviously because I have a Spanish accent and sometimes people cannot understand me, right, but apart from that, sometimes I cannot, let's say, I cannot put a sentence the way that I would like to say it, right, the way I would like to express. So, how could you help me with that?

 

Patrick Muñoz: So, I’m glad you said that because what is to be articulated and it's those two parts. One is literally the mechanics of voice, but the second is being able to communicate clearly, to be able to get your message across from your thoughts. So, that takes practice. It takes practice. So, what we do in our classes one-on-one or if I’m doing corporate coaching in a group is that we work on that we practice so that we think about again, it's all and I didn't really mention but like the components of being a better speaker are these three things; B-O-F, breathe, open, flow. So, breathe more deeply, open your mouth so the sounds can come out and flow the sounds on that breath so the sounds come out. So, when you start to breathe, you can start to relax. When you relax, the mind opens up and the ideas flow. So, we start to do that. As we do that, we can practice going from the simple one-minute answers to the three-minute answers to even having a topic where you could speak extemporaneously for a few minutes but it goes step-by-step like what's my main thought that I want to answer here, what's my main topic. I have my main topic and then I can start to talk about that. We will practice having a beginning, a middle and an end and going back and saying what was working there, what was I doing, was I just jumping into it too quickly, was I not speaking with a main idea and was I too short in my answer because I didn't allow myself to breathe, open, flow and express my own experience with it or my feelings about it. There's obviously as a podcaster, as a coach just so much to talk about and so much to open up about if we just relax and allow ourselves to give ourselves permission to express that and then suddenly being more articulate becomes a lot easier. One of the things too often is just slowing down a bit, taking your time, no, I’m a very fast speaker by nature. So, slowing down gives you the opportunity to be more articulate not only in how you sound but in what you express. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Okay. So, what's the main obstacle for people to be able to express what they really want?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Wow.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah. I mean, I know that it's not easy but what do you think are the main obstacles? I’m sure that it's not just one but for the people that you have coached, what do you see?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Right. The main obstacles to being able to express themselves, for instance, I have the people who are the tech team, a member and they are able to do their analysis and put together reports, they're so good at their mind and their imagination and their experience is incredible but because that's what they're doing most of the time or they've been in school for a long time or they're now on their job and it's all about being at the computer. Same case if you're a financial person accounting and then you're moving into your next role where you're the team leader or you're the manager and it's a simple practice, really. It's simply that idea of, oh, I’m nervous and the first thing I do when I’m nervous is I kind of stop breathing and then I give my report and I just don't feel confident that people start to speak over me and I don't think I’m really making a good impression and then I use, you know, I like, you know, like and then it's just we never figure out how to sort of start to improve. So, one of the things is just nerves. Another one is, you know, I work with a lot of women who are in powerful positions because there's just a natural bias, again, is not right at all, it's just sometimes that could be the way. I’m not saying all companies are like that but there can be that way, where you'll have, I work with lots of women who have come up in the company and now are vice presidents in their company. And because for whatever reason, we've kind of taken on these roles, right? The guys are like this, you know, hey, yeah, we talk like that, whatever, again, very stereotypical. I mean, this is not a positive or negative thing, it just could be the case and so women sometimes can use a younger voice like more of a girl's voice when they're talking and suddenly, they're in this position where they're I can't do a young girl's voice, when there's a position where they're trying sound like they're very professional but they don't feel that their voice is being taken seriously or does the opposite, a woman who I’ve worked with political candidates and women who are, again, that judgment of being judged differently from men, a man who comes across sternly, you know. For a woman, that can say, oh, well, she's a yachty, they can complain about that. So, that can be an obstacle like how do I express myself without coming across the way that I don't want to come across. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah, I see.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah. And you know, so many people have been told that like you were being told, oh, I didn't understand you. When I was a young girl, you speak too fast, being told when I was a kid, oh, you can't sing, you know, I’ve worked with so many people from other countries, from India, from the middle east, who have been either consciously or unconsciously or very specifically given the idea that it's rude to speak with volume. It's just rude. It's rude to speak up. You know, Japanese people. And so what happens is we take this position where we speak quietly and again, some people, it's different for everybody. So, maybe speaking quietly and very evenly is exactly what you want, especially if you're a religious person or you're talking about meditation or something like that. But I was just working with an actress, Indian, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, a beautiful model, now acting, the voice, finding the voice and I go, why don't you just speak up? And I said you're just so beautiful and you have so much energy and dynamism and the smile and you see this life force coming from her and she said and it was great because she was able to nail it and say, ah it's a lot of stuff to overcome but just a lot of stuff to overcome and we did it. We were like, this is exciting. So, it's about helping people. The stories we tell ourselves and those little things that happen in our lives where we go through and we close up about that. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. So, those will be the main obstacles. And you were actually saying, so one thing that takes me to my next question actually. So, how does one find their voice?

 

Patrick Muñoz: That is good. All this stuff is really, it's physical, it's psychological. Physically, what do we do? Oh, back to that idea of the BOF; breathe, open, flow. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Okay, yeah. Sorry, if I understand, so what you're saying is that we'll find more of our voice if we speak from our belly.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Exactly. Yeah. So, it's the belly. It's that belly breathing, diaphragmatic breathing. And once we get in touch with that and we just realize it, it's almost like we can just let it go. We don't have to always fill our belly with breath, we just need to breathe in fully with depth but that first step is really finding this because most of us speak from our throat. Most of us hold our belly because we know we're in good shape or we're not in good shape, whatever. We hold our belly in and so that's how we – that's why dancers, I work with so many dancers who need to find their voice because they've been told, especially classical dancers because exactly, and the good news is the posture is so good. Posture is key to the way that we express ourselves and to having a good voice. So, breath, connecting to their breath. So, learning to relax into that breath and the best way to do that is and I have these videos on YouTube about just real simply lying down on your back. You have two children, yes?

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes.

 

Patrick Muñoz: So, a little baby is on their back. You see that little belly rise when breathing?

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes.

 

Patrick Muñoz: When you lie down, if you put your hands on your belly, you'll feel your belly rise and fall because the diaphragm is moving down and making room for the lungs. For some reason, when we stand up, we start to get away from that, so that's the very first thing we want to do is just lie down, get that breath going, connect the breath to the voice, simply making little touches of sounds and then expanding that. Then we can sit up and do the same thing again, hanging over releasing tension in our neck, releasing tension in our mouth and our throat and then we can stand up and hang all the way over, a very simple thing, just hanging over, letting that breath drop into those natural positions. I think gravity will work for us. And it's returning. When you're, you know, the little babies, I guess they don't really slap their bottoms when they're born but the idea of motivating that first big breath, little babies taking a big breath and their voices are huge, they can cry for hours, they never lose their voice. It's only over time that we're told, oh children should be seen, not heard or use your indoor voice or I can't believe you said that or, oh that's funny, you speak funny or what do you think you're saying, why would you say? All these things have a huge effect on our voice. So, that very first thing you like going now I’m going to let all that go I’m to reconnect to my primal voice. Imagine if we didn't have words and you and I were talking, I could see your smile. Tones, the tone of our voice would do all of that. So, connect to the diaphragm. We want to get rid of tension. Then we start to get up and we start to explore our range, we use our chests, we use that, we open up our mouth, we find the depth of our voice. We have to arrange in our nasality in our falsetto. Well, we open our mouths and we try and then we start to use different intentions because the whole thing is what is our intention? Is our intention to motivate the crowd? Is it to calm our employees? Is it to explain to our boss? Is it to motivate people to come along with us? Is it to make people laugh and feel at home? Is it to be stirred with somebody? So, connecting that and connecting from an embodied place, that's what we start to do to find our voice and we expand and it's kind of like I was talking to someone the other day. He's in Dallas and he's a financial advisor, young and a lot of people tending back in there right around the 30 years old, that's kind of some of the sweet spot. Although, I have people from 18 to I’ve had as far old as 80 years old, actually late 80s. Yes, somebody who was a corporate executive, no longer at that point but he was a neighbor of mine, very successful. And he said, you know, I’ve always spoken very quietly. I’d like to learn to use my voice, a little more with a little more volume and we did that. It was so fun but then I learned later on the secret. In his case apparently, one of his successful little traits was he owned this company and when he would talk to his employees, he had about a hundred employees, he wouldn't talk very loudly. So, they all had to listen intently. So, I don't know. It's so good for everybody. Yes. So, that's how they find their voice. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Exactly.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah, it's to relax and to explore. And this guy that I was talking about, the financial advisor, he was talking about golf. He goes, oh I see Patrick, it's kind of like my golf swing. If I really exaggerate it then when I go to actually do the golf swing, it'll come out normally and I said exactly. If we really exaggerate our range and our ability then when we speak, it comes out much more.

 

Mireia Mujika: Naturally. I see, I see. Okay. So, in order to find our voice, first thing, relax, go deep on ourselves, let that breath come from our belly and also let go of all these beliefs. Yes, all these beliefs that we have had from our childhood always come out in this podcast, I don't know how. We do it but childhood always gaps for some reason. So, let go of all those things that we were made to believe about whether we were loud or whether we were, so in my case of course, I was too loud, I couldn't speak too fast.

 

Patrick Muñoz: I love that.

 

Mireia Mujika: Your Spanish accent, no one can understand it.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Right. But see those three, let go identify like well, what part of that works and I would say the loudness. It's your passion. Your joy, of course, that's the cool thing about zoom too, that's the cool thing about all these conversations we have online is that maybe those things are volume but certainly, anyway, the point is you can't tell, first of all, you can't tell over online if you're loud or not but the loudness is like that passion. That's a passion and if we direct that, that's fantastic. Yeah. I remember being in Spain, I was actually coaching. So, I worked with and then because of that, I went to Spain to work with a lot of the actors and actresses who were managed by the same managers and while I was there, I ended up working with Penelope Cruz’s sister and brother, which was really fun. That was a lot of fun but I remember going to a bar and it was in the summertime and I was like so hot and I returned to the bartender. I said, in Spanish, do you have air conditioning? And he was like, what? And I was like, oh my god, I can't communicate. At that point, I wanted to clam up, I’m like okay, I’m so embarrassed like oh I - and he said, I’m like oh my gosh, and I think about all my clients who come here and they're from Russia, from Spain or from wherever, and they say the one thing we'll go to a restaurant and the one thing they'll order and the waiter will say, what? Is water, they'll say water. And they go, what? And it totally shuts us down, it's like oh my god. So, those earlier things, yeah, we let go and we identify, we identify what works, what works for us. All human passion work and the Spanish accent, if you've ever seen a movie called a fish called Wanda, came out like 30 years ago with Kevin Kline. It's very cute because he will talk to his girlfriend. His girlfriend will say, oh talking that accent, he'll say, hello I want to talk to you. So, for the accent it's like oh a Spanish accent, oh it's so beautiful. So, it's really fun to look at ideas from different angles, what's working, what can we make work, what can we let go, it is totally true.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. Now that you were talking about Penelope, we know that you have been coaching many actors and actresses, well, in the US and everywhere else. So, anything that you could say about the way they learn, is there any difference from the rest of the mortals here? Is there anything particular that actors and actresses do when they speak?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah, because as an actor, oftentimes, an actor wants to be able to play a lot of different roles, they want to play a lot of different characters and roles. They want to be able to play somebody who's from the south or somebody who was born in Mexico or some, they want to play something so because they have that idea of playing or exploring new roles, they know that that's important, right? Voice is one of the key things for an actor and as a mere mortal, a lot of people think, well, no, I mean this is who I am. If I speak differently, if I start to work on my voice, if I start to come across and be more dynamic or if suddenly my voice has some more depth to it, people are going to think, oh that doesn't, that's fake but we forget that we're all actors. Are we acting? No, we are actors. We are making things happen in our lives and we use different voices for different people. 

 

Mireia Mujika: I don't use the same voice for my child as I do for my husband.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Right.

 

Mireia Mujika: Exactly. Yes, it's a different voice. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: It's a different voice.

 

Mireia Mujika: To my little child, right. My older one, I go, hey jelly, how are you doing? But to my husband, maybe I am speaking with another voice.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah. So, with actors, it tends to be, and oftentimes, it might be that they might have the ear forward a little bit more, whether this might be more toward - in that case, learning these dialects, really getting into a voice, really expressing ourselves in different ways but it's everything, what is it everything I learned in? Everything I needed to know, I learned in kindergarten. It's like everything you needed to know, you learned in acting. I mean, acting has so many things. Psychology, about our physical structure, our mental, our emotional structure and our voice. That's what's cool about being trained for the theater. That was because a lot of my background was being trained for the theater and you hear it. If you go to the theater and you see someone or if you watch movies and you hear somebody and their voice and certain people, you go, oh I know who that is, oh I recognize that voice or you just are mesmerized by their performance, the way that they embody something, whether they say something and all of a sudden, it takes on new meaning, that is something about acting and about, everything you use in acting can be used in real life.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah, I agree. And this takes me to the next question. In this podcast, we talk about what the body says, the body wisdom. So, what can we know by listening to the voice of someone? What can we know about what their body is saying? What can we do, you know, that you're trained on this, just by listening to someone speak.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Gosh, you can hear so much. You can hear their emotional state, you can hear if they're excited, if they're relaxed, if they're comfortable, if they come across confidently. You can tell what kind of tensions, if they're tense, if there's intensity, if they're feeling defensive. You just tell so much, the voice conveys that. Oftentimes, although, it's really exciting about that part of the age. You can tell somebody's age, are they older or are they younger but you know, I remember as a very young kid, my dad talking about his stepdad and saying, you know, how his stepdad, my grandfather, had kind of a weaker voice. And he said, Patrick, the reason that he has a weaker voice is that he's just kind of stopped using it. He goes if you were to keep really using his voice, you would still have some strength. And I remember going to a workshop with the voice and speech trainers of America. Arthur Lessac was sort of a wonderful teacher of voice and speech here in Los Angeles, lived to be, I think, 103. I saw him when he was 99 or 100. He bound it up on stage and his voice was strong and powerful. So, it talks about your vitality, it talks about your morality, and about your own kind of connectedness to yourself. I heard somebody speak yesterday and he had this little tiny voice and he smacked his lips and I just thought, oh I could do so much with that. So, you can tell and I thought there's a lot of damage going on there. Yeah, we all have our incidents in our lives but it was manifesting itself in that. We can tell, I can tell where they're from, I can tell what country they're from, what part of the United States they're from. It's really interesting here too, especially in Los Angeles, it's so wonderful. It's like New York or maybe like Dubai to some extent in the sense of, it's a very international city. I love going to New York and hearing all the different languages being spoken as you walk through central park. I love driving through LA and going through Korea town and Thai town and a little Tokyo and Olvera street, hearing all these different voices. I work with lots of young people who grew up in these enclaves and so if you're Chinese, American, there'll be little sounds. If you have only had that kind of as your background, I can hear that, if you're from a Spanish-speaking part of Mexican or central American part of town, you can hear the way they speak to and again, it's back to that, we talked about at the very beginning that people make decisions based on how you present yourself and it's their immediate and so you can tell and the thing is too is that voice, I can't necessarily tell their level of education. I might be able to go like I can tell you but I can tell their access to a larger world of speaking and how they can point themselves. So, you can tell so much from the voice. So much. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. On the way they speak. How amazing.

 

Patrick Muñoz: But, you know what? I want to say one more thing about that. Because you talk about the body, right, you can tell so much about how they carry themselves. And that goes together so they're both those things. Ready to tell if somebody is uncomfortable by their shoulder starts to raise or their face starts to get, you know, this scared expression or they're smiling, it doesn't look very real. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: But those things carried in the voice and I’ll finish with this and then you can ask the next question, which is really cute in voiceovers when you're making recordings that where you aren't seen that for commercials, for instance, they'll say oh that was a great take you just did for that beer commercial. Now, put a smile in it. So, the actor will then put literally the smile and they'll say the thing a little weak in their voice and it completely changes the way they sound. So, how do the physical and the verbal are linked together?

 

Mireia Mujika: I see, yes. We were talking about this also with Flo, you know, Flo Akinbiyi.

 

Patrick Muñoz: I love Flo.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes, thank you very much. Actually, in his episode recommended when you're here so that's how I actually connected as well. So, what Flo was saying as well, how important it is to the smile, right? Because you cannot see it but you can hear it. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Wow, yeah. Exactly, right. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Also like right now, I mean when I was reading about how to do a podcast. So, one of the things that everyone was saying is you have to smile, don't forget that you have to smile because although, no one is watching you because sometimes you're not because there's no interviewee, so but still they say like you have to smile because like your listeners will hear it. So, yeah. Very interesting to smile.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, yeah. And the same thing too is if, you know, you're giving a talk and you need some energy behind what you're saying is a passion. I mean, I’m sitting down right now but when I’m coaching online and I’ve been doing that, you know, 90, well, the first 100% and then now about 85% since the pandemic started and now we're moving into another stage but standing up that energy behind your voice and if you aren't being seen and you're giving a presentation, you know, moving the body, being like an Italian or a Spaniard, all those things have such an impact and it makes it easier.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah. Of course, it makes it easier, yeah. And so what you're saying right now is like you're standing up and so it takes me to my next question. So, you wrote this book ‘51 affirmations’ for being a powerful speaker, right? So, tell me about it because I’m really interested because I haven't read the book yet. I will, I promise because I’m really interested in this topic but so in this book, if I understood properly, you ask the readers to do affirmations, right? Can you explain this? I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yes. So, it's 51 affirmations. And so, what we do very simply is the three parts and it's an audio book so you can just listen to it at your level.

 

Mireia Mujika: Exactly. That's what I was thinking. When I go driving.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah, boom. Done. The book has three parts. The first part is simply you say the affirmation after me and you and we really kind of exaggerated. I speak with a strong voice. So, that's part one. Part two is, we do affirmation and we really break it down so that's the long part of the book and I say, so when do you speak with a strong voice? Who has told you don’t speak with one? How would it feel if all the time you were able to speak with a strong voice?

 

Mireia Mujika: That's coaching, that's personal coaching. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: That's personal coaching, and it's all there. It's all there on part two. And then part three is the Patrick Muñoz put you to sleep with the code with these affirmations. It's almost like a meditation at that point. I just say them, I speak with a strong voice. So, in a way, really put you to sleep in that third part or just kind of, you know, sink into your psyche. So, it's very simple you just play that, maybe just have it go on snooze after two or three or five minutes. So, that's part three, but the two of all of them, I love them because when I’m getting people to practice, it's all about practicing, right? It's kind of like meditation. You can talk about meditation till the cows come home, you can talk about public speaking till the cows come home, well, you practice that part. When it comes to speaking, you have to practice it, you have to do meditation, you have to speak publicly, you have to practice. I love poetry, I love interviewing people, I love them giving a talk but sometimes, just the real simple thing is to take whatever it is that you're dealing with like I am so nervous about this situation coming up and saying the opposite. I welcome the possibilities of this new encounter, whatever it is and saying, and not just, it's for so many things but it's about to empower your voice and to connect it. And then also, I haven't even talked about this part but dynamics, right? The dynamics of how we speak, the rhetoric of how we speak. The ups, the downs, the pauses, the rising inflection. So, in those affirmations, I kind of speak like rising inflection pause, hold the interest with a strong voice down, volume. So, it sounds like I’m confident, I’m really putting it out into the universe and so that's what we do. So, I love that book. I wish more people would get it.

 

Mireia Mujika: There's a lot of psychology there, right?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah. And it's fun psychology. It's psychology where you can say like, oh I don't really care about that one but this one sounds really interesting like when did I start doing that, why can't I do that or, you know, so some questions would be really fun for people to open up their minds.

 

Mireia Mujika: And you were saying that it's only six dollars?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Like six or seven dollars on audible.

 

Mireia Mujika: Okay. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: It’s cheap. The same with my mastering the standard accent book, accent American as an audio book and that's like two hours long. That's all it is. I think the other one is probably, not quite sure how long the other one is, maybe 90 minutes or even an hour, probably 90 minutes. And especially the mastering the standard American accent, it's just really simple. It just exercises where you repeat after me and by doing that, at least you have some kind of model. I’m not saying sound like me but I was saying these are very useful intonation patterns. The more important part is when you speak out and you engage your voice, it's just like engaging your listener, engaging the person you're talking to, engaging your voice. So, that's that book. Yeah, it's like six-seven dollars, really easy, really fun, doing your own leisure, same with the mastering the standard American accent. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Awesome. And if like after reading the book, we still want to have you as our coach, so tell us a little bit about that? Like how long does the session take with you, what should I expect to happen in that session with you? 

 

Patrick Muñoz: You're going to have a lot of fun, I promise. You're going to have fun, you're going to laugh. Oh, how long is the session, first of all? So, we work making it very simple, working 50 minute sessions. It's just one good coaching, 50 minutes, one on one either online. Most of people are online, that way I can work all over the world. And we get into it. So, you tell me what it is. Could they tell me, you tell me what it is you're looking for, you know, whatever that is and then we'll do a little assessment, we'll talk about that. Oftentimes, people will reach out to me and we'll do a conversation before the coaching. That's a 10 minute conversation to discuss what it is, what are your goals. And then when our very first session, we'll do an assessment to see somebody's more objective take about what you're doing and how you could work towards your goal and then we get right into action. So, you're going to expect to maybe be a little uncomfortable, maybe not, maybe just go like oh my god, this is just so much fun but you're going to start to experience where your voice gets fuller and deeper. You do a series of, we're going to do a series of exercises together and then I’ll send you videos that I have on my YouTube channel that will break it down and depart and you're going to learn to warm up your voice. You're going to get some exercises to be articulate and then depending on what you're doing, maybe it's you want to prepare for an interview or a presentation or you want to work on reducing your accent or you want to gain an accent. So, some people will come and they'll sign up online for a one-time coaching, get the information, that's perfect. Sometimes, they'll come for a series of six sessions and we'll work towards that goal. Some people are with me. I’ve had some people with me for years, I’ve had some people live with me for months. They leave, they go out into the world and they come back and they go, let's do it again. Let's start to go from where I am now. So, you can expect to leave the session feeling more connected and comfortable with your voice and as somebody said to me the other day, they said, oh he's Japanese. No, he's Chinese but he lives in japan. He said, oh, you know, after this exercise, my voice is deeper. It has more volume and I enjoy it more, I enjoy speaking more and then the next time he said, and my voice doesn't get tired at the end of the day, I’m still happy to be talking. So, you'll find the joy of speaking and you'll find the joy of like, oh my god, we're just so used to in this world and that's the fun thing about acting, right? And some people will take acting classes or go take toastmasters or do whatever it is, right? Sometimes acting is not what people want to do and that's the nice thing about voice and speech coaching is that it's specific to what we're doing but that's the great thing about what I do, what I love doing with people is that light that is inside of them, that shines brightly, allowing that light to come out of them and share with the world. That is so darn exciting for me. I just love it. So, that's what you're going to get in a session. You're going to get real specific exercises. We're going to record it so you have it so you can go back to whatever you want. You either go through the video or you can just have it for your own personal, you know, whenever you want to refer, reference, if you want to refer back to it at some point. And that's what we'll do when we're one-on-one coaching and then there's corporate coaching as well. 

 

Mireia Mujika: So, what about corporate coaching? What are you asked normally?

 

Patrick Muñoz: I’m asked normally to, again, a wide range of things. Sometimes, it's been to go in and work with the team work, who are giving presentations and help them become more dynamic speakers, help them find their voice. So, I’ll go and they'll be on a retreat. I’ll go in for a three-hour session with them. We'll do all kinds of exercises opening up and then we'll do another three hours after lunch and they'll give presentations and I’ll come and we'll have fun. There's that. There's the coaching where I’ve gone in and worked with people who are phone professionals and they've already been coached on what to say then I coach them on how to say that, their voice or I’m working with a team where they're giving presentations and they're based in India and Mexico and there, but they work with English speakers and they are doing presentations for new clients and so they have a script but how to bring that script to live storytelling. So, it's a wide range of how I work with people in the corporate world. What's really interesting but I am, and actually, I could ask you, thinking about voice and speech coaching, you know, before you became a coach, before you were a life coach, a professional coach, a corporate executive coach, what did you think about the voice or change in the voice or any thoughts about that? 

 

Mireia Mujika: I mean, my voice, I think my voice sounded to me a little bit weird always and I think it never sounded very feminine to me but that didn't really bother me. All right, but what I really thought about me always and I still think is that, yeah I’m not too articulate, I think the fact that I’m coming from a place where we are not very good at speakers also because we have difficulties expressing our emotions and things. So, what bothered me more was the fact that I could not express myself as I wanted it and in a corporate world, what I found was that these people may have the same ideas as me but they express them better. Therefore, they have more options to get to the next level and that would bother me really. Yeah, that's all about it.

 

Patrick Muñoz: So, you did see it at that level of there's something about the way that they communicate, there's some other way they carry themselves. Well, that's interesting. The reason I ask is because when I have worked with these different, I worked, for instance, with doctors, they're all surgeons, they were in the children's hospital, they're orthopedic surgeons, top of their game and they're giving presentations weekly to the other staff about what they're doing because they're doing this incredible work. I mean, the kind of work they do with these kids, it's beautiful. But in each of these cases, it's so interesting. So, because it'll be one person who brings them in, so in the case of the phone coaching, when I was working with people and their tone or when I was working with these doctors, in each case, they would say the phone one was, well, I’m an organist. He placed the organ, they said. I was trained, you know, I was a singer, I know how important it is to train the voice and what you can do with it. In the case of the doctor, he said I’ll never forget being younger and go having one of my mentors telling me, the way you carry yourself makes a huge difference. So, it's that moment where somebody is maybe a musician or they've been in some acting or they've done some speech work in the past or they've had somebody tell them in their life, work on the way you present yourself. So, it's really exciting, it's that little like opening and then people go, oh yeah, I could change things but it is funny because some people think, well if I change, I’m not going to be real and that's a big stop. 

 

Mireia Mujika: And this is something that we have actually talked about in this podcast, for example, in the first episode, I think we talked about it, probably also in the second one but I mean, like our authentic self, let's say, gets lost many times within the childhood because we have to adapt to what our parents need at the time, we have to adapt to what we are expected at the school, whatever it is but we always do adapting. So, in any case, when we reach adulthood, we have already adapted so much that our authentic self is already lost. So, I think what you were saying before is connecting to ourselves again, reconnecting, finding our voice, finding who we are, letting go, all that shit, I cannot say the word because otherwise, I have to then type the podcast but letting go all that so that we can actually be again what we were supposed to be.

 

Patrick Muñoz: And I love what you just said because if we've adapted to these different roles, we have. If we can adapt to, what if we were to adapt to this role of really letting our power, there's a great poem, Marianne Williamson. She's a spiritual teacher in the United States and I think internationally and she has a poem called ‘Our greatest fear’ and it says something to the effect of our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. Who are we to hide? So, it is giving ourselves permission to, as you said, be your authentic selves, to shine. And to adapt to that, like why can’t I adapt to a power? And again, humble, can be a power filled with humility and with service but it gives you permission like you're asking me these things, just excites me and it gives me permission to talk about these things and that's what I try to do with my clients.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes, but I think like what you're saying right now, giving permission, that's actually key to so many things. Giving ourselves the permission to do anything that we want, right? I mean, I have many clients that they will not give themselves permission to go to the gym, no, because if I go to like the craziest thing and we are going off topic now completely but, you know –

 

Patrick Muñoz: It's not. It's part of voice and speech, its part of training.

 

Mireia Mujika: But I had a client. She didn't want to lose weight. This was just, you know, it was a mind trick but she wanted to lose weight but then she thought that losing weight was vain because you know, then she was giving too much importance to her body. So, giving ourselves permission to do whatever we want, it's key to be happy in this life. That's what I think. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah, it's so helpful what you do. It's so helpful to be able to look at it and say, oh yeah, but if I work on my physical and I work on my spiritual, my emotions, my vocal, my mental then suddenly, boy I show up at work and people go, where myself and my family would go, oh okay. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes.

 

Patrick Muñoz: And then they're motivated to do their best and it goes on and on, yeah. That's what's so wonderful. Sometimes, people will come to me and they'll say things about their voice and generally, I’ll say okay well, let's work on this but I let people come and I’ll say once in a while, I’ll say I don't think any of that's true or I really don't, I’m not hearing what you're talking about. You really are, you're in good shape. This is something that you've been telling yourself and that's wonderful too. So, yeah, you're letting me grow.

 

Mireia Mujika: Exactly. Million ways to grow. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: So many ways to grow.

 

Mireia Mujika: So many ways to grow. That's the name of the blog. Anyway, so now where are we? I have my questions here. Yes, I have this example of Mary. So, Mary has been getting the feedback. So, we were at the corporate culture, right, so Mike has me has been getting this feedback that she's actually a little bit too assertive and now, I have to clarify because I didn't know this. So, assertive in Spanish because we have some listeners in Spain, so let me clarify this. So, assertive in English is not the same as ascertivo in Spanish. So, assertive in English is someone that is actually a little bit put in too much, how would you actually explain what is assertive in English?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Well, assertive to me in English is a little more positive but I understand what you mean if they say they're too assertive. Assertive just means that you're clear and you're confident and that this is your decision, that this is what you want them to do, this is it. You speak up for yourself with clarity and consciousness. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: In Spanish, what is it?

 

Mireia Mujika: In Spanish, something similar but in Spanish, it has just a positive view, a positive connotation, whereas in English, you can have a little bit more of a negative one, if you say. If we say that she's too assertive. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, if you say you're too assertive, yes. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah. So, just to clarify this because I remember I was talking to my parents because of someone that we know, blah blah, and someone said she's assertive and my parents were completely confused like who is assertive? But why is that negative? So, just to clarify this. So, let's say that this Mary is too assertive. So, how could you help her?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Well, it's really cool is to find out the specifics behind that. So, she's too assertive. Okay, Mary, who is telling you this? Is it your boss, what is your relationship? The specifics, Mary do you or rather, when is it? It's asking a lot of questions. When is it you're being, when is it that this person has told you you're too assertive and so do you hear it? And so in these moments say, so when does it happen? It happens when you're talking to the team. Mary, do you hear that? Do you hear that you're too assertive? What does that sound like, is it you're too loud? Is it you have a tone to your voice, it's domineering? And can you hear it in your speech, do you hear this? Okay, and she does hear it, so why do you feel in your voice? Well, I feel like they won't listen if I’m not. If I don't like get my point across, if I don't want to be a little faster and so then I say, yeah so there we go, okay, well let's go step back, let's work on the voice and difference, let's take a step back and say, what really is your intention in that and your intention in this time when somebody is giving you a lot of flack, a lot of talking about they're your underlying and they're being kind of undermining you, what is it that you would like to do? And I understand how do you feel, we could go into that where do you feel in your body, how can you then kind of express that but what is it that we've done that, what is your intention, what do you want to do? Well, I want to tell them that they're a jerk. And well, okay, in that case, well, I can hear why your voice is coming across like that but what is the bigger picture? Well, I really would like them to come over, I would really like them to be a little more open to the ideas that I’m presenting because it's coming from management, it's coming from my desire for us all to be a better team. Oh, so I said, oh so you want really, so what is that intention? Their intention is to connect to them, and we can find some more to work as a team to come together. Oh, you want to bring this underling of yours, this not underling but this team member of yours. Over to your side, so you want to welcome them. So, how about if we were to use that tone? You can still be assertive but what about if we start to use that tone and what about can you ask them questions about what's going on there? Can you ask them, why are you, you know, what is it about our plan that you feel so adamantly against? And then you can look at that and let's identify what's really going on there. Identify what's going on with you, are you just fearful that you're going to lose your job if you don't get them to be in demand, let's kind of break it down and that way we can go to what the tone could come across based on, things that we're not even aware of and then eventually, oh, well, you know what? It is important to be assertive, maybe you can be very clear, confident, concise and move on. And that's what you have to do and that's what it is. And is it are you being called too assertive when your fellow person is being called, oh they're doing great. So, let's look at these things and then ultimately, you know, what is important to you? Is it being of service to all these people, to this company or do you realize that maybe it's time but, you know, you're not being recognized for what you do and there are other possibilities and maybe you want to do the best job you can here but let's continue to be strong and confident. So, there's so many possibilities but the basic thing is what do you really want to do, is that coming across?

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah, very good, very expressed. Awesome. American change. Yes, there is possibility. So, what fascinates you the most about coaching people in these areas? 

 

Patrick Muñoz: What drives them and what their goals are, what their experience in their life is and what they want to do and it's just so cool. I just learned, I learn more from my clients. Obviously, they learn a ton from me but I learn a ton from them. People who have started gigantic apps. One person started this gigantic app, it's a big wow, big successful huge app and just the way that they spoke, they came to me because their voice, they sound so nervous when they speak, they really think really fast. And I was like I learned why that person developed the app, which was so interesting. It really filled a need. It's something that they wanted to do. We'll do it afterwards. So, that was exciting, then just learning about their background, learning about that oh, you know what? They don't really even want to make the public presentations, they don't really want to be the face of us. That's fine. The company is doing great, they don't really need to be the face. But learning to, you know, and then also I learned, you know, was great from this person was, because I was questioning them so they would have to be able to speak publicly or be able to answer questions with some finesse and I said what's the best piece of advice and he said, it was what my mother told me, which was if you don't ask, the answer is no. And I was like, oh I like that, if you don't ask, of course, if you don't ask, nobody will know. So, I love hearing from people like when I was talking about Allen C. Fox. He is a huge successful entrepreneur, commercial. There's all kinds of investments in real estate, really created this gigantic company and then later on when he was in his 70s, he really wanted to take, you know, love for poetry. He's a true, a renaissance man and he had a love for poetry and he wanted to start to talk about people tools and how he wrote these books called people tools or love and business and I love just learning from him, what is it that kind of motivated him? I learn so much about what it is when he gets up to speak, why it is that he wants to do all these things. I love finding out about people who want to be creative and why they're being held back and the experiences they have and I especially love because I get to work, I mean I really started my career so much with accent reduction coaching, in other words, just accent reduction, especially for fulfillment TV but learning from people from all over the world, their experiences like you and I spoke last week from the Basque region in Spain, moved all over the world and now you're in Dubai, it's fascinating. I just love that and I love being, and also what fascinates me is when I’ll share a piece of poetry with somebody and they'll start to cry. They'll start to cry and say, oh this is just what I needed to read or all this.

 

Mireia Mujika: Really resonated, yeah. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: I just get such a kick out of other people and their experiences with their voice and their speech and communicating and finding dynamics. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a common thing for us coaches, we can see someone growing and that sign has just, you know, overcome all these obstacles that they had when they met us. Yeah, it's really rewarding. I have to say our job is rewarding. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: It's totally rewarding. It's one of those things like, you know, you and I obviously, because we're coaches, we want to grow, I saw that great picture of you on your website with, I was like whoa that girl's in shape. You know, we want to grow physically, mentally, emotionally, we want to keep growing and so people who come to us are coming because they have this desire to grow and they've already grown in their lives. They've done these things and they've done things that their family were like, oh, really? You're going to do that? And they've done these things and they want to keep doing it. So, it's really energizing, always energizing. 

 

Mireia Mujika: We have already reached and I say that also, timewise, we are reaching there. We have the last question already. I’m really enjoying this so I don't want –

 

Patrick Muñoz: Me too. I don't know want to, our listeners might go.

 

Mireia Mujika: So, last question is always this one. What book or other resources would you recommend to our listeners, to someone that wants to grow in this area? Voice speech communication, both resources, authors?

 

Patrick Muñoz: Yeah, because it's been me talking because I’ve done so many things out there, I would say, do go to my website or rather go to my YouTube page or website, go to the YouTube page. I have like over 250 videos and you just sort of go through and just listen to this or that, what interests you on regionalisms or an empowered voice or confidence. Anyway, it's just a research.

 

Mireia Mujika: I did one course the other day, actually. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, good. Yeah. You know, there's such a great range of things. There is this book that was just written by, I believe his last name is Cali Pinto and it's called ‘this is the voice’, and it's just a wonderful history of, it's a book by John Cola Pinto and it's a wonderful story about how he was a New York, a writer for rolling stones or New Yorker, I forget, and he was part of this band, this rock band that was going to perform and what he did perform, he didn't warm up and he went and he just blew out his voice. And then one day when he was holding the door open for one of his neighbors in New York, he said oh what floor? And she goes, oh you've damaged your voice? And he said, you can tell? She goes, oh yeah, you need to work on your voice. Well, she was one of my mentors. Her name is Andrea Haring. The original teacher was Kristin Linklater and she wrote a book called ‘freeing the natural voice’ back in the 70s and just a wonderful book and then they revised it in, I think in the 2000s, I had both those books. And she was Andrea’s teacher and also, I was actually under a student and I’ve worked with Kristin Linklater and I’ve incorporated a lot of her work. It's a wonderful resource. Kristin Linklater is in those two books and it was really interesting because Andrea Haring identified to him, the Colapinto that he was having voice difficulties and, you know, they really worked on supporting the voice, going to a good voice and speech rather to a good ear, nose and throat doctor to diagnose what was going on and he still hasn't recovered his voice fully but he's learned that all of these tensions, the way he holds himself to try to like deal with that. So, ‘this is the voice’ is a great book. The ‘freeing the natural voice’ is another wonderful book. Now, I just bought a book that I should probably read it but I just got it in the mail and it's called ‘breath - the new science of a lost art’ by James Nestor. And I want to give it a big plug because my friend is in his 70s and he has COPD, which is a blocking of the lungs. It's a lung disease. He has a lot of difficulty breathing and he was on oxygen. Well, he found here we got the book and he found someone who coaches in that and he's been working just on his breath, just on the breath, just the breath, which is the key to everything. And he uses his oxygenator less now. He uses the oxygen tank less because of that breathing. So, I just got the book in the mail. It just came out. I just got it, I’ll read it but that's a, I think, that'd be a wonderful resource. So, those are really good, really good things and those are the big powerful books. This is the voice, we'll give you a kind of like a whole story from Aristotle to now.

 

Mireia Mujika: Oh, wow. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: About what is rhetoric, who has voices, how you gain your voice, how you lose your voice, the science of the voice, really interesting book. Then the book by Kristin Linklater, it's sort of like the actor’s god, you know, it's like kind of like the goddesses and she just passed away two years ago, Kristin Linklater, and she was a real force in voice of the retreat. And then finally, the breath because that's what it's so key. It's all about the breath. So, I’d recommend those three things. Oh, and I can't leave out any book by Dale Carnegie. ‘How to win friends and influence people?’ He has a book on public speaking and it's about the mindset and all these things, you know, they're the truisms that last that are all forever, all the same things. What they were saying two thousand years ago, applies now. You want to learn to speak, go up on the mountaintop and yell at the top of your voice and open your mouth and use your voice and you will have a voice that's powerful and dynamic, and it's always there with you. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes, and we can train it. That's the important thing. We can train and we can improve.

 

Patrick Muñoz: You can train yourself. I belong to the voice of speech trainers of America. We will whip you into shape just personally, it'll be fun. We won't whip, we'll encourage, maybe a little whipping, a little bit.

 

Mireia Mujika: But I learned a lot today .I really learned a lot. One thing that I think is really in my mind is what you were saying right now, this last book, the breath. So, it's funny how in every conversation that I had with different coaches or whether there are trainers or psychology therapists, whatever, the breath has come through the conversation always because whether it is, well, as you were saying, I mean how do we actually find our voice so that's just first relaxing and for that, you were saying that, was it BOF, right?

 

Patrick Muñoz: BOF - breath, open, flow.

 

Mireia Mujika: So, how breathing is so extremely important for relaxing us, relaxing our nervous system so that we can do anything whether that is talking, speaking or whether that is just whatever you want to do in life. It's crazy how breathing is so important but still we don't know much about it and we don't practice enough and we don't exercise it enough. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: That's why I’m kind of – Patrick, get that book and roll, crack it up. I can't wait because if I were to see, you know, if we could, the listener will say, oh well, just tell me that next time. If I were to say one thing about the voice, it would be breathe. Breathe more than you're used to. Be overly indulgent in your breath. If you listen to somebody who talks and you go, I just like the way they sound, they're so comforting, they're so knowledgeable, they're so centered, you'll notice that nine times out of ten, they're breathing, their voice is connected to their breath and they're relaxed but generally, what is a good voice? What is a good leader? A good leader is one who is relaxed. Doesn't mean they're without passion and being invigorated but they come from a centered place and it's all about the breath. So, the breath. The listener says, well, now wait a second. He said breath and he went on. Breath. I love that the other disciplines talk about the same thing. Meditation, yoga. 

 

Mireia Mujika: Yeah, we were talking about yoga in the last one and he was explaining how well the pranayama, right, the breathing. The breathiness actually is the life force. So, we can be without food for many days, you know, like some days but without breathing, how many minutes? No. So, that's the real life force and that's where his place, you know, now I wouldn't be able to say what he actually explained but yeah, so how breathing is so important, how you centered everything and how you can then meditate once that you actually control your breathing. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: And you'll notice when you finish meditating how your voice is deeper and more resonant.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. This was amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anything that I should have asked that I haven't asked? Anything that you want to add?

 

Patrick Muñoz: I just have much fun. This is big talking to you. You're such a pleasure. I can't wait to go to Dubai, I want to go to Dubai.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. Please, come over. We'll show you the city and you'll see how many different accents we have here. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, we love it. 

 

Mireia Mujika: How many different nationalities, how sometimes you go like as I was telling you, like when I arrived in Dubai, I used to get the headaches because I couldn't understand the different accents, yeah. And it was very difficult for me to make people understand myself. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, my god. All right. Well, what a pleasure.

 

Mireia Mujika: Thank you very much. Yeah. 

 

Patrick Muñoz: We will talk again, I hope.

 

Mireia Mujika: Yes. Whenever you want, you can come to the show, you know.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Thank you.

 

Mireia Mujika: Thank you very much, Patrick. Awesome. I’m not going to, oh, well, I can't stop actually the recording now.

 

Patrick Muñoz: Oh, good. You don't do any little takeout to outtake where you say –

 

List of authors, books & resources: 

  • This is the voice by John Cola Pinto

  • Freeing the natural voice by Kristin Linklater

  • Breath - the new science of a lost art by James Nestor

  • How to win friends and influence people? by Dale Carnegie

  • 51 affirmations by Patrick Muñoz

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