Habits and Hustle
Episode 445: Amy Chapman: How Voice Control Techniques Can Transform Your Life and Career
Tue, 29 Apr 2025
Ever wonder how some voices can captivate audiences? In this Habits and Hustle podcast episode, I am joined by Amy Chapman, a highly sought-after vocal therapist who has worked with stars like Shakira, Sia, and Anthony Kiedis. We discuss how anyone can harness vocal techniques to sound more authoritative, likable, or persuasive depending on their objectives. We also explore the psychological connection between voice and confidence, why "down talk" commands more respect than "up talk," and how simple adjustments in your speaking patterns can dramatically change how people perceive you. Amy Chapman is a board-certified speech-language pathologist who combines clinical expertise with artistic experience. Her career spans television, music, and corporate settings, where she helps clients optimize their voice health, expand their range, and enhance their performance. She's also the lead voice coach for "The Masked Singer" and works with CEOs and business leaders to improve their communication effectiveness. What We Discuss: (00:00) Confidence and Self-Worth (19:55) Voice Training for Artists and Professionals (27:50) Voice Influence on Perception and Outcomes (32:16) Voice Dynamics and Communication Mastery (41:18) Mastering Voice Techniques for Engagement (47:13) Effective Communication Through Vocal Training (52:43) Developing Warmth and Authentic Communication (58:43) Embracing Authenticity and Self-Presentation (01:11:44) Morning Routine as Meditative Practice …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Amy Chapman: Website: https://www.voicelabla.com/#home Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amychapman/?hl=en
Chapter 1: Who is Amy Chapman and what is her expertise in voice coaching?
Her name is Amy Chapman. And this girl is, first of all, the best personality ever. But besides that, she is the, I don't even know what we call it, the biggest voice coach guru expert on the planet. And when I read off and riddle off her resume, you'll understand what I mean. Listen to this.
She is a highly sought after vocal therapist, renowned singing voice specialist, and leading expert in voice optimization. With an unparalleled combination of clinical expertise and artistic experience, Amy has built a remarkable career transforming the voices of some of the world's most celebrated performers.
As a licensed and board-certified speech-language pathologist, she brings a deep scientific understanding of vocal health and physiology to her work. Listen to some of her clients, guys.
Amy's career spans a diverse range of industries, from television to touring music artist, where she's worked with some major stars like Shakira, Sia, Meghan Trainor, Idina Menzel, Anthony Kiedis, my personal favorite, And so many others. She's helped these global icons optimize their voice health, expand their range, enhance their performance, and prevent vocal strain. And I can go on and on.
She's also like the lead voice coach for that show, the mask singer. I mean, there's so many things. It's unbelievable. And when I met you, how many things... I learned so much in that one conversation when I first met you that I had to have you on this show. So thanks for being here.
I'm so happy to be here. And it gets me so excited every time somebody reads that. I'm like, God, I'm so cool. I'm like, God, it is good. But I have such a high self-esteem anyway.
And I'm like, yes, good job, Amy.
You know what's amazing? I love that you don't feign compliments like that. Because so many times people sit here and they're like, oh, they try to feign humility, right? Like, oh... You're like, no, I am the shit. Like I've done all this stuff. I've like have a huge career. I've done it. I'm doing it. And you own it.
You know what? When we talk about, I know we're going to talk about like confident voice and all that. But I think with the confidence, the self-esteem is so huge. And in my office, in my studio that I have people, I always say like, this is a brag friendly zone. I want no humility whatsoever. Like if you sound good, be like, yes. I sounded good.
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Chapter 2: What is the difference between an artist, a singer, and a star?
Sometimes it's a mix of both.
But I think it becomes a mix of both when you're a huge star, right? But I always thought that she had a beautiful voice that made her a great singer. But you're right. I never looked at her as an artist. She didn't come across. Is there a difference between an artist, a singer, and a star? Or is a star and an artist the same thing?
No, because you can be an artist and not be a star. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. That's 100% true.
You can be like a fantastic artist, but nobody knows you or very few people know you. So you're not a star level. And you can be an awesome singer and not an artist. You can be an awesome artist and not really a singer. So Ariana would be more of a star. She's a star. She's a singer. And you know what? Some people are going to watch this and be like, Amy, you're wrong. She is an artist.
And I think that is completely subjective if someone's an artist or not. Because then you go back to the question and you're like, well, what is art? What makes somebody an artist? Like Taylor Swift, you were going to say something about her. I was going to say Taylor Swift to me. I'm like, you are a singer. You are a star.
And some people will call you an artist, but I'm like, I call you a singer.
And a great singer. So why? Why would she not be an artist?
Because nothing... To me, personally, I'm going to get so much shit for this. You'll never get hired by them ever.
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Chapter 3: How did Amy Chapman transition from singer to vocal therapist and coach?
So I would – with a singer, I'd mold them. I'd be like, I'm going to tell you what to do. You're going to do this riff. You're going to change your voice this way. Make this sound like this. I will give artists, I will give singers coaching. And artists, I will give support. So I'm not going to tell Sia anything. where to put her voice, and how to do her riff. That's her thing.
But I will tell her the things to optimize what she does. So a lot of people come to me, especially with like nodules or vocal difficulties or something going on with their voice. Since I am a voice therapist, I work and I treat the voice. But I'm not going to change them. Meaning I'm not going to say like, don't sing breathy and husky like that. anymore.
Sing clean and clear, even though that would be better for their voice and be healthier. I'm not going to do that because I'm not going to change you as an artist. And I think that's why a lot of artists like me, because I'm not trying to change them. A lot of other voice therapists, and I'm not saying they're doing anything wrong, everybody has their own style, will be like, that's not healthy.
So sing it a little bit more clear and a little bit more pingy and a I don't want to. I'm an artist. This is my thing. I sing it like this. So how can I do it like this, but healthier? So that's how I would be different with an artist versus a singer.
So you were a singer. Tell me, so let's get back to you for a minute now. Because you were a singer, not an artist. So how did you, what was your evolution? Because given your personality, you seem to have the package. Like I heard you sing with my mom earlier. You were singing like opera.
Yeah. I trained in opera when I was a kid. That's how I started is classically singing. And I was like, this is so much fun. And then I went to a performing arts high school and it was so much fun. And obviously I'm a performer. You can see it in me. I don't stop. And I love it. And then I went to UCLA for musical theater. And there was a certain point I had a master class with Diane Keaton.
And she said, if you can do anything else in this world, do it. And I was like, oh, I can do a lot of things. And that's where I, and I come from a very medical family and they're all healers. My dad's a doctor, my mom's a nurse, my brother-in-law's a doctor, my cousin's a doctor, like everybody's doctors in my family. And I love to heal. I love to teach. I love to heal.
I love to take care of people. And I also love music and voice. And then I put it all together. I was like, I can take that and help that and
be a voice healer and then it turns into coaching because no one wants to be injured no one likes to be injured right so it's all about the coaching and every singer who's a professional singer is like a little bit injured because you're using your voice so much it's just like every football player has a bum knee or a back hurt yeah when you are an athlete of whatever it is
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Chapter 4: How do professional singers train and maintain their vocal health for demanding performances?
Yep. Yep. Because you need to train your voice to be able to come together while you're like... Right. So you're doing that. So yeah, it's all the training.
How else do you control your voice? How else do you teach people to control their voice like that?
I mean, breath. Breath support. Bringing a big, wide breath and not letting it all out. So the big, wide... Spread your ribcage out and hold your breath. And then be able to talk whilst not just, ah, not letting it all out. So keeping that support.
And like an Idina Mize, like who's like massive, right? So she's frozen. She's all these things. Can you tell me why you're going to, that's where you're going right now to do New York.
She's doing a show. Okay. Opening a new Broadway musical called Redwoods. It's fantastic. Yeah. And yeah, just helping her prepare for that, making sure that she's going to stay strong throughout because Broadway is a whole different beast. You have to do eight shows a week. Right. So she's singing eight shows a week.
And so I'm making sure that her voice is strong, that she can do all these things with a lot of this stuff. So A, we're training her voice. That's like muscle training. coming together.
How do you train a voice? How does it work? If I go to the gym and I go to train my legs, I'm going to do my squats and my lunges and do all those things. I know how to train your body. How do you train your voice? Just by practicing?
Practicing in very specific exercises. If somebody has a weaker voice or their voice is a little bit breathy and they sort of talk like this, I will give them a hard exercise like, uh, hold that. Right? Just holding a long, hard ah, go up the scale. It's muscles. Your vocal cords are the size of your thumbnail. Do you know that? So teeny tiny. And all it is is little tissue.
And then there's muscles on the side, so you bring it together. So I will have a soft voice like that. Give that really big, loud sound, but not in a place where they're screaming and hurting themselves, but something that's really nice and supported. And then if somebody has a voice that's too hard and too rough, then I'm going to take it down. And I'll be like, okay, now for you, it's different.
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Chapter 5: How can everyday people optimize their voices for authority and likability?
Right. You don't take them seriously.
I would tell them, I would say, number one, is it a question? Because a question goes up at the end. Right?
Yeah.
Huh? You hear that. And immediately I question. And if I'm questioning something that somebody else is saying, I don't have confidence in that. That just like flies out the window. Yeah. But if she goes down. So now I'm going to take that same kind of pinched small voice and I'm going to say, hi, I'm Amy and I do this. You're like, okay, that's a little better.
And then that pinch right in here, I'm like, that's too small. I want to show big. And kids are small. And we hear kids' voices in a different way. They're children. They're small. They're little. So it's all little. When I tell people, I say, open your throat. We have so much space that we don't always use. So then I open my throat. If you hear pitch... This note, ah, ah, that's the same note.
But the second one sounds so much lower, right? You hear it in your brain. It's not. It's the same. But my space in my throat is different. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. All of a sudden, you're like, what? That's like a confident woman on that second one. And like a little kid in the first one.
Can you teach someone who normally talks? Like Ariana Grande, let's go back to her. Sure. If you hear her talk, she talks like a baby.
Yeah.
And she has a squeaky voice. Yeah. But when she sings, she doesn't have that voice.
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Chapter 6: What role does pitch, tone, and 'down talk' play in sounding confident and authoritative?
We do it with our parents, with our in-laws, with our kids, with our teachers, with whoever. I am code switching throughout the day. And I think that's huge. It makes me more successful. It makes the clients I'm working with. They're not like, this girl doesn't know what she's talking about. It's like, oh, no, she does. But then I'm going to go to somebody else and be like, yeah, what's up?
You know, like we code switch. A hundred percent.
So, okay. So then when this guy hired you or a voice coach. Sure. For his voice to be less boring, what makes a voice boring versus a voice much more exciting?
So this, for that specific BuzzFeed, I'll give that as an example. Kane came to me. And he's kind of quiet and a little bit monotone. And he said, hey, Amy, so I do this. And I'm like, what? Like, you're so monotone. You're just right here. Nothing varies. You're just, you know, hey, how you doing? I was like, okay, we got to take a step back. What are you trying to get from me?
Do you want me to be excited by you? Get me excited. What does that look like? And I will take it further back of like, how did you speak as a kid? How did you want people to see you? Did you like to be in the front? Did you want to be center of attention or no? Do you want that now or no? You know, it goes back and back and back. But for him, I was like, let's get some intonation in there.
So move your voice up. Bring it up. Bring your volume up at different times. Punch different things that you want to come and don't. Use your body. So you can see I use my body when I'm talking. I'm not just here, but I keep it bringing out. And that brings people in. So it's not all the, I'm not flailing around, but I want you to use your full body. I want you to use your eye contact.
I want you to use your soul. When you're talking to somebody, there's no one else in the room. And if you're talking to a group of people, I want them to feel like there's no one else in the room. You don't have to lock eyes with them, but you have to feel that like, I am talking to you. I'm giving you my all. And after I talk, I am like zonked because I've given so much energy.
I need to recharge.
So with this guy or for anybody whose voice is more monotone, more boring. Yeah. How do you train somebody to actually really envelop that and really do it? Like it's one thing to do it once after you or twice, but how can you really, if someone is the way they are and that's their voice most of the time, can you actually change someone's voice like forever?
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Chapter 7: How does code switching with your voice affect communication and perception?
They're just kind of like – And there's nothing wrong with that. No, I know. Yeah. But if you're reserved, you're like, I don't want to do that. It feels weird. Feels weird. It feels weird to go big. And I'm like, feel weird. Feel weird. Don't feel shame. Don't feel embarrassed. Because if you're embarrassed, I promise you, your TED Talk's not going to do well.
If you're like, I sort of like don't want to be here. That comes across. And people are like, well, if you don't want to be here, I don't want to be watching you. Right? But if someone's like, oh my God, I want to be here so badly. I'm so stoked to be here. And you can see that you're like, yeah, I want to be here with you. I don't care what you're talking about.
You're talking about a toenail fungus. Sign me up. Like it's, so exciting because you're excited. Show me that excitement. And then take me on a journey. Show me that excitement. Show me big. So that's why when people are reserved, I'm like, go crazy. I have them jump around. I have them move about. I have them flail their arms up and really go wild. So then they don't feel that shame as much.
Get weird. Get completely weird. Be embarrassed. Get it out. And then you can find places where you're like, yes, here I am talking about toenail fungus on my TED Talk. And then I'm going to bring it back because I'm telling you a story. And if every story is at a 10 the whole time, it feels like you're yelling at me. But I have to have you bring it back.
And there's got to be parts where you bring it in. And like I said before, when I'm quiet, you lean in. So then I go big. And I go big where it matters. And then I pull you in. And I'm like, now you come into me because I'm going to bring it here. And then we're going to be someplace else in the middle. So give me a range of emotion. Give me a range of things to be excited about.
When I see a movie and it's one character and he's the same exact throughout, you're like, you're so boring. But a good movie and a good character, you see an arc. You see them start somewhere else and end somewhere else.
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Chapter 8: What makes a voice boring versus exciting, and how can you improve vocal variety?
That's so true. So what do moms, like when I wanted my kid to clean his room or listen to me, because God knows I repeat myself. I get so frustrated. I get so annoyed. I'm sure you do too. You got kids. Totally. So to be cognizant of not being, not just to be a yell, like just not to yell the same thing I yelled the day before, two minutes ago.
So when you take it in, when you're more quiet or more close up, is it both? Yeah.
So it's both. And a pause. I mean, there's so much there. The number one thing to get somebody to hear you is to make sure they're listening. If I'm just yelling upstairs and they're doing something else, why are they going to listen? But if I go to my kid and I'm like, I have a kid named Mo. I'm like, Mo, you need to clean your room now. And he's like, okay, ma.
You know, like make sure they're listening. That goes with every TED Talk you're doing too. If you're talking to somebody and they're like, ah, bah, bah. But if you stop and you pause and you're like, it's going to get awkward. And then all of a sudden people are going to listen. And you're like, now we can go. Thank you. And you keep going.
You have to be careful what energy you're giving across because sometimes it's like, Right, right, right. You know, like when that happens. So it depends on what you're trying. But if you stop and you're like, thanks so much. Now, and you can like do it in a charming way that's just a little bit more approachable for people to be like, got it.
You know, it's interesting right now, like just during this interview, I can see all the different ranges in your voice. Like you are a pro. You go quiet, you go loud, you go animated. You do like, it's like, it's amazing, right? How you really have made your voice like your instrument too and how to teach.
Because when you're working with massive personalities, they need to A, trust you and listen to you and think that you know what you're talking about, right? So did you train yourself also to be that way? Yes. I became more cognizant of it.
Because I always was animated. I was a performer. So I always had all that there. But then once I started working with other people and noticing it in them, you know, when you teach, you learn. And once I started teaching people, I was like, oh, I can do that too. And then I just became way more cognizant just noticing that in everybody else.
Yeah. What other kind of, besides like artists, like pop stars and big, you know, music people, performers, have you ever been hired by everyday other people to help them with a particular issue to help them optimize their voice?
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