The Power of Voice Training for Leaders in Any Profession (ft. Serg Sanchez)

Welcome to Digital Voices, where healthcare and life science leaders explore the real work behind transformation. This podcast is about people, leadership, and the conversations that move healthcare forward. Now your host, Ed Marks. Hey, it's Ed. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. This one's gonna be so much fun because we have someone from outside of healthcare, my friend Serge Sanchez. Serge, welcome to Digital Voices. Hey, nice to see you. Great to see you. This is great because you are a music writer, producer, singer, and you're a vocal coach. Yep. That's pretty cool. And we're going to dive into that a little bit because that's one thing every leader needs, I think, is a vocal coach. And you do it in the music industry, but I bet some of the things that we'll talk about are transferable to just singer who's kind of a leader. So we first met really through my son. And so my youngest son, Austin Sean, he's a producer and writer. And the two of you met, I don't even know how long ago, like maybe three, four years ago. Yeah, probably around four, four years ago, maybe five now. I'm not sure. But yeah, I met him through Bailey, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Through Bailey Zimmerman. That was a common point. And then we've got to interact in our families a little bit. So it's really cool. But sir, it's the most important question. I will ask the entire podcast. What songs are on your playlist? Like what kind of music do you listen to? I know it's kind of funny asking you this song, you this question, because you're in the industry. Yeah, I mean, no, it's actually I mean, I can definitely narrow it down. I think I only laugh because of what I kind of go after every day. If I were to go turn on music, if it's a playlist type thing, I want something that I don't want to have to turn off or change. Right. Yeah. So it's got to be an artist or music that that I can just listen to. endlessly so i can definitely listen to i can't say growing up it was the same but now i can listen to like you know john mayer endlessly coltrane the eagles george straight stuff like that so when it comes to just kind of having something around the house those are the kind of artists that i can just kind of leave running yeah going tyler children's even i could just let that that music go and and go there but if i'm hanging out working in the studio i turn in if i'm working in the studios and like fixing something or working out or doing something like that i kind of turn into a kid again and listen to some hard rock grunge music you know pearl jam sound garden rvon all that stuff too but yeah pretty much it's kind of if if i just tell what i'm asking alexa to do is usually play some coltrane or john mayer eagles yeah that's very cool what about life message or mantra are there is there a words or a quote or sort of philosophy that you live by i don't know that it's necessarily consciously or that's something that I continuously say but I guess when I think about it hard enough it's definitely like a die trying type of thing I I definitely am like a you know even in the music business I would consider myself kind of like a cockroach you know I'm still still around still doing it all these years so definitely just try you know almost in anything if I'm struggling if my day has been going kind of rough whatever just try give it a try you know just just keep going don't stop try you know yeah love that so tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into vocal coaching stuff like that like who are you where did you grow up what's your life story okay yeah I um I was born in Miami Florida my parents are from Cuba and I lived in Miami for about 10 years. My parents split up. My mom met a guy from Alabama and we ended up moving to Gainesville, Florida. So, and we kind of moved on to a little, it'd be weird to call it a farm, but we did have a cow and a horse and all that stuff and about, you know, 12 to 14 acres there and kind of in the middle of nowhere, North Florida. So I grew up there and essentially kind of lived pretty much a very country life there. I have an older brother, so that's seven years older than me, but I spent pretty much from age 12, 11, and 12 and on as kind of an only child there. He had stayed in Miami when we moved. So I had plenty of space and I had a lot of time on my hands and didn't have a lot of – didn't have – and I had friends and stuff. It's not like I didn't have friends, but I definitely was somewhat isolated after school in time and just kind of doing my thing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of where I started. Yeah. Yeah. What's a pivotal moment in life that fundamentally changed your trajectory? Like did something happen in your youth or maybe as an adult that kind of changed like into what you're doing? I would definitely say that if I were to look at my career where I'm at now, probably it's going to sound like a cop out answer, but it's not. probably when I met my wife in my late 20s. That was a big change. My focus just really changed. And I sort of evaluated my career, which we can get into later. But and when I met her, it was pretty much the catalyst as to getting me to move to Knoxville, Tennessee, where I then started teaching voice there and met Morgan there. So if I look at that year of, you know, sorry, I guess it was a couple of years before I moved there. But essentially meeting my wife, shifting my location and moving to Knoxville, which was a huge change and a big difference in my life from touring, you know, and all the things that I was doing to go settle down a little town. And but I met Morgan Wallen and it kind of really sort of took things into a different direction. There was a big one. Yeah. So, yeah. So you already broached the topic of music. Yeah. Tell us how you how did you get into music? Like you talked about living sort of on the farm. I have to say when you have an older brother and an older sibling, especially in that era, in the early 90s, late 80s, early 90s, I was exposed to whether my mom wanted me to be exposed to or not. Yeah, I was exposed to a lot of pretty edgy music, you know, whether it was what was kind of happening in my, you know, in the pop scene, hip hop scene, I should say. But I always come back to a specific song. It's a song called Big Empty by Stone Temple Pilots. And that song was on a soundtrack for a movie called The Crow. And when I was a kid, my brother had taken me to one of those dollar theaters or whatever and saw The Crow. And I guess if I remember correctly, there was some soundtracks for sale there. He bought the soundtrack and we were listening to it on the way home. and when that song came on, I might have been around 11 or something like that, 10 or 11. When I heard that I remember being very enamored by it and I heard my brother singing along with it because he kind of knew it and I immediately was like I want to try to sing to this can I sing this is cool this is really it was almost the first time most of us when we had music you feel that there's something that's yours yeah like this music is mine this is not my mom's yeah you know this is this kind of thing is mine so I remember really getting um into that and I feel like just at an early age kind of getting into some pretty deep you know even to an extent dark music at an early age and that was big because i feel like it set the tone for for the rest of it i can kind of go back every time i hear that song i think about that moment yeah and then did you have this like dream like is that when you started like picking up an instrument or did you have no i actually no i didn't i didn't probably was a couple years later in gainesville when i was living there specifically the town of trenton florida that I grew up in I like to give Trenton a shout out always home of Easton Corbin but it's also the home of me too guys come on you know but I specifically remember them wanting to play drums so I was obsessed with bands so I got really obsessed with it I would I just got really into that and in the culture of that and I wanted to be in a band it was such a big departure from where I grew up you know some of those cool bands that you would see on MTV and all that stuff and I felt like, you know, I just wanted to play some drums. I just remember getting some drums from my mom and my parents got me and they immediately were like, yeah, we love you, but I don't think that's going to happen. And I ended up picking up my grandpa's guitar. And that was kind of the deal that I can play guitar and maybe they'd get me some lessons. That's kind of where it started. It was. And I have to tell you, as bad as it sounds, even though I'm a vocal coach and I always tell my my clients is it's funny that in a way my first few lessons kind of I think that was a big moment for me because I felt like I didn't want to learn what they were teaching I just wanted to go learn some Nirvana songs or write some songs I had an inclination already my immediate thought was I don't want to learn the things you're showing me which is not good but it definitely opened my eyes that I actually did have an interest in this and I wanted to write music. I wanted to do my own thing. I almost didn't want to go that route, which was pretty interesting. In other words, I think if I just stuck with guitar lessons, I don't mean voice lessons, but if I stuck with guitar lessons, I don't know that I would have actually really stuck with it. I just said, you know something, Mom, I'll make you a deal if you can let me quit these lessons. Which, by the way, my mom does not like me quitting stuff, but I was like, I promise you I will play this guitar. I love it I just want to sit at home and learn how to play some power chords and some songs and I became very obsessive about it so it's kind of interesting that that was it was almost a little bit of a punk rock moment where I'm like right okay actually I don't want to do this but actually I really want I want to make sure my mom allows me to still keep playing I was only like 12 you know yeah and yeah that's that was big cool so so fast forward to today and we're going to get into vocal coaching in a second, but fast forwarding today, generally as a singer, songwriter, producer, and vocal coach, what's a typical year like? I imagine it's very varied, but what's a typical year look like for you? Are you on the road sometimes helping out? Are you in the studio? How's it go? I could ask the universe to every day how it's going to go, but if I look back, the last few years have been sort of, it's almost a little bit more how my week looks, I guess, would be it's kind of like a couple a couple days of writing in sessions with different artists and various songwriters in town and then there's always some form of production that's kind of sitting there for the most part some sort of record that I'm working on recording or something that's pending there but mixed in I'm teaching lessons you know throughout the week on zoom or in person and then what it's kind of been just about in the summertime every year I find I find my way out on the road with some artists that need some help um and uh some guidance and and some teams that you know um that need some help and guidance and how to get um you know just singers really in an optimal place or help them with injury recovery things like that so i do a little bit of a little bit of all that throughout the year it's it's pretty it's pretty hectic but it's i don't know i can i complain some days but then i'm like i don't know i think it's kind of kind of how I want it you know yeah yeah super cool yeah tell us all surrounds music you know yeah no that's super cool tell us one or two highlights in your career so far that that you know are top of mind definitely it's hard to look at my journey and not especially with how how huge Morgan's become it's hard to look at my journey and not um kind of look at that put a magnifying glass on that specific time where I met him and helped him develop everything you know just kind of worked with him songwriting vocal coaching kind of essentially I mean I moved my life to Nashville in fact Morgan's band was the band I was in so I recruited the band the band that I was in I recruited them to be Morgan's live band and still to today um still today they're his live band um the members of the band that I was in throughout throughout all my 20s a band called Adam Smash um But yeah, I would say the highlights would be definitely being a part of his journey and trajectory. And I've had a couple of milestones with songwriting, you know, having songs, you know, stream in the billions and stuff. It's a pretty big deal, you know, in the sense of like for somebody like how I grew up and certainly would have never thought it would be in the country genre. so some of that stuff but definitely like you know really just the highlights would be just kind of getting phone calls from certain artists and their teams that are that are kind of in a bad in a tough spot and and they need some help and kind of being there for them and um uh the last couple years especially have been kind of like a highlight one little highlight after another of just of just that kind of thing just working with those artists being somebody that they would call for help there. Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, and just an audience is going to want to know. And as we go into vocal coaching here. Yeah, so Morgan, there's Bailey Zimmerman that you've worked with. Who else? Parker McCollum. There's a young guy that's out there now doing great called Cameron Whitcomb. I'm working with Dylan Marlowe. Yeah, Josh Ross, Nate Smith. I've worked with him quite a bit this year. there's also stuff outside of country there's an artist named briston maroney that's an alternative act it doing really well that i started worked with him when he was a teenager i kind of have to go back even though he he been a long time I was there kind of in those early days and but yeah I just worked with uh um quite a few those acts and it kind of neat because like Bailey oh Bailey would be a really interesting highlight because he's another act that I would I would have had songs that I've written with yeah Bailey that have that have been released and and all that but also vocal coaching him. So that's kind of, you know, so that's what I was saying. Morgan and Bailey would be artists that have that kind of sort of like, oh, that's kind of interesting. You were the vocal coach and you had some songs with them too. It's, you know, so that's cool. Yeah, so on vocal coaching now, why would an artist reach out for a coach? And then what does that mean? Like, what do you do? Give us an example. Okay, yeah, that's actually a really good question. So I would compartmentalize that and say that if a person is starting off and they're just somebody that, you know, you know, they're really just getting going, I would say that the phone call and the initial lessons are really surrounding singing on key and like giving them regiments, the proper vocal technique and breath support. But a lot of it is fundamentally seeing if they can hold a tune, right? Although I have worked with a lot. I've been in Nashville for about 10 years. I've probably worked with close to 700, 800 clients or something. I've kind of lost track. My wife has, if you call it, a Rolodex and stuff. We have that. Definitely a lot of novice. I've worked with a lot of people. I think it's helped. One hand has washed the other. I think working with people that are getting going and just doing it for fun. I get more calls now, hey my voice is just hoarse it's blown out it's having i'm having issues with sort of surviving as a singer through the uh through the touring process sometimes i get calls for pre-recording process like let's work on stuff before we get in the studio sometimes it's hey i need you in the studio with me yeah um to kind of be that's actually how we met now that i think of it we probably met like in that sort of thing like hey i'd like to have the vocal coach in the studio while making the record with Bailey. So essentially, but yeah, a lot of it really is, if I were to really narrow it down nowadays, the big phone call is, I don't have a solid daily routine that I'm doing. I don't, where do I start? And why am I losing my voice so much? Because I imagine, Serge, that it's, you know, someone just started singing, they had a band, and they get popular, and they've never had training, right? They never had formal training. And just like we do with exercise, like you got to lift weights. And that's what was me. Yeah, that was me. That was actually, you know, that's by the way, I should probably mention this is very important to the journey. OK, yeah, because it is also I experienced that. That's how I got into this at all was I the band I was in, Adam Smash was got signed to Sony. And I'm not even kidding. Literally, as I signed the document in that in that that week, I lost my voice and I didn't get it back. I was trying to tour through. I had not taken lessons. I really avoided lessons. I was like, you know, too punk rock to go do that. I'm a lost cause. I'm screaming. But I blew my voice out and it didn't come back. And it was the scariest point of that time in my life because I'd worked so hard to get there. And I had no voice to record the album that we were going to make. So I got lucky that the producer I was making the record with convinced me to go see this vocal coach in New York. And that's where we were making the album. And that vocal coach just really just sort of changed the game for me, gave me all the daily routines that I could ask for, really taught me lifestyle things. I was not living right. Just got me, just sort of set me on the right path and went on to sing thousands of shows beyond that and finish that record and become a sponge for, I was almost like fascinated with how it worked. I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. How am I getting through this, you know? Yeah. So by the end of it, so what I was getting at is I was the client. I was the person that was in a jam and had something. So now I'm kind of, I kind of get to go through that process again, although it's a little stressful reliving that a little bit, but I've done it enough times that I kind of, the story, I've been very blessed when the story ends well, usually. Yeah, no, that's cool. I saw it, you know, in a different way, but I saw the power of it. Excuse me, speaking of voice. I saw it in a different way when, you know, I grew up, seven kids, brothers and sisters, and we all had average voices. We always sing at Christmas time, Christmas carols and all sorts of things. One of my sisters goes off to college. One semester, she comes back in time for Christmas and we sing. And her voice was amazing. And it was because she got coaching because she was getting her degree in music and she got coaching. I saw right there, dang, it's not like she had a more blessed voice than the rest of us. We all had that raw voice, but a good coach brings it out. Yes, absolutely. Serge, that's where I want to pivot to now. So a lot of my audience, as I mentioned, are executives in healthcare. Many of them, all of them have to perform, if you will, with their voice on a daily basis. Sometimes it's formal, like speaking to thousands of people, or sometimes it's just speaking to a smaller number, but there's always this performance, there's always speaking. And so when we met and I'm thinking about coaching and music industry, I think the same in my profession. So what are one or two techniques that you might suggest, not for a musician, you know, an art musical artist, but like professionals that have to speak for a living? Yeah. Listen, I think the reality is that public speakers or leaders or people that are taking meetings or whatever it is, essentially, you are singing. That is what you're doing. It's not a musical thing and there isn't something musical happening necessarily, but you are having to get a lot of words out, right? Getting the information out. And that's quite often how we lose our voice. The reality is just make sure you're breathing also while you're talking. So being conscious of inhaling and taking a breath. And sometimes we have to get quick. Sometimes we have to be very fast at it. So if you hear me, if I'm saying like, one, two, three, four, five, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 you're hearing that i'm taking a breath i'm supporting my voice making sure i have some air while i'm talking be conscious of it it's easy it's actually a lot easier to forget to breathe when we're speaking than it is when we're singing because there's something rehearsed happening when we're singing if you will and then the next thing is everyone can use a warm-up it doesn't matter if you're a singer or that there's plenty of great little warm-ups on youtube you just vocal warmups doing any any warmup there there some that are probably more effective out there in terms of for public speaking But finding a warm that works for you in the mornings before you go into your meetings five minutes doesn have to be a long thing And get your voice stretched up and warmed up a little bit for the day. You'll also notice a big one so you don't lose your voice is make sure that you find a spot in your voice, in your speaking voice, that you hear clarity and you feel smooth. this so in other words if i'm talking down here if i'm if i'm trying to lose this voice here you know like that i'm not gonna i'm not gonna lie i'm not gonna i'm more susceptible to hoarseness and i'm wearing down my voice but if i find a spot where the voice is here here here in my voice so i'm working a little bit so i'm actually projecting i'm working a little bit to find smoothness in my speaking voice and i laugh because sometimes i hear it in like an ai voice you know like i'll hear i go oh that's interesting the ai voice has a pretty solid like it's clear it's not too fried it doesn't have that tone in it right so yes yeah those are those are great i love that and you mentioned tech you mentioned ai what what about tech do you leverage any tech at all in what you do oh yeah um in and i'm not ashamed to admit it on the on creative front of my journey as far as as a songwriter and producer there's no doubt about it I mean the way the way things are I'm able to model Bailey's voice or someone's voice and actually have a little model of their voice and when I write a song I can put that vote I could sing it replace my voice with his pitch it right and you know to different artists various artists you could do things like that with AI you can probably one of the huge ones in the creative side would be if I'm You know, if I don't want to rack my brain sitting all night writing a demo for a song that I wrote that day that I'm not even sure about if it's any good. It's nice to just like I write the song, put it down on an acoustic, throw it into one of these AI apps and it'll it'll it'll show you a demo. And you're listening like, oh, wow, that's that sounds done. Cool. Next day. Next idea. That having to sit there. The producer side of me doesn't use it much like the producing that world. If anything, AI is like what not to do for my style of producing, like for what I go for as a producer. AI is a little bit more of a, okay, don't do that. If AI is, don't do that, go in a different direction so that you really stand out. But in vocal coaching, I do use recording as a tool. So if clients are in studio or they're at home even, I'll have them send me recordings, learn how to use a recording software to like record their what they're practicing. I'll send them little videos that has my like you're basically looking at the notes like on we call it MIDI in this world like little piano notes you see them on recording software and you see these little notes and it helps you sort of look at them and guide you through. So I use technology quite a bit honestly in terms of you know in the even the ai front of it all the hardest thing about ai is it i always tell people the hardest thing is when you throw that that demo on there or you throw that work tape as we call it like an acoustic and a vocal and you throw it and you hear it back and it does something different that you love yeah it's hard to unhear that right like oh boy what do i do do i not do that just because this thing kind of bend the melody this way it's like that sounds so good. So that's, that's the tough part. That's where it gets a little fishy just because you're like, Oh no, like I didn't, I didn't come up with that little movement. This thing did that. And you're like, Oh gosh, what do I do? How do I unhear that, that what it did? Yeah. That's super cool. Yeah. So Serge, we'll put all of your notes on how to get ahold of you, your website and things like that. Well, in our notes and that way, anyone who's listening or watching has an interest in vocal coaching because I think you should do this for professional speakers or not not even professional speakers regular people like myself executives that speak a lot and it's just I have and I certainly have by the way just you know it's not something I I have worked with clients like that I also will see sometimes football coaches and I'm like man I you know or a quarterback you know going like hey man this guy this guy's gonna lose his voice as if he keeps using his voice that way. Yeah, of course. Serge, this has been so fascinating to have someone outside of healthcare like yourself and such a creative force and energy. And we talked a lot about yourself, how you grew up, how you got into music, just how important your parents were in that journey. And sort of four or five hacks you shared with us on how to improve our own sort of self-coaching, if you will, but improve our own voice and be careful with. So thank you for that. Super fascinating. Is there anything we missed or anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word. You know, I was a really, really terrible singer when I started. So I didn't mention that. I didn't have a natural ability or inclination. I actually was extremely pitchy, didn't have great rhythm, not much range. It's kind of crazy. I have a higher register and range now than I did when I was a teenager. Wow. So it's very important to note that I basically knew that singing was my weakness. I could write songs. I could be a crazy front man. The singing was my weakness. But I look back and I think I was very determined to somehow turn that into a strength, you know, and essentially, so that's a big one is, is, is I'm actually a vocal coach who is a singer, a singer that someone would want to learn from. it definitely blows my mind that that that my journey was not started off it didn't start off with someone saying hey you're pretty good you should pursue this that isn't how it started like I was not getting told you should go on a show or that that wasn't my journey if you ask my parents everybody were kind of like we're just letting him do it he loves it we're just letting him do it but I'm sure what they were thinking is oh my gosh this is not good so it's that's that's important to see that this, this, this, the 20 year journey or longer 24 year journey that I've been on is kind of interesting. It's, it's, there's a ton of weaknesses and I have a way of just really trying to turn those into my strengths. Yeah, no, I love that. And, and like you talked about in the very beginning, like don't give up, keep trying and pursue your dreams and dreams happen. You've done amazing things, Serge, and I think you're going to do even more amazing things in the future. So thank you so much for being my guest. No, thank you, man. Thank you. I'm a big fan of you and your family.