Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A couple of months ago, I attended an event to honor non-profits. What was really cool was that each non-profit had 2-½ minutes to share their story. When my guest Theresa Smith-Levin, founder of Central Florida Vocal Arts, shared her story, I...
A couple of months ago, I attended an event to honor non-profits. What was really cool was that each non-profit had 2-½ minutes to share their story.
When my guest Theresa Smith-Levin, founder of Central Florida Vocal Arts, shared her story, I was instantly inspired and I knew I had to have her on the podcast.
Our conversation is a testament to the power of storytelling, vulnerability, and community in fostering personal and collective growth.
Theresa's work with Central Florida Vocal Arts is not just about singing; it's about creating a space where young people can grow into their authentic selves and learn to navigate the world with empathy and confidence.
Whether you're an artist, a public speaker, or someone looking to make a difference in your community, Theresa's insights offer valuable lessons on the transformative power of using your voice.
Join us for this inspiring conversation and discover how you, too, can impact the world through the arts, performance, speaking, and beyond.
Here are some highlights you won't want to miss:
Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/386/
Central Florida Vocal Arts: https://www.centralfloridavocalarts.org/
Discover your Speaker Archetype by taking our free quiz at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/quiz/
Enroll in our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/
Connect on LinkedIn:
Related Podcast Episodes:
It's time to escape the expert trap and become an in-demand speaker and thought leader through compelling and memorable business presentations, keynotes, workshops, and TEDx talks. If you want to level up your public speaking to get more and better, including paid, speaking engagements, you've come to the right place! Thousands of entrepreneurs and leaders have learned from Speaking Your Brand and now you can too through our episodes that will help you with storytelling, audience engagement, building confidence, handling nerves, pitching to speak, getting paid, and more. Hosted by Carol Cox, entrepreneur, speaker, and TV political analyst. This is your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience.
Carol Cox:
You're going to love my conversation with
Theresa Smith-Levin on the power of the
performing arts to find and use your voice,
on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand
podcast. More and more women are making an
impact by starting businesses, running for
office and speaking up for what matters.
With my background as a TV political
analyst, entrepreneur and speaker, I
interview and coach purpose driven women to
shape their brands, grow their companies,
and become recognized as influencers in
their field. This is speaking your brand,
your place to learn how to persuasively
communicate your message to your audience.
Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your
Band podcast. I'm your host, Carol Cox.
We're kicking off a new series all around
using your Voice.
I have interviews lined up, including this
one today to inspire you to use your voice
no matter what your topic or your industry.
A couple of months ago, I attended an event
in Orlando to honor a nonprofits here.
What was really cool about this event was
that each nonprofit had 2.5 minutes to share
their story with the audience.
When my guest today, Theresa Smith-Levin,
founder of Central Florida Vocal Arts,
shared her story, I was instantly inspired
and I knew I had to have her on the podcast.
Fortunately, I happened to run into her in
the hallway after the event and I went over
to her, introduced myself, and invited her
on the podcast.
Our conversation is a testament to the power
of storytelling, vulnerability and
community, and fostering personal and
collective growth.
Theresa's work with Central Florida Vocal
Arts is not just about singing, it's about
creating a space where people can grow into
their authentic selves and learn to navigate
the world with empathy and confidence.
Whether you're an artist, a singer, a public
speaker, or someone looking to make a
difference in your community, Theresa's
insights offer valuable lessons on the
transformative power of using your voice.
And trust me, you do not have to be a singer
in order to get so much value out of this
episode. I can't sing, and I told Theresa
that at the end after we stopped recording
and she said, no, everyone can sing.
And I said, no, no, you haven't heard me.
But she she was trying to convince me that
that's not the case.
Uh, but anyway, so whether you are a singer
or an artist or a performer or not, you are
going to love this episode.
If you're new to the podcast, welcome as
speaking your brand. We work with women
entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders to
clarify their brand message and story,
create their signature talks, and develop
their thought leadership platforms.
You can find out more about what we do at
speaking your brand.com.
Now let's get on with the show.
Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast,
Theresa.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Thank you. Carol.
Thank you for having me.
Carol Cox:
I'm excited to have you on, because we have
never had a professional singer on the
podcast, at least as far as that I can
remember. And as I mentioned in the intro,
we met at a Victory Cup initiative
breakfast, which was to award grants to
nonprofits in the Central Florida area,
including yours, which is Central Florida
Vocal Arts. And what I loved about the way
that they set up the event was that each
nonprofit had to had, what was it, 60s or
something to deliver their story to the
audience? So it felt like 60s.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
It was 2.5 minutes, but it was a hard 2.5
minutes. There was no wiggle on that.
Carol Cox:
There was as soon as the 2.5 minute mark
went, like they were like the music was
cueing. They were like yanking you off the
stage kind of thing.
But it was so impactful to have each
nonprofit share that story, because we know
how powerful storytelling is.
And Theresa, when you got up there and
shared your story, I knew instantly I had to
connect with you and invite you on the
podcast. And luckily I ran into you in the
hallway afterwards.
I was like, here's my card, please, let's
come on my podcast.
So welcome.
So let's start there.
Can you tell us a little bit about your
story and how singing in the arts helped you
to find your use your voice?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Absolutely. So I think so.
Oftentimes we have young people and I'm a
mom myself. And we see kids with these big
feelings and these big experiences and
nowhere really no outlet to put those
feelings, those emotions.
And so the place where I found that I felt
the most at home and the most able to feel
and process what was going on for me was in
the arts. And I always loved singing, and
that was a place where I really just
experienced joy.
And because I had such wonderful parents,
even though I don't think I was the most
talented, naturally gifted singer, they very
much supported that endeavor and I just
followed through. I grew up in Central
Florida, pursued choir in high school,
middle school, went on to study music
education at the collegiate level, and then
vocal performance for my master's degree.
And what happened after that is when I came
back to Central Florida, there was a gap in
the market. Orlando Opera Company had filed
for bankruptcy. There wasn't a large
performing arts classical vocal arts
company. And truly, I feel like the universe
God, however you want to look at it, called
me to start this nonprofit overnight, and
what has been really amazing is it has been
an opportunity to combine my passion for
community with the thing that I'm really
good at, and so helping other young people
to be able to grow in confidence,
connection, empathy, to find their voice, to
figure out how they really feel about the
world themselves and be empowered to share
that we use music as a tool, as a catalyst
for that empowerment, but truly that the
goal is to help people to step into who they
were meant to be authentically.
Carol Cox:
And as you're working with these young
people, what are you finding about singing
and music in the arts that helps them to
kind of like, is it breaking through their
defenses? Is it allowing them to be more,
more vulnerable?
Is it is it providing a safe space for them
to have these emotions?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
So a lot of times I explain this idea through
the idea of team sports because especially,
um, for, for our male followers out there, a
lot of times they have an easier time
relating to how these outcomes come from
sports. So when we enroll young people into
soccer, youth soccer, for instance, we're
not expecting them to come out and be
Reynaldo. That wasn't the reason we put them
in soccer, right? We put them in soccer
because we know that it will develop them
physically, mentally.
They'll be able to collaborate.
They'll understand that sometimes we win,
sometimes we lose.
We know that these skills and these outcomes
come from sports, right?
What's really special about performing arts
is you get all of those.
But the difference between performing arts
in the soccer field is if you're struggling
at home, you have an opportunity to share
that feeling in an art space.
If there's conflict or trauma, a lot of
times the characters that we embody have had
those same experiences, so it provides a
catharsis, a place to process those feelings
and to normalize those feelings and to be
supported in those feelings so that you can
move forward in life and realize that, yes,
this happened to me, but no, this isn't who
I am. This is a part of my story.
It's not the story.
Carol Cox:
Do any people come to mind that you worked
with and you can, you know, uh, composite
them and not reveal any identifying details,
but anyone come to mind where you really
seen a transformation as a result of working
with the Central Florida?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
It's I mean, it's countless.
Quite honestly, the what we measure through
our programs isn't a change in musical
skill. It is changes in confidence.
It's changes in the belief that you can
overcome something that gives you fear.
It's the belief that others care about you.
Those three changes change the trajectory of
a whole life.
So just to be able to encapsulate truly
countless hundreds of of people that I've
encountered in that regard, um, the work
that we do at Pace Center for girls is
really important, near and dear to my heart
pace Center for girls, and it's here in
Orange County, but I believe they have
chapters across the country.
Pace is an alternative school for young
women who find themselves in crisis from
middle school to high school.
So whether that is a trauma, whether that's
abuse in the home, whether that's a failure
to thrive in their school setting can be any
of those those things that are going on for
this young person. They're brought into a
trauma informed school setting where they're
receiving weekly counseling support.
All female staff and, um, other students.
And so we came in there and started offering
voice because they didn't have
extracurriculars like art and being able to
take these girls, many of whom were sort of
shells of people when we started, and
getting them to try things that they feel
afraid of, right.
Kind of crazy. Like I might be having them
do like vocal sirens or like woo woo woo
weird things that that makes them feel like
embarrassed, right?
But they feel embarrassed together.
And then we normalize that, taking risks and
being silly and putting ourselves out there.
And then at the end of it, it's all through
this filter of, if I can learn to use my
voice for singing, I can learn to use my
voice to advocate for myself and the things
that I believe in and others.
And that's so important if we're going to
transform communities, that we're able to
use our voice to advocate for what we
believe in.
Carol Cox:
And Theresa, thinking about yourself or even
some even adults that you know, much less
young people, where do you find?
And this is a challenge, I know for me and
for so many of us where we we feel like we
can't advocate for ourselves or we stop, you
know, we can't quite put ourselves out there
and maybe the way that we want to.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
So it's interesting.
I am a put myself out there kind of gal, and
I just am and I feel like.
But but I want to caveat that with I wasn't
always I wasn't that person growing up.
I don't even think I was that person in high
school. Um, but I've grown into that person,
and I know that my art study has helped
empower me in that way.
What I am not great about doing is holding
boundaries and space for myself.
I am the first one to get in line to protect
others, to stand up for others.
But I am not as skilled in doing it for
myself. And I think that a lot of women find
themselves in that position.
We are nurturers.
We are protectors. We are mothers, we are
sisters, we are friends, and we're really
wonderful about showing up for those people.
Not great about showing up for ourselves.
But if we're not showing up for ourselves,
we eventually are going to hit the bottom of
that cup and we're not going to be able to
show up for anyone else either.
So being able to again put our own air mask
on so that we can continue to serve others.
Carol Cox:
Absolutely. And that's why I'm such a big
advocate for women's community, like women's
support circles, because then even though,
as you said, like by nature and nurture, we
tend to care for others, but if we're in a
tight circle with other women, then
inevitably they're going to care for us
while we're caring for them.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Absolutely, absolutely.
And, you know, being able to overcome the
word selfish, that's an area of growth for
me. I feel like there's not a word that sort
of evokes more shame for women than selfish.
And the thing is, most of us are so far from
selfish that quite honestly, we need to find
some more ways to be selfish, to take care
of ourselves.
Um, a little sidebar.
One of the classes that I teach is an adult
class called music for a Joyful Life for
adults, and I have adults in the class
anywhere from probably about 25 through 75.
So we get a diverse age range there.
And the first class we come in, we introduce
ourselves, we talk about what we're going to
learn. One of the things that I bring up is
when in life were you ever told to just
pursue something because it made you happy,
even to our to our elementary schoolers, we
try and sort of start prepping them for
you're going to have to make a decision
about college and a career path and all
these things. But when did we say, just do
that thing because it made you happy?
And so then we look at women in their 30s
and say, self care.
But when were we given the tools to do that?
For me, self care just feels like another
thing I'm failing at.
And so another.
Carol Cox:
Chore that we have to.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
It's not like I'm not doing life right,
because I don't know if I'm self-caring
well. And so being able to identify what
makes me happy and then create space for
that with the no other objective than just
to be present and feeling that joy and that
happiness, and how when we engage in those
experiences, how we're able to show up
differently.
Carol Cox:
I love that, Theresa.
And, you know, because we're especially in
the United States, we're so much about
productivity and making sure everything that
we do leads to some productive outcome.
Even our quote unquote hobbies are supposed
to be productive, like you said.
And so having it just for the joy of it,
just because we enjoy it and it fulfills us
personally, much less professionally, I
think is such a great reminder.
Let me ask you this, Theresa.
So thinking about the people that you work
with of all ages, do you after they when
they're doing their classes with you, do you
have them step on stage and do they they
perform like tell me a little bit about
that. And and what advice do you have for
listeners who are public speakers as far as
stepping onto a stage and connecting with an
audience? Absolutely.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
So we one of the first educational programs
that we had when we were founded in 2012 was
our Summer Institute, and that was in large
part because when I came out of grad school,
I felt like I knew how to sing very well and
at the same time was woefully underprepared
for a career in performance.
And so I had to cultivate a lot of these
holistic performing arts skills through
practice, through being on stage, through
doing it. And so when we started the
program, I really wanted to make sure that
we were incorporating those elements into
the training that we were giving to young
people. And one of the important steps of
that is to be able to overcome fears.
So on day one, when children show up at
camp, they audition for us and there are
kids that balk, that will not sing for me on
day one. And who's in the room for day one?
Like three instructors who are going to cast
them in the show. The other kids aren't
there. Or if there are, there's just 2 or 3
that are waiting for their turn to be up
next. It's a very small group, right?
And there are tears.
And I've had children quit after day one
because it was just too much.
Um, I've never had a kid on Friday night
when they have to do their solo voice
recital in front of all of the parents, all
of the other kids, and a packed house.
I've never had one of those kids back down.
And that's the point, is, yes, you are
afraid on Monday.
But over the next four days we're going to
form community of support and love.
We're going to believe in you.
We are going to love you through that stage,
and you're going to get up there and you're
going to do that. And when you come down,
you're going to know that you can do
something that made you really afraid four
days ago, something that made you cry four
days ago. And so I tell parents and
students, please don't give up, because what
happens is you start to build up this fear
and the fear becomes greater than really
what it is. And so just getting through it.
Right. So before Victory Cup, as you
mentioned where we met, a lot of the
speakers were really worried about speaking.
Here's the thing. If you sing in front of
people, speaking ain't no thing like it's
it's not a big deal.
So I mean I was a very normal amount of like
excited nerves, but I wasn't afraid.
And that is sort of the beauty of art study
is those young people that we're working
with, right? Knowing that they were able to
get up and sing in front of people when they
go back to school in the fall and they have
to give a speech in their history class.
It's not that big of a deal because guess
what? They've been there before.
They've done that before.
They have that skill and they know that they
lived through it. So truly, it's a really
wonderful playground to develop life skills
that are going to serve you in any capacity.
To your public speakers, I would say that we
need to normalize being nervous.
You're going to feel afraid.
Your heart is going to race.
Your breath is going to speed up.
There are lots of techniques, tips and
tricks to get around that, but your body
doesn't know the difference between a actual
physical threat and an emotional fear
threat. Your body doesn't know.
Our evolution hasn't caught up with that.
So your body is doing what your body is
meant to do, which is to keep you alive and
help you avoid situations where you might
die and it doesn't know that you're not
going to get up on that stage and die.
It doesn't know because it hasn't done it
yet. So we have to honor that response
because thank you. Thank you, body, for
wanting me to live. I'm very thankful for
that. But we need to have enough practice to
know I am able to survive this.
Because when you start to fight that
reaction, then you're making your issue far
more complex because you're nervous and then
you're upset at yourself being nervous and
look at what your body is doing, and then
you're having shame responses, because why
can't I just get over this? And.
No. You're nervous.
Your body's reacting to that super duper
normal. Okay, what are the tools that we
have to overcome that and be able to deliver
what we have prepared in a way that's
authentic?
Carol Cox:
Yeah, that is exactly the same advice that I
give to myself in my own self-talk, and that
I give to the listeners and the clients, is
to not resist what's normal, but instead to
work with it and and to, like you said, find
the tools and practices that are going to
help you to turn those nerves into
excitement instead of paralysis.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Right? Absolutely.
It's a fight, flight or freeze response.
And so I can tell a lot about a person by
how they respond when I try and make them
sing. Do they end up pushing and
overexerting? That's what I do.
I'm a fighter.
Do they just freeze up and like they they
just are not able to move?
Or do they sing really quiet and it's a lot
less than it would normally be.
They're they're a runaway or they're not
leaning into their voice fully and so, um,
honoring that wherever you are and
developing the skills that you need to be
able to mitigate those really natural
responses.
Carol Cox:
So a couple things come to mind.
I want to get back to the Victory Cup story
as that before that, when you talked about
the with the kids in the summer camp and
they arrive on Monday and then they have to
perform on Friday and even though they're
afraid or, you know, maybe they're
embarrassed at initially.
So when we do our in-person speaking
workshops, we always have the women we work
with do improv games with us.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Yes.
Carol Cox:
Right. Improv because you're gonna feel
silly. You're gonna feel embarrassed.
You're gonna feel like you're not doing it
well, but is the best thing, as I always
say, to get out of our heads because it's
high achieving women.
We spend so much time on our heads, we
forget we have bodies and as speakers, as
performers, our bodies are such an essential
element to our performance and to connecting
with our audiences. And so and even though
they they dread it going in, they all end up
loving it and realizing how impactful it is.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Oh, I love improv like it is a great.
I send people here in, um, Central Florida.
We have a wonderful place called Sak Comedy
Lab. Great place to take improv classes.
And um, I actually work a lot with
leadership Winter Park and one of my good
friends, Chelsea Hyland, comes in and
teaches a workshop for them.
I teach about finding your voice.
She teaches about, uh, improv as a business
leader. Right.
But we do it all the time.
We just do it in a different way.
You find yourself in a situation that you
didn't expect for your business and your
professional career, and you have to respond
and you have to respond quickly.
You have to be able to trust your gut.
In so many ways, I see women getting
themselves in trouble because we second
guess what we know you know what to do.
But then we look to others and we questioned
whether that's right. No, you don't get that
that, um, I don't want to say opportunity
because it's not it really hinders you.
You don't have that available to you in
improv. You just need to react, which means
you need to be present enough listening
enough to be able to respond authentically
without first judging the validity of your
response.
Carol Cox:
And and exactly, Theresa, that is so well
said. And I did take the improv class at Sak
Comedy Lab and it was fantastic.
I always say I have a love hate relationship
with improv because I love it, but yet I
hate it because I can't master it.
I like to master things, but there's.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
No mastering it. No, there's no mastering it,
and there's no mastering singing.
Yeah. So so I have an unfair advantage in
this in that I did not.
So I met my mentor, who I feel like really
had the greatest impact on my life, uh, when
I was 22.
But that means I'd been singing pretty
seriously for a while before that.
And one of the things that she taught me,
and I think is so essential in a great skill
for everybody to embrace, is you can't do
two things at once. We talk about
multitasking. You're not really doing two
things at once, which you are doing is very
quickly changing the channel, but you're
never on two channels at the same time.
So if you're going to be singing really well
in your body, in your technique, present in
the moment, and then what?
Acting to you don't have space in there to
be deciding whether or not you think it's
good, you can't do it.
And not only that, you don't know what you
sound like when you sing.
And so the first thing I teach students and
I teach classes is stop listening to
yourself when you sing, sing.
Super counterintuitive, right?
But I guarantee you and your listeners have
had the experience where you hear yourself
in a recording and you go, oh my gosh,
that's not what my voice sounds like.
Yes, it is.
And if you're trying to adjust it and decide
whether it's good based on false data
because you don't know what it sounds like,
it's like doing a science experiment with
false data and thinking you're going to get
the right outcome. It's not going to happen.
So you have to treat it as a total separate
entity from the sound and get so present.
In the sensation in your body, in the act of
doing so that you can create the most
authentic, open, beautiful sound.
Carol Cox:
I love that, Theresa.
That's such a great point.
If you're doing the thing, you can't also be
worrying about how you're doing it.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
No, because you're always behind.
You've done it, now you're judging it, but
you're still doing it, right. You're still
singing. So then you're not present in that
moment because you're still back here
deciding whether or not that was good.
You can't do it. Yes. And in life.
Yes. Right, right.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Okay.
So let me so related to singing and improv
and speaking and all these things we've been
talking about. The other thing that I
encourage our clients and our listeners is
to make speaking a two way conversation with
the audience. And I don't literally mean
having the audience say things out loud.
Of course they could.
But but as a speaker, you feed off the
energy of the audience and you have to
notice the energy of the audience, you know,
are they up? Are they lagging?
And they're feeding off the energy of you?
So how does that work for you as a
performer, as a singer?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
So I have an unfair advantage here too.
I'm an. Empath. I have been for my whole
life and actually I had to, as I grow up,
develop skills to sort of protect myself
from feeling everybody's feeling so
strongly. Because when I walk in a room, I
know exactly how everyone feels, but then
being able to go, okay, that's how they
feel. But that's not my responsibility as a
performer. It's a great skill to have is to
be able to feel how people are responding to
you in those moments.
And, um, I'll share another story.
I did a show called Save Me Dolly Parton in,
uh. I did it a couple times.
I did it in 2017, and then again in 2019.
I toured it in Indianapolis Fringe Festival
when I was 37 weeks pregnant.
I don't know what I was thinking, but I did
that. I did a thing.
And so, um, anyways, it was a monologue
show, like it was just me and there was no
music. I wasn't singing, it was me speaking
on stage for 50 minutes without
interruption. And so what was interesting
about that experience is each show was
different because it had to be different.
What one audience responded to was going to
be different from another.
And if the whole point of theater is to have
a shared human experience, I have a
responsibility as a performer to leave space
for their response to what I'm giving them.
If I've already decided how they should
react to that, then I've negated the whole
point of the thing.
If I want to share a piece of myself and
allow them to respond to that, that energy
comes back to me. I need to be open to
whatever their response is going to be.
And so it's starting with an openness and a
framework. When you're giving a speech, when
you're speaking or doing a workshop,
starting with a framework, but being open to
this group is going to respond how they need
to respond to day in their given
circumstances. And I am prepared enough to
adjust, pivot and respond to who they need
me to be for them in this moment.
Carol Cox:
So well said. Because as we know, we can give
the same exact speech performance to five
different groups and they're all going to
respond differently and have different
energy and group dynamics even though it's
the same content.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. And and there's been so many
times, um, you know, from a culturally
informed place, if I'm working with a group
of title one students who perhaps come from,
um, more vulnerable situations, have
different life experiences, the way I speak
to them and engage with them, I can't have
the expectation that they're going to
respond to me the same way that students at
a private school who are driving to school
in Mercedes are going to respond.
They have very different experiences, and I
can't expect them to just trust me to just
go with me, even though I know that my
intentions are good, I need to meet people
where they are, and I think as speakers we
have to do the same is meet your audience
where they are and figure out where you do
connect. Start from there, but be open to
whatever that might be.
Carol Cox:
Theresa, let's talk about storytelling.
As we mentioned at the top, you had the
opportunity to deliver a 2.5 minute story
about yourself and Central Florida vocal
arts. At the breakfast that we attended.
What was it like to put that story together?
What insights do you have to share with
listeners as far as thinking about stories
and using stories to connect with their
audience?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Uh, so what. I'll say is it was very
vulnerable and, um, in a way that when I
started this process, I didn't imagine it
was going to be again.
I've done a lot of public speaking.
I perform in front of people very often, and
even though I. Breach vulnerability because
I think there's nothing more important.
At the same time, I don't think that I
always show up as vulnerably as I could,
right? As a professional woman, as, um, a
woman, sort of with a public profile.
We all sort of have a like, this is how I
want to be perceived. I think we do that in
an authentic way.
We decide on what our values are.
We do. There's nothing wrong with that,
right? But we all also have our soft,
squishy parts.
The parts of ourselves where that are, that
are still, um, have hurts underneath them.
And so one of the things that I think I just
lucked out on big time is I picked the two
right people to be a part of that process
with me. So on storytelling day, we so three
people from each nonprofit were involved in
this whole process.
And so I had brought, um, my director of
productions, her name is Danielle Zice, and
she actually is one of the leaders of Story
Storytellers Club.
So a whole club.
And I was like, okay, she's definitely needs
to be here with me. She's going to help hold
me accountable and push me to the next
level. And then one of my board members,
Molly Uska, who had founded her own
nonprofit and whose kids had gone through
our programs. And so I knew she really had a
deep understanding of the work that we did.
And I am so glad those were the two people
that I brought, because they would not let
me get away from that vulnerability.
I would be like, oh, well, I want to talk
about this kid and this experience.
They're like, nope. I was like, well, what
if we went in this angle? And nope.
And like, I just kept my feeling so
frustrated and like, vulnerable and like it
became clear probably by 3:00 on this, like
eight hour day, like, it's gonna have to be
me. I'm gonna have to talk about me.
And I really didn't want to.
Um, and so that was really scary.
But I was really proud of that.
And I, you know, as much as I wanted to shy
away from it, I also thought, like.
If I want to pave the way for somebody
behind me, I've got to be willing to do
this. And I'm not doing this for myself.
I'm doing this for others. So we're just
going to say it. We're going to put it out
there and we're going to be really
vulnerable, really raw, really open.
Carol Cox:
And it was. And, you know, as they say,
vulnerability is contagious.
And I feel like when we step up and are
vulnerable with our own stories and our own
experiences, it gives permission to those
who are listening to do the same, you know,
as appropriate and as they feel ready to do
so.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Absolutely. I 100% agree.
And that's what I had to say to myself is
think of your daughter.
Think of your sister, think of your friends.
What permission do you want to give to them?
And so that was something that helped me
sort of stay the course, but it was really
scary.
Carol Cox:
Well, again. You did an amazing job.
And I was so inspired by like I felt it, you
know, I felt it as you were sharing and I
mean, all the nonprofits did an incredible
job with their stories, but I really I
really resonated with yours.
So, Theresa, for those of for listeners who
are in the Central Florida area, I highly
encourage you to check out the Central
Florida Vocal Arts and all of the amazing
performances that they have going on.
For listeners who don't live in Central
Florida, what's the best way for them to
find organizations like yours in their area?
Theresa Smith-Levin:
So that's really interesting, I so GuideStar
is a wonderful resource here in Central
Florida. We have something called the
Central Florida Foundation.
And when you go to their website, they have
something called a nonprofit search.
And you can type in what areas of interest
you have. So let's say that's animal
welfare. You would type in animal welfare
and it would populate any of the
organizations that are doing work in your
area that focus on animal welfare.
And what I would say to all of your
listeners is all nonprofits need funding and
they need volunteer support.
All of them, all of them.
We need help because we're trying to fight
against the inequities and the systems that
are causing harm to people.
And I truly believe that most people want
the world to be a safe, kind place.
They just don't know how to start.
So finding what you care about and finding
the people that are doing the work, the
helpers, and reaching out to say, can I
volunteer? What do you need?
Are there any in-kind services that I would
be able to offer, or can I make a donation?
Because the reality is that it costs money
to get people doing the work and keep the
lights on. Um, but GuideStar is a national
service that is similar.
It's not quite as in depth as Central
Florida Foundation, but if you go to
GuideStar, you can find all the reputable
nonprofits that are in your area.
You can keyword search in a similar way, and
those profiles will help you see there are
990 financial filings.
You'll be able to see that this is a
reputable company, what their programs are
and what their needs are.
So guidestar.org, I believe, and you could
look up those that are in the area doing the
work that you're passionate about.
Carol Cox:
Fantastic. I'll make sure to include a link
there and to your website as well as your
LinkedIn profile in the show notes.
So listeners can connect with all of those.
Theresa, thank you so much for coming on the
podcast. I have so enjoyed our conversation.
I appreciate all of your valuable insights.
And again, thank you so much for finding and
using your voice and impacting so many
people like you have.
Theresa Smith-Levin:
Yes. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me, Carol.
Thank you everyone for watching.
It's really been a pleasure.
Carol Cox:
Wasn't that a fun conversation?
Thank you again to Theresa for coming on the
podcast. If you would like to learn what
your speaker archetype is, I've identified
four different ones and you can take our
free quiz, get your result, and get
recommendations not only on how to add to
your natural speaking and communication
style, but really how to amplify what your
natural strengths are.
You can take the quiz again, it's entirely
free, just takes a few minutes as speaking
your brand.com slash quiz.
Again, that's speaking your Brand.com slash
quiz. We're continuing our series all
around, inspiring you to use your voice with
the episodes we have coming up, so make sure
to hit follow in your podcast app so you
don't miss any of our future episodes.
Until next time, thanks for listening.