Brienne Hennessy shares her journey from clinical speech pathologist to vocal empowerment guide, plus how aligning voice and intuition transforms confidence and presence.
Check Out These Highlights:
Brienne Hennessy’s origin story begins in the labs of linguistics and acoustics, where her fascination with voice first took root. From 14 years as a speech and voice pathologist to launching her own practice, she reveals how a pivotal leap in 2020 reshaped her career and mission.
In this episode, Brienne explains why preventative voice care matters, how misalignment shows up in both sound and confidence, and why courage is required every time we choose to step into visibility. Listeners will walk away with a deeper understanding of the connection between voice, intuition, and empowerment, and practical insights for sustaining vocal health while showing up authentically.
About Brienne Hennessy:
Brienne is a vocal empowerment guide who helps leaders, speakers, and everyday professionals reconnect with their natural voice. With a background in clinical voice pathology, she now focuses on holistic, preventative wellness, ensuring her clients sound aligned, confident, and resilient.
Connect with Brienne:
🌐 Website: www.yourvocalvitality.com
💼 LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/brienne-hennessy
💬 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourvocalvitality/
📑 Substack: https://substack.com/@BRIENNEHENNESSY
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About Me: https://tobymyles.com/about/
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Toby Myles: Hey, Brienne, welcome to the podcast.
Brienne Hennessy: Thanks, Toby. I'm so happy to be here.
Toby Myles: I'm excited. We were having a little bit of fun before we hit record and you were helping me with, um, voice warmup, I think is what you called it, and I learned some new things that I didn't know, which I think we might have to explore later.
Um, I've got a little bit of a scratchy throat today, but you really helped me. Um. Kind of identify that and also just, you know, let me know that I can still sip water if I feel like I'm gonna have a coughing attack.
Brienne Hennessy: Oh yes. We are here for hydration.
Toby Myles: We are here for hydration. We for, we are for sure. And if at any time, um, these videos ever make it on YouTube, which is the plan one day, um, you'll see us sipping our water and you have herbal tea, so it's all good.
It's, we're super not fancy here.
Brienne Hennessy: In normalizing this idea that we are humans who have to, you know, stay hydrated. I watch speakers stay on stage, uh, all the way to doing podcasts for an hour, talking and never take a sip of anything. And then afterwards they're wondering why. They're like, I'm feeling like really dry and parched anyway.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. A little sidebar there. Yeah. So before we get started, um, and this is gonna be interesting 'cause I'm not sure I know the answer to this. I usually like to start by, um. Saying how we met, and I honestly, maybe you remember, in my mind I'm thinking it was Facebook ish and maybe were you in the advance.
Okay.
Brienne Hennessy: That is our, that is our, our origin relationship.
Toby Myles: Yes, indeed.
Brienne Hennessy: Yes. That networking group. For sure.
Toby Myles: Yeah. That networking group, which feels like so long ago. Um, wait,
Brienne Hennessy: uh, yes. When I even saw that name in my notes, I was like, ah, I would've had to have my, my reminder to, uh, yeah. Even, even recall that. But yes, in the group, and I believe occasionally in different, what at the time they called pods, so we would in
Toby Myles: pods
Brienne Hennessy: That's
Toby Myles: right.
Brienne Hennessy: Quite regularly online. Mm-hmm. And then connected on LinkedIn and
Toby Myles: mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: From there.
Toby Myles: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so, um. So I have to say, I was sharing with you ahead of time that I just have this natural curiosity, um, about women and, and. How they got their start. And I can honestly say like, I've ne never met anyone else who does what you do.
And so I think that was my initial curiosity. It was like, whoa, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a voice empowerment guide. Like what is that? Um, and so, you know, I have learned. Um, some things about you over the years and what you do and have been on a couple calls with you and hear your beautiful voice, which is amazing.
Like, I think everyone wants to sound like you. Um, so I am going to leave that there. Maybe we'll circle back to that, but can you take us back to, um, like either a moment in time or maybe it's like a cluster of moments in time that you feel like really sparked the journey that you're on right now?
Brienne Hennessy: Hmm, absolutely.
The initial moment occurred in undergraduate school. I was at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Studying to be a, what I thought would be cool, marine biology 'cause who didn't love me. Of
Toby Myles: course.
Brienne Hennessy: If, if that gives you an any idea of my age, I don't mind telling my age. I'm four four. But who in middle school?
Everybody. Mm-hmm. So that was, that was why I had chosen that school. But in that process, some of my electives, I chose the first one being, uh, linguistics and a linguistics kind of 1 0 1 and an acoustics course. That shifted my entire trajectory of what I wanted to do. And so I switched my major to Bachelor of Science and Linguistics.
And in that advanced acoustic course we were doing, uh, lab and research time. And I was in the lab one day, and at this point, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with linguistics, really. Mm-hmm. Uh, it wasn't necessarily a. Deciding time at that point. But they had a flyer, uh, on the board and it was for something called the Ology Institute, and that's based out of Colorado.
And I was like, okay, well voice, I do love voice. And my research project at that time was actually looking at the, uh, possibility of if a at that time I was, I was interested in singing, uh, if a singer could control their vibrato.
Toby Myles: Hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: And so I was, I was doing different. Measurements and things of that. And so I thought, well, that's cool.
I, I am interested in voice. And, and yet it hadn't necessarily crystallized into this idea of, of that being a thing until in that flyer I saw the different staff that were at the, uh, institute at that time and after. A few of their names it said C-C-C-S-L-P,
Toby Myles: and I was like,
Brienne Hennessy: I don't know what that is. Okay.
Yeah. And so it stands for speech language pathologist one who is certifi certified by the, uh, national organization here in the United States. And I thought, well, that's cool. And wait, so people are doing voice. Like that's, that's a, that's a whole track. And that shifted everything. I started looking into programs that focused on voice, and I remember that being.
Exciting to me, but then really, I love that word crystallized, that you use crystallizing. When I had this flash of seeing myself in the wings
Toby Myles: mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: It's, it's, it was, it was there, it was obvious it was hazy though. It's not like there was. There was someone, it wasn't necessarily a stage, but it was something in the wings.
And I just remember thinking, oh, I meant to support that person. And that's kind of the feeling that came over me. And so that's kind of been this undercurrent ever since. And, uh, so when I was, uh, accepted into one of the top grad schools for voice. Uh, curriculum and then into three different voice clinics throughout the country.
My journey as a speech and voice pathologist was 14 years of my career, and I loved Wow. Every minute of it. When I was with the patients, when I was in, uh, the moments of assessing, scoping, looking at all these pieces and parts that we use in this physical instrument and when I was helping them rehabilitate their injuries that they had come in with relative to their voice.
Yes, it was some singers. Uh, I was fortunate to work at Vanderbilt Voice Clinic in Nashville, so I saw quite a few singers there. But then also, uh, speaking voice really took front and center for me because. Even as a professional singer, they use their speaking voice 99% of the time.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Don't always think of it that way because we're, you know, consuming their, their artistry in other ways.
Toby Myles: Right, right.
Brienne Hennessy: And a lot of the issues that come to the front and center when it comes to physical are in the speaking voice first. So, uh, for the everyday speaker, coach, executive educator, that is. Your livelihood if you use your voice. So if there's things that start to crop up, what are we gonna do about that?
So fast forward to another cluster turning point. It was about 2018 and. The clinic, the clinic I was in was demanding and it was very, very intense in a lot of ways. Uh, but I always wanted to reach out further. I wanted to, uh, either travel around the state, I'm currently based in Wisconsin, travel around the state and, you know, kind of meet people where they were.
Partially because getting folks to come to the hospital clinic for therapy and, and their sessions can be a burden for a lot of people. But also people would come in so often and say. Why didn't I know about this sooner? Why didn't anybody tell me I could train my voice? Why didn't I know that this was something that I could take care of?
So there was this clear gap starting to develop between the lack of preventative knowledge. And then here we were on the back end trying to rehabilitate and get them back up to function and. I thought, well, I wanna, I wanna fill that gap. Mm-hmm. And so in that, as the universe does, they bring things into your awareness.
I learned that speech pathologists could start a private practice. Who knew? They don't talk about Right. Grad school. Yeah. They don't talk about being an entrepreneur in grad school, let's be honest. Mm-hmm. Like I, in a lot of ways, um, and. I, I took a course from an amazing speech pathologist who helps others start the private practice, and I was like, had everything in place and was gung-ho by, you know, September, 2019 is, is when I filed the LLC.
And then, and then by December, 2019, I had my first, uh. You know, patient from, from a referral and as we all know, March, 2020 happened. And that, that helped me, uh, reassess as, as it did for a lot of us.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: And really what came down to Toby was. I, I can't have a foot in both worlds. Mm-hmm. I just realized that wasn't something that, that didn't match what it originally had sparked why I wanted to do this.
Mm-hmm. And to be on that front end of wellness and in our healthcare system, that's not an action that many people. Willing to take.
Toby Myles: Right.
Brienne Hennessy: So in that, uh, I took the leap in September, 2020. Yes. You heard that? Correct. And left my golden handcuffs clinical job and went in for, for the business. And it's been a.
It's been a rough, rocky, rollercoaster, delightful ride ever since. So now when you say vocal empowerment guide, I don't really believe in titles. I think that's that even, I think my allergy to it even comes from being in academia and clinical settings. Titles, label's fine. It, it's, it's something to me that means I am focused on the holistic preventative wellness side of training your voice and helping you reconnect to that voice that is truly naturally vibrantly you.
Mm-hmm. No one else. And ensuring that yes, it stays healthy. But also that you are connected to your intuition because if those two aren't aligned
Toby Myles: mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: There is not the resonance that will really showcase who you are in this moment, but also will not connect with that listener.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh. Uh, it's fascinating to me because.
I would think I, I would suspect that most people think that what you do really has to do with more of a, um, physiological, you know, like we talked about before we came on, my voice is scratchy.
Brienne Hennessy: Oh yes.
Toby Myles: You know, I need to all of that. Right. All that. Yeah. But, but I also, I also think, you know, me not knowing, right.
Knowing very little about it, but also, um, that there can be a lot to do with, um. If you have fear, if you're fearful or if you're not confident about what you're saying or out of alignment, that that can also affect. Voice.
Brienne Hennessy: Correct. That is very insightful of you, Toby. It is one of those things that I also started to see more and more signs of, even with the women who would come into the clinic, they would be in in positions where, yes, they were using their voice for their livelihood.
But usually also in high stress positions, in positions they either needed to, uh, elevate by getting more visible, being more assertive, or being told that they were too much, that their tone voice was not acceptable. All of these. Crazy biases and, and jargon that people push on how women should sound.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: And so in, in the holistic approach that I take, we are mind body connected, and this voice instrument is a conduit to that.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: So if you are. Being told certain things, believing certain things about yourself, if those are limiting beliefs, fear, doubt, worry, having been shushed as a child, whatever the, the patterns are.
For some people, that shows up as a stomach ulcer. For other people, it's a change in how they sound. Hmm. And it can be a scratchiness, a nagging feeling like something is just stuck in my throat. A sense that the voice is tired no matter what you do or how much energy you otherwise have in your body, the feeling that you aren't heard when you project.
So these physical manifestations are very real, and we always look deeper than that because there has to be a point where we don't just put on temporary surface band-aids. Right. Which a lot of this, I'll say industry because people tend to couch me in a, the closest term is voice coach, which can be everything from a singing related person all the way to someone who gets you on stages and has you do power poses in the mirror.
I, it's very broad. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, there has to be a point where someone. Tunes into them themselves and says, this is how I sound. I love how I sound. And the more I'm aligned to that and it carries on the vibrations and the frequency that I'm using, the more that that is resonant. Mm-hmm. And the opposite.
Being dissonant or misaligned. And so that's one of my gifts. I can hear and sense and see misalignments and I help guide you back to where you are now, who you are becoming, and making sure that that voice has the reliability and stamina and. Power that you need it to, to sustain
Toby Myles: mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Career, your speaking, your visibility, whatever that's gonna look like and how you,
Toby Myles: yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah.
Toby Myles: So I'm curious then, uh, for your clients, like when people come to you. What are they thinking they're coming to you for?
Brienne Hennessy: Hmm. The most common entry point is something physical has changed with their voice.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: They either notice that they get strained or fatigued and, uh, that is bothersome to them 'cause they're like, I am canceling calls or I'm not able able to get through the work week, or I can't read to my kids at night.
Mm-hmm. So a lot of it is the, the physical side. Some of it can be also when they are not heard in. A networking event if they're trying to project, but weird. I keep having to repeat myself. So a lot of times it's that physical piece, but as we kind of get to talking about it, it's because they know they either need this instrument and need to condition it, just like an athlete would condition the rest of their body.
So they see that. Whole wellness component because that's how they approach every other area of their life. And or a lot of the leaders that I work with are ready to elevate their visibility. So they're like, Ooh, I'm gonna be creating more content, or I'm gonna be on stages more, and I wanna make sure I am at my peak performance in all ways.
And so it's not just what you say about how you say it.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. I think
Brienne Hennessy: when we consider that with our voices. You're perceived in a certain way, yes. But it's not to put on ever as if you are someone else. It's to make sure you feel wholly grounded in how you're going to sound. So yes, people come with the physical things most often first.
Toby Myles: Yeah,
Brienne Hennessy: every once in a while someone will come. I have a client we're meeting tomorrow, we just started last month. She wants to feel more confident in who she is. Mm-hmm. And so her physical voice. Uh, minimal, minimal to no obvious, uh, symptomatic components,
Toby Myles: right?
Brienne Hennessy: I always do health screenings with my folks, and that's a really easy way if someone's ever curious just to go, oh, is there something there?
But to make sure that that matches so she's not constantly tugging at herself. I'm saying this, but I'm thinking this. I don't know if I believe this. Are they receiving me? Are they not? All of this critical mind chatter, I call it,
Toby Myles: yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Disrupts the flow of what we're going to say. And I believe that if our voice is continuing to carry that energy, that's going to impact our health and wellbeing and those who are listening, even if we don't.
Know it like with our
Toby Myles: minds,
Brienne Hennessy: right?
Toby Myles: Yeah. Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: You can go, uh, something feels a little off or mm-hmm. I dunno why I just keep forcing it and the force turns into pushing and the pushing turns into strain and then like everything just feels out of place.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's fascinating. It, it is funny because there go clearing my throat.
My, um, I know my husband will listen to this episode because bless his heart, he listens to all of my episodes, which is not something I thought he would ever do, but he does and he'll talk to me about it. Um,
Brienne Hennessy: amazing.
Toby Myles: Which is fascinating. But he's, um, he's got some hearing loss and I'm very soft spoken and I do feel like he thinks that I intentionally.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah,
Toby Myles: speak softly just so he can't hear me. His hearing loss has definitely progressed. I mean, he wears hearing aids, but I know it's gotten worse, but I think I'm the same. But then when he says that, I'm like, am I, is that like, like some, you know, secret way of me just sort of like, you know, causing a little argument with him because I'm very soft spoken.
I mean, I don't think so. Um,
Brienne Hennessy: it could be a self-reinforcing loop. Right. It could like, yeah, you said it could be that. Oh, I know he's not going to hear me, so why bother doing anything different on my end as the speaker, but as the listener, he also has to come 50%.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Two way street,
Toby Myles: right
Brienne Hennessy: alone. Toby, there, there, people have told me the exact thing.
Just that, just that you said with partners. Um, a couple things. Yes. A phenomena non, even separate from hearing loss where some frequencies, some range of frequencies unfortunately just aren't perceived. Mm-hmm. By the listener. And that's an auditory processing piece.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: And if you add the, the heart of hearing component, that leans into a little bit of what we were playing with before, when the voice is dampened.
Uh, even, even beyond just volume. So a lot of people think they're soft spoken. It's more where is the energy, is the energy kind of dampened or held back and, and kind of down in the throat. Or is it very resonant forward? Radiating outward.
Toby Myles: Right.
Brienne Hennessy: Sometimes it's less about volume, more that, that, when that resonance is there, that quote unquote projects, the listener, even the heart of hearing person can hear it better.
Mm-hmm. The most important thing I think that people overlook too, 'cause you just get comfortable or you're in one room or the other room.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Them seeing your face, that's,
Toby Myles: yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Facial cues is huge and a lot of folks out there with hard of hearing family know this. Um, but I would, I would encourage you to kind of explore that a little bit with noticing, just before you speak to him, is there something that you notice within your own body is there, like, ugh, okay, I have to, you know, like, or is it, Hmm.
What can I do in my own expression?
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: As. Useful for me, and I'm already setting the intention and creating that, that, uh, awareness that he's gonna hear me.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah. Even that shift, like that alone, he'll go, oh, yeah, no problem. Like he'll respond and he'll be like, oh, it worked.
Toby Myles: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Oh.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: One consideration.
Toby Myles: I think both sides too, right? Because he'll hear me talk and he'll probably think I'm probably not gonna hear anyway, so I'll just, you know.
Brienne Hennessy: And that's his work. Exactly. That's his work, exactly. Section to go.
Toby Myles: Okay. Honey, if you're listening.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah. And, and whether it's a, an initial cue that's non vocal, that helps people sometimes too.
The tap of the shoulder, shoulder, the weight, whatever it is, just to bring their focus to you. That can be really helpful. But that is, that's gonna be the, the two-way street part.
Toby Myles: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, and this is more, um, I guess not really a selfish question, but, um, but I am, uh, it's something I'm curious about.
I, this is the beginning of 2026 and this is the year that I've decided I'm going to, uh, write a keynote speech and start. Getting booked on stage. Um, I self-identify as an introvert. The idea of me being on stage is absolutely terrifying, but also exciting. I think I have a lot of things to say from a perspective of an introvert, from a perspective of someone who never should be on stage right or so we think in our society.
And so I'm already anticipating the nerves, the sounding nervous, you know, the quivering in my voice. Do you work with clients that are getting ready for. Keynotes.
Brienne Hennessy: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's one of those, uh, pieces where I think, again, there's a lot of stuff in the speaking industry that is very surface level, very one and done.
And, and that's just not me. I, I, you're not here to be fixed. There is, uh, the level of depth that we go to. Important because integration matters. Mm-hmm. This is not just, let's try on a few things and then go on our merry way. This is shifting from that internal space, and so I would ask, what is the identity and who is the identity of you as that powerful speaker on stage, and have you connected with her?
Because identity has to be first and foremost. And just reflecting back your words, you're already anticipating this possibility.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Nervousness, voice shaking, who am I to be speaking?
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. On
Brienne Hennessy: stage.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: There's always another possibility.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: And so in that it's not just putting it up in our minds, I.
Always have people consider how that physically feels in their body with embodiment practices and then how that lands within their sound. And so, yeah, when we prepare, it's usually because my one-on-one folks, we work over a period of six months. So at some point they usually have some event of some sort, whether it's a keynote or or launch or whatever the case may be.
And. We always have our foundation relaying and then preparing extra for that, right? Mm-hmm. To be that extra kind of intensive focus because our learning. Uh, curve as humans tends to be like, yeah, I'm improving, I'm improving. This is amazing. And then we kind of plateau a little bit, and then maybe we have another breakthrough, but we, we always need moments where we're ebbing and flowing, right?
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: We're acting and then integrating and acting, and then integrating. And so that's one of the reasons it's usually within a, a full spectrum, not just, oh, we're getting ready for this keynote and you can try this and go on your website. Yeah. Because does that stick. No, it's, it's a daily practice.
Yeah. And I think if your voice is saying one thing, oh my gosh, I'm gonna shake, I'm gonna be nervous, it's gonna sound, sound soft. And you're trying to project a different demeanor to the audience. Mm-hmm. They're gonna feel that long. Mm-hmm. The content.
Toby Myles: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, we, we'll circle back on that later this year.
I'm sure. I am working with a, a speaking coach. Um. To prepare. And she, she has exactly, she's got a lot of experience and that piece of it. But I do think there will be an, and she's, um, she comes from a, um, she used to be a breath work coach, so she's very much like dealing with nerves and things like that.
But the voice specifically, um, is something I'm super interested in. So we will, um, we'll table that conversation, you and I for later on this, this year. Um, so I, I would, I would love to know. Um, if you can take me back to even before, um, grad school and undergrad to Brienne as a little girl, um, did you know back then what you wanted to be when you grew up
Brienne Hennessy: prior to the, uh, middle school marine biology hit? I, I don't remember ever talking about it or settling on something. I knew, I, I think I was more science oriented at that time and, and still am, but just I, I enjoyed science, uh, in, in different capacities. But no, I don't think it was ever, you know, unless my parents could say, oh, we'd ask you what you wanted to do when you grew up and you know, this is what you said.
I've never thought to ask them that. I think that would be a really interesting question actually. And yeah, I do remember just. More my beingness, my
just kind of jovial and, and bubbly and, uh, engaging and those kind of things. I remember. More deliberately, and I, I point that out because twice in my life now, one in 2013 and one just last year, I've gone to the depths of near numbness. And so to reclaim those whole and worthy and true parts about me has been its own.
Second origin, maybe.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Through, so it's less about what I wanted to do, but more how I felt and who I was.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I think sometimes in those, uh, really difficult moments, we forget the roots of really who we were. And some of those things in childhood are, are still so, uh, true to who we are now all these years later.
Right. They were things that were there in the beginning and somewhere along the way they just got. You know, brushed to the side or lost or forgotten or morphed into something we never.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah, exactly.
Toby Myles: You know? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, and
Brienne Hennessy: I, and I do remember being told I was a talker. Sure. Uh, teachers would often, often tell me that, yeah, I needed to stop talking.
Uh, so I, I totally track with that. And, and I didn't mind being on stage. I was in plays, I was in choirs. I didn't mind being on stages. That was, that was fine. But again, I didn't see myself necessarily the front and center person. I don't, I don't need the spotlight. Yeah. I definitely, you know, loved being the, the team player in that regard.
Um, and then what I think is interesting too in that with, it depends too on the worldview of, you know, not knowing that entrepreneurship existed. I also didn't know a lot. You know, you don't, you're not gonna know every job that exists. Don't. Fascinating all the ways people. Have, create, do jobs that you didn't even know were a thing, and you're like, that's cool.
That's a thing. Yeah. I would've known that. So I remember, you know, thinking, well, you just go to school and then you go to college and you get married and you have kids and you retire. Like, that was my, my narrow world view, you know, at that point. Right. I feel like, yeah. To, to determine who I want to be and what then what I want to do with that.
I've just been really fortunate that it could morph from something that, that I was already masterful at.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: This work is, is my zone of genius. Being able to see and perceive and guide and detect the underlying pieces to get folks feeling more themselves, more aligned and remembering their worthiness.
That's, that feels very true to me.
Toby Myles: Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's a couple things, right? It's, it's being. Paying attention to your own, what's going on in your own body and the things that excite you and, and light you up. And I know you're a very intuitive person, so that doesn't surprise me. But then also having the courage to just say, this is crazy.
People are gonna think, what is she doing? But I feel this is, this is what I'm meant to do, so I'm going to do it anyway.
Brienne Hennessy: Yes. And de courage is. Stick say, but yes, it requires a lot of courage. That is for sure. That's been been reignited in the past few months for me even being like, you know what? I don't.
I don't give a damn anymore. Like I don't, I'm just gonna go for it. You have to like rego for it every time and choose and decide again. And because divine, I believe in divine source, God, it is. It is a clear yes. Even on the days where I'm like, can I just push the e eject button now? Mm-hmm. You know, any entrepreneur will relate to that, where we're like, mm-hmm.
Does this even matter?
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: And so feeling into that, the embodiment of it and the wisdom that our bodies give us in, in how I work with my clients with intuition and refining that, I think that that discernment and knowing. Is is so huge because you're right, people, my family, I mean September when they were like, you're doing what?
As a single mom being a clinic? Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, fine. And it took me. A long time. Probably, probably, um, too long, I would say, because I, part of my, uh, energy style is, it ebbs and flows and I'm, I go into hermit mode.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: I was in a very long, probably overdue hermit mode, and I would still look behind my shoulder.
You know, it was still that feeling of like, who, who's watching who's mm-hmm. You know, people from my former career, things like that. Oh yeah. No, don't,
Toby Myles: yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: Don't care anymore.
Toby Myles: Yeah, I know. I just, I, I wrote this on somebody's, uh, post on LinkedIn yesterday. Something she wrote was along these lines, and I can't remember who.
Which one of my friends said this, but um, she said, other people's opinions of us are none of our business. And I think about that almost every day. It's like, yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: It's like, yeah, it's, it's a re Yeah. Reremembering of that, but also like how cool that you can go. They're not the other one I really like.
They're not thinking of you as much as you think they're
Toby Myles: thinking that. Yes. I say that to my daughter all the time.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah. How much So sobering and also so freeing at the same time.
Toby Myles: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, okay, so since we're talking on that note, um, for our listeners who many of whom are. Entrepreneurs like we are, or maybe thinking about starting a business, thinking about leaving some security and starting a business, either going all in or as a side hustle, uh, what would be like your best piece of advice for them?
Brienne Hennessy: Hmm.
Currently would say knowing and listening to your intuition, because that will. Be the compass regardless of what's going on externally, which also dovetails with self-trust.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Building your self trust. So in that, had I, and I've been refining my intuition over the years, had I had the self-trust piece, I had the intuition, but not always the self-trust.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: I would've made very different investment decisions.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: As an ear for you, early entrepreneurs out there, you don't have to do all the programs, you don't have, you don't to do all the things. Don't do it. Right. Just don't. Okay. Uh, talk, talk to me and Toby first. Yes. Okay. Please. Um, because you can get swept up in that so easily.
And here I thought. I'm a clinician. I don't, I don't know how to do business. I don't know how to do entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. So, so there was that, that rational piece to it. But you can get swept up and, and the industry's changed a lot. So I think y'all are coming in, you know, anyone newbies at a, at a interestingly, a more aligned time because you're, it's gonna be clearer.
Who is. In integrity and transparent and effective.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Not, but that still comes down to my second thing, which is timing.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: I, I believe in divine timing, but I also, uh, now honor the pressure, the presence of pressure when it is. Oh. But, but this came into my reality. I think I'm supposed to do this now.
Mm. It came into reality for me to discern, is this for me? Is it for me now or later? Mm-hmm. Like you were speaking of.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: I, this may be for it for me now. This may be for me later to work on my speaking voice. Great.
Toby Myles: Yep.
Brienne Hennessy: And then trusting that and whatever unfolds with that, because that again goes back to can you hold yourself in that worthy regard of saying, I know.
I am and I am becoming in a way that works best for me. So those are, those are probably the top things. I know that's more than one, but to me they're an ecosystem. Yeah. Together. And then to honor your energy, you're gonna work more as an entrepreneur than you do at your day job right now, unless you are also, which I wish more.
People, families talked about, but you have more resources now than ever unless you've, you understand wealth building unless you understand financials in a way that sets you up to, to really take that leap. I didn't, and I'm still recovering from all of that. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, how, how cool that we are all so well resourced.
Yeah.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: So, so, so know that your energy. Based on all those factors, you can, you can build the model and the business that you want. I wish I would've known that sooner. It didn't have to look like anybody else's.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm. Oh, that's so good. And also sometimes, like while it's important to get support from other people,
Brienne Hennessy: yes.
Toby Myles: Doing what you're doing and right further along in the path, and you definitely get support from those people, but. Also you have to know when to put your blinders on because you're always gonna be saying, oh, well she's doing that. Like I, that means I can't do it. Or maybe I should do it that way, or you know, and it causes so much turmoil and questioning and doubt.
Like
Brienne Hennessy: shiny object syndrome times.
Toby Myles: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And
Brienne Hennessy: I recovering shiny object
Toby Myles: person. Oh, same, same. It's taken me many years and many. Many thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. Yes.
Brienne Hennessy: Let's go
Toby Myles: to learn
Brienne Hennessy: the Yes.
Toby Myles: Well, let's, yes, we're going there for sure.
Brienne Hennessy: Yep. We're going there.
Toby Myles: Oh my gosh,
Brienne Hennessy: for sure. So,
Toby Myles: um,
Brienne Hennessy: yeah, it's completely possible for, for anyone considering it or even midway or like me, who's in that.
Like, am I gonna eject from all of this? Yeah. And it is okay to have, that's the other thing with my, I was thinking about when I was preparing for today, truly, you know, in thinking about the, the core of your. The space that you provided its origin. I mean, truly it feels like my second origin has just started in the last few months.
Mm-hmm. After a year ago, me numb, second, dark night of the soul. Like just not even survival mode rather than thriving. Yeah. Choosing from that place. So this last year I had a consulting job with a speaker marketing business. I was working part-time at a pub. I was doing DoorDash, like I was doing like five jobs.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: Eight. That doesn't suit my energy, but B, you have to know that there are. Doors that will open.
Toby Myles: Yeah.
Brienne Hennessy: There are things that are gonna happen. I, those, all things have either fallen away anybody else 20, 25 things just fall away. Yeah. Fall away. Mm-hmm. Just because they're done and, and also things that I was intuitively guided to be like, you have completed this, you have to.
Mm-hmm. But now this is what's gonna go forward. So that's where I get back to. I guess really the core of this is that intuition and self-trust foundation is so huge and the more you can infuse that with who you are. How you're speaking about it, the words you choose, the way your voice resonates through that, that all comes into being
Toby Myles: Yeah,
Brienne Hennessy: in my, my belief.
So choose wisely.
Toby Myles: Choose wisely. Choose wisely. And also know that. It is going to change and evolve over time, right? Yes. When I, like, I started around the same time you did. I left a corporate job in 2019 and then my husband got sick and I thought, what am I doing? And he was like, no, this is the, you should do it now because who knows.
Right? Right. Um, but I mean, I started my business. Strictly as a, a copywriter and a content creator. And now I'm a right, I'm a storytelling coach. And it took me a while to, I've always told stories and I've always used that in my writing, but I, last year I was like, no, this is who I am and I'm not gonna be afraid to speak it into the world.
But if I, if you would've asked me day one mm-hmm. If that's who I was, I'm like, no. Like that's, I don't even know what that is.
Brienne Hennessy: Can we just, uh, listeners, you see if you can choose this out, Toby, you just said that was such conviction.
Toby Myles: Mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: That's going to sparkle on stage so well, by the way, yeah. Just wanna point that out.
Toby Myles: Oh, thank you.
Brienne Hennessy: So, so that is, that is innately within you. I love it.
Toby Myles: Thank you. Thank you. So, right. But the message behind that is that we're also allowed to have moments of uncertainty and moments where we pivot and say, yeah, I'm like. Start it in this direction, but I'm not fully, that's, I'm not fully in alignment with that.
That doesn't feel right. Yeah. Um, even though maybe it once felt right, felt right, like that's perfectly okay too and it's all part of the journey.
Brienne Hennessy: It is. And that actually leads me to, to kind of one final note relative to when I was just thinking of a couple recent clients who were still noticing they.
They had this trepidation with, with what they were going to say, how they were going to interact with it. Uh, sometimes it would be for stages. Grief lives in the lungs. The lungs hold our breath. The breath powers are voice.
Toby Myles: Hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: So if you haven't taken the time to acknowledge what was lost by choice or not,
Toby Myles: mm-hmm.
Brienne Hennessy: That is a very powerful practice that you can do for yourself.
Toby Myles: Wow.
Brienne Hennessy: Yeah.
Toby Myles: Ugh. Yeah. That's so good. Okay, so, um, I would be doing our listeners a disservice if I didn't share with them how they can connect with you, find you online, all the things.
Brienne Hennessy: All the things. I love it. I am at yourvocalvitality.com, the website, uh, as well as I'm on LinkedIn, Brienne Hennessy, Facebook friend, me.
You can go to the business page, but just friend me. That's fun to do. And then I'm also on Substack. I write just for the fun of it and, and growing my stretch. Expansive. I'll write whatever I want to write. Mm-hmm. Self. Uh, stories, et cetera. And so I would love to, to connect with any of you, and certainly if there are things that have pinged for you with respect to your intuition, to your voice, to preparing for your speech, I have resources for all of those things.
So I look forward to connecting with each of you.
Toby Myles: Oh, great. Thank you so much, Brienne. This has been amazing. I honestly feel like so many other questions bubbled up, so there might be a part to, to this conversation at some point.
Brienne Hennessy: Sounds beautiful. I'll be here for it.
Toby Myles: Awesome. Thank you so much for being here.
Brienne Hennessy: Thank you, Toby. I appreciate you.