Why reclaiming your voice—not reshaping it—is key to leading with power and purpose.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Felicia Davis, Founder of Haus of Vocal Empowerment, about her mission to help women—especially those from marginalized backgrounds—lead authentically through strategic communication and embodiment. Felicia unpacks the concept of voice sovereignty and shares how embracing your true voice can elevate your leadership and impact.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I have Felicia Davis on the line, and she’s the founder over at House of Vocal Empowerment.
Felicia, welcome to the show. Hey, Adam. Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. All right. So we got a lot to talk about today. So for everybody listening, this is part of our take the Lead Women series that we’re putting together with Gloria Felt for the Power Up Conference that’s gonna be coming up.
And I guess let’s start there, Felicia. Um, Have you, have you been to the power conferences before? Like talk a little bit about your background with Take the Lead Women. Oh yes. Well, I’m so glad that we’re starting there. ’cause this is like the genesis to how you and I met. Mm-hmm. Obviously.
Conference and then I have actually been involved with Take Lead for more than a decade since they launched. Wow. Here in Phoenix at Arizona State University. And so the work that they do is so aligned with the work that I am a strong stand for as a former HR executive term leadership consultant.
And when I saw that they were coming to town launching mm, I easily got on board. And so I’ve been to all of the conferences. I’ve been a part of the visioning. I didn’t know that part from the beginning. You’ve been there. I didn’t know that. That’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. What keeps you, I mean, with your background, your expertise, obviously like lots of things you can do.
What keeps you coming back? What keeps you so involved? Well, really the biggest thing that keeps me involved is just the whole mission of Take the Lead, which is around really elevating women from a leadership perspective so that we can really get in the rooms and the spaces where we need to do, but not only get in the room, but have a voice and a place at the table to make decisions.
So really getting women rooted in their power from a place of being able to. Really use our voice in a very, very powerful way. And so that’s the thing that keeps me coming back because that’s what I believe in from the, just from my work that I’ve done as a former HR executive to now. Hmm. Tell me about House of Vocal Empowerment um, as you’re founder, how’d you come up with the idea?
Yeah, so House of Vocal Empowerment is an expansion on our, brand new brilliance work. And it’s really, we really go in and help design learning strategies that really transform how organizations and leaders develop their authentic capability from a leadership perspective. And when you really look at the core of it is all around executive communication strategy and Alicia development programs that we, that we do.
And one of the things you’re known about is voice sovereignty. Can you explain that, that kind of concept, what it means and how it’s different from traditional communication coaching? Yeah. So I have to tell you, Adam, I was sitting in a leadership development workshop. A few years ago, and they were really teaching us to speak with executive presence, and it was in that moment that I realized that they were essentially teaching us to sound like someone else specifically.
If I can say myself, like white men in corner offices. Mm-hmm. And so it was in that, in that revelatory moment, that voice sovereignty came to me. And I, I see that as being the opposite because it’s about really using your authentic voice very strategically, but not apologetically, right? Mm-hmm. And when you think about traditional communication, traditional communication, coaching often focuses on fixing what’s wrong with how you speak, right?
Mm-hmm. But when, when. Layer that against voice sovereignty. Voice sovereignty says your voice isn’t broken. The systems that make you feel like you need to change it are right. Mm-hmm. So it’s the different, it’s the difference between learning to code switch and learning to command authority as yourself.
Because here’s what I’ve discovered, like when leaders. Try to perform a version of leadership that really isn’t authentic to them. Everyone loses, right? Yeah. But when it doesn’t resonate with that audience, there’s just, it’s a misfire like, all right. Yeah, you can feel it, right? Mm-hmm. And, and, they say that our body really tells us everything.
And so when, when a leader feels exhausted, when they feel like they’re in performative mode, right? And the organization really misses out on their actual genius. So if you think about this, Adam, if you are spending energy monitoring how you sound, you’re not fully, fully focused on what you’re saying. And that’s really insufficient leadership.
Yeah. And I know one of the things you talked about as well is women translating their genius in the corporate settings. what does that concept mean to you, translating your genius? I have to tell you this is, this is very, very expensive, Adam. When high performing women are constantly translating their ideas into what they think leadership wants them to hear, then they start to lose speed.
They start to lose innovation, and they really start to lose the accuracy, right? And so. In my experience, I have seen so many brilliant women take a 32nd insight and turn into a 10 minute explanation, all because they feel like they need to prove that they belong in the room. Mm-hmm. Meanwhile. Their male colleague says, I think we should pivot, and it gets hurt immediately.
Right? And so the real cost isn’t just time, it’s the quality of decision making. And when people are performing leadership, instead of embodying it, you get watered down ideas. You get delayed responses. Some people even tap out, right? Mm-hmm. The teams they don’t get the trust that they need or they really to really, really sufficiently be taking advantage of what that leader can bring to the table.
Hmm. Wow. And so what when you’re working with different individuals a, a target demographic? Is there an age group? Is there an industry? Like, talk to me a little bit about who hits the most value out of working with you and your team. Yeah, I would say the, the people who get the most value are, are women who, have been marginalized, right?
Mm. So anyone in that marginalized category, those are the women who get the most value because those are the leaders who find themselves having to be in a performative nature, find the. Code switch, find themselves either tapping out because they feel like it doesn’t matter or they feel like it’s just too exhaustive.
Right. And so we teach them the what embodiment principles that help them get in their body, get rooted in their body. ’cause what’s in your body is what’s gonna come outta your mouth. Mm-hmm. So we teach them some of those things to help them really get rooted in their body, but then we get them in their strategic mind so they’re communicating from a place of of sovereignty.
Hmm. is there a cost to, not getting this right for organizations and for corporations for not empowering individuals like this? Is there a cost? Yeah. I tell you, I have a, very powerful story that, end up costing the company around $50,000. Mm. Do you mind share with you?
Please, please go for it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was back when I was still in my corporate career more than a decade ago, and I was really the only woman of color in the room full of senior executives that were discussing a major strategic partnership. And I had done some extensive research and I identified like three critical red flags that could really take, like, really derail the deal.
And because of how I felt in that moment, when the moment came to speak up, I hesitated. Mm-hmm. And I got in my head and I told myself that I need to be diplomatic or maybe I was overthinking it and that I should really wait for someone else to raise a concern first. And so what did I do? This is, this is where the cough comes in.
I stayed silent. I didn’t say anything. The partnership ended up moving forward and six months later, all three of my concerns materialize exactly as I thought because I was afraid to, say it because I was afraid to be the first one to, in dissension against all everyone else who was not in agreement.
It costs the company about $50,000. Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah, I get this, I get this and it makes sense. And some of the things that you mentioned, I mean, we don’t, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. So who, like the leadership in that room, probably they, they obviously didn’t know right. Yeah. Like they had no idea what you, what, what, what you were necessarily going through.
And I think that’s, a big deal. And then if you look at it, I look at it a just one other angle from this is like, and not picking on you or yourself, but how many others don’t, haven’t had the opportunity or don’t have the skills or the communication skills to speak up in those settings.
And maybe it’s cost them things like promotions or, you know mm-hmm. Other people taking their ideas or like, not intentionally, but just, you know, not getting credit for your work or. Maybe intentionally sometimes, right? Like there’s lots of downfalls. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was gonna say, you are so spot on because not only is it that you don’t know what you don’t know, but there are other women or other leaders.
Mm-hmm. Not even just women, you know, men often suffer with imposter syndrome too, right? Yeah. But other people who could be sitting in that same room who’s thinking the same thing that you’re thinking, but no one’s willing to, to go first and say uh, a good idea. Yeah, I get it. Well, Felicia, first off, this has been great having you on the show today and just getting to know more about yourself.
More than I knew before. I didn’t know, I did not know that you’ve been with uh, take the lead from the beginning in terms of the conference and everything else. Um, So that, amazing. And I know this year, by the way, for everybody listening, if you haven’t done it yet um, it’s. Take the lead women.com and the conference this year is gonna be August 25th and 26th, and that’ll be in Washington DC you can also go the PowerUp conference.com and you can get there too.
But I like take the lead women.com because you’ll be able to see some of the trainings and other things that Gloria felt the founder of the organization has created. Great, great community of individuals as well. But that being said, Felicia, if somebody is listening or watching this and if they wanna follow up and they wanna also connect with you and learn more about House of Vocal empowerment, how do they do that?
Well, thank you so much. I wanna say thanks so much, Adam. Another thing I wanna just amplify a little bit about Take the lead. Mm-hmm. I think it’s important to understand that although we center the women, right, it’s a bold, like purpose driven movement. Still by and for women, but we also have so many male partners and allies like you.
That’s, I been, , I’m there. Yeah. So we want, we wanna make sure that not only do we have the right women in the room at the conference this year, which is August 25th and 26th, but we want our male allies to be in that room as well, because we. Change this without everyone at the table. And so with that, if anyone wants to connect with me on all the platforms, you can find my, my website is brand my brilliance.com and on all the platforms I’m at at Brand, my brilliance.
Fantastic. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some links in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Felicia, thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
