Episode 033 – Cynthia Zhai

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Automated Transcription

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Richard Matthews  

Hello, and welcome back to the hero show. Richard Matthews here. 

 

I am out of the beach again with my family where we’re working here. 

 

I am on the line with Cynthia. Cynthia, are you there?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. Glad to have you on the show, Cynthia. 

 

Really good to have you here. Let me do a quick introduction 

 

so our guests know who you are and then we’ll get right into it. 

 

So, Cynthia is a voice coach, speaker and an author. 

 

Voice coach is really interesting. 

 

We’ve never had a voice coach on the show before. 

 

And you’ve helped business professionals 

 

and professional speakers from 46 countries across five continents 

 

with their voice to speak with impact and conviction 

 

and engage and inspire people to embrace change and take action. 

 

You’ve been a professional speaker-coach for 17 years. 

 

And you’ve been in four continents 

 

and in countries like the US, Finland, Netherlands, 

 

Argentina, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong. 

 

I can’t pronounce this one Macau? on China.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. That’s right.

 

Richard Matthews  

…Vietnam, the Philippines, 

 

you’ve been on the USA Discover Your Talent show, 

 

Singapore radio program. You’ve been in Hong Kong radio, 

 

Malaysia business radio… You’ve been all over the place. 

 

And you speak mostly about the subject of voice. Is that correct?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, that’s right. 

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. So we generally would like to start the show 

 

talking about what it is that you’re known for now, right? 

 

What is it–in your words? Why do people come to you, Cynthia, and hire you? 

 

What are they looking for help with?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Okay, so I am known for helping them develop a powerful voice 

 

so that whenever and wherever they speak, 

 

they will be heard and they will be seen as the expert.

 

Richard Matthews  

So how does – How do you do that? 

 

How do you help someone work with their voice?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. So I get a lot of questions. Whenever I say that I’m a voice coach, 

 

they often ask me “Oh, is it for singing?” So it’s not for singing.

 

We’re speaking. And so how do I help them?

 

We are going to develop their body

 

because we’re developing the physical voice. 

 

Most people would think that, 

 

“oh, it’s just to work on your tone – the tone of the voice.” 

 

But it’s much, much more than that. It is to develop a physical voice, 

 

the voice itself to be more powerful. And what we do is – 

 

Yes, you can do that. And one question people always ask is, 

 

“Oh, can we change the voice that we were born with?”

 

And the answer is yes. So if the voice that they have was soft, 

 

or high pitched, or some of my clients, they lack gravitas.

 

So we developed the voice on a physical level, 

 

to help them make the voice stronger, the pitch deeper, 

 

or developing the gravitas.

 

Richard Matthews  

So who does that really help? 

 

What kind of people are reaching out that are thinking 

 

I need help with my voice? 

 

Is that like, people like me who are doing podcasts or speakers? 

 

Or maybe the CEOs? What kind of people reach out to you? 

 

I’m just curious how that plays out? 

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So, you know, question you include a few groups of people. 

 

One is that they are the C-Suite. So they want to project 

 

a more authoritative voice. And they come to me, 

 

and the other groups are P’s. There are some podcasters. 

 

There are also YouTubers but the majority are 

 

business professionals who will need to do presentations on a regular basis. 

 

Or even when they are speaking over the phone or be in meetings, 

 

and they find out their voice is not projecting the power. So then they reach out to me. 

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s awesome. So when you help these people to change their voice 

 

– to improve their voice – does that generally… 

 

do they see a benefit in the amount of dollars that they earn 

 

or how they close sales or things that actually improve their business?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

That’s one one part–one group of the students that I helped with. 

 

The majority, they are also speaking conferences. 

 

And when they speak – after they finished speaking, there’s no response. 

 

Or even in meetings, when they speak, 

 

they noticed the outcome that the other people, 

 

whatever I have just said, they have no response. 

 

Then they realize someone else has a more powerful voice. 

 

And the other person spoke something 

 

sometimes even spoke the same things as they did. 

 

But the other person got a very good response, and also got buy-in,

 

but not my students before they worked on their voice. 

 

So then they realize, Oh, I need to work on my voice.

 

Richard Matthews  

So do you also teach them how to do things like how to change 

 

and vary their tone and pitch through this … through their speech? 

 

So they learn how to like engage the audience to 

 

teach them those kind of skills as well?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So the purpose is to engage the audience. 

 

But what I teach them is about the feeling. 

 

So how they feel…the different emotions, 

 

because they have tried – before they came to me – 

 

they had tried to vary their tones. 

 

And then they realized that it doesn’t feel very natural. 

 

And also, they feel weird at times. 

 

So instead, we work on the other way around, 

 

we work on the inside out. 

 

So when you have the right emotion that you will feel, 

 

the voice – the variation in your voice – will follow.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s awesome. So what I want to find out from you is 

 

your origin story, right? We talked about this 

 

with all of our guests that every hero has an origin story, 

 

this is where you sort of started to realize that you were different, 

 

that maybe you could could help people. 

 

How did you – how did this journey start for you? 

 

How did you get into the business of helping people with their voice?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Okay. So, for me, I had voice training before. 

 

I was singing, performing in schools, from primary school 

 

all the way to high school. But even if I did have voice training, 

 

I never thought about this becoming a career. 

 

And it was only until in my early career, I was not heard. 

 

And I was also not assertive. So I was looking for all kinds of ways 

 

to improve myself to be more assertive to be heard. 

 

And I have – I did attend a lot of different trainings. 

 

And I did improve my voice even more. 

 

But still, I wasn’t aware that this can become a career 

 

until I was in my last job. I was doing training on 

 

leadership and communication. 

 

So that’s where people started to ask me 

 

“Oh, how do we improve the voice?” 

 

So I realized oh, okay, this is something that people are looking for. 

 

And I had the training on this area.

 

So that’s where I started to ponder the idea of doing my own business. 

 

And two years later, I started my own business. So, that was about 10 years ago.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s really cool. So you had all this voice training for yourself. 

 

And then you started – people started asking you about it. 

 

And you just sort of had a natural transition into running your own business that way?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. And have you found yet? No. 

 

Yeah, I think that the key is that at the time, 

 

I wasn’t aware that there was a market need. 

 

I think not only that we are good at something, 

 

but also the thing that we’re good at, 

 

it’s important that there’s a market need for that.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, absolutely. So, I always thought like to think that, 

 

when you’re starting your business, 

 

you’re looking for a group of people who have a problem 

 

that you can have a solution for. Right? 

 

So they have a problem, you know, there’s a market need, right, 

 

then you can come in and help them solve that problem. 

 

So, next question is sort of… it’s about your superpower, right? 

 

So what would you say your superpower is? 

 

When you come in and you’re actually working with these people, 

 

what’s the thing that you really help them accomplish?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

I think my superpower is to be able to – 

 

one is to turn the process of seemingly complex problem process 

 

into a very simple and actionable process. 

 

And so because of that, when my students – when my clients came to me … 

 

if they follow the simple process, 

 

they will be able to see the change in their own voices. 

 

So that’s one; and then two, is that, from that simple process, 

 

I can help them I support them to make the transformation in their voices. 

 

So that’s what I see as my superpower.

 

Richard Matthews  

So I’m curious the process that you go through with 

 

helping someone with their voice. Does that process change at all

 

if you’re helping someone who’s speaking a different language? Right? 

 

So I assume you said you’re from China? 

 

If someone’s speaking Chinese or speaking, s

 

peaking English or speaking…you know, 

 

you have clients from the Philippines. 

 

So they speak like Tagalog over there, does the process change at all? 

 

Or is it the same process, regardless of the language?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

It is the same process regardless of the language, 

 

because I have clients, they speak all kinds of first languages. 

 

And half of them their first language is not English. 

 

But they go through the same process, because the body – 

 

voice is very physical, when we work on the voice, 

 

we are working on the body. So from that point of view, 

 

the process is the same, and also that the voice, 

 

the way our voices are being produced is also the same. 

 

It doesn’t matter what language you are speaking.

 

Richard Matthews  

So does the skill also transfer if you learn to improve your voice 

 

in one language and you speak a second language? 

 

Does it improve both languages? 

 

Or do you have to practice the same skills in both languages?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

It will improve the same languages, you will notice that, for example, 

 

if you are speaking English,

 

not only that the voice when you’re speaking English is improved, 

 

but also that the voice when you’re speaking Spanish is also improved.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s cool. So it’s like it’s a transferable skill 

 

that will transfer to any language that you speak.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. 

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s really cool. So the other side of the superpowers is the fatal flaw, right? 

 

Every superhero has their fatal flaws, Superman has his kryptonite, 

 

Batman is not really a superhero. 

 

If you had to say what your fatal flaw is, 

 

what would you say has sort of held your business back? 

 

And how have you helped combat that over the years 

 

for people who might suffer from something similar.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So I think this is something that even today, 

 

and it still has some degree of impact on me. 

 

I’m still working on this. So it’s my fear of having conflict with other people. 

 

And so that was actually when I was just starting my career, 

 

that was the unconscious fear, that actually made me 

 

not assertive in the beginning. Because of the fear of conflict, 

 

I was avoiding all kinds of conflict. 

 

But little did I know that conflict is actually a good thing 

 

that help us realize what the problems are sometimes. 

 

So over the years, I have worked on that, 

 

and because when you are afraid of conflict, 

 

it is really being reflected in every area of your life. 

 

So for example, when I started my business, 

 

from the way that I set boundaries, 

 

and I didn’t even have boundaries in the beginning. 

 

And I remember I asked my one of my mentors, I said, 

 

“Why did we need to set boundaries, and we are supposed to be nice to people?” 

 

And so I think that’s something that I worked on and have suffered from, for years. 

 

And in the past, I didn’t think that I was suffering 

 

until I went on this journey of entrepreneurship. 

 

So always share with other people. 

 

I say, if you want to really stretch yourself to to the fullest,

 

become an entrepreneur. So, yeah, because if it’s not for entrepreneurship, 

 

I probably wouldn’t be this fast to realize that I need to set my boundaries. 

 

And so I think that’s something that that was holding me back. 

 

And once I started to set – yes.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah. So the fear of conflict is very – it’s very common. 

 

And it’s also – it’s like a hidden fear. 

 

Not a lot of people realize that that’s what they’re doing. Right. 

 

So though, they are holding themselves back, you know, like for a lot of – 

 

I tell people, one of the things I used to suffer from was severe perfectionism, 

 

that’s really obvious, you know what you’re doing, right? 

 

You’re like, I’m trying to get this thing to be perfect. 

 

And you’re like, I can see that I’m wasting time on this stuff. 

 

So it’s a very invisible, like thing that’s holding you back. 

 

That fear of conflict is kind of, it’s like hard to see. Right? 

 

So you don’t always know that it’s there. 

 

So how did you sort of start to realize that it was a problem?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah, so one was because that I had at least about three incidences 

 

that I was not assertive, even when I was working for a company. 

 

So that’s where I started to realize, 

 

“Oh, I need to work on being assertive.” 

 

But from different workshops that I attended, 

 

and one of them, I think, not sure if you or the listeners heard of it is Enneagram. 

 

So Enneagram is a very complex, complete, holistic, personality profiling system. 

 

But it’s much more than that. So from there, in Enneagram, 

 

we kind of discuss the blind spots for every type. 

 

So once I identified my type, I started to dig deeper 

 

and realize that what actually drives all those behaviors that I had, 

 

was the fear of conflict. So that’s where I discovered that. 

 

And from there, I discovered this blind spot, 

 

and then I started to realize, 

 

“Oh, this blind spot is actually playing out in every area of my life.”

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, so you actually went through some testing, 

 

and we’re able to see that and see how it’s actually 

 

affecting all the things that you’re doing.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

It’s actually not by testing, which actually, I also don’t recommend to do the test. 

 

Because sometimes when you do the test, it can be very subjective. 

 

And what’s actually even better is to observe your own behaviors. 

 

That’s also actually what we learn in Enneagram is about observation – 

 

to have very strong self awareness. 

 

So I started to be aware of all your behaviors, 

 

and also what drives all your behaviors. 

 

That’s where you will start to notice how your blind spot is playing out.

 

Richard Matthews  

Makes a lot of sense. So you’re actually, 

 

you’re observing it and seeing what’s going on. 

 

So the next question is your common enemy, right? 

 

So this is more about your clients, right? 

 

they always like I know, at least in my business, 

 

So if you could, when a client hires you, and, you know, 

 

you always see the same things that your clients struggle with.

 

So if you could like wave a magic wand and remove something, you know, 

 

a mindset or something that’s holding them back 

 

that you could just automatically remove as soon as a client hires you? 

 

What would that thing be that would help them 

 

really take their their skills to the next level?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

I wish that could be. How easy that will be?

 

Yeah, so I think there are deeper level fears 

 

that are holding my clients back. So one, of course, is the fear of being visible. 

 

So when they are fearful of being visible, then, of course, 

 

when in the meetings that they have the opportunity to speak up, 

 

they probably wouldn’t, because they actually are being visible. 

 

And this is also something that’s not on the conscious level. 

 

So they have to observe their behaviors, 

 

observe themselves in different situations to realize that. 

 

So if I can help them, wave a magic wand 

 

and help them to remove this fear, then they can achieve much more. 

 

And the other thing is about the fear of judgment. 

 

So a lot of my clients, when they have the fear of judgment, 

 

then they’re also not able to speak, 

 

not only just speak with a powerful voice, but also speak their mind. 

 

So I think that’s the two biggest fears that my clients have, 

 

if I can help them remove that, then they are going to become unstoppable.

 

Richard Matthews  

So I’ve heard the fear of judgement before, 

 

but I’ve never heard the fear of being visible before. Right? 

 

Some people and maybe it’s just because I’ve not run into anyone with that fear. 

 

Maybe I just haven’t realized it because they’re being invisible. 

 

Where do you think that comes from? 

 

Where people are afraid to be visible in a group?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

There are many different reasons. 

 

One of them is – this has come from my students. 

 

One of them is that the fear of – is that they don’t believe that they are valuable. 

 

So they came from their childhood, their experiences. 

 

So they don’t believe that they are valuable. 

 

They don’t believe that what they say is valuable. 

 

We’re in a different situation, different family, it could be that they don’t matter. 

 

What they say doesn’t matter.

 

So also – yes

 

Richard Matthews  

It is coming forward where they’re not sort of – they don’t value their visibility. 

 

Their voice or their opinion, so they’re afraid of it.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah. And at the core is I don’t matter. So that’s what’s holding them back.

 

Richard Matthews  

So when you get in, you’re actually helping and coaching them on their voice. 

 

The voice is like the outward manifestation, 

 

but you’re actually helping them with some of their internal things as well. 

 

Right, like figuring out the fears that are holding them back 

 

and everything so that they can actually improve their voice. 

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah, that’s right

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. So I’ll talk a little bit about your driving force, right. 

 

So if the common enemy is the thing that you’re fighting against, 

 

the driving force is the thing that you’re fighting for. Right? 

 

It’s your mission, right, like Spider Man fights to save New York, 

 

or Google fights to categorize all the world’s information and search? 

 

What is your mission? If you could go out and accomplish it? 

 

What would you say that is?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

My mission is that everyone – and everyone has a powerful voice 

 

this voice is both physical and metaphorical. 

 

So everyone has a powerful voice. 

 

And my mission is to help them get that powerful voice out of them to be heard.

 

Richard Matthews  

Absolutely. And do you – How do you think that would impact the world? 

 

If everyone had a voice that they spoke out?

 

How do you think things would change? 

 

What do you think would be different?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

It will be very different, because for example, one client of mine, 

 

she helps all kinds of children, especially, for example, 

 

autism children and children with learning disabilities. 

 

And so she was – in the beginning, she was just helping her son, 

 

and gradually that she was invited by different schools too 

 

because they are also those children in different schools. 

 

So as we discuss, and I realized that I said, this is actually your mission, 

 

your mission is to help those children because you see, in a way, 

 

I say that you ascend to this life to do this, 

 

because you are being given a child in the beginning who has learning disabilities. 

 

And from your own experience, you can help more people 

 

and also from there that you actually use start to challenge the school educational system. 

 

Because from her sharing that I realized that our school educational system 

 

saw those children as learning disabled, 

 

but they’re actually not learning disabled, they are just different, 

 

For example, Richard Branson, he is traditionally seen as 

 

the way they learn are different. But they can be so successful. 

 

traditionally thought that this kind of learning disability, he couldn’t read. 

 

But he look at him. He is so successful. 

 

I said that our educational system need to redefine what is learning disability. 

 

Those children, they are not this learning challenged at all, 

 

they are just different. They can be very successful. 

 

So instead of just helping for small circle, so we actually help her. 

 

One, just not only does have an idea, that’s much, much higher 

 

on a much, much higher level, but also that if she can keep doing this, 

 

and keep doing her mission, she would have the potential 

 

to change on a much bigger level. So I feel very fulfilled to help people 

 

not only just having their voice heard, but also to, in the way, 

 

change on a bigger level. Almost change the traditional system. 

 

Yes, yeah. Change the world.

 

Richard Matthews  

I call that the ripple effect. Right? 

 

Where you help change someone and give them a voice. 

 

And then they go in and help you know, 

 

tens or hundreds or thousands of other people. 

 

So your work has has a far-reaching impact.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, I remember now that I wrote a blog article, 

 

which is talking about this ripple effect. Yeah.

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. So change gears a little bit. 

 

And I want to talk about your tool belt. Right. 

 

So we talked about heroes, they all have their tools. Right? 

 

Thor has this magical hammer. And you know, Batman’s got the little belt, 

 

he’s got some tools, what are some of the tools that you use in your business? 

 

To help you do what you do? Maybe it’s tools that you use for the voice, 

 

or maybe it’s tools you use to manage your clients, 

 

what are some of the tools that you use to make your business 

 

as a voice coach successful?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So one more thing is, of course, your voice toolbox. 

 

The other one is – just now we just mentioned – which is Enneagram. 

 

So Enneagram is another passion of mine. 

 

It would help me in so many ways, 

 

and it is also a tool that I use when I interact with my clients – when I help them. 

 

So because of that I always develop a system. 

 

The voice patterns for different Enenagram types. 

 

And I believe that I’m probably the first 

 

and the only one who is doing that in the world. So that’s another tool.

 

Richard Matthews  

So can you uh, Can you spell Enneagram for me? 

 

So we can make sure we get it into the show notes?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So it’s a is E N N E A. 

 

Eennea means nine in Greek; and then gram G R A M, which is graph. 

 

So the word comes from the Greek language E N N E A G R A M.

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. So the Enneagram. And that helps – you use that to help people 

 

like figure out where they’re at from observation. 

 

And then you’re building your own set of voice tools 

 

to help people in each of those categories.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. And also to help me find out what’s the best way to help this client? 

 

Because everyone is different.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah. So you mentioned you mentioned 

 

right before you started talking about Enneagram 

 

that you have a voice toolbox, what’s the voice toolbox?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

The voice toolbox is the process – the system that I have developed. 

 

And in that, for example, when we talk about voice, 

 

we talked about breathing, and for breathing itself, 

 

I have developed so many different breathing voice exercises, 

 

and different levels of breathing. And so that’s in the voice toolbox, 

 

the breathing, and then we also have projection. 

 

So in projection, I also develop the different steps to develop the projection. 

 

And the other one is resonance. So I also have different exercises. 

 

Different steps for resonance.

 

Richard Matthews  

So curious question on that. How is it? 

 

Do you think that some people have a naturally good voice? 

 

And some people have to work on it?

 

Is that like an inborn talent for some people? 

 

Or do you think the people that are some of the best speakers

 

really have practiced and worked on?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, so I would agree with your question, the later part. 

 

Which is everyone has worked on that, because by default, 

 

you’re supposed to have a voice, that’s not good. 

 

Because this makes people – many people feel at ease, feel relaxed. 

 

So by default, that your voice should not be good, 

 

because that the voice is very susceptible to the body. 

 

And anything that changes in the body. 

 

Anything that makes you feel tense in the body will affect your voice, for example, 

 

that we all have stress. And when we are living in this modern world 

 

we have stress. So stress is manifested in your body as tension – as pain. 

 

For example, people have back pain, neck pain, all pain, it’s because of the stress.

 

So if you have stress, then you are not going to have the best voice 

 

if you have never trained on that. 

 

So that’s why I did everyone and every speaker leader 

 

who has a good voice didn’t know that they have worked on that.

 

Richard Matthews  

So like naturally, we don’t have great voices. 

 

So people that do have great voices have worked on it, whether they know it or not.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, that’s right. Some of my students, they said,

 

“Oh, my husband has a good voice.” 

 

Little did they know that their husband unconsciously, 

 

for example, they are very good at sport. And in some way they trained that.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, cuz they train you to do breathing, 

 

and they train you to do all sorts of things that would affect your voice. 

 

And so I would imagine that that fitness has an impact on your voice as well, right? 

 

If you’re strong and fit, you would have a better voice than if you’re not strong and fit.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

That’s one of the things. The other one is, or what’s more important is 

 

about whether you are relaxed. So if you are relaxed, in general, 

 

more relaxed than other people, and that you will also have 

 

the potential to have a very good voice.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, I’ve noticed that on my own speaking career that if you can, 

 

subsequently on stage record, a lot of people are very tense 

 

when they get on stage. And for me learning 

 

how to get in front of a group of people and learn how to relax, 

 

when you’re in front of a whole group of people 

 

has been one of the things that was key to having me become a better speaker. 

 

Yes. Yeah. You know, you always hear those those strange exercises like, 

 

you know, imagine the audience in their underwear or whatever, right? 

 

Those are all relaxation techniques. 

 

So you’re saying when someone learns to relax, 

 

they have a much better potential for a good voice?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, because we mentioned that the voice is very susceptible to the body. 

 

So any tension in the body will affect your voice because voice is vibration. 

 

The vibration is affected when there’s tension.

 

Richard Matthews  

Absolutely. that’s why they’re gonna have higher pitches and stuff like that. That – yes.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. So that’s why you see that people in New York people in these 

 

Bloomberg TV channels, especially financial TV channels. 

 

Their voice is, I just, I don’t want to watch those TV programs at all; 

 

I don’t want to watch those channels because you hear their voice is so sharp. 

 

And so the technical term is so thin, 

 

which is a voice that has no dimension, 

 

and is very irritating to the ear. Because in those cities, 

 

in the big cities, in those industries, stress is common.

 

Richard Matthews  

So that’s interesting, right? 

 

Because you just mentioned something that we hadn’t talked about yet. 

 

And that is – it’s you said it’s irritating to hear. 

 

Which means when you improve your voice, 

 

you’re not just improving your voice, 

 

you’re improving the reception of your message. 

 

So the people on the other side, who are listening to you will, 

 

if you work on your voice, and they will understand 

 

or interact or engage with your message at a higher level or a higher degree.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes, yeah, yeah.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s really powerful stuff.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Because when we are speaking, we’re not aware, 

 

but we are sending out vibration. So when your voice is in a very high pitch, 

 

very sharp kind of area, in the entire voice range, 

 

then it is not going to send out a pleasant vibration that makes people feel relaxed.

 

Richard Matthews  

And I assume like so that it impacts a lot of things. 

 

So if you’re doing sales, or if you’re doing leadership, 

 

where you have to get people to buy into your vision. 

 

If you are not – the other person is not getting having those relaxed feelings 

 

or having the positive interaction with your voice, 

 

you’re not going to get the result you want, right? 

 

You’re not going to close the sale. 

 

You’re not going to get your team to buy in. 

 

You’re not going to get the you know, the motivational speech. 

 

You’re not going to have your audience be motivated. 

 

So your voice has a big impact on those things.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. And people may shut down unconsciously sometimes, 

 

just because of the the tone of your voice. 

 

They shut down and then they are resisting whatever you are selling 

 

if you are a salesperson.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah. So people don’t realize that this might be 

 

one of the things that’s holding them back.

 

Their voice may be holding them back and they can reach out

 

and learn a little bit about how to get their voice to 

 

not hold them back anymore. Yes.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. That’s right.

 

  

 

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Richard Matthews  

So I want to talk a little bit about your own personal heroes. 

 

Frodo had Gandalf; Luke had Obi-Wan; Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad. 

 

Who were some of your heroes? Were they real-life mentors? 

 

Were they speakers or authors like yourself? 

 

Or maybe they’re peers that were just a few years ahead of you. 

 

And how important were they to what you’ve accomplished in your business so far?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

The first person is Louise Hay. 

 

Louise Hay, though I have never met her. 

 

But she is my one of my heroes. And also, if you listen to her voice – 

 

though she passed away about two years ago. 

 

But you can listen to her from her teaching. 

 

If you listen to her voice, you feel very relaxed, 

 

because she has worked on herself in so many ways. 

 

And she is the Pioneer for Self Improvement. 

 

So if you listen to her voice, you’ll never feel resistance. 

 

You will never feel that it is not comfortable. 

 

So she is a good example of that. 

 

Your voice can – a person’s voice can make you feel very relaxed, 

 

very receptive. And the reason that she is a hero to me is because – 

 

she has gone through so much in her life, but she came out so strong, so powerful.

 

And also, the other thing that she influenced me was that 

 

our body is reflecting everything about us. 

 

So when we have pain in certain area, 

 

it is a manifestation of some mental blocks. 

 

So Her work has been a big influence on my work. 

 

And also, just by hearing her stories, even when she gets into her 80s. 

 

And the way she is treating life is also a good example for me. 

 

So I always think about her think about 

 

how she is treating these challenges in her life as an inspiration for me.

 

Richard Matthews  

That’s really cool. Can you say her name one more time. 

 

And we’ll see if we can make some of this stuff in the show notes.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Louise Hay. L O U I S E H A Y

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. Does she have like anything up on 

 

YouTube or a book or anything that you follow?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

So I follow Hay House. 

 

Hay House is a publishing house that she established 

 

when she was in her 60s. So you see, that is never too late. 

 

Some people are in their 40s. In their 40s or anything, 

 

“Oh, I’m too old, I cannot do this.” That’s BS! 

 

Because Louise started her publishing house at the age of 60. 

 

So she has the Hay House, which is run by other people. 

 

And it is very big on personal development, 

 

and even spiritual development.

 

So that’s what I follow. You’ll find, for example, 

 

you might have heard of Wayne Dyer. 

 

Wayne Dyer is a publishing house teacher. 

 

So publishing – Hay House, they have a lot of very established teachers.

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. And so you, you followed her and she was one of your heroes 

 

for just sort of being a good example, 

 

and just showing you how some of the stuff can really impact your business. 

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yes. 

 

Richard Matthews  

So what I want to do next is to bring it home for our listeners 

 

and talk about your guiding principles, right? 

 

So top one or two things that you do every day in your business 

 

that you think contributed to your success. And you know, 

 

maybe those are habits or things that you do on a regular basis, 

 

or they’re just mindsets you have. 

 

What do you think some of a couple of you know, 

 

one or two of those guiding principles are that have really helped you succeed?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

One is that integrity. Integrity.

 

So I think in many ways probably my dad is also a hero for me. 

 

Even though that he is still very short-tempered. 

 

But he has instilled his behaviors. Everything that he has done, 

 

has left a strong impact on me. The first one is integrity. 

 

So my dad is very known in his organization for his integrity. 

 

I think integrity is that lesson is always listening to what is true. 

 

What is true to me what is true to other people. 

 

And also that to do things that are aligned with me. 

 

That’s aligned with my values, my beliefs. 

 

So, yeah, that’s the first guiding principle. Integrity.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, so I always liked my definition for integrity. 

 

If you leaned on it, it wouldn’t move. Right? 

 

Because it was reliable, right? Something that I knew it had integrity. 

 

And I like that, you know, when you’re doing things 

 

that are in alignment with your values, you’re reliable, right? 

 

You are someone that you can trust. 

 

And it’s interesting, because like, you know, even in our world, 

 

people would disagree on values and whatnot. 

 

But you know, someone who is in alignment with their values, 

 

even if you disagree with them, you know, you can trust them, right? 

 

Because they have integrity. And so it’s a powerful, powerful thing, 

 

or just for business in general, for having people, you know, 

 

working with people that have integrity and understanding. 

 

How we move forward with that kind of stuff.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah. And the second principle is always, always developing myself. 

 

So there’s a difference between always developing myself 

 

and always improving myself. 

 

So improving, is that you see that you’re not good at something, 

 

or you’re not good enough. But I’m always developing myself, 

 

because I feel that we all have so much untapped potential. 

 

And if we can tap into that, 

 

we can do even more good to other people 

 

even more good to the world. 

 

So I am always developing myself in different areas. 

 

And every year that I develop, I invest myself in so many areas, 

 

so that I can develop even more potential. 

 

So that’s another principle that’s guiding me.

 

Richard Matthews  

So when you say like, there’s a difference between improvement 

 

and development, you’re saying that improvement is like, 

 

I have something that’s not good here, and I’m going to make it better. 

 

When you’re saying development, 

 

you’re talking about maybe looking for four things that you’re already good at, 

 

and you’re sharpening the blade, so to speak, 

 

like honing the blade and making yourself even better than you were before.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

It’s a little bit different. 

 

So developing is that I always believed that I have potential,

 

that they are areas that seemingly 

 

I may not be good at, in this moment. 

 

I believe that our potential in that area. 

 

So that’s why that I am developing it. So you see, the perspective is different. 

 

And it could also be something that I’m already good at, 

 

and I am developing yet even better. 

 

There are also areas that maybe see me I’m not good at it at the moment.

 

But I believe that I can become better at it.

 

Richard Matthews  

So you’re looking at ways to things that are 

 

it’s like it’s a positive outlook on improvement, right? 

 

Where you’re saying, hey, that’s not something that I’m necessarily bad, 

 

but you’re thinking – I’m thinking, like future tense, 

 

these are areas that I could be excellent at if I put a little bit of effort into. 

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah, and what drives me into this development is 

 

I always believe that we are like flowers or life is like flowers, 

 

they are supposed to blossom. 

 

So he’s not supposed to just stay where you are, 

 

that we are developing different ways to make ourselves 

 

and make other people blossom.

 

Richard Matthews  

Yeah, and maybe, maybe you’re like, 

 

the mental picture I got was that you’re like a rose bush 

 

or a bush that has a lot of flowers. 

 

And you’re finding new ways to get new flowers to sort of blossom on the bush.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah. Okay. That’s metaphor.

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. So last thing I do on the show is something that I do with every guest, 

 

I call it the HERO Challenge. 

 

HERO challenge is pretty simple. And it’s basically this: 

 

Do you have someone in your network that you think has 

 

a good entrepreneurial story? 

 

That they should come on the hero show and share their story? 

 

Who are they? And why do you think they should come on the show? 

 

first names are fine. We can meet up later for details.

 

So who do you think would be a good fit for the show? 

 

And why do you think they should come on and share their story?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah, so I think,

 

for first one comes to my mind is one of my mentors.

 

So she has also has a lot of things to overcome. 

 

And she was able to not only just overcome them, 

 

but also to create another success. 

 

So she had lost, she had lost everything in the past. 

 

And then she was able to rebuild them. 

 

So then just now I forgot to mention that 

 

she is another kind of a superhero for me. 

 

She’s a few steps ahead of me. But she has so much to offer, 

 

and so much that I still can learn from. 

 

So I think she will be a very good fit for the show.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. What’s her first name?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Sameca. S H A M E C A. Shameca.

 

Richard Matthews  

Cool. So we’ll send something out to Shameca 

 

and see if we can get her on the show. 

 

So last but not least is you know, thank you so much for coming on the show. 

 

Where can people find you? Right? 

 

If someone is looking to improve their voice 

 

for any of the things we’ve talked about today? 

 

Where can they find you and who is the ideal person to reach out 

 

and look for help from you?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Okay, so they can find me in about three different places. 

 

One is that they can find me on YouTube. 

 

So I have a big following on YouTube, right now.

 

It is about 23,000 plus subscribers. 

 

I also have about 200 videos on YouTube, 

 

where I talked about some voice problems, and also some voice tips. 

 

So they can just go to YouTube and search Cynthia Voice Coach, 

 

then they will be able to find me. 

 

And the other one is that they can look at 

 

some of the work that I’ve done with my clients 

 

and would have changed in their life. 

 

So it’s a page that on my website, 

 

which is PowerfulExecutiveVoice.com/workwithcynthia. 

 

That is PowerfulExecutiveVoice.com/workwithcynthia. 

 

There, they will be able to find – listen to – 

 

some of the interviews I did with my clients 

 

to see what voice can do for you. 

 

And how much can you change not only in your voice, 

 

but also in your life. The third way is the third resource 

 

that I’ll share with them is a three-part FREE video lesson that I did in there. 

 

They will learn the step by step process 

 

to change their voice to work on their voice. 

 

And also some paradigm shifts that I mentioned. 

 

I talked to taught in that three-part FREE video lesson. 

 

So that link is bit.ly/voicecrashcourse.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome. So it’s powerfulexecutivevoice.com/workwithcynthia

 

And then you have the bit.ly/voicecrashcourse for those things. 

 

And you have a YouTube channel 

 

and you said just look up Cynthia Voice Coach. 

 

That’s really awesome that you have so much free material available for people. 

 

So the last part of that question is who’s the right kind of person to reach out? 

 

Someone wants to reach out and actually work with you… 

 

What kind of person should reach out to you?

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Yeah, so if they, the first group is if they speak in conferences, 

 

and then they’re not making the impact that they want in their audience. 

 

Two is if they do a lot of presentations, or they speak in meetings, 

 

they have a lot of meetings that they need to attend. 

 

And they need to speak over the phone with their colleagues around the world. 

 

So those kind of people, and then they realize that their voice is not powerful enough. 

 

It’s not making any impact. It’s not grabbing other people’s attention, 

 

hen they can consider working with me.

 

Richard Matthews  

Awesome, right. So again, thank you so much for being on the show, Cynthia. 

 

If you’re listening to this, and you use your voice in your business to make an impact, 

 

definitely take the time to reach out to Cynthia. 

 

Obviously, she knows what she’s talking about in this space. 

 

You know, I would probably. 

 

I’m actually probably going to check out the voice crash course here in a little while. 

 

But we’ll make sure we get all those links in the show notes for you. 

 

Check out Cynthia and reach out to her 

 

and see about improving your voice 

 

and make an impact on the world. 

 

Cynthia, thank you for coming on the show today.

 

Cynthia Zhai  

Thank you for having me.