Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The World's #1 Celebrity Voice Coach Roger Love - How to speak so people listen and teaching Bradley Cooper to sing for A Star is Born

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

The world's #1 celebrity voice coach Roger Love chats with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles, CA. The list of names that Roger has worked with is nothing short of impressive. Eminem, John Mayer, Poison, Selena Gomez, Tony Robbins, Brendan Burchard, and many others. He also taught Bradley Cooper how to sing for A Star is Born and Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix to sing for Walk The Line. There are some amazing stories in here, but more importantly, there are some actionable things that you can do right now in your life to use your voice to get people to listen to you. Want to get coached by Roger Love? Get a $50 gift certificate at https://rogerlove.com/insight If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram:instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter:twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook:facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube:youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, y'all? It's Drewski, and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Do Zone with Drewski. Learn the backstories of your favorite ballers and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no? Was the Raptors even started around that time? Come on, bro. I ain't that old, fam.

You're talking like I was 50. Taylor, Rokes, Agent Wilson, and many more. You won't want to miss this. Listen to the Doozone with Drusky on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcast. Okay, welcome to the show. How are you? Good to see you. If you knew here, I'm Chris Van Fleet. I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, and I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness.

On each episode of Insight, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, voice coaches, you name it. If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can apply it to our own lives. And my guest today is the very best in the world at his job. The very best. Roger Love is the world's number one voice coach and has worked with musicians like John Mayer, Eminem, Selena Gomez, and Poison, just to name a few. He's worked with world-renowned speakers like Tony Robbins

and Brendan Burchard. And oh yeah, he taught Jeff Bridges to sing for Crazy Heart, where he won an Oscar, by the way. He also taught Bradley Cooper how to sing for A Star is Born. and Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix to sing for Walk the Line. Yeah, he got Walking Phoenix to sing like Johnny Cash. Amazing.

There's so many amazing stories in here. But more importantly, there's a ton of actionable items here that you can do right now so that you can get the most out of your voice and get people to listen to you. You can find Roger on Instagram at the Roger Love Official. You can find him on his website, rogerloav.com.

You can find me at, Chris Vanfleet or at chrisfanfleet.com. Make sure to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this. And please take a few seconds today to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. This review is from Two-Day Addict who says, keep up the great work. Hey, Chris, been listening to you for a while. Never a disappointment. Always makes my drive short and love listening to you when I go to cryotherapy and compression therapy. Well, there we go. Thank you so much for the kind words. Thanks for taking a minute or two out of your day. to leave that review.

And if you listen to the show often, you know that I'm going to keep reading one review on every single episode until we get to, it's one or the other, until we get to 2,000 reviews or until we get to my birthday, May 19th. I'm a Taurus. Any fellow Tauri?

Any fellow Taurus is out there? Hello, if you are. This is such a fascinating conversation about something that we do every single day and never really think about it, which is what I'm doing right now, speaking, you are going to love this. So please welcome the legendary Roger Love. It is such a pleasure to be speaking with you. Roger Love, welcome

with the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored and excited. The amount of people that you've worked with is it's mind-blowing, Poisoned, Selena Gomez, John Mayer, Eminem, actors like Bradley Cooper, Jeff Bridges, Reese Witherspoon. You've worked with anybody who's anybody, Tony Robbins as well, Brendan Bouchard. I think the fascinating thing about what you do is it makes people think about their voice because this is something that a lot of people just don't think about normally. Crazy, but the number one makeover people should be thinking about taking is a voice makeover and it's on the very last of their list that they already crumpled up and threw in the trash. They're thinking, well, if they change their hair,

or they read another book or they took another course that that would get them the happiness they want or the success they want or the communications that they want, the relationships they want, but they're not thinking about that they're opening up their mouths and people are making all of these value judgments about them based on the sounds that they're making. And pretty much everybody could use a quick voice makeover. Well, I think that a lot of people go, well, this is my voice. This is the voice that I was born with. It changed when I hit puberty. And this is it. I'm stuck with it. Yes. And that is a very interesting tale. But it isn't true. You were born with an instrument. Like your grandmother, if she was nice enough to you, and you were nice enough to her, that she decided

she was going to give you a Steinway grand piano. And you've taken it in your house. And it's so beautiful. You have all the top picture frames on it. But you know, you know, never learned how to play the instrument. So she gave you a gift, but you decided whether you wanted to learn it. We all are born with a voice, those of us that speak. Of course, some people are speech impaired, but those of us that have a voice, we learn how to use our voice when we start to learn words and we memorize the sounds of the people that are speaking to us.

So if your mother speaks very, very airy, right? You're my favorite child. I love you so much more than your brother. Do you want to eat? Then as soon as you can speak, you want to connect with her, and you speak just like she does. Milk, mommy, milk, yes, better than my brother. So you try to connect with sound.

And if your dad talks like this, let's go cut firewood for the fire. And then you want to go with your dad as soon as you can speak to your dad, you're like, Daddy, cut firewood. So all of a sudden, we're young adults or adults, and we think this is the voice we were born with? No, this is the voice that we ended up with because we were imitating the people that we were creating connections with. And that's why I say, it's time to start figuring out what do you really sound like? Is your voice working for you? Maybe there's a reason why you hate your

own voice on your voicemail. Yeah, well, most people do hate their own voice when they hear it. They're like, do I really sound like that? Yes, yes, they do, but they don't have to. That's, that's probably the voice of, of their parents or their caregivers. And now it's time to figure out what voice might work for you and your life and your relationships. What do you think is the biggest mistake that people are making with their voice? People think there's a difference between singing and speaking. I really started as a voice coach and just taught singers for 17 years. That's where I started.

At 16 and a half, I was the voice coach for the Beach Boys and Earthwind and Fire and all these amazing artists, Luther Vandros and these great, great singers. And 17 years later, speakers started coming to me. And when they first started coming to me, I was like, thank you. so much, you're so nice, you're so tall, you have nice hair, but I am a singing voice coach because I've gotten really, really good at helping singers open up their mouths and figure out what sounds should come out to influence millions of people, whether they wanted to have them buy t-shirts and more records and CDs or whether they wanted them to support their favorite political

candidate, I was helping these singers change their lives and influence millions of people. So when speakers started coming to me, like I said, I considered myself a singing coach. That was the track I was on. But then eventually they just kept coming the Tony Robbins of the world and actors started coming to me, the Reese Witherspoons and the Jeff Bridges, and they all started coming to me thinking that I was a speaking voice coach. So I decided I was going to start working with speakers. And at first, I believe that there had to be a difference between singing and speaking. And then after I learned and studied everything I could possibly study, I came full circle

to being wrong. There is hardly any difference between singing and speaking. That singing is about melody, how the melody goes, and volume, how loud or soft you go, and pace, how fast or slow you go. So it's about pitch, how high or low. And the same things exist in the speaking voice. It's just nobody was really focusing on teaching people how to sort of add that music, all of those influences in music that make people love listening to you.

I started putting them in people's speaking voices and that changed everything. Then all of a sudden, I loved working with speaking voices. I always said that when you teach someone to sing, they can hit higher notes and maybe sell more songs and more tickets to their concerts. But if you change the way somebody speaks, you can totally change their life. And I love those kind of transformations. I'm sure you hear it all the time. You have just a beautiful voice.

I could listen to you speak for hours and hours on end. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I would like to be the poster child for someone who realizes that music has all these amazing attributes and that you can add that to the speaking voice and increase the retention of people listening to you. And mostly, I basically say that if you are a great speaker, you can do three things. And I think everybody should want to do those three things.

First thing, if you speak well, you can control other people's perception. exceptions of you. Because, you know, what's the number one for you in America? Public speaking. Over death, which is mind-blowing to me. Clearly, there should be more disastrous consequences than public speaking. We should be worried about death. Who put death worrying about death below public speaking?

A lot of people don't understand that. And it's funny, but the truth is, I understand. it. The reason we're afraid to speak in public is because we're afraid of being judged harshly. We don't like to say how we feel. I love you. Will you marry me? And have them be like, I don't even want to be your friend. You are a loser. That hurts. So we don't want to speak up and be judged harshly. So the three things you need to learn. One, when you control the sounds you make, you control the way other people perceive you. Yeah. And you can showcase the best of you, the authentic parts.

You can showcase the truthful things about you, everything that's great about you. The second thing is, if you know how to speak correctly, you can move people emotionally when you speak. You can actually move them instead of just falling on deaf ears. And the third thing is when you can speak really well and anyone can, you can control the outcome. of every communication that you have. And most people can't even begin to think about controlling the outcome of every conversation. They're stumbling through conversations, hoping there's some positive outcome. But what if you could control people's perceptions?

Then you'd never be afraid of speaking. Then you'd take fear of public speaking and put it in a drawer because you were so confident because you knew people would like you. You'd be able to move people emotionally so they'd remember the things that you say. and you'd be able to control the conversations that you have to end in the results that you want. That's powerful to me. That's how you make a better life. One conversation at a time, one relationship at a time. This is the old adage. It's not what you say, but it's how you say it. And that's exactly what you're keying in on here. Exactly right. And I love saying that. Science has proven that people communicate effectively when they're

speak emotionally. But words by themselves don't have any emotion. I love my wife. I hate my wife. I love my dog. I hate my dog. I love chocolate. I hate chocolate. You don't know how I feel about chocolate or my wife or my dog because the words themselves don't have any emotion. You have to attach sounds to those words. I love my wife. I love chocolate. I love my doggy. You attach sounds to the words, and that's how people should communicate.

We live in a world that thinks that if you had the right words to say, you could have great relationships and get married and have kids, and the kids would not play, run around naked on the freeway, and they wouldn't only eat chocolate chip cookies before every meal,

that you could convince people of things, that you can have a great life. but the words aren't doing it. It's the sounds attached to the words. And all of that is scientifically proven. It's how the brain works. The brain doesn't really want logic first. The brain wants emotion first. Roger, I'm fascinated by talking to people who are the very best at what they do. And you're the world's number one voice coach, but you didn't start there, I'm sure. So if we take this all the way back. Where does this journey begin for you? This journey begins as a little kid who stumbles on the idea that when I was unhappy or sad, I could just sing and it changed the way I felt. It would just

put me in a great mood. Okay. So whenever I was dealing with any kind of issues, emotional issues, I would sing. So I would sing all the time. I mean all the time. And I grew up just loving to sing because it really, and again, scientifically, it creates all of these endorphins in your body.

It releases chemicals that makes you happy. Did you know that singing or speaking the way that I teach has been scientifically proven to increase up to eight years of your lifespan? Well, look, I can't imagine anyone's at a bad mood when they're hearing your voice. Well, that makes me happy because I think we should be.

It makes everybody happy. I think we should, to be better people, I think we should make other people happy when we speak. We should be entertaining. It's fine. How many times am I standing at the used to when I actually was allowed outside of my house? The good old days. The good old days when I'd be standing in line at the dry cleaners waiting to pick up the dry cleaning or at the grocery store ready to put my stuff in a cart. and walk out and the person in front of me,

the two people in front of me are talking like this. How are you doing? Okay. How's your wife? Yep. Okay. Friends, good. Still live?

I think so. That's how people communicate. Boring. That's not emotional. So I was a kid who just loved to sing, and I just figured I, that's it, I have to be a singer.

So when I was 13 years old, I had finally convinced my parents to take me to get singing lessons. And they took me to the most famous voice teacher in the world. Three years later, 16 and a half, he left to go to Canada. My country, my home and native land. Your native land.

And he said, Roger, do you want to come over after school and teach because I'm leaving for Canada for six months? And you're 16. 16 years old. And I said, well, that's a very interesting proposition. One main problem I could see, I have no idea how to teach. I'm just trying to be a good student. And he said, oh, don't let that stop.

you, I'm going to pay you $100 an hour, to which I said, I'll be there on Monday after school, and I'll have business cards printed. And I didn't have business cards printed, but the intent was there. I did afterwards, but not on Monday. And I show up on Monday, and my first student is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. No way. And I really do not know how to teach voice. I'm sitting in front of a grand piano, there's Brian and now it's go time because I know he's paying for this lesson and I'm I want to get paid so go time everything in me almost everything in me wanted to just say Brian I am so sorry here's gas money take this gas money take it and and I apologize for having you drive over here

but I I'm not a teacher but I I didn't do that I just decided to give it a world and six months Fast forward six months later after me literally faking it until I made it. Six months later, every single one of his celebrities and he had all the top stars in the world, all decided they wanted to stay with me. So when he came back from Canada, he made me junior partner. So at 16 and a half, my career path was very set. I loved singing. I was going to continue to go to college, finish high school, continue to go to college to

everything I was going to do, but I'm going to teach voice. And that's, that's the story. But along that path, you were, I guess, you know, you were about to be a singer. You were on a path to be a singer. And then it shifted. And I think that there's actually a really interesting lesson here that like life doesn't always go the way that we wanted to go. And then later on, you can look back and go, actually, it worked out a lot better. Yes. But, you know, this whole adage of those who do, do, and those who can't teach, that is, cuckoo. I didn't get, the teaching voice didn't stop me from doing anything that I wanted to do as a performer. At 16 and a half, I wanted to be an opera singer, or I thought I wanted to be an opera singer.

So I still kept studying. I was voted the number one voice in the state of California at 16. And every college across the country offered me a classical voice scholarship. But I stayed, and I took one from UCLA to go and study and sing opera. because I was already teaching part-time, full-time, basically, all nights, all weekends. So I continued everything I was doing about my own performing. And then two years into college, teaching and also working on being an opera singer, I decided that I really didn't want to be an opera singer. At that moment, I thought, I think it'd be a lot more fun to be a rock star, to be honest,

because I was already teaching all of these rock stars. I was teaching Def Leopard and Poison and Cinderella and Myrower and Myrower and Myrower. Mali crew and all the top rockers. Yeah. And I was like, this, it can't be that difficult. And if I'm teaching them and they're imitating my voice, I should just be a rock star. So I made a shift on my second year in college while I was teaching all those people to really start learning about pop music more and about writing music.

And so the truth is that I've sung more in my lifetime probably more than any solo artist. because every project I worked on, I would put myself in as the background singers, as a background singer. So I was producing all of these vocals in the studio for all these top artists. And I'd be like, okay, I think I'm going to sing all the backgrounds.

So I was singing every night in the studio. And I think I've probably sung more in my life and been recorded more and enjoyed singing more than I would have if I would have even decided to be a solo singer. But I actually loved teaching. And so that moment in my life wasn't like, ah, that's it. I'm done with being a singer. It was like, I'm going to sing forever.

And this opens up the door to me singing wherever, with whoever, or by myself, whatever I want. So what albums or songs might we have heard you on and not known that we heard you on it? Oh, my gosh. I mean, I was doing all the backgrounds for poison. So when you're listening to all those old poison records, that was me. Wow. Fast forward. You're listening to, you know, I mean, I've worked with so many different artists.

I mean, you'll, you'll hear me on Stevie Nix songs. You'll hear me on a million records that I've done. When you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're, and you are your kids were listening to Hanson and they were singing, um, bapadoo da do, which, which made 400 million dollars for that year for the group Hanson. I was the one. going, so I mean, I'm on a zillion records, lovingly and happily. So you being thrown into being a voice coach at 16 years old is obviously a very pivotal

moment in your life. But was there another moment later on in your life where you worked with a certain client or you figure something out that really took things to the next level for you? Yeah, I think that realization that I mentioned already that 17 years into just thinking I want to be the greatest singing coach in the world, Tony Robbins and, you. John Gray, who wrote men are from Mars, women are from Venus, which is the number two biggest selling book, I think, in publishing history. The only book that sold more is the Bible. These people started coming to me and they wanted me to work on their speaking voice. So that realization of how to move from singing to speaking and share those components of voice,

that was one of the biggest realizations that I had in my life. And that certainly changed the trajectory because then I started taking speakers and singers. I feel like you might have been like a big reason that Tony Robbins is able to continue doing what he's doing because when you listen to him talk now, his voice sounds like very strained and it doesn't sound like the Tony Robbins we heard 30 plus years ago. What specifically did you work on with Tony to help him be able to have the longevity that he's had? You know, Tony is a very unique case for voice.

So imagine that Tony's in high school and all of a sudden he sprouts up like... Yeah, he's a monster. He's the jolly green giant. And all of a sudden, he grows two feet more in almost no time. When that happens, it affects your body different ways. Imagine all of a sudden, your larynx, your vocal cords, all the things that help to make sound does the same thing and it grows really, really fast, maybe to the point that your vocal cords are so big,

they can barely even fit inside of your voice box. So there were some physiological things that happened early on in his life where it became difficult to actually create sound based on the whole growth thing that he had, okay? That whatever, that hormonal balance, imbalance, all of those issues. Sure. So when I started working with Tony, and actually the reason that most people, especially speakers, came to me and still come to me is because they're losing their voice. And they know that I can make it so they never lose their voice again. Well, I can't imagine a lot of people go, you know what? I need to improve my singing voice after selling 20 million records or albums.

Right. But you can't imagine how many speakers are selling millions and millions of books or successful TV hosts or actors. And they're not thinking about their voice. they're just thinking this is the voice they were born with and they have to make the most of it per movie or per book tour that they're on. So bottom line is that I helped Tony work with his voice so that he could not lose it so that he could be able to do three and four day events and speak and have thousands and thousands of people

command that many people, but be really present and influential, but just have a voice at the end of the day. And so, I mean, we started working together probably 30 years ago. And he was already, of course, very, very famous, doing everything he was doing, but he was losing his voice. So at the end of every day, he would have no voice. The next morning, he would be completely hoarse, and we'd rebuild it.

Almost every morning would have to rebuild it so that he'd be able to get on stage. Well, I made it so that he would just do the vocal exercises, day, and he had 30 years of not really having any problems. His voice isn't perfect. He's one of the greatest speakers in the world. The sounds of his voice are not perfect, but it's based on a certain physicality that is unique to him and his vocal cords and his body. You've got such an ear for this. So when someone like Tony Robbins, Bradley Cooper, whoever, comes to you, what are you immediately listening for? That's a really good question.

I'm listening for as if you, as if, okay, as if Bradley Cooper or Tony Robbins had come to me with a piano. Okay. And put the piano in my office and say, here's my piano. The first thing I do is I'd sort of look at all the keys and see if they're all working. Can they go down, can, are the ones down at the bottom down here? Are those working? I love that you're in front of a piano right now.

Are the ones at the top? Are those working? So I'd make sure that the instrument was right. So that the physical instrument was good. Like there weren't keys missing and there weren't big chunks of wood missing from the piano. So I fixed the instrument and the voice is an instrument. And then I'm like, okay, what do you want to play?

Why are you here? Bradley Cooper wanted to sing opposite. He casts Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, and he said, Roger, we're going to sing the songs live. Not in the studio. We're going to sing the song live. It's all the songs. And that's what's going to go out on the film. Wow.

And so I've got my work cut out for me. So we worked six months every single day for at least an hour. And then he practiced for another hour or two every single day, aside from me, six months to get that to happen. So I said, what do you want to use your voice for? In his case, it was I want to sing. In other people's cases, it may be I have this part coming up. Rooney Mara says, hey, I've got this acting thing, or I work with Kira Knightley, or Angelina Jolie.

They could come to me for any host of things. I'm working on a movie. I want to create this voice. And then I say, and I help them learn how to find that voice for that character. It could be a doctor who is having trouble communicating with his patients and wants to be a more successful doctor or a lawyer. or anyone who's in a relationship could be a husband or a wife that their partner doesn't seem to listen to them. And they want to have control over more influence and use their voices.

So I asked them what they want to do with their voice. And then we build it. I show them like if you come to me with your piano and you say, I want to play rock and roll. Rock and roll sounds like this. Oh, you want to do classical? Oh, classical sounds like this. Well, I work, I create, help them create the sounds.

for the for the task for the life for the relationship for the job of who they are or they want to be i imagine though that on the flip side there's going to be people that go i want to sound like me and if i'm going to take on the voice of someone else or something else that i'm not really going to inherently be me anymore i i love that very good no all i do is i remove all of the cobwebs from your voice. I take away all the pressures, all the straining, all the reasons that you can't make the sounds that are intrinsic to you,

to the greatest part of your instrument, the most authentic. I strip away everything else that you're doing that isn't authentic, that isn't the real you. And then what's left is, wow, I didn't even know I could do this, but this is more me than I'd ever thought I was. The person who's walking around speaking nice,

sound like this all the time and thinks that's me. I used to watch Jerry Lewis films when I was younger, and I didn't sound like Dean Martin. I sound like Jerry Lewis, and this is my voice. Then am I taking the you out of them if I get rid of their nasality? No. There was something that they were doing wrong that was making it nasal. If somebody comes to me like this and they have no melody in their voice

and they sound totally like a robot, a bad robot with no emotion, And one note is if it was just, they were one note on the piano. And they just hold on to that one note all the time and don't laugh because this is true. Most people do speak like this. Like one note, this is my note. This is my Roger note. And every so often I get really excited and be like, hey. And then I go back to my Roger note.

So monotone is one of the worst issues, prevalent issues in the world right now. People speak like this. And they're like, this is me. I'm boring. This is me. I don't have any emotion. I love you. I hate you. The United States Soccer Federation

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Or could I show them some melody? And they can be like, oh, yeah, I do have a side of me that's a little bit, has a little more personality. Oh, I'm not a crumogen. I'm actually happy. So when I show them how to make happy sounds, they're like, oh, I am happy. I was just stuck in monotone. I thought I was a machine. I didn't realize I was a person.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash insight. That's BetterHelphelp.com slash insight and join the over one million people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. In fact, so many people have been using BetterHelp that they're recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states. So the special offer for anybody listening to Insight right now is 10% off your first month. Just go to BetterHelp.com slash Insight. That's BetterHelphelp.com slash insight. I love that you say that we can use our voices to get our desired goal. And I think that that's such a big thing that people don't realize. Life doesn't exist without communication.

Right. If you enter a room and I'm hiding behind a chair and you don't see me and you don't hear me, we can't possibly, I don't exist to you. Yes. And as soon as I open my mouth, you start making value judgments about you about me. just human nature. As soon as you meet anyone and they start to speak, you want to decide, do you like that person? Do you want to listen more to that person? You start making these value judgments. Is that person worthy of more time? So the way you make value judgments is,

I walk out, all right, you see me on the screen, and then you, and then your listeners start, they look at me and they're like, how old is he? Hmm, I wonder where he went to school. Why is he wearing a black sweater? Does he have any kids? kids, does he have an offshore account? How much money could he possibly have in that offshore account? How lucrative could this voice thing be? Does he have a Steinway Grand piano? Is he wearing pants?

And then worse than asking themselves those questions, they start answering them. I don't think he's wearing pants. Or, oh, yes, his account in the Cayman Islands probably got shut down. Or he has two kids. Or he went to this college. Or he never went to college. Or maybe he's not married. So they start answering these questions.

and it's human nature. You're trying to have a relationship. Right. Is that person like me? Do I like that person? Well, it's dangerous when you're creating relationships based on non-facts. So that's why I say it's up to each of us to showcase who we are, what we really believe, what we want, what we don't want. You know, how many movements do we have to go through over the last few years where people are shouting?

This is my voice. This is what I want. This is what I don't want, but then they're not creating change. We have to use our voice. It's not just about who's the loudest. It's about using voice to influence people. Everything you just talked about with judgments has been perpetuated so much more over the last 12 months with this strangeness, the weirdness that's going on in the world.

Because so much of the communication we have now is clicking the button on Zoom or Skype or whatever you're using FaceTime. And then this is it. And then you're judging someone based on what's behind them. as you're looking at them and how they sound. Yeah, look, I've been doing Zoom sessions, and before Zoom, it was Skype. As soon as I could do video sessions,

I realized that I could now coach, of course, all around the world. So I've been doing video sessions for 10 years, as long as it was possible. So when COVID, unfortunately, happened to the world, I was like, I already have, I have this media, down, I've already realized that there's a way to communicate on video, on camera, and have it be very connective, very personable. So, you know, it didn't, it didn't hinder me as far as presenting content and as far as teaching, as far as working with people. I've found that when you

Zoom with somebody like this, it can be very, very personal. It's very focused. You're only dealing with this much of their head and shoulders. And it can be very connective and very, very true and honest if you allow it. But the truth is, is that, look, it wasn't COVID who stole our voices and who put us on Zoom. The internet basically stole our voices. Once the internet happened, we started speaking less and we started emailing. And then we could have full on lives thinking.

we could on email. And we could do business on email and never talk to anybody. And we could have relationships, online dating, and never speak to anybody. And we could create a life and sell products and do everything, emailing. And then texting happened. And we could just text. But when you think about it, how do we showcase emotion in texting? Emogies. We got to put emojis in just so that I know when I say this or that, I really mean this. Because the words don't mean anything. So, Flash forward, I love the internet. It's fantastic. We wouldn't be able to be doing today. The internet changes our lives. But it also stripped us away of more one-on-one communication. We became a nation of people who were who were trying to convey our ideas and thoughts and

who we were and run business and relationships based on typing, texts and emails. So now, flash forward, I think it's sort of like a leveling thing that happened. now at least we're forcing people to do more audio texts and we're and people are having to do business on on Zoom and other video platforms with video teleconferencing and stuff like that. So it's, I think of it as like a little correction. The people that are good speakers, the people that find their voices, they're going, when this whole COVID thing is over it, they're the ones that are going to be the head of businesses and the best storytellers and the most influential people and they're going to create the most change.

So I'm happy that actually we have to find our voices in this time because I've been saying we need to find our voices for the last 40 years. When you're working with some of these big names and you're helping them find their voice, are you on set with them? Are you, if they're a musician, are you on tour with them? Yeah. You know, when I used to do singers, I mean, I used to go on full-on tours. When I got married, when I got married, I said to my wife, where do you want to go? And she says, where could we go? And I said, well, I've got this group. I've got Def Leopard doing a European tour. I've got Poison doing a tour all across America. I've got Chicago doing a tour here.

If you want, we could just, we didn't have any kids. We just got married. If you want, we could, aside from our honey. not to take away from the honeymoons of just trips, but if you want, we could go on extended trips. And so we would. So I'd sign on and I'd go across America and bring my wife, Miyoko. And we'd literally tour and bands, especially rock bands, they don't even get up till noon. So we'd have from 8 o'clock in the morning until 1155 to tour every city.

And then I'd show up at 12 at 1155 and teach Brett Michaels or. Joe Elliott or whatever band I was working with. So I spent a long time touring over the years whenever it was beneficial, whenever she wanted to go with me or whenever it was something important. You know, hey, let's go to, let's go to Canada and start the Jonas Brothers tour. And we're like, okay, that'll be super fun. So I was able to turn it sort of into a lifestyle and vacation with the people I care about my family. But and then as far as, you know, I have to follow. all around the country, working with speakers as well. Somebody loses their voice here and they lose their voice here.

And I've spent a lifetime traveling, yes, to get to people. And a lot of times I am in the studio. You know, last season one of last year, I remember being on set with Jennifer Aniston because she had to sing in her, in that show that she does an apple called Morning Show. Yeah. And she, there was a car. I was in Karokey night and Jennifer needed to sing. So I taught Jennifer and Billy Crudeup,

the two of the stars of that show, to sing this song together in Karoki and I'll go to the set and I'll make sure it all sounds great. Sometimes I'll go wherever the film is doing. I didn't have to go to any of the filming of a star is born. I didn't have to go to any... I did the movie Walk the Line with Reese Withers Win and Joaquin Phoenix.

I never went to the set because we recorded everything ahead of time. What about a crazy horse? Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell. We recorded everything ahead of time. And so I didn't need to go to the set. And so when it's all pre-recorded, then it's a choice I might want to go to the set and just watch. But unless they're doing it live, then more times I am there on the set trying to make sure it happens. All of this makes me wonder, I think the big question everyone is thinking is, can anybody learn how to sing?

The answer is yes. anyone can learn how to sing. Just because you sing along with Bruno Mars and when he goes high, you go, ouch! And when he sounds good, you're like, I sound bad. Doesn't mean you can't sing.

It means that you haven't figured out how to use your instrument. I say anyone can learn how to sing infinitely better than they sing now. You have to remember, look at just one high profile, non-singer that I've worked with, and I've worked with many, because I've sort of become the go-to guy to help famous actors.

When I say actors, I mean actors, female and male actors, sing. That's why they hired me, because Joaquin Phoenix had never sung before. And literally, if you would have asked him at that moment in time to sing happy birthday, he wouldn't have been able to make it all the way through and hit the notes. And then he sounds exactly like John. money cash in the film yeah okay so so that's just one little glimpse into and all of the music all of my work on that film one with Reese and walking i only had about three and a half weeks or so oh my gosh

total to do it i didn't have months so look at what happened with Reese and wakene in just three and a half weeks yes when you have the the best technique you can teach anyone to sing or speak think of this analogy, okay? So again, I like using the piano analogy. So I love it. The piano, you can play with 10 fingers, right? Right. So you come to me and you're like, watch, are you a piano coach? I'm like, okay, sort of. And then I say, and then I say, show me how you play the piano. And then the person plays like this. They play with one finger or two fingers. And I'm like, you know, you got 10 fingers. And then I show them how to use 10 fingers. Well, then all of a sudden they're going, And they're playing with 10 fingers.

Well, it's the same thing with voice. They come into me and they just think they're one or two notes that they can make. And I show them that they can make all of these amazing sounds from down low and use a voice, which we call chest voice. Chest voice is the thick, strong part of the male and female voice down here, down low, which is like, we're closing this deal. I said sign the contract. Follow me. I know the way. We're going to war.

We're leaving war. chest voice does that. And then there's this voice higher called head voice. Way up here. That's amazing. That's beautiful. That's so sweet. It's so kind.

All of these sounds up here in head voice that showcase how authentic and emotional we are and empathetic. So there's a whole range of the voice that is already perceived as you're so sweet. You're so kind and so nice and empathetic. And then there's an area in between where most people don't even know called middle voice. Chest voice. a head voice ah middle voice ah in between the two so i'm like that's incredible i love it wonderful then there's that whole middle voice which most people don't even have never even heard of yeah that adds all this magic and fun and excitement nobody paid to go see the three baritones in

concert they went to see the three tenors why because the tenors when they hit those high notes they're hitting middle voice and middle voice is so exciting when when i started teaching singing, I realize that most people only thought there were two voices. Chess voice down here and head voice up here. So either you spoke like Michael Jackson or you spoke like James Earl Jones. And when you try to go back and forth in between the two, you had a problem. Oh, right, right. Like a break. People are singing the national anthem. The land of the free and there's a break in their voice. That's because they're thinking there's only two voices.

But when you have a middle voice, you don't sound like this. You sound like this. One voice all the way up and down. And when I started showing singers that, they were like, wow, you just changed my life. And when I started showing speakers that, they were like, who the hell cares? I don't want to be a singer. And I said, no, no, you have to care. because if a speaker,

and I believe everyone's a public speaker, by the way, not just if you get paid for it. If you open your mouth and your dog is there or anyone is listening to you, they're your public and you're a public speaker. So when I started teaching public speakers, that they and just all speakers, like I said, that they had to have all three voices

because each voice had emotions attached to them already and that they needed to showcase those emotions to move people emotionally and to close deals and to create relationships. Then they were like, okay, I'll learn all three voices. And that's what separates my speakers from the boring ones that you can't even watch on Zoom because they're boring you to tears. You're already crying eight seconds in.

Do you know that the average retention span is eight seconds? Eight seconds. Yeah. The human attention span right now, Microsoft did a huge. They did one 10 years ago and they did one more recently. 10 years ago, the average attention span, which means I listen to you, and then I can make it all the way, 10 years ago, it was 12 seconds. I can make it all the way to 12 seconds before I decide, oh my gosh, I hope it's lunch or

hope it's breakfast or I don't want to listen to you anymore or I'm bored. Now it's eight seconds. So you literally, as a speaker, in every conversation you have, you have eight second intervals for the other person to decide whether they are bored to tears, whether they want to hear another eight seconds, or whether they could just leave you at that moment happily. Wow. Eight seconds. Well, you can't really do it by so much pressure on the words.

Well, my gosh, every eight seconds, I have to come up with really good words. That sounds like a lot of, that sounds too much, too much work for every eight seconds to keep someone's attention because I'm going to do a speech for an hour. Well, every eight seconds, I better find an amazing word like rinky dink or unbelievable, some word or fabulously beautiful, two words. So no, but when you change the sounds of your voice, when every eight seconds, you can get a little softer, a little louder, a little higher, a little lower, a little faster, a little slower, it's all so easy that it's easier to just change your sounds.

Right. And then people will be more attentive to you, more retentive of the things that you say because they'll remember the things you said because you made them feel things. When I look at everybody that you've worked out, I think the most worked with, I think the most surprising is Eminem because I can't picture Eminem being like, hey, Roger, I need some help with my voice. No, no. I mean, his manager slash lawyer called me up and said,

Eminem starting a tour at the Eminem show. And he really wants to work on his voice. So can you fly out to New York, outside of New York, tomorrow and work with his voice? It's always tomorrow and work with his voice. So I showed up. And as it turns out, Eminem didn't ask for a voice coach. Oh, no. The manager slash lawyer knew he needed a voice coach.

So I had to convince him on the spot after flying all the way to New York. that he needed a voice coach. So, so, you know, look, I, I, I was able to do it. I taught him how to, that, that night and, and over the next couple of weeks, I was on tour, that, that I was able to teach him how to breathe, how to do chest, middle and head voice and all the things that I knew. So I don't know if he's still practicing with the exercises I gave him, but sometimes I only have to meet somebody once or a handful of times before with that knowledge that I teach

them, it changes the way they sound forever. So no, he wasn't thinking about I need the voice lessons, but the truth is, everyone needs voice lessons because people are listening. I also say this. People are under the misinformation that somehow your voice is for you. Yeah. That this is my voice. This is for me. It's supposed to be. for me, but it's not for you. Your voice is a gift that you're supposed to learn how to use and that you give away. That's why your ears are over here and your mouth is here. When you speak, sound goes out and it vibrates the bodies. Those sounds vibrate the bodies of the people that listen to you. We don't even hear ourselves very well because our ears are over here. So if our

voices were for ourselves, then we would have probably been born with ears in our hands. And we would talk like this. Hello, Roger. How are you doing? I'm fine. I know exactly how I sound, but sound traveling away from us is for someone else. Right. So what is one thing that people can do right now to improve the sound of their voice today? They can realize that they are in control over the melodies they use like a song. You pick a song, not because it has the same melody. Now I'm singing a song and it only has one note. Johnny could only sing one note and the note he sang was this. And then even in that song called Johnny One Note, he goes, ah,

and then it goes, poor Johnny one note. Then it has Millie. But nobody, you wouldn't pay anything on iTunes or Spotify for a song that only had one note. Well, that's how people speak, monotone. You need to realize that you're in control over melody. Here's what I mean. when you speak, you are either doing this, staying on the same note, which I said, that's bad, boring.

Nobody cares about that. You're lucky if you got eight seconds of someone listening to you speak like this before they turn the channel. Or you could speak on what's called an ascending scale going from low to high. Now I'm walking up the steps, from a low note to a high note.

I really love chocolate. I'm so happy to be on your show, Chris. Now, this is called an ascending scale. When I go from a low note to a high note, and anyone can do this, you don't have to be a singer. You record yourself and you listen. When I go from a low note to a high note as if I was walking upstairs,

now I'm walking up the steps. Now I'm walking up the steps. That's called an ascending scale. When you make those sounds, it's the sound of happy. I really love chocolate. I really love watermelon. I'm so happy to be here today.

You make yourself sound happy and you make other people happy. when you use ascending scales. That's a good thing. When you do the other form of melody called descending scales, that's going from a high note and going down, I get to a comma and I go down.

I get to a period and I go down. My name is Roger Love. It's my birthday. I didn't get any presents. Those are descending scales. How do they sound? Sad. Yeah, they sound sad.

Poor little Roger. He didn't get any presents. But about 99% of the people in the world go use descending melodies because they go down at commas and periods. We were taught as kids. Well, when you get to a comma, go down. And when you get to a period, go down. That's a descending scale. That's why people interrupt each other.

They don't know when they're done because the commas has them done. But songs are not like that. The hills are alive with the sound of music. But that's the way we talk. So first thing, record yourself. Are you using ascending scales like you're going up, like walking up the steps, like a piano? Or are you using descending scales? Are you going down when you get to a comma?

Or are you staying on monotone? Because what you need to do is learn to use more ascending scales. Because that makes you sound happy. And it makes the people who listen to you feel happy. You are dropping so much knowledge here, Roger. I'm loving this. You are a magical man. That's what you are.

Just trying to do good work. If somebody wants to work with you, how would they go about doing that? The best way to work with me is to go online because I created, I've spent the last years and years and years taking everything that I know and creating courses where people can in the privacy of their own car or bathroom or shower. or a bedroom or living room away from everyone else, they can learn how to speak or sing in a way that literally translates into them making great conversations, communications, and being more successful.

So basically go to rogerlove.com and play around. As soon as you go to rogerlove.com, you're going to be given a choice. Do you want to sing better? Do you want to speak better? Okay. And then follow that. And so for people listening right now,

we're going to give them something a little bit special here too. Yeah, we are because I never come empty-handed. I appreciate you. I want to do something special. So, I mean, look, the reason I came here today is because I want to help your listeners use their voices to unlock new levels of success in their lives. So if you want to speak or you want to sing or if somehow this interview has inspired you to decide that you can do both, here's what we offer for you. There's a $50 gift certificate

waiting for you right now on rogerlove.com forward slash insight. That's insight, like the name of the show, I-N-S-I-G-H-T, all lowercase. So you're just going to go to rogerlove.com forward slash insight and claim your certificate. And you can use that $50 to get you. your hands on the training program that is literally perfect for you and what you want to achieve with your voice. Oh, and of course, we made sure that your $50 is good for speaking, training, singing, training, or both. Because if your listeners are like us, I'm sure many of them are learners and they want to continue growing and exploring new things. So my gift today is $50. go to rogerlev.com forward slash insight and claim your $50 gift certificate and start speaking away

and singing away and realizing that you can do all of that and be incredible. And that's the makeover you need instead of anything else you were thinking about doing today. Thank you for bringing something to our guests. But thank you more importantly just for what you bring into the world. I appreciate your insight, pardon the pun, but I appreciate all your knowledge that you're bringing us in this interview? I started out with a very humble idea of what I want to do with my life. And because I figured out I was uniquely set up for that, I wanted to save the world. And the only way I could do it was one voice at a time.

Save the world. At least make people communicate better. And if we all agreed that we could have melody and volume changes and the right tones and we could make sounds that make people happy and showcase the best of us, then maybe we could all put aside more of the differences that we feel about each other and realize we were all born with a voice and maybe we should we should come together on that. I am driven by the idea of gratitude and I say that if you can be grateful, you can be great. So I end every interview, Roger, by asking, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

I am grateful for my wife, my daughter, and my son. I love it. And the fourth thing is the time to show them how much I love them. Well, I'm grateful for you and I'm grateful for this time. Roger Love, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having. Well, there we go. The one and only Roger Love.

And it's just so interesting hearing his approach to improving someone's voice. whether it's their singing voice or their speaking voice. It's just so amazing that he can just fine tune it and make it that much better. Think about the fact that Bradley Cooper sings as well as he does and a star is born all because of these lessons. Amazing. Hope you were able to take some knowledge from this interview

because there was so much of it in here. And like Roger mentioned, rogerlove.com slash insight and get a $50 gift certificate. Share this with someone that you know will love this. Tag us on social media. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. And on Instagram, Roger is at the Roger Love official. And I'll leave you with this quote from Maya Angelou, who famously said,

words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one. DDP is bringing us some more insight. Podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock,

but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987, Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom.

Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.