Your Happy Hour - The Power of Vocal Expression in Personal Transformation

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Welcome back to Your Happy Hour with Friday Feels!In this episode, we chat to Amanda Luyt - professional singer, vocal coach and solopreneur who shared her transformative journey in discovering the power of her own vocal expression and how to empower others to nourish their voices as instruments of change. We dove into the intricacies of vocal health, how to enhance your vocal quality, embracing the abundance that stems from stepping into your natural vocation and the incredible talent awaiting to be discovered on the African continent. How are you using your vocal instrument?Friday Feels is all about having those honest conversations, the power of community for personal growth and taking those actionable steps towards being our authentic selves.Thanks for tuning in! Keep it raw and real out there xYHH is produced by swartkat.co - captured via riverside.fm & shared via rss.com.

It's the Friday feels and we're back with your first sip of the weekend. You're now tuned in to this week's episode of your happy hour. I'm your host Nicole Carmine and it's amazing to have you here joining me this week as we uncover the truths about being a human and a working professional. What are you up to this Friday? Well whatever it is, this moment is just for you. Hello to you all out there and welcome back to another episode of your happy hour. I am so privileged to be chatting to you from beautiful little town of Hermannis in the

Western Cape in South Africa and to be feeling all the Friday feels vibes on homegrown soil for a change. It's really nice to be here and it feels quite fitting that I'm able to do so while we're unpacking this being still naturally nourished. And today is week four of talking about how we care for our environment and our bodies, our spirits, and also our soul, of course, and our minds. And in case you missed it, be sure to catch last week's three episodes that covered everything from healing powers of tea to the pleasures of natural wine and the incredible power of sound as well, as we think about how we are, these little vibrating energy blobs floating

around on the earth. And today I thought, let's bring all of this together. We've spoken about a lot of things around the aspect of being human. And we take for granted that one thing I think that is I've really learned a lot about in the last few years, becoming a singer-songwriter. And I've discovered this incredible tool of transformation, which sits very much in our throat section, but is a big part of our bodies in totality. So our voices, an instrument that allows us to create sound,

to communicate, to express, to sing, to laugh together. And today's topic is about the power of our vocal expression and our journey of personal transformation. So to unpack this with me today is a very truly special guest who's meant a lot to me and my journey of healing and self-voice discovery. Amanda Leight, a vocal coach since 2008 and who's been involved in the South African music industry

for more than 20 years, performing a recording artist. I know you've got two summer nominations, Amanda, for best female vocalist in your pocket. And to me, you're the person who has introduced me to my voice, rather, not just my voice, but the vocal instrument behind it, and to be able to release all the stuff that's in there. And also the realization that it's not just another little part of my body, but it's really

a muscle. It's got this beautiful function and it definitely needs some nourishment. So on the topic of naturally nourished and personal transformation, a very big welcome to the Friday Feels podcast. And it's really just so nice to have you here and to be in South Africa together. Thank you so much Nicole, it's really such a pleasure for me to be invited to be part of this wonderful inspirational work that you are doing. Thank you, thank you so much. Oh, well, thank you. And I don't think I would have been able to voice as much if it wasn't for some of the

training we used to do together. And I'm sure my neighbours are still remembering all the vocal exercises that I was doing in the time I was training for the songs that I was creating. And I'm quite curious, Amanda, I mean I've stumbled upon your path and you stumbled upon mine but I think you deal with a lot of people who are in their journeys as singers but perhaps more than that, also people looking for vocal expression and power. So how did you come to be here? Did you always know you wanted to be a singer. Tell us a little bit about your journey. Yeah I have been singing since I can remember. Everybody says from the age of three because I think that's from

when you can remember. But that's always been a part of who I was and my dad was also a great singer so I think when he realized that I could sing, he thought, okay, I'm gonna pursue my dreams through this goal. So my mom and my dad both were very supportive of my journey. So they helped me look for opportunities and so on. And yeah, I think it was just a natural progression for me.

When I was, I yeah, I think it was just a natural progression for me. When I was, I mean, I started performing professionally when I was in my teens, about 14-15 years of age. And then at the age of 18, I signed my first record deal and became part of the industry and toured and yeah, yeah, became part of this beast that we call the industry. I think That's actually a very long story Which I don't want to go into the at this point but in the end I found my niche in teaching in coaching I I discovered in my whole journey that I do have a passion for the way the voice as instrument works.

And I was so curious to see what the techniques were that enable you to meet the demands of commercial singing. I had a classical coach, a fantastic coach, but obviously contemporary music pedagogy wasn't really a thing then. And when the internet started up, I immediately jumped on and see if there was anything available. And that started my journey and it just ignited this fire in me. And ever since then I've been going. For me, it's a constant learning process. I'm very, very interested in everything scientific behind the voice. So my whole approach is very evidence-based.

And like I say, it changes, it changes constantly. And therefore for me, it is, I think it's a lifelong journey where I will always be keeping track of what's going on, what new discoveries have been made. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that.

Yeah, and I've really, you know, this is kind of what struck me with your coaching is that one, you have such a passion for it, which is incredible and just flows over to the person you're working with. And two, I mean, I really didn't understand a lot about my body. This is something I think of often.

In school we learn about biology, but we don't actually understand our bodies. We don't really understand how it works. And the voice is such an important part because we use it every single day in how we communicate. So how did you find that kind of, you know, what was like that day where you were like, wow, this is what I can do with my voice. What was that moment for you? I think I've always been lucky that I had quite a different tone tonality to my voice and that kind of drew

people towards me. And I mean you get feedback, you know, you get feedback from I state fits where you get double goals and triple goals. And then I think you think, okay, well, I think there must be something there. And I'll show you through out growing up, you continue to get that feedback. So it's like I say it's basically an organic process you know but I also realized that and I think that was my great coach that I had because she was also a very functional

coach. I realized that look this is this is something inside of us and exactly as you said we need to we need to become a lot more aware of certain things that we don't see. The brain is very aware of our hands of our lips of our feet but there's a lot of other things that we don't use or we don't see it we use it but we don't see it so it's almost like we don't understand that we can also better those things and build those abilities within ourselves. And I think that is what I knew that for what I wanted to sing, I needed to be able to perform certain tasks. And for me, those tasks didn't come easy and I had to go dig deep and delve into how does this instrument work, how can I

coordinate things better and for me understanding how it works, for me that was the key. For a lot of singers it's not the key. For a lot of singers they are simply intuitive and they go, it's just an expression of emotion which it should be at the end of the day. Singing is an expression of emotion but sometimes you want to express that emotion in a certain way and if you don't have the right technique to do it and it doesn't come naturally, then that can be quite a stumbling block. And I've seen how so many singers beat themselves up and think that they are not good enough because they cannot reach a certain vocal goal.

And for me, I think that's where it is. I want to empower people to find those things, to know that it is possible for you to be able to sing at that range. It is possible for you to get this quality in your voice. Yeah and I think that is what every time when a client walks into my studio, that is my aim, to empower that person and show them what is available. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, it's incredible what you can achieve. I mean, I remember when we just started, I was kind of, you know,

like a 1% I felt of what I was capable of and I still probably don't even know. I need to get back in there. But it was incredibly empowering to me because of my confidence that grew through that. And so I'm curious when we think of nourishment and of the voice, when you work with people what do you kind of listen for when you hear when someone comes to you and what do you advise them in terms of how we nourish our voices, how we look after them, not just from a singing capacity perhaps? I think that my approach is usually to find out what are you looking for,

why are you here and then according to what the goal of the singer is I will then advise. The thing is I tend to to accentuate the fact that the output that you give vocally will affect who you are on the inside. I've seen it time and time again that how clients' confidence grows when they can when they discover their voices. Suddenly they change. It's like they become a totally different person with power just because of discovering, oh my gosh, I actually have a voice. Now it's incredible. I know it's quite timely because the movie just came out with Angelina Jolie with the singer and I remember watching an interview with her also saying, she said, just open your pipes for once

and just feel what that feels like because it will change your life. And I think that's really true. And we all, it should really be a subject at school, I think. Really, I think to understand how important your voice is, should definitely, people should be made aware of that because clear communication defines who you are and I think we take our voices for granted in in many aspects and we don't understand

that our voice is like a fingerprint you know. It defines who you are. People will will just like we read micro expressions people tend to judge I'm sorry to use that word but judge by the way that your voice sounds. You can make an assumption very quickly of what that person's emotional state is just by listening to a voice. And I think we, like I say, we take that for granted. We are not aware of the fact that how, what we sound like creates a perception from someone else. And the thing is we live in community

and we are wired to be accepted. Just as you are constantly looking to see if what you are doing is okay, I mean we all are trying to to become more aware not to be like that but at the end of the day we are hardwired like that. You know just in that way the same way if we some if we see someone respond favorably to what we are saying and the way we are saying it, it boosts our confidence. It makes us feel part of community

So I think to to understand how important that is is like the first step you know of of Getting this change thing going to know that even if you're not a singer, even if you are just a speaker There are things that you can do to bring out qualities in your voice that you maybe weren't aware of to start with. We are so not aware of all of that and I love that you are bringing that to the forefront for people and I know that you've got a course coming very soon which I'm very excited about because I've been feeling that more and more people

should have access to all of this. So we can talk about that in a moment. But I'm curious how you nourish yourself, because you're working with your voice all the time. And so are there things that you do that you can kind of impart to others that you feel are practices that we can use every day, you know, like you say, not just as a singer but as a speaker that can make sure that we stay naturally nourished in our

bodies and that we honor this instrument of our voice. Yes, I know, absolutely. I think that, you know, I think firstly if you understand and accept that your voice is important, obviously the next step will be that you would like to see how you can enhance this. And in that way your voice works with breath, your voice works with vibration, with resonance. That is the system of the voice. We use our articulators to make the speech clear, we use dynamics and I think when I work with people it is, because I work with it every day, I'm so used to this, but when I work with beginners it is always for me fascinating to see how little people really understand about it.

So I think firstly to be able to affect change, to take care, is to go on YouTube, see what strategies are there to make your breath management better? How can you utilize resonance to make your voice stronger? What can you practice articulation wise? There are so many tongue twisters that you can practice just to kind of start getting your articulation a little bit more crisp and clear and how can you bring in dynamics in your voice to make what you say interesting. So there are a lot of things, a lot of tools out there to make you, to enhance this wonderful gift of a voice that you have. So I think that would be the first thing that I would say to nourish yourself is just to become more aware of it and utilize what is available. And like I say

YouTube is full of everything you can get stuff for free and especially if you're just a speaker. You know I think it becomes a little bit more difficult when you are a singer because the task is more complex and usually for that it's it works when you have someone that can give you feedback. But when you're a speaker there are so many tips that you can use and get your hands on to just to just yeah work on that and maybe like I, become aware of something that you never even thought of. Myself, being a singer, being a coach, I must say it's like a hairdresser.

Everybody else's hair looks great but yours looks horrible. And I must say, I'm very guilty of the fact that I don't really take care of my voice in terms of really spending a lot of time with it because I just simply don't have the time to spend on it. I wish I had because there are so many things that I can still discover in my own voice that I haven't played around with like special effects, special vocal effects like grit and all of those things. But there's just simply not the time, you know, I it's just one of those things. So yeah, I must say for myself, I think and like I said, I think a lot of coaches are

that way, you know, singing coaches all that are that way. Yeah, no, I can understand that. I think also I wanted to actually ask you about that. So I'm glad you kind of lead us in that direction because this is your career. You've obviously chosen to follow your passion, but it also means you're a solopreneur, that it's who you are as an entrepreneur, you're building your business. And we tend to have a lot of people listen in who are entrepreneurs and solopreneurs and entrepreneurs and how

have you found that journey? How have you found being making this business that is your passion also your livelihood and how has that journey been? I know it's not always easy. So yeah, I mean, I think it isn't easy to be like you say a solopreneur. I was very very lucky that from the moment that I decided to do this things just fell into place. So I really know that this is my vocation because I can tell you in terms of my business I haven't struggled one day to make ends meet. It just works. What I can say though is I think being any type of coach where you have to give of yourself hour after hour after hour, it does tend to lend to burn out at the end of the day. So I think in that sense that

has been difficult because you do go through periods of burnout and where you really have no energy and you doubt in what you are doing if it's really worth it. So yeah in that sense and I think that's also great because it's instigators of change, you know, it shows you that okay, maybe it's time to do things a bit differently, otherwise you also become stagnated, you know. So yeah, like I say, I've been really, really happy. And I, every day, I say thank you for the fact that I can earn my living by doing something that I really like. I love this, you know, and it's such a great privilege to be able to be in this position.

Oh, I love that. And I'm so grateful along with you, you know, that that's the case. Because I think, and to me, it's really a good indicator. And we always talk about this, like that when you are in your flow, things just come and the money will follow. And it's just the energy exchange in some way, you know, you, you're giving and you're receiving back and you're doing good for other people, which empowers the world through your own voice, which empowers other voices which is amazing and I'm very grateful that you're doing that. So when you have had these moments along your journey do you

feel like there's been something that you've held on to and maybe it was something someone said or you know you've what was kind of like that motivation your why the whole time to keep you going I think it's because you you know that it is what you what you are good at You know also for me. It's about the the amount of time that and finances that I have invested into this I mean it's years and every year that you are part of it you become more fluent in what you are doing and for me it just feels like unless something changes completely. I cannot see myself stopping here. I cannot see everything

that I've done leading up to this place where I am now to just give that just give it up and do something completely different and I don't know what I'll do different because I really love this. You know it's so amazing because the industry um the industry didn't really treat me very well and I think I think it doesn't treat most people very well and as a result of that I really lost my passion for singing, for performing really lost my passion for singing, for performing. And in a way what I do now allows me to relive a lot of those early days through the clients that I teach. It's amazing, you know, I get excited for them I see the potential I you know so in that way it is even though it can be very draining it is also very energizing you know there is there is moments

that are really energizing and it's almost like you know this is you know this is I don't know when you're doing something right, you just get that feeling. It's a feeling of extreme happiness. And yes, this is where I'm supposed to be, you know. Yeah, yeah, I know, we love that. That's amazing. I'm really glad that you've got that. And it's rewarding, like you say, you know,

you know that you, that you, you can see the direct results as well, which is really amazing. Yes, yes. To be able to celebrate. And I know how much I've loved sharing with you that you can see the direct results as well which is really amazing. Yes. To be able to celebrate and I know how much I've loved sharing with you along the journey and it's like a partnership in a way because you know you prepare for a song and you walk this journey together and it's a whole community that comes together it's a composer and you and everyone in the end creates this beautiful artwork that's out there.

Exactly. Yeah, it's not an isolation. At the end of the day, it's just such a privilege to be a little part of that, to know that you've got some keys that can open up some doors for the artist. And that is just, it's so exciting and very rewarding. Yeah, I actually also wanted to tell you, and I never think I mentioned this, but one of the exercises we did was kind of hailing a cab and I moved to New York after that, so it was very helpful. It was very contextual, but it was, it just, I think these kind of things we're using in our life every day and this is why I really wanted us to be able

to talk about Understanding our voice understanding it as an instrument, but also vocal health Which is something that's really important. I know in your world. So Yeah, totally You know, I work with a lot of professional singers and because they are professional athletes Obviously they they do get injuries. So vocal health is, makes out a big part of my whole niche. And yeah, I think for normal speakers, it is important once you understand, okay, this voice of mine really means something, it's like my fingerprint, I can enhance it by learning certain skills. I think it's only when you lose your voice that you understand how important it is.

When you can't, when nothing comes out, when you're sick and you've got laryngitis, then you suddenly realize, oh my gosh, I take this thing for granted. So yeah, I think then once you realize all of those things, it just it's natural to now say, OK, I've got a responsibility to look after this gift that I have, because because I want it. I wanted to always reflect the best of who I am. You know, it's like if if you hear someone hear someone for instance with a hoarse voice, it indicates

that something is wrong. You immediately will think, okay, there is something is affecting the voice. You understand what I'm saying. So, so for instance, a clear voice indicates health. It indicates that that all is okay. You know what I'm saying. So you are not gonna be doing things that will unnecessarily put your voice in a situation like that. Yes, we do get ill. Yes, sometimes the kind of job that we are in will fatigue our voices

and we'll get the natural consequences of that. But there are things that we can look out for. Like for instance, not to just talk excessively loud for long periods of time or scream and shout. You know, screaming and shouting at a rugby match for instance and that, you know, it's like how many times do you lose your voice after that, you know. And it's okay if it happens once in a while. But for instance, if you are a professional voice user, that is something that you will never do. You know, I think it's totally different for professional voice users and for non-professional voice users,

because a professional voice user becomes a slave to vocal health, because they know that if they don't look after the voice you know no income so basically they are very aware but like I say as a if you are a non-professional voice user just to be aware of overusing your voice will lead to fatigue will lead to the voice not being as clear will make it more difficult for you to speak, will make this whole process effortful. So those are little things that you can can look out for. Things like being aware how important hydration is. Your vocal folds are surrounded by a very flowy mucus and it is water, drinking water and hydrating the vocal folds that keeps this mucus flowy. Now when we speak a lot

or we shout or we use the voice excessively, the vocal folds vibrate in such a way it increases the workload on the vocal folds and that will make that flowy mucus a little bit more, let's say viscous, it will increase the viscosity of it. I don't know if that's the right way of saying it but it will make it thicker. So which means that the vocal folds don't vibrate as well, Which means that you will push harder, which means that the chances of vocal injury will become bigger. So just understanding that we can really, that it's important to hydrate is one of the big things that you can do for your voice. Being aware of the fact that if you are someone that suffer from acid reflux that that will influence the voice because the esophagus opens just behind the vocal folds. So if we've got acid reflux which usually happens at night

when we sleep that will affect the area around the vocal folds, which will make it swell up, which means that you will not have a consistent voice production. So then you will look at things in your diet like things that causes acid like coffee, chocolate, carbonated drinks, alcohol, stuff like that. All the good things. But like I say, usually for non-professional voice users, that's not really such an issue. It's more if you really use your voice and suddenly you realize, oh my gosh, things aren't working properly anymore. What's going on here? That you really not need to start looking at your lifestyle choices and seeing how to adapt things. Yeah, I think it's so important. I've realized that a lot. One, I didn't

drink enough water before and that was a problem. Coffee was always kind of in my diet. And two, I realized that the things I was eating is very much affecting my voice. Like you say, you just don't realize, even just doing the podcast, every time I would come on and I'd had a big meal in the day or something like that, I could feel that, I could see it and hear it rather in my voice. So I think that's really, really important.

We don't really think about these things. We think, okay, well, just show up and do your thing and it's really it's really like you know a very precious gem we have to to honor in ourselves so I'm really glad that we can we can share this and one thing I'd notice as well maybe it's not as much voice related but it's also kind of your posture and how you kind of everything around your your vocals and if you're pulling back your shoulders and all of that then you open up things a lot more too. Yeah your posture influences the way you move air because your rib cage is the biggest mover of air and it affects the movement of the lungs and so on and if your posture isn't optimal then obviously you will have a

problem with the way that breath is flowing and the flow of the breath sends the message to the vocal folds to vibrate in a specific way. So if the flow of the air isn't optimal then the vibration won't be optimal. So that is why posture is so important and I heard the most amazing trick and I've tried it now and it really works if you take a coat hanger and you imagine the hook of the coat hanger just being at the back of your head and the little long piece your neck and then where it slopes down by your shoulders and then the long piece will be kind of in the in the top part of your of your back and you imagine that your shoulders you standing against

that coat hanger and your arms are just hanging off that coat hanger. It is the quickest way to to get the right posture. I'm standing against a coat hanger and immediately, I've tested it, it just immediately puts people in the right place without having to think, oh my ears needs to be over my shoulders and all of those things. Because obviously nowadays with us being on computers, phones, and that everybody is sitting with a forward hanging posture. And when the rib cage hangs forward, it's almost like it's more closed. It's almost like it presses inwards more. So we always kind of need to remind people to correct, to open that rib cage up so that

there is more space. Oh, that's a great tip. Yeah, I was doing it while you were explaining and I can feel myself already speaking louder. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. You know. And so for your journey and for, you know,

as you kind of take on the next few years of what is to come. I know I don't want to ask you like 10 years ago, did you think you'd be doing this? I think you were already very much invested into this process. I know you were doing amazing courses and all around the world to be able to communicate what you are to us today. So what's next for you? What's coming in the next year? Do you feel like you'll still be in the same journey? I think so. At this point of my life I'm not sure. I'm obviously continuing doing this. I am making a couple of changes because like anybody that works on an hourly basis one-on-one

will tell you that in the long run that isn't really sustainable although I've been doing it for 17 years now so but so I'm also looking more to the point of courses and maybe more in terms of community group classes so that I can reduce that amount of one-on-one sessions so that I can invest more time in doing, in learning more, in creating more courses and stuff like that. So another passion of mine is, it's been a passion for a long time. I believe that Africa and South Africa is one of the bread baskets of talent in the world and with Tyler being so big now, the attention of the world is on Africa and I believe that this is Africa's time and for me I would love to be in

a position to go in at the margin at your marginalized communities and go and find that raw talent and being able to create an academy where we can harness those talents and use them as ambassadors of the world. I don't know if people are aware of the N'Lorova Youth Choir for instance. I mean they were on Britain's Got Talent, I think or America's Got Talent and they did very well America's Got Talent, and they did very well. And because of that, they are now performing right across the world. And those are little kids from a little small town in Limpopo.

And this gave them the opportunity. And what a wonderful, wonderful ambassadorship for our country. So that is something, and I knew that, I know that that is a huge endeavor, but I'm always keeping my eyes open and my energies open for opportunities to be able to collaborate with people to make this possible. That's an amazing dream and goal, and I hope that I can be a part of that in some way and whatever. That'll be great. You need help with that because I believe that too. I think Africa, I think South Africa is such an, it's there's so much talent but people aren't owning

it yet in the same way as people in America are where I found that when I was traveling, and I would say I'd like to do this and then the system just supports you. In Europe, for example, France, if you're a singer, you're an artist and the system supports you. But in South Africa, in Africa, it's still coming, it's emerging. And I think I wholeheartedly agree that that's where the next Mozart is sitting probably. We have got such amazing talent in this country. I mean, it is mind blowing. And I mean the whole of Africa. I just, for me, that is really, I would love to give the opportunity to people that would maybe never have the opportunity to excel

just because of the fact of their socio-economic situation. To be able to take people from, like I say, to take people from marginalized communities and not even just that, but being able to help them. Yeah, and you know, I wholeheartedly agree with that. And I really just... And yeah, just universals living in a state of sound, living in a state of song, I think is such a beautiful thing. Because it is our universal language of love.

So on that, I wanted to quickly just take a quick moment to say thank you to our co-pilots who make it possible for us to capture great sound and it's not without Riverside FM and RSS.com would it be possible to have this conversation be able to distribute it into the world so thank you to you guys and if you are a keen content creator, podcaster, live streamer or just you know wanting to use a platform to capture your sound and your content. You can check out our Riverside FM and also rss.com for distribution and they have also

given us our audience a very special discount. So thank you to you guys for doing that. So if you are interested, DM us on the social platforms at fridayfields.co and we will send you the discount codes. On that topic, I also wanted to give a quick shout out. This is very much in the realm of sound, but Amanda, we do a thing called the People, Places and Spaces every week, which is things that come across our path at Friday Fields that have the feels

that are doing cool things in the world. And so I've been meaning to give a shout out for a long time to eMastered, which is an online platform, but basically is a mastering of sound platform. So you can check your podcast episode in there or your song in there and they do amazing mastering and they have been on our journey with Friday Feels since season one, since episode one. So thank you to you guys. Finally giving you guys a shout out out there and on the topic of great sound, if you're looking for a great and easy way to master your sound, check out E-Mastered and yeah,

thank you for all the feels that you give the world. So then I wanted to move into a quick section and it's called our gems. And I'll start and you can share if you want. But the gems are really just something we have gratitude for, something interesting that's happened in your week. It could be good or bad or whatever it might be. But for me, this gem has really been, I've been in South Africa for a week, I spent a week in Johannesburg with my family,

and just to be on South African soil, to feel the sunshine, to be with family and my little niece that's growing up so quickly, to see friends from all time and catch up, it's just been such a good nourishment for my soul. And to be able to laugh together in person, you know, use my voice in person with them and not just online, which has been so, so lovely.

So that's been a gem for me. And I'm very happy to now be in the Western Cape too. So yeah, what's yours been? I think my gem is just the rediscovery of living in the moment. One of the things that stemmed from my burnout was I was reminded to just do what you have to do in this moment and then go to the next one.

And I found by doing that, that my, that time slows down. And I think I'm thankful again for that realization, how powerful it is just to be able to live in the moment. Oh, I love that. Yeah, and it's so true. You're right, you're right. Time kind of mirrors where we are in our lives, which is something I haven't really thought of properly.

So we were talking about it now, but thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm really glad you could find that space. That's awesome. And so I have only one more question for you, and that is something we started doing called The Stack, and it's our reading list. So if there's a book that you love, that you'd like to recommend, or maybe it's been lying on your pile for a while and you just haven't touched it yet but we'd like to

We'd love to share it with our audience. Oh my gosh. I Just I only read Stuff Let me just how can I phrase this? I only read educational material with regards to singing. That's great, that's great. I'm sure there are a lot of singers out there that would love to have a recommendation. There's many. You know what, a book, obviously so many people have read it, but a book that really meant a lot to me and that I also share with my students is Atomic Habits. I love that book. I would recommend that book.

I think it's such a practical guide. For me, it's helped so many times to really instigate change in my life for the better. So that is definitely something that I would recommend. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, I would definitely be adding that to the stack. Thank you so much. And for everyone else out there, I wonder what you're feeling about naturally being nourished, about using your voice, about your vocal health. Maybe you've never thought about that before. And we want to hear all your feels, so please do let us know on the social channels. We love reading your messages. And then just to you, Amanda, where can everyone find you? And just been such a pleasure to chat to you. So I'm sure a lot of people would like to reach out and perhaps have some vocal lessons as well. Of course,

they can visit my website www.amandalate.co.za. I also want to mention that I will be releasing a course shortly which will be all about establishing a good solid foundation to be able to build your vocal development on. So that will be for beginner singers and in this course I also have an extensive lecture on vocal health. So and also a lecture on how to build your own vocal warm-up to teach you the principles of what needs to be in a warm-up and I try to make it as practical as possible. So keep an eye out if you are interested to be notified when this course will be coming out you can just send me an email at amalate at imaginit.co.za and the moment I release it I

will put you on the mailing list and let you know. Amazing, amazing. We'll definitely share that with the audience as well for anyone who didn't catch that. And yeah, I just want to say thank you so much for coming today to share with us. It's been such a pleasure to see you again, even if it's not in person yet. And I'm excited to give you a big hug soon. But thank you for coming and sharing all that knowledge. I hope we can all take that into what we're doing in the next week as we I'm excited to give you a big hug soon, but thank you for coming and sharing all that knowledge. I hope we can all take that into what we're doing in the next week as we express ourselves.

But yeah, just thank you so much. Thank you so much for inviting me. I really enjoyed this talk. Thank you. If you haven't just yet, follow Friday Feels on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. You can share with us all your feels this week by tagging us at fridayfeels.co and you can also find the website at that handle. And now as you ease into this weekend, take a moment, celebrate who you've become, what you've overcome and what is yet to come as you

do the crazy and cool things that you do as the authentic you. You know the truth about life and work is that it's hard but the beauty is this global working experience that you're in while we are in it together. So keep connecting, empowering and inspiring this week. And of course, keep it raw and real. Until next time.