Whisper Speak What Now?
“‘Quiet leadership’ is not an oxymoron.” –Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Thanks for reading our first blog! We’re excited to tell you about our business and excited to get to know you, too.
First, the facts.
Here’s the story of Whisper Speak Roar Media, an organization founded by two smart, competent, talented women who believe that leaders don’t have to be loud in order to be effective.
In 2018, we both started to think about our careers and about the career path we were on. We were…tired. We were burned out. We both were DESPERATE to learn and grow and try new things. And we both realized that we were going to have to take charge of our own development and growth.
We each had supportive supervisors. Our workplace was fine — and, frankly, we were (and are) grateful for all the opportunities we’d been given. We were also each really good at what we did. But THAT almost seemed to be the problem. We were so capable that no one seemed to want us to try to do anything ELSE. And no one seemed to understand that we NEEDED to try something else.
So, we started talking about what we were really good at…and what we were interested in. And then we started talking about all the problems we’d solved – or helped solve – over the course of our years working in media outlets.
We decided it was time to start solving problems for other people, too.
And Whisper Speak Roar Media was born.
For the past 8 months, we’ve been asked: “So, what do you do?”
And as we’ve taken on more projects and more work, our answer keeps changing. The thing is – we do a lot.
Consider these questions:
Are you interested in hosting a podcast but need to fine tune your interview skills, scriptwriting, and verbal delivery?
Are you an on-air presenter looking to improve how you use your voice to tell a good story?
Are you a producer who’s interested in becoming more efficient and more creative?
Are you a career changer who’s interested in learning more about creating audio content for broadcast or podcast?
Do you manage on-air professionals – announcers, reporters, music hosts – who would benefit from individualized on-air training to elevate their delivery, their storytelling, and their ability to connect with your audience?
Are your production workflows outdated and ineffective? Are ALL of your workflows outdated and ineffective?
Do you need training for new team members?
Do you want to create best-practice guides (or SOPs – standard operating procedures) for your producers, hosts, traffic and operations team, engineering team, etc.?
Is your team at capacity? Do you need an extra pair of hands to step in, brainstorm, and implement ideas?
Are you tired of programming music and do you find it impossible to keep up with the new music releases that come your way?
We can help.
So, why US? What do WE bring to your table?
Well, first and foremost, we’re going to listen to you. We’re going to ask questions so we can start to deeply understand your needs and your wants. And we’re going to propose a solution that is appropriate for YOU – not a solution that we’ve used for someone else.
Between the two of us, we cover ALL the bases. We’re hiring managers, managers, producers, creators, hosts, writers, social media operators, storytellers…the list goes on.
Frankly, we’re good at figuring things out and getting things done.
Plus:
We like training people.
We like solving problems.
We’re compassionate, intelligent, strategic, thoughtful, and communicative.
And we offer a kind of quiet leadership that encourages everyone to participate in conversations and projects. In fact (to answer another question we’ve been getting a lot), that’s the source of our company’s name – Whisper Speak Roar Media.
In our past roles, we’ve both been described as “too quiet,” “not forceful enough,” “shy,” and “introverted.” However, what those critics weren’t seeing was the POWER in quiet leadership. After the meeting, we engaged in intentional consensus building; we made room for conversation, questions, and debate in a less intimidating setting; we worked one-on-one to identify specific strengths and strategies, and, by NOT being the loudest people in the room, we forced others to pay attention to the comments and questions other people wanted to voice.
We DID speak up and we absolutely participated. However, we DIDN’T do it in the most recognizable way.
When we started talking about what we wanted to do, we asked ourselves: why do leaders have to be loud? Why do leaders have to be aggressive?
Why can’t leaders be thinkers, good listeners, and offer strategic and thoughtful solutions to challenging problems?
And we realized leaders CAN be these things. Leadership DOESN’T have to be loud and aggressive and pushy.
After all, we believe everyone has a voice - and a story - worth hearing. We also believe that moments of quiet courage cut through the din, that a whisper can deafen a roar.
When we started our company, we spent time thinking about our goals and our purpose. We asked ourselves: “Why does this organization exist?” And here’s what we came up with:
→We want to prevent burnout in public media talent and leaders
→We want train individuals to elevate their strengths
→We want to engage with people who are interested in storytelling
→We want to meet new people
→We want to learn and grow and develop our own skills
→We do NOT want to offer a one-size fits all solution
→We don’t want to work with jerks or those who don’t care to engage
To date, some of our work has included:
Training public media on-air talent for classical and Triple A formats
Creating project management workflows for public media marketing teams
Creating project management workflows for podcast teams
Training public media producers on best practices
Music organization and database organization
Music programming
Producing live events
Developing growth plans for small stations
Creating training manuals for new hires
Now, what about you? What do you want? What do you need? Are you ready to get some help and start solving problems?
#fractionalleaders #storytelling #whoweare #teamsintransition #workflow #problemsolvers
