Productive Living: Finding and Using Your Voice, with Jessica Doyle-Mekkes – TPW466

Finding your voice and using it fearlessly--how might that help you make a life that matters? I'm excited to share with you my conversation with professor, vocal coach, and author Jessica Doyle-Mekkes as part of our Productive Living series. Who is Jessica? Jessica is the Head of Musical Theatre at East Carolina University where she’s taught voice and vocal pedagogy since 2017. She works as a speaker, advisor, and clinician to individuals, groups, NGOs, and businesses small and large teaching women how to harness the power of their voices (those in their heads and the one coming out of their mouths). Jessica lives in Greenville, North Carolina, with her husband Don, their daughters Tallulah and Jolie, and a codependent chihuahua named Sebastian. Her first book, I'm Speaking: Every Woman's Guide to Finding Your Voice & Using It Fearlessly, releases this month and is available for pre-order now on Amazon. The book was recently called, "a bible on how to stand your ground against trepidation" by Publisher's Weekly.  How Jessica got started Jessica has always had a passion for helping women find their voices, which grew from the women in her life who greatly influenced her. She noticed that women had been training for years in their profession and could speak really well about what they did each day. But when it came to asking for a raise, speaking with an important team member, or having other difficult conversations, they were coming up short. These women found that their education and life experience were not helping in these situations. Based on the conversations Jessica had with these women, she did additional research on public speaking, and combined with what she already did for a living, she decided to help women find their voices and learn to be comfortable asking for what they wanted and needed. Jessica's "side hustle" has since grown into a business in which she can combine her professional life with helping women every day. A typical day for Jessica Jessica likes to begin her day early and considers herself a lark, although she is more of a natural night owl. She gets up around 4:30 or 5:00 most mornings and uses this time before her children get up to write (she wrote most of her book in these early morning hours) and enjoy a cup of coffee. Later on in her morning, she does the mom things, along with her husband, like making lunches, double-checking homework, and dropping the kids off at school. From there Jessica heads to work. She is privileged to be able to create her own schedule, working with her students during the times that work best for her, and beginning and ending her day with what works best for her family and personal life. After getting her kids from school, Jessica will get a quick workout in while the girls are having a snack and then it's on to evening activities and occasional work events. Jessica tries to be in bed by 9:00 each night so she can get up early the next morning and do it all again. For Jessica, true productivity is saying no to things that aren't important and altering her schedule to fit her needs. She's learned that saying no and taking charge of her own time is hard because others may not like it. But she has found that if she is honest with others about her time and intentions, it's always better in the long run. Scheduling tools Jessica recommends If Jessica had things her way, she would keep her schedule and to-do's in her own head, but that wouldn't be effective. Instead, she uses a weekly pen-and-paper calendar in her home for family activities and appointments. She also uses the calendar on her phone, heavily relying on setting alarms for things so that they don't slip her mind.