Danielle Soccio Awaken Your Voice

That’s me with Delta Goodrem many years ago. This photo was taken backstage at the Good Friday Appeal in Melbourne... maybe early 2000s. She had just released Born to Try. We were both performing that night and she was just beginning what would become an extraordinary career.
Watching her shine at Eurovision made me smile and remember the awesome, kind, sweet and very real young woman I met all those years ago backstage.
She has faced her share of challenges along the way but never wavered from herself. Truly born to try.
She has proven, not that she needed to, that she is the consummate performer. I’m so glad Australia celebrated and rallied behind this beautiful artist this week. She deserves it.
Love her and her brilliance and what she represents not only for Australia but for women in music.
Here’s to more great things Delta. ✨

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻?
Do you find yourself performing even in ordinary conversations?
Not on a stage. Just... shaping what you say before you say it. Adjusting your energy to read the room. Presenting the version of yourself most likely to land well.
It happens so fast you barely notice it.
And afterwards there’s sometimes a quiet feeling that the real thing never quite made it out.
Not because you were lying or deliberately withholding. Because somewhere along the way you learned that being received mattered more than being real.
How often do you say something without editing it first... and feel completely okay about it?
It’s definitely something I had to learn.

I saw Michael Jackson live the Bad Tour at Olympic Park Melbourne, 1987.

I wagged school, mum dropped us off in the morning, we were 2nd in line, so we managed to get close to the front barrier. By the end of the concert we were being crushed by the force of the crowd behind us. Absolute hysteria. People screaming for Michael, wanting to get close to him, bodies being passed overhead, being pulled out. It was genuinely becoming scary. For a moment I was terrified but I was completely alive at the same time. I got to witness history, something I will never forget.

Being that close to Michael was everything when I was a crazed teenage fan. 😁
So naturally I went to see the new movie.
To be honest it is great. Jaafar embodying Michael is incredible and I loved Colman and Nia’s performances as parents too. Spot on.

But if we’re being honest it’s stunning but yes, it is a little sanitised. Unlike most biopics it kind of skipped most of the ordeal. It’s clear that as producers, this is how the family wanted it. And rightly so, Michael was incredible as an artist, why not shine most of the light on that?

At first I questioned it. But then a friend suggested this. Instead of always sitting through the hero’s journey narrative, film after film, which we’ve been conditioned to want, maybe we should get used to no longer sitting in the darkness. Maybe we’re living in a time where we want more of the light.

Maybe sometimes rather than delving into the deepest darkest moments, which yes, can bring a richer understanding as to why people are the way they are as adults, but maybe just a beautiful warm celebration of a legacy is actually enough.

And in Michael’s case I think it is.
And I’m sitting with that. KingOfPop ChoosingLight

Having worked with thousands of voices, this is the biggest block I see.

Not talent.
Not skill.

Safety.

Your voice changes when your body doesn’t feel safe to be seen and heard.

Do you tend to pull back or do you push harder?

One day something cracked open inside of me.
I’d been holding onto a version of myself for years. Survival mode. Defended. Grasping. Armoured. I thought that was just life.

Until I realised - just like the cross - the old part of me had to die. The part that was slowly killing me anyway.

It’s hard. Even when you consciously choose it. But I did. Again and again.

And every single time I let something go - a belief, an old pattern, a way of being, tension and pain in my body, an emotion, a relationship, a place, a home, a career path, a version of myself I’d outgrown, something more alive came through.

Every day is a choice. Die to the old self. Rise again.

I know this from the inside out.
Whatever you’re being asked to release right now, you’re not alone in that.

LetItGo InnerWork Rebirth WomensWisdom SoulJourney ✝️ Resurrection

When was the last time someone was truly, fully present with you?

There was a line a mile long. And yet when it was my turn, Marianne Williamson stopped to talk to me, like I was the only person in the room. Fully present in conversation with me.

That kind of presence is rare.
It’s one of the tools I use in my own mentoring, and it was one of the few times I truly felt somebody in this space had applied it, after actually talking about it.

Being truly present in conversation requires us to take full responsibility for who we are. To see how much we want to insert ourselves, how much we want to adjust and fix others, and interrupt each other without truly listening.

Unfortunately, our ego does this to us.

Her teaching is that if we take real responsibility for how we are, how we behave, then from that place we can actually show up for each other. Not halfway. Fully.

Without trying to fix or adjust others according to our own ego’s needs, shut others down or move conversations along in the way we want.

It sounds simple. It really isn’t.
But that moment with Marianne reminded me, that when it happens, it’s beautiful.
I know what it feels like to catch myself not being present. And I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of someone who truly is.
You feel truly seen and heard.

And isn’t that what we all want?

EgoAwareness AuthenticConnection

What if we all took responsibility for what we feel and for where we are in our lives?

It’s not out there. It never was.

The fear we’re avoiding. The old patterns we keep repeating. The story we keep telling about why everyone else is the problem.

Wake up to ourselves. Gently. I never said it was fun. But fully.

And maybe watch our world change.

Women express themselves in so many ways.

Your emotional depth, your tears are not a liability. They are your greatest intelligence.
Your intuition is not irrational, to be ignored. It is your most ancient wisdom. It’s coming home to yourself.
Your softness is not weakness. It is an unshakeable powerful force.

Somewhere along the way most women were taught to override all of it.
Be less emotional. Be more logical. Be grateful. Be agreeable. Be smaller.
And so you performed. You over gave. You over explained. You apologised for taking up space.
You survived. Resiliently. Beautifully. Exhaustingly.

But surviving was never the full story.
Living fully expressed, thriving looks different.
It looks like honouring your body and its cycles. Trusting the feeling before you can explain it.
Moving, creating, adorning yourself with intention.
Receiving help without guilt. Setting boundaries without apology.
Singing, breathing, dancing your way back into your own body. Gathering with women who celebrate rather than compete and judge.
Facing the shadow parts of yourself you’ve kept in the dark. And finding that even those parts were never something to be ashamed of.

You are not too much. You are not too sensitive. You are not too fierce. You are not too soft.
You are a woman. Soft and unshakeable. Tender and powerful. Both at once. Always.

This is your essence. This is your superpower. This is you. Fully expressed. Finally awake.
Awaken Your Voice. 🌹

A little late for International Women’s Day. Arrived on my own terms. As it should be. 🙏

When singing is more than just singing - Part 2
Some of you have been singing your whole life. Some of you are finding your way back to it. Both of you belong here.
Whether you’re a working professional or someone reclaiming a voice that got buried, maybe you’re looking for something far more interesting, far more holistic and connected inward, rather than just drills, skills and performing:

How deep can I go?
This is what I hear from the people I work with.
I didn’t realise how my old habits were holding me back. I thought my voice had limits. But my ability to mix my voice, flexibly move between registers and sustain power without strain helped me move past a ceiling I didn’t know I had. I didn’t know I had more in me.

And then there is the layer underneath it all…
I never realised how many walls I had up around my voice, my mind and my body getting in the way. Working holistically, mind, body, soul and spirit together... I found it.

My singing shifted. Something completely opened up. I didn’t know I’d been carrying something for years, but it literally lifted out of my throat and out of my chest. I’ve never felt this before. It’s like my throat and heart just opened up.
My greatest fear is to be one of those singers who seems disconnected, dead inside. I don’t just want to go through the motions anymore. I love diving into this deeply, opening a beautiful doorway to freely and vulnerably express myself emotionally, to tell my story in my singing.

It’s my time of pure creativity, self-care and embodied joy, and it’s completely mine. Like mini therapy, without being therapy.

It saved me.
Lessons made me remember that I could do it, even when so many people told me I couldn’t. It was taken away from me for a long time. I would never be able to do what I’m doing now. If I had pursued this 20 years ago, I wouldn’t be in my corporate job... honestly.
I finally claimed it. Not just as something I do, but as who I am.
I AM A SINGER.

This is for you, whether you are chasing elite or simply coming home to yourself.
A hobby or a profession... the voice doesn’t lie.

SingingJourney