Stepping Into Your True Voice and Caring About What YOU Think of Yourself - Looks Like Work, Season 1, Ep 4

Written By Chedva Ludmir
Photo of Casey Erin Clark. Looks Like Work by Chedva Ludmir Kleinhandler. Season 1, Episode 4

Some careers are about chasing the dream. Others are about rewriting it entirely.

Casey Erin Clark had the kind of résumé most performers dream of: the national tour of Les Misérables, singing at the Oscars alongside Hugh Jackman, years of stage work. But somewhere along the way, she realized that the work she was doing — and the coaching she saw around her — was reinforcing a dangerous norm: teaching people to sound like “idealized middle-aged white men” in order to be taken seriously.

That didn’t sit right. Because what’s the point of being heard if you have to erase yourself in the process?

So Casey, along with co-founder Julie Fogg, built Vital Voice Training — a company dedicated to helping people access more of their voices, not less. Together, they’ve created a space where code-switching is acknowledged for what it is (both a survival strategy and a drain on energy), where psychological safety is non-negotiable, and where authority can sound like… well, you.

We talk about:

  • Why traditional voice coaching hides more than it reveals

  • The “mythic norm” and the energy cost of adapting to it

  • Code-switching as both linguistics and self-protection

  • Building a business while grieving a Broadway dream

  • The identity crisis of being multi-passionate

  • Understanding your body’s conflict responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)

  • Why “lone genius” is a myth that needs to be burned down

  • How co-founder opposites create stronger ideas

  • The vulnerability — and freedom — of stepping into ease

  • How not needing the job helped her book the job

Casey’s anchor question is the one that launched Vital Voice Training in the first place:
👉 “What does authority sound like?”

It’s a question that upends everything we’ve been taught about leadership and power. And it’s not about mimicking someone else’s cadence — it’s about finding the sound that belongs to you.

Casey’s story is a reminder that our voices aren’t just instruments — they’re identities. And the most compelling authority isn’t the one that conforms to expectation. It’s the one that speaks from a place of ease, truth, and unapologetic ownership.

 

"We move into these scenes with other people and then we have to make choices within them in how we want to be perceived."

 
Chedva Ludmir
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Poems, Boundaries, and Being Seen at Work - Looks Like Work, Season 1, Ep 6
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Designing a Creative Career that Suits You - Looks Like Work, Season 1, Ep 5