This transcript is created by a helpful but imperfect transcription bot. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Cheryl Porter 0:00

That’s the talent is wanting it is the talent is your determination is your motivation. Because to be motivated, is a huge talent because you can’t buy motivation you can’t train motivation. If you’re motivated that in itself is going to get you to wherever you need to go. And that is the real challenge behind singing as well.

Melissa Guller 0:23

Meet Cheryl Porter, a woman whose positive, infectious energy lights up any room, even virtually. Cheryl is a YouTube Star and classically trained opera singer. With her motivational coaching videos and inspirational approach to teaching, she has over 125 million views on YouTube and is considered the top vocal coach and vocal education influencer in the world. In this episode, Cheryl shares the type of talent that matters most, and not just for singers. She talks about finding the same, dull vocal exercises 15 years ago and realizing that if there was no better way, she’d just have to make one herself. And she talks about how the word “method” was actually something that scared her at first, yet by leaning in when she felt challenged, she’s been able to grow her business both in person and now online to students in 135 countries and counting.

Announcer 1:27

Welcome to “Everything is Teachable,” the podcast that takes you behind-the-scenes to learn how everyday creators have transformed their skills and passions into online courses and businesses. To introduce this week’s guest, here’s your host, Melissa Guller.

Melissa Guller 1:46

Hey everyone, I’m Melissa from Team Teachable, and today I’m so excited to be here with Cheryl Porter. Cheryl is the sole creator of the innovative Cheryl Porter VOCAL METHOD and has created over 300 vocal exercises to specifically target and correct vocal flaws, increase vocal range and dramatically improve vocal skills for beginning and advanced singers. She has given Vocal Masterclasses and coached students all over the world, from Italy where she’s lived for over 20 years to Russia, Israel, Poland, Mexico, France, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Japan, Africa, the Czech Republic…if I read the whole list, it would take the full episode. It’s absolutely astounding. Cheryl has coached singers who have performed on The Voice, X-Factor, America’s Got Talent, All Together Now, Italy’s Got Talent, Eurovision, and more, and she’s also a Vocal Coach for the Italian trio, IL VOLO.

Cheryl Porter 2:51

Hey, sweetheart. Thank you for having me.

Melissa Guller 2:54

I can’t wait to learn more about you and I’m so excited to share your story with our listeners. So get things started. I know we heard your bio, but how did you first get into singing?

Cheryl Porter 3:05

You know, I started getting it the saying that Thank you, sweetheart for having me here. Hello to everybody at the Teachable podcast. What’s up instructors, innovators, creators, I’m so happy to be a part of this group. And thank you so much for having me. You know, I guess my story is like a lot of other people, other creators stories, you know, you get to a point in your life and you realize that music is the only thing or that special thing is that thing that makes you happy that makes you feel useful that point in your life where you feel like you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. And I had that feeling when I was young when I was in school. You know, I used to sing in the choir, but I never thought that I had a beautiful voice. I never thought that I was like a solo singer. And you know, one day my teacher came to me and she said, Sure, you know, I want you to audition for the musical Dream Girls. I’m like, Are you crazy? Anybody? Are This is a virgin girls. I have that guy. voice I can like do a little homage and a little bit, but it’s not like I have that kind of voice. And she said, Well, why don’t you give it a try? And so I gave it a try. And she said, Listen, you know, I don’t know whoever told you that you’re not a soloist. But you are a soloist you have a beautiful voice and we want you to do the role as Dream Girls now it’s not like the gym girls are like with, with Jennifer Hudson Dream Girls, it was a high school production, a dream girl, but still, to me at the time was like Broadway. And it was a great opportunity. And the thing is, I never thought that I was a great singer. And I never even thought that I was a good singer, Melissa. And I think the reason why I love coaching so much is that somebody came along in my life at one point and they said, No, Baby, you’re good, no, baby, you got talent, you can do this. And my whole coaching philosophy is to help people to realize just how talented they really are.

Melissa Guller 4:51

That’s incredible. And I know that your singing career took off and then at what point did you start teaching others how to sing

Cheryl Porter 5:00

never wanted to teach. That’s a crazy thing. It’s like I was just happy being a singer. You know, I have a great career. I mean, I moved to Italy about 25 years ago to study opera. And, you know, I’ve done a lot of great things, you know, a proper variety with Bono with Andrea Bocelli, a lot of great performers. And same for the Pope, the Vatican. I mean, I’ve done a lot of really cool things, you know. And when you do concerts, and you do tours and things like that, when you meet people after shows, and people write your emails, the thing is that they always ask, you know, do you give voice lessons? Will you teach me how to sing? And I always said, No, I don’t know. I’m not a teacher. No, I’m a performer. I’ve always been, I used to be one of those like annoying performers and everybody hates the one is like, Oh, I’m a performer. I don’t teach I only perform, you know, like the ones that I can’t stand now. And it’s like, I realized that I didn’t want to teach but it was a struggle. Wrong feeling me that I didn’t want to teach, and usually want to have a strong feeling that I don’t want to do something. And that’s for everybody to hear that really is the thing that you’re supposed to do. So if you feel strongly about something that you’re supposed to do it or if you’re not if you don’t want to do it, that’s like a signal of something that moves inside of you that you’re supposed to do. So my husband, he came to me one day, and he said, Sure, you know, listen, you should really think about teaching. Why do you always say no? Why do you always say no to the people that’s asking you to teach? I’m like, because you’re not gonna perform. I’m not a teacher. And the truth of the matter is Melissa, I was afraid to teach because teaching is the biggest responsibility that anyone can have. So a great teacher can change your life, a bad teacher can absolutely ruin your life. And I was afraid of ruining somebody’s life. I don’t want somebody saying, you know, well, I went to Cheryl Porter to help me and you know, she didn’t help me. And it’s such a huge responsibility, because I think about my teachers and the teachers that have helped me and I never thought in a million years that I could be the great teacher that my teachers were, I never thought that I could feel their shoes in any in any capacity. And that was a reason why I strayed away from teaching for so long. I was always very, very vocal on like YouTube and very vocal on my page about criticizing bad teachers. You know, I’ve got a couple of videos like the 10 worst voice teachers in the world. You know, I’ve done like a lot of rants and things like that on on my YouTube channel, criticizing voice teachers. And my husband said, Listen, if you want to change, you know, stop criticizing and do something about it. If you want to criticize these teachers, and you need to become a better teacher, and that’s what I did. And here we are today, Melissa.

Melissa Guller 7:40

Hmm, I think that’s such great powerful advice about if it’s the fear of doing something that’s holding you back or the fear of the responsibility, then that’s probably something to look into. Because I think having that healthy amount of fear is good. It shows that you care, it shows that you would want to put the investment and time into being a great teacher, by yourself. Write it is so big, and you said it in a perfect way, you know, a great teacher can make a huge impact but a bad teacher. I mean, that could ruin singing or any topic or anyone,

Cheryl Porter 8:10

anything, it can ruin you. And absolutely.

Melissa Guller 8:14

I also think that when you talked about people asking you to teach and how you kept saying, No, I think that’s an interesting signal that I wonder if maybe listeners can relate to where as you start to do something again and again, and people start to notice, a lot of times they will start to ask you, do you teach this? do you do that? And if you start hearing it enough, maybe that’s a signal in your own life that you should at least consider it or try it out.

Cheryl Porter 8:38

For sure. For sure. I’m a firm believer that people see things in you before you can see them in yourselves. And even and I see that as a comes back from being a performer. You know, it’s like, I would you know, maybe do a song or one of my concerts that I thought was like, not a big deal, you know, like a really simple song that was nothing special. And now would be like the sound that would get like the most applause. And maybe something that I thought a performance that was really, really great or something special. Maybe that’s the one that would go like unnoticed. So you really have to take clues from when people are telling you things that clues that are coming from the outside. Because that’s people in the universe seeing something in you that you never thought that you were seeing yourself.

Melissa Guller 9:24

Hmm, that’s a good point too about the songs in which get the most applause. I think no matter how expert we are in our field, none of us are psychic. And I think a lot of people musicians, maybe especially are surprised by which songs go on to become hits or huge don’t you just never know.

Cheryl Porter 9:40

You never know. You never know. And even with things when you’re creating, you never know what’s going to strike that note and people even if I look right now at my YouTube channel, the most viral videos on my channel are the videos that I thought nobody would give like two sets, like the ones I like threw together. Like in five minutes, there was like, Okay, yeah, let’s just put this on, there’s something there, you know, and those are the ones that really, really got a lot of people’s attention. You never never know what chords you’re going to strike and people what emotion that’s going to give to people. So it’s really important.

Melissa Guller 10:17

Mm hmm. So let’s talk a little bit about your YouTube channel. So at what point did you start your channel?

Cheryl Porter 10:24

Well, you know, my channel has been there for a while, but it was like basically empty. So I wasn’t putting anything on the channel. Because I was so busy on tour, you know, seeing has been being on tourism and like my life for like the last 20 years. I’m always on the road. I have a nice house in Italy, but I’m never never there. You know, I’ve slept in more hotels and I have in my own home. Since this COVID thing is the first time I’ve actually been able to stay in one place and it’s like kind of crazy because I’m not used to being home but since I am used to Working Wherever I am, and I make home Wherever I am, you know, I’ve just been so used to being on the road. So I wasn’t investing a lot of time into the channel at all. And then, you know, I started doing some coaching. You know, on my free time when I wasn’t on tour, it was very tiring, Melissa, because, you know, sometimes I would get back from out of the country in two days later, I would have to coach and it wasn’t easy. I’ll tell you that. Because once you get off the road, the only thing that you want to do honey is hit the bed, go to sleep, get some ice cream, like watch some Netflix or watch TV. And instead, you know, I made that decision that I had to help these singers. And so when we finally got a chance, you know, to do something on the page, my husband, my husband, Guido, he said, let’s just start putting some content on your page, you got to put some stuff on your page, just record and the thing is, has been like maybe like a year, a year, not even a year and a half that I actually started. dedicating just a little bit of time to my YouTube channel, and all of my last videos that have been maybe like in the last 14 months. And it’s been crazy because in 14 months like the channel has gone from, like 30,000 not even, like 25,000 to almost 3 million subscribers. And it’s grown very fast, you know, and it’s really a signal from people that you know, say listen, your videos touch us they’re doing something for us, but not that long the whole thing with I’ve been teaching for a while, but I haven’t had time to really dedicate to put in the content until the last year.

Melissa Guller 12:41

Mm hmm. And that growth is absolutely incredible. Do you know how people are finding you or how has your audience grown?

Cheryl Porter 12:50

I don’t Your guess is as good as mine. Because of me, I had I’ve never done any paid ads on YouTube. I mean, all of that is orange. ganic I don’t even know how to do a paid ad on YouTube. So it’s all organic. It’s just people that a lot of people I shared my videos. So I know it’s been shared by a lot of different different companies and different channels and music channels and teaching channels and just a lot of feel good channels. So it’s like it’s really cute because at the bottom of my pages at the bottom of my videos, like the same people that like Sarah Porter videos are like the same people who like heartfelt videos, you know, like the videos of like, people who like love animals, people who, who love nature, people who love so it’s really nice to know that whatever these videos are bringing is bringing some kind of nourishment to people, and it’s making people feel wholesome. And that’s the thing that I’m really pleased about it.

Melissa Guller 13:52

I love that and I think it’s important too, that when you create good, helpful positive content, I think People love to share that as well. I think we often see negative vibes on the internet. But I know when I see a really helpful video, if I think a friend would love it, I send it to them immediately. And so your videos all fall into that category, I feel hopeful. And I’m excited for our listeners to check you out. And I also want to ask, I think part of your background that we just kind of barely touched on is the fact that you’ve been in Italy and you’ve been even teaching like young Italian singers. And I know from some of my research that I think probably this misconception applies to some of our podcast listeners today that people in Italy must only listen to classical music. But in fact, your young singers want to learn how to sing like that and all of these matters. So can you talk a little bit more about what you’ve noticed maybe about music and culture, especially outside of the US?

Cheryl Porter 14:53

Absolutely. Well, you know, I’ve been living in Italy for 23 years, but I’ve been as a coach and as a senior to about 30 countries so I’ve performed you know, in Singapore and in Bali and in the Maldives have been to Israel. I’ve been to Mexico I’ve been everywhere UK, Germany, France, Switzerland. I mean, you name it. I’ve been to so many different countries just ridiculous. And the reason why I moved to Italy is because I also coming from my opera training and becoming as an opera singer. I always imagined Italy as the headquarters for everyone listening to classical music. You know, when I went to Italy, and I thought I would only hear like they’re the Bellini, Puccini. And I had no idea that they had such a strong love for international music. And the thing about American music is that it’s everywhere. Even when I was in Russia. These kids are killing it. They’re like going nuts. They just, you know, in Japan, they’re killing it. It’s incredible because you know, the kids now, music is available to everyone. And me being a lover of classical music in in a way. I hate the fact that I love classical music, Italian opera more than most Italians and that I know more about Italian opera than most the times that’s kind of sad to me because it’s sort of the wave of some American art forms. You know, like we’re losing blues, you know, we’re losing some forms of jazz, we’re losing some of our folklore songs, we’re losing some of our songs. And that is the same thing. And that is true in in Europe and Italy as well. So it’s it’s very interesting to see that migration of, of culture and how it is becoming worldwide, somewhat of a monoculture in some ways from modern music. Because American music English music has become sort of have like a point of reference for a lot of singers. And it’s really great. But at the same time, I just want to make sure and I hope that people never forget the importance of the culture because music is culture. And to make sure that we, we love our Russian folklore, we love our Mexican folklore that we love our American folk songs and the songs of the people as we go and migrate into international songs, and to be as eclectic as possible to never you know, just stick to one style. But to get back to your question. I mean, music is music everywhere is that language that unites us all Melissa? You go places and you know people don’t speak a word of English honey, and they will sing like a Serbian say song with like, not even any accent, you know, they’ll go and they’ll see like a Michael Jackson song. And they’re like from one of the islands of remote island somewhere and they’re singing Michael Jackson. There’s singing all of these songs. And it’s just incredible to see how music brings people together.

Melissa Guller 18:06

Mm hmm. There is something so universal about music. And sure there are words, but the melody, the way that it’s instrumented, just the feeling you get from music is far beyond a single language. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I wonder too. I know that you teach and reach people in many different languages. You’re speaking to a very international audience. So how are you able to communicate with so many people who speak so many different languages? we you know, I love languages,

Cheryl Porter 18:40

my course, is been, it hasn’t been bought now. 135 different countries aren’t taking the Cheryl Porter Vocal Method. So we’re up to 135. After the first week, we were already 111 countries. Now we’re 135 countries. And so pretty soon we’ll be like in every country. In the world and this crazy so and you know the thing that I think is that the music is that unites us. I speak and can read and, and sing because of my classical training all the romantic languages. So that’s French, German, Italian, and Latin not well, French is horrible for me, but it doesn’t sound like jibber jabber to me, I can sort of make something out because as opera singer, you have to understand all the romantic languages, but it’s the music that unites us is the music that unites us. I have a very international staff. So on my staff, you know, there are people that speak that are fluent in Spanish. I have fluent in Arabic. I have fluent in Italian, I fluent in French, I have someone who’s fluent in German. So the people behind the method, we’re pretty international group of folks, and so we can reach out to people and try to make them feel included, but I need rush. I need rush And have someone also was from Japan. But the one that I’m missing, I need someone on my staff who speaks rice. So if you have any singers out there any races, who want to be on staff where you know, the Russians what we’re missing, but we try to be as international as possible because the method is so International. We have, you know, a lot of people from America, but the rest are from all over the world.

Melissa Guller 20:28

That’s incredible. And I want to talk more about your online course. But first, I have to ask what I feel like might be a burning question from listeners, which is for anyone interested in learning how to sing. Does it require genetic innate talent, or Can anybody learn?

Cheryl Porter 20:46

I truly believe and I’m speaking from my own experience, if you know what the talent is, because you know, I hear that on YouTube a lot. You know, there’s like this commercial this guy and he’s always Like you can learn to sing telling is not important. You can learn talents unimportant. But the truth is the talent is not in the instrument itself. The talent is your passion. Your talent is your desire, that is the talent that you have to have to sing. So it doesn’t mean that you have to be genetically predisposed to singing that you have to come from a musical family. You’re have vocal cords. If you love it, that is already a talent. Your Passion is a talent, everything that drives your soul that is talent. And if you care enough to become better, you can most definitely become a great singer. You can improve your voice, and I’m speaking for myself. Nobody ever thought in a million years, Melissa, that I could be a singer. Nobody, not even my teachers, not even my friends. My family. They’re my mother wouldn’t even let me sing in that house. Whenever light comes you like Shut up, sir. making that noise I am the last person in the world that somebody would think would become a singer, let alone a vocal coach. But it was my passion. You know, it’s like I’ve had, you know, a lot of friends that I went to college with, and I went to high school with amazing singers, incredible singers. I’m telling you, I’m from Chicago. And believe me, honey, you know, these people in Chicago can sing, and they can’t do another nosies me when Chicago couldn’t sing, but I wanted it more than anyone I believe. I think that that’s the talent is wanting it is the talent is your determination is your motivation. Because to be motivated, is a huge talent because you can’t buy motivation. You can’t train motivation. If you’re motivated, that in itself is going to get you to wherever you need to go. And that is the real talent behind singing as well.

Melissa Guller 22:53

Hmm. I love this so much. I know you said you can’t buy motivation, but I’m buying what you’re selling right now. I feel those reasons Yes, the talent though. Yes. I’m like writing notes. I’m like, this is everything.

Cheryl Porter 23:09

Girl get in the spirit. Yes.

Melissa Guller 23:12

Oh, I think it’s so incredible to hear though that the talent is the drive the determination, passion because that’s something that if you want it like, you can go you can learn you can find it worth it. Yes,

Cheryl Porter 23:24

that is the talent. That’s where a lot of people get confused. What is it? Oh, I’m not so talented, like, Listen, the voice you can fix it, you can improve it. There’s nothing that good vocal technique cannot fix. And I am a witness of that honey. I’ve had some singers come to me Who were the most, you would never think I’m serious. Melissa. You would never think that they would have what people consider to be talent for singing talent. And they are on tour. They are doing concerts. I have some kids, some people some who start off with kids who are Now adults that are doing things on Broadway who are doing things, musicals, background singers, and they are people who no one would have thought that they could have become singers just like me. You know, they had parents who were like, oh, you’re not gonna make it parents were very discouraging parents who have never wanted them to take singing seriously. And for myself, you know, I can always feel my students pain because when they said, Well, my mother doesn’t believe in me as like, Well, my mom didn’t believe in me that she my mother just started believing to me, like five minutes ago. So five minutes ago, we’re there. Exactly, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 24:42

So it’s like, you still have to do it, regardless of if someone believes in you or not. And that’s where that determination in their real drive and that fire comes in. Because the thing is, if you don’t do it, there’s going to be like that aching for the rest of your life. can think about that. Thing is, you don’t necessarily have to, you know, I never saying in my life and said, Okay, I want to win a Grammy if it happened, it happened. I know I always wanted to be the best thing that I could be. But there’s so much music everywhere. There’s so many different musical careers, singing careers. You know, a lot of people when they think you want to become a professional singer, all they see is just maybe like, the shaman does this thing that’s like the only singer or they see Sam Smith that’s like the only singer that exists, or they see Selena Gomez or they see Ariana Grande. That’s less than a percentage of a percentage of a percentage of 1% of the singers in the world who are making great livings who are having a great time, who are touching people’s lives who are making a difference, and who are helping people with through song and through singing. So people have to really realize that if you can tough it out, if you can tell from toughing out the criticism if you can soften it out when your appearance says I’m not going to pay for your lessons if you can suffer that. What People say, Oh, you suck, if you can tell it down when people say, you’re never going to make it, if you can make it through all of that, then you probably are going to make it as a singer or anything else that you choose to do. But you’ve got to make it through a lot of criticism. And a lot of people telling you that you can’t do it before you get to the point that you’re actually doing it. Mm hmm.

Melissa Guller 26:21

I love to that you point out that I think there’s a big difference between having a job and being famous. And you don’t need to have both in order to have a very fulfilling life career pursuit of music. I think that’s such an important thing to distinct between those two.

Cheryl Porter 26:37

Absolutely, absolutely.

Melissa Guller 26:40

So let’s talk more about your online course. So at what point did you decide I’m going to do this, I’m going to make an online course.

Unknown Speaker 26:48

Well, the Cheryl Porter vocal method has been in existence for about 15 years, to be honest. So about 15 years ago, when I decided to start actually Coaching and saving like 12 years ago, I started looking for vocal exercises online. And I hated everything that I saw. I was like, this stuff is so boring. I was like, oh my god who wants to sing to this stuff. And everything that I found I was looking for singing tools was horrendous, or you find the same like five exercises everywhere. And it’s like all of these years have passed. I love bel canto as much as anybody else. But you’ve got to do something. There has to be something to better trained voices than these five rinky dink old exercises that you guys have been pushing down singers throats for freakin centuries. You know, we need something hip we need something new and more so something that really delves into fixing and correcting vocal flaws. So when I started looking for so I was like, Okay, this stuff sucks so bad. I’m just have to write my own vocal exercises and that’s what I did. So I started writing exercises, to correct vocal flaws, and to help seniors different warm ups, different songs, and I created my own exercises. Now, at the time, I didn’t know that I was creating a vocal method. I have no idea. I was just writing little melodies and writing exercises. I didn’t know that it was something that was revolutionary. I didn’t know that it was something that was innovative. I just was writing something for me, for students, and for people that are asking for lessons so they could have something and to keep them engaged. And then an Italian singer, her name is Veronica Garnet, Yarrow. She She was one of my students, fantastic OPERS student. Oh my god. She’s a famous opera singer in Italy now just fantastic. And she said, Cheryl, when are you going to write a book have your vocal method and I said what vocal method. So this is a method that you have. This isn’t just exercises, you’re actually creating a method and outside really It made me think about that. And I was like, well, maybe it is a method. And it was that word method kind of scared me, because it just was a word that I never thought of that I could do. I never thought that I was actually creating a method. And so she put that in my head, I continue to do masterclasses continue to write a whole lot of different vocal exercises, and things like that. Then I had an idea to do a book of vocal exercises book to do some CDs. But this was many years ago when people actually use CDs to let you know how all this idea of this method actually is. And then I’m

Cheryl Porter 29:37

a young girl, her name is Genesis, and she works for me now actually. And she came to me for lesson. And she came to me and she said, um, my name is Genesis suckiness. And she said, Listen, Cheryl, I’ve listened and I’ve tried every vocal method that there is out there. I’ve done this one. I’ve done this, I’ve done that I’ve done this, every vocal method that’s online, I’ve done it. And just watching the free videos that you put on YouTube, there is nothing and nobody in the world that has a vocal method as efficient, as fun and effective, and all encompassing of all musical styles as your vocal method. She said, if you do a vocal method and you put it online, you’re going to become the number one vocal coach in the world. And this also scared me, she told me this and I was like, number one vocal caution. Well, come on, get out of here, you know, because I know a lot of different vocal coaches and things like there’s no way that could happen. Then I started another time, and when she told me this, that also kind of bothered me, it’s like, it like sort of got under my skin. I was sort of like, you know, one of those things was like fear. It was like, like a touch of anger, but it moves something in me that like I told you before, when I get that feeling when I’m like, get kind of upset or annoyed. That’s like Cheryl Nair pushing There’s some buttons that you want it to push, but now they’re being pushed. So you What are you gonna do about it? And next time she saw me, she said, Cheryl, are you have you thought about it? Are you going to do it trust me? And I was like, No, I’m not going to do it. Then I saw a third time. And because she, I auditioned her to become one of my background singers. And so Genesis said, you know, we’ll share Oh, have you thought about us? agenesis Listen, I would love to do this. But you know, I need a hand and getting everything organized. You know, I need to do some, some market research, see how everything is structured. And she’s like, Listen, you already have everything, you already have a method all you have to do is do some videos and put it out there and see how it goes. But since I am a perfectionist, I want to do it in a certain way. So about a year and a half ago, I started actually organizing as if I was going to do an online course, how many lessons I wanted to be how many courses I wanted to start from the beginning. What exactly I wanted to do, and it became what we see now It took a year and a half To do to actually create the videos, the audio, I wrote so many new exercises for the online course, because I have so many exercises out there already for people that are free. And I never thought anybody would like buy these courses, you know what I mean? So it’s like you’re doing something that you love, and you don’t realize how important and impactful it is to people’s lives. And that is such a great thing that people would actually pay to have those things. And since I put so many free videos out, and I want to continue to put free videos out forever, I wanted to write for the new course, all exercises that had not been previously published. So I started writing new exercises for different levels and things like that. And so it’s maybe like a year and but it was it was taking a while to get here because I’ve been thinking about doing this course for years. But this what we see now the actual Cheryl Porter online course. Let’s say it’s been in the making of what we see now for about a year and a half.

Melissa Guller 33:00

I think it’s helpful to hear you talk about that though, because I think for maybe new course creators, it’s hard to see that a really in depth course like yours, where you’ve got years of a method to turn into an online course, it can take a long time to create. Yeah. And especially because you want to do it right. And on top of that, you already had the proof that what you do works. So you can invest that kind of time to make a course because you already know people like what you’re putting down.

Cheryl Porter 33:28

Yeah, thanks, Melissa. I believe that too. And I think a lot of people can realize you know, what you love to do what you really love to do. That’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s not like the thing that you think is just a hobby. That’s actually your calling.

Melissa Guller 33:44

Mm hmm. I think that this has been a very inspirational interview over I know, I’m feeling very excited about pursuing, you know, things that I love as well. And I want to Yeah, it’s important today, I think a lot of us, you know, I want to actually talk a little bit about 2020 This has been a really hard year for a lot of people. So, with so much going on in the world right now, I first want to ask, how has it had an impact on your life in your business?

Cheryl Porter 34:12

Well, you know, it’s crazy because our method came out right at the beginning of the lockdown. So it’s really, it’s really kind of strange, Melissa, because when my husband and I left Italy, Italy only had 50 cases of COVID. So I’m, I’m a singer. So I’m a hypochondriac by nature. So it’s like even anything like with the sniffles. I’m like, Oh my god, I got the sniffles. You know, in the voice, you know, it’s like anything that’s you’re talking, you’re talking about a virus or something that’s spreading. I’m going to freak out. Like I’m mad here. Talking about the first cases in Italy. The first cases they had like 10 cases, then it went up to 20 cases. When it got to 50 cases, I was and I was working on the method we were in the last days of the method. And I’ll tell you how to do this method girl that I’m telling you this this method has been a test because also during the coven, the first person that was doing the method was Italian. And they dropped out, you know, the two days before the the method was supposed to come online. His city in Italy was so hardly hit, that he didn’t finish the website. I mean, it’s crazy. Then we got someone else to do the website, then they dropped off dropped out as well. I mean, this whole thing with this Colvin had a huge impact on the timing of the method, and also the perfecting of the method. Also, not to mention the fact that you know, the world is just facing something that we’ve never faced before. And it was really interesting to, to do something in in this time of crisis, to also do something that I felt bring people joy while they’re in the house, you know, and the first thing I told them like, Listen, don’t get discouraged. When is the next time you just gonna have a few months to do whatever the heck you want to do to be able to concentrate on your studies. See how many times have you said, I wish I could just relax how many times we said that? How many times have we said, I just wish I had time to do this? I wish I had time to do this. I wish I had time. So it was also something to give people a way to say listen, now is the time you know, now’s the time to study. Now’s the time to get yourself together. You’ve always said that you want to do it now do it. It’s no excuses. Now is the time. Also, you know, I wanted to make the course available to everyone. You know, I wanted to keep it at a price that everyone could afford. so that people could have it in, in in Mexico and Bangladesh, in China, in Israel and Russia in the States. So it wouldn’t be something that would really weigh too heavily. Thanks. Okay, I want to do this. But this is something I’m going to do while I’m on lockdown. So it’s been really interesting. It’s been a really difficult time. But at the same time, it’s beautiful to see a method just bloom and blossom out of such a difficult time for humanity, for seniors and for the world. And if you go on YouTube, and you go on Instagram is so cool, because, you know, they always say, you know, I’m so glad because you’ve been keeping me company. During the lockdown, you’ve given me inspiration, something to do. So it’s all about how you use the time, how about you change how you take something terrible and turn it into a blessing, how you take something difficult, and make it work in your favor. And everybody can do that if we have the strength and patience to look at the good side of every bad side. And there is always a good side to every bad side. It is we don’t always want to realize that but unfortunately, it’s just the truth. And so I’m just glad that I was there for them. I’m glad that Because Lord knows they were there for me. And so I love it. I love the community that we’ve created. And during this difficult time, and we’ve created a family in the difficult time, people have become closer through music.

Melissa Guller 38:13

Hmm, it sounds like in some ways, the timing, maybe was helpful for a lot of people, maybe more people had time to learn how to sing because the circumstances are, you know, really tough. But like you said, you have to kind of find the positive in situations and if you’re stuck at home a positive could be finally pursuing something you’ve always wanted to.

Cheryl Porter 38:33

Yeah, yep. I believe that.

Melissa Guller 38:35

Yes. We at Teachable have seen that a lot of courses are really thriving. People want to learn, and a lot of people are creating their own online courses too. So it’s obviously a hard time and I don’t want to downplay that, but it does seem that people who are looking for opportunity to learn or to share their knowledge are doing that now more than absolutely, absolutely is that it’s the Time everything is shifted, you know, everything is shifted to online. And it’s great for people to say, Hey, listen, I don’t have to buy a store, I don’t have to pay rent, I can do this business from home, I don’t need to buy employees, you don’t have to pay employees, I can do this. I don’t have to buy a setup, I can do it at home. And so it’s made a lot of things before that weren’t available, available to people in this incredible. Mm hmm. And speaking of shifting to online, what are some of the differences between teaching in person with some of your students, and then how you translated that into an online course experience?

Cheryl Porter 39:39

Well, I tried to make the course as personable as possible. So as I was doing the course, I actually feel like I’m talking to my students who’s in front of me. So it’s not cold. It’s not theoretic. There’s a lot of theory in it, but it’s presented in a very friendly way. If you’re talking to the person directly, so I wanted the course to feel as personable as possible, because I mean, really, when I was recording it, I felt like someone was sitting in my chair I truly did. Like I was actually talking to my students. I didn’t feel like I was making the video Not in the least. And so I have a bit connects with my students. I love my students. They all call me Mama, I’ll call them baby, because they’re my babies. And I love this so much Lord knows that I do.

And we have a great relationship. And the thing that I wanted the online courses to feel is that Mama’s here, you know, it’s online, but I’m just as real on this online course, as if we were in person. Now with everything going on. I will probably maybe get back to doing one on one course lessons, coaching eventually, but we have to see when that’s going to happen. That’s going to happen. But it’s I hope the thing that I’ve heard from most of the students is that oh my god, I feel like Cheryl is here with me. And if the student can say that someone who’s about the course say, Oh my god, I feel like you’re here with me, then that’s most definitely a win. That means that it’s a success. It’s a success.

Melissa Guller 41:20

I love that advice. Even the feeling like you were just sitting to somebody talking in a chair in a room with you. I feel like maybe other course creators can embrace that too. And just imagine you’re talking to one person and helping

Cheryl Porter 41:33

Yeah, absolutely.

Melissa Guller 41:36

It’s hard, I think in the world of online to maybe picture that person on the other end. I think it’s often just it’s like faceless world of likes or comments on social media.

Unknown Speaker 41:47

But I think make it tangible. Think of maybe a past client you’ve worked with or one of your favorite students and just kind of talk write to them. I feel like that’s such a great way to feel like a real human and build a real relationship truly Absolutely, it’s all about being authentic. And being yourself. One thing about doing anything online, if it’s YouTube, Instagram selling courses, is that you have to be comfortable with yourself. So if you’re not comfortable with yourself and in all of your good sides and bad sides and all of your good things about your personality and all of your flaws and everything that you if you’re not comfortable with yourself, people can feel that discomfort. And the most important thing is to is to feel like you yourself, that you’re talking to someone and be and be comfortable in your own skin. And it’s not about it’s about the information as well. But it’s the way that that information is given because, you know, we know information is everywhere. You know, you can go online, and you can get stuff you know, you can get stuff from if it’s from physics to chemistry to singing or Azuma or dance or crocheting, but the art of teaching is to present it in a way that is interesting that you love it. That’s the passion for you. And that also comes with you being comfortable with yourself. And your knowledge is being comfortable with yourself. And knowing that you have something to give. And you can only have something to give, if you feel comfortable with yourself.

Melissa Guller 43:19

Hmm. And I love to that this advice is not see what other people are doing and try to be as you see, instead, it’s figuring out who you are, communicate in a way that feels good to you and just be yourself. And that’s what will ultimately come across to people.

Cheryl Porter 43:33

Yes, gotta be authentic. It’s gotta be all you

Melissa Guller 43:36

know, I think it’s hard to do because I think it’s inevitable that we look around and we try to compare ourselves to what other people are doing. But I think there’s always opportunity for you to be the one who’s doing it differently and doing it in your own way.

Cheryl Porter 43:51

Absolutely. And people want authenticity and they want something that’s unique. They want you you know, even as a vocal coach, I said, Listen, don’t try to sing this song like Beyonce, because nobody’s going to do it as good as Beyonce, do it in your style, then it’s going to be your style, and it’ll be your best style. Don’t try to copy singers, be your own style, you know, learn from the singers learn from them. But at the end of the day, you have to take everything that you’ve learned, and bring your own style to it, put your own twist on it. And that’s what’s going to make that connection with people because it’s coming from you. Not a copy of a copy of a copy of that and a copy of that, because it just comes off feeling so fake and cold. You know what I mean? Melissa, it just comes off being as something that’s read and not felt. And I think people in from me, I’m telling you, I’m speaking from my own experience, because even though I’m a singer, even though I’m used to doing interviews, even though I’m used to being on stage with thousands of people, still when I first started doing videos it’s like oh my god as soon as the videos started started rolling I like oh my god I could be like my heart like drop like oh my god the cameras rolling and I was like sure oh come on like get out of the air like just be yourself just talk to the camera as if you’re speaking you know to anybody but it took me a while to get to actually being myself on camera actually being at ease you know I’ve done a lot of videos and they’ve done well and helped a lot of people but when I listened to them I could tell I wasn’t necessarily at ease and it takes a while to get there you know, it’s the same with anything. You have to practice you have to get better at it once you feel it’s not working like okay, what’s wrong, why? What are you thinking about what’s what’s not what’s not working? What What is your purpose, what is your and sometimes you just need to take a breath, start over again and try to find your voice once you find out Your voice is done. It’s done. You don’t have to do anything else. Once you found that connection and you found your voice, you found your way. It’s a wrap. But I think a lot of people are still struggling to find what their actual voices.

Melissa Guller 46:13

I don’t think it’s a coincidence maybe that people struggling to find their voice being authentic, you have to practice. Like, that’s advice you could give singers, you could give course creators, and just that need to practice and to take a breath. I mean, that’s advice for anybody. And I love that you pointed out that even when you turn on the camera for the first time, there’s that like, well, what am I doing? And all of us feel that? And then 15 years later, everything looks effortless, but at first, we all feel that discomfort of learning.

Cheryl Porter 46:43

For sure,

Melissa Guller 46:45

well, we’re having to wrap up soon, even though I feel like I could just chat on and on and on with you about this, but I would love to know just Is there anything we haven’t covered yet or any last words of wisdom or inspiration for our listeners.

Cheryl Porter 46:59

I just appreciate The call I appreciate you in including me to speak with you and to just talk about my life and just about my journey. And I just want people just to be inspired, be motivated. Just know that. Even if you have an idea to do something and you feel like it’s not important it is the smallest idea may seem like it’s not a big deal to you because it came from you. But it could make a world of difference to so many people. What comes easy to us may not come easy to the rest of the world. And that’s why a lot of times we think that is no big deal. Oh, you know, because it may come easy to us. So I just hope that creators, listeners, singers, everyone can just take inspiration to use your gift. Use your passion, try to change people’s lives trying to make an impact. Each of us every day, we wake up and you can touch somebody’s life. And it could be just through a smile. It could be Be by a good morning, it could just be by asking someone how you doing the day, it could just be, you know, sending an email making a phone call just that reaction. Even a lot of people now, they feel like they’re just all alone in this world. You know, even if you’re six feet away, hi, how you doing sweet, I keep strong, God bless looking good. Just everyday wake up, try to make a difference in someone’s life. And each day that we wake up, we can’t do it. It could be on a small scale, it could be on a big scale. But it’s those little little special things that we do every day. That will make a difference in someone’s life. And then they’re going to be nice to someone else. And then that person is going to be nice to someone else. And we can keep this love going. Keep the knowledge going. Keep the information going and continue to teach, continue to teach life is teaching. We’re all born teachers. We just have to figure out what it is we’re born to teach. Well,

Melissa Guller 48:58

Cheryl, it’s no doubt to me that you are Absolutely born to teach. It’s been such an honor having you on the podcast and just to send us out where can people find you and learn more?

Cheryl Porter 49:07
Well, Cheryl Porter a vocal coach is the YouTube channels, a lot of nice videos there. And Cheryl Porter, cherylportermethod.com is the website of the vocal course Cheryl Porter Vocal Method and Cheryl Porter Diva on Instagram. And there’s a lot of good stuff out there. I hope people get inspiration from it. I know they will. And we’ll include links in the show notes. So Cheryl, just to Melissa, once again, it’s been such an honor, it’s such a pleasure to have you and I hope that listeners enjoy this as much as I did. Melissa, you are just a sweetheart and I had a ball and continue to do all these great things that you’re doing. And I appreciate you so much and take care. Thank you so much. Thanks, teach. podcast. Teachers creators love you guys and keep big come in.

Melissa Guller 50:00

Thank you again for joining us this week. You can learn more about The Cheryl Porter Vocal Method and Teachable in the show notes at teachable.com/eit29. That’s teachable.com slash E I T 2 9. If you’re enjoying the podcast, I hope you’ll let us know! We love reading through your reviews in Apple Podcasts, and if you have a minute to spare, we’d love to read yours, too. You can leave a review at teachable.com/applepodcasts. On behalf of Teachable we hope you enjoyed this episode about Vocal Coaching with Cheryl Porter. We’ll see you in the next episode of Everything is Teachable.

Announcer 50:39

This podcast is produced by Teachable, where our mission is to empower creators to transform their knowledge into income. To date, we’ve helped over 80,000 online business owners build and sell their own online courses, and together they’ve earned over half a billion dollars and reached over 20 million students. To learn more or start creating your own online course for free, visit teachable.com.