The Power of Voice & Finding Your Brand DNA with Anne Maree Wilshire
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Anne Maree Wilshire helps her clients find their authentic voice and use it to create influence from the boardroom to the stage.
As a founder of Vibrant Voices, Anne Maree helps her clients unlock their potential to create powerful presence. She’s a master of voice, fascinated by the way we express ourselves, and passionate about making the voices of her clients matter.
In our 10 Years, 10 Stories chat, we talk about Anne Maree’s fascinating career journey, how she helps leaders, educators and entrepreneurs find their unique voice, why COVID made our communication skills more important than ever, how the Brand Story Strategy Workshop helped her find her brand’s DNA and the power of having a supportive network in your business.
Meet Anne Maree Wilshire from Vibrant Voices
Relationship to me:
Client & Friend
Years we’ve known each other:
3+ years
Specialty:
Voice & Speaker Trainer
What we’ve worked on:
Brand Story Strategy, Content Strategy, Ongoing Brand & Content Support
Interview Highlights
Meet Anne Maree
Anne Maree is one of the most experienced voice and presentation professionals in Australia.
With decades of experience, she’s able to bring a bespoke set of techniques and strategies that help her clients to unlock their authentic voice, helping them achieve a powerful presence in their workplace or on the stage.
Anne Maree has had a fascinating career. From a being a professional musician studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, to working in TV and Media production for the ABC, Channel 7 and Channel 10, and even a stint in Corporate PR.
She manages to be both a vibrant and calming presence at the same time, and has helped transform me into a one-take wonder when it comes to Instagram Reels! We’ve been working together to make her even more visible, grow her business into a new audience and streamline her marketing processes.
Our favourite project we’ve worked on together…
Anne Maree was one of the very first participants in the Brand Story Strategy Workshop.
What was great about her journey, is that while she’d done lots of this type of strategic work before – exploring her Brand Values, doing ideal client interviews, and understanding her vision and mission – the Brand Story Strategy process was the first time she’d brought all those disparate elements together.
She says –
“I think when you look at each of those pieces separately, it's like you look through certain coloured glasses. But when you have them all, not only when you bring them together, but also when you, Amey, create for us coming in through a particular direction for each of them, and then you see the different elements together, and you can see them from a very different perspective.
For example, I've done a lot of my ideal client interviews. I had a fair amount about what was needed. Don't say I felt super comfortable, but I did it. Then when I did brand story strategy, the way you approach that, the kind of questions you ask, just those refinements that created different answers, different data.
And then how to bring that data together from the vision, the values, the client stories, all the different aspects. It was a much deeper and richer experience to do all that together.”
We’re now working on rolling out some new branding, a new website with updated messaging, and even building some new products like a 3-Day Voice Challenge.
What we love most about working together…
Anne Maree is learning to do so many new things in her business, and is embracing new technology with tenacity so she can reach new audiences.
I love how she’s leaning into new things. And of course how dedicated she is to creating transformation for her clients.
When it comes to working with me, Anne Maree says:
The Brand Story Strategy Workshop is really profound and I just felt so, so, so supported. And it's such a different experience from, you know, doing another course and here's all the data and you go away and do it and then you put in the odd question and you come back out again and you go, okay, God, I hope it's on track.
Your program holds us so deeply. And creates a lot of momentum in a short time. And it's like having to walk the Kokoda Trail, and there are some Kokoda Trail bits there. But you, you keep pushing us through. So, we don't get stuck.”
What Anne Maree thinks will change for business in the next 10 years…
With decades of experience under her belt, Anne Maree has seen a lot of change happen for business.
But what does she think will be the guiding force in the next 10 years?
It’s heart. And connection.
Anne Maree says -
“This is something that immediately connected me with you and because we both, we share, we both share the belief that we can be kick ass business women and have heart. Yes. And, and I believe that. AI and a lot of the things that are happening at the moment, a lot of the robotics that are coming in sucking the soul out of a lot of communication connecting that people do.
I would love to think that our capacity to have compassion to deeply listen to each other, to be able to articulate back with respect. In all levels of communication and collaboration.
That's what I would love to see come to the fore. And I do feel it's become more and more of a common language.
I believe that most organisations, that, that quality of compassion, that the, the collaborative conversations, the working with challenges, working challenges through effectively, all of that, that's the point of difference.
And I think in terms of entrepreneurship too, it's our capacity to be compelling and really connect with the people, whether it's on a zoom call like this, or whether it's live, that, allows people to make deep relationship.
I would like to think that that is the piece that's going to become more obvious as we go forward.
Key Interview Insight
I think that a lot of people who before were just kind of “sit around in the back of a meeting room.”
Now they're needing to turn up. And the thing I also notice is that I think personal brand has become much more crucial.
So, you know, I work with high level international leaders and they so know their stuff, but very often they're selling themselves short in terms of “I am powerful leader”. They're not necessarily conveying that in how they're connecting and how they're articulating their message and turning up.
And so I think that's becoming more and more essential because the game's got hotter.
- Anne Maree Wilshire
About the 10 Years, 10 Stories Interview Series
This interview is one of a series of ten interviews I did in 2024, with ten people who have impacted my business journey throughout my ten years in business.
Each and every conversation full of insight, advice, memories and celebration.
