Spotlight on Kim A Page Founder of the Right Kind of Loud

Kim A Page shares from her journey with her craft.

SPOTLIGHTS & INTERVIEWS

Kim Page

11/12/20269 min read

You've had your base in the UAE since 2014. What brought you here, and what impact do you think your work with the Right Kind of Loud could have on the business of this part of the world?

I’ve lived my life following my inner voice and signposts showing the way. Many moons ago, I was struggling to enter the market during my first winter in Barcelona. At the time, a dear friend from Oslo was visiting his friend in Dubai. He sent me a letter from this far way place with greetings and “If things don’t work out, you can always come to Dubai.” Years and countries later, that greeting was the seed to a new life chapter here.

For someone like me with a global life and home bases around the world, Dubai offers a unique blend that feels natural. The vast majority are what I call ‘inter-belonging’ with a fluid sense of home. Mastering flexibility and cultural codes is an absolute necessity and this is at the core of the Right Kind of Loud method. People who come to Dubai are here to better their lives. It’s a place of ‘can-do’ and continuous learning, we even have a verb for it: Dubai’it. It’s this kind of professionals who are dedicated to professional development and the communication mastery I offer.

You've spent over three decades exploring the field of communication mastery. What first sparked that fascination, and what has kept it alive over the years?

From the outset it was a skill set I had to learn to navigate new home bases when I arrived in new cities. When you land in a new country as an entrepreneur, it is crucial to decode behaviors and the ins and outs of building relationships. The ability to handle an audience was developed when I took my first trembling steps on the stage as a singer in Berlin at 23 years old. It can be brutal when people don’t listen to you, so I learned fast. These two anchors, navigating the new and connecting with different kinds of audiences has kept me sharp when it comes to perfecting the craft. The beauty of working in this field is that the learning never ends. Whenever I lead a group or start a coaching journey, there’s discoveries and nuances to add to the toolbox.

The Right Kind of Loud is such a unique approach. For someone discovering it for the first time, how would you describe its impact on the way we navigate high-end stakeholders and build our professional brand?

The Right Kind of Loud consist of a series of interconnected skills, including the voice as an instrument, nonverbal communication and leadership presence, active listening, speaking and pitching, as well as networking and building relationships. Often people find me when they want to develop their capacity to handle the moment when we are put on the spot with all eyes on us. Or it can be how to stay grounded and keep our gravitas when we are triggered. The list of usages for the Right Kind of Loud is long.

Our learning journey starts with awareness and then we select different situations to apply new skills, so the tools are tried and tested with real scenarios from the get-go. I work with an embodied approach, and the skills are integral in the sense that we start from the inside and out. The way we show up is the result of so many layers; the thoughts we think about ourselves, the ideas we have about people around us, the context and the culture we are a part of. It can run deep. Here’s an example:

Today I helped a C-suite client prepare his interview for a CEO position. He is seasoned and has all the accolades we can imagine in his CV. During the process I could see how he was trying to sell himself. And that is where I paused him. “You don’t need to prove anything. You wouldn’t be called for unless your potential new boss is interested in working with you. Shift from selling to connecting. Listen. Ask questions. Be real.” For my client, this was the key that allowed him to be relaxed and show up with authenticity. The report came a few hours later: “The interview was great. I felt we had a connection.” When we have what I call ‘upward’ conversations or presentations where we are trying to win someone over, the goal is to stop talking and get the other person to speak as soon as possible. The sooner we transition into a conversation, the closer we are to achieve the result we are looking for.

You've worked with individuals, groups, and organisations. Is there a particular moment or transformation you've witnessed that has stayed with you?

Last winter I worked with a Shaolin master from China who was invited to give his first keynote ever at a big entrepreneurship festival. For someone with a body control out of this world, speaking and storytelling hadn’t been developed, so we started from absolute scratch with his life journey and how he became the master he is today. We selected scenes and moments that defined him, setbacks that challenged him on his path and the philosophy of his practice.

The scenes were tied together in a storyline. Then we started working on the delivery itself. All the way from accent reduction with new muscles in the mouth to the sacred pause and intentional movements on the stage. We had many sessions. And then of course, the practice itself and putting everything into action.

When he walked on stage I was sitting in the audience row with a pounding heart. The people on the stairs were halfway present with distractions and conversations in the air. It took a moment, a few shifts on the stage… And then the magic happened. Suddenly everyone was leaning in with awe in their eyes. And when our Shaolin Master had said his last words, the air was filled with applause. The beauty of seeing my clients conquer the stage is one of my deepest joys. Not only does the speaker feel better, so does everyone who is listening…

You speak about the voice as a 'unique expression of our aliveness in the world'. What do you think people are often surprised to discover about the role the voice plays in their lives?

Many professionals are not aware of the fact that the voice has a profound impact on their ability to influence people around them. Like business writer John Baldoni says: “The words a leader speaks are important of course, but how they are delivered can make all the difference.”

Having worked with people’s voices for over three decades, I have witnessed again and again how the voice is intimate and personal in a unique way. We cannot be separated from our voice. This makes it impactful and utterly vulnerable; the voice is who we are. The word person consists of per and son in Latin, per means through and son means sound. Through our sound, we become who we are. It is intrinsically connected to our identity and how we perceive ourselves. Serving as a bridge between what we wish to say and our listeners, our voice is essential for how we are perceived by others as well.

According to fellow voice coach Tania de Jong, 8 out of 10 adults have been asked to be silent and many of us carry what I call a vocal wound. This is an experience in early years when we were embarrassed or overwhelmed, making us conclude that our voice isn’t good enough or that we cannot sing. As hard as it is to convince people I meet that this is a conclusion from the past that can be dissolved, I know that this ‘truth’ can be changed with the right context and tools.

Getting a powerful voice is not about going out to on a search for something that you don’t have. It’s about accessing what is already there. Somewhere inside you, your voice is waiting for you to give it wings. Vocal coaching is simply finding the right doorway, opening up for the sound that is you.

You've written two books. What was the motivation behind them and what are you looking to achieve as an author?

I call my first book ‘a download’ book’, meaning that I simply wrote down the tools I had developed during more than twenty years on the ground with professionals in my hands. The process required me to organize the tools into chapters and add exercises to make them accessible for the reader in the easiest possible way. For me as a trainer and coach it gave me a crisp sense of the toolbox, making them easy to refer to when needed.

During the pandemic I developed a new toolbox with instant support for us to be able to influence through the screen. Sure, the basics of the Right Kind of Loud were the same, but when we go from using five to two senses, we need a different awareness to optimize new opportunities and handle tech challenges and anxieties that come along when we are watching ourselves while facing more demands to keep our listeners engaged.

To me the best feedback I can get is when new readers say that they were able to pick up the book and start using it right away. This spring I went into the studio to record an audiobook version for those who prefer listening. It was a journey of its own, opening up for the discovery of the difference between the speaking voice and the reading voice. I hadn’t considered this before! It’s available on Spotify if you’d like to tune in.

For these projects, my intention is to make the Right Kind of Loud accessible to the people I cannot reach directly through sessions and from the stage. And there’s a magic that comes when we share our ideas and tools with the world like this. Suddenly someone you have never met or imagined can make use of it and find their very own Right Kind of Loud.

One of the most humbling moments on my author journey came a few months ago through a LinkedIn message. A Ukrainian refugee had my book recommended and she shared how it had helped her reconnect with herself and navigate a new life after so much loss. With the support she found in the book, she wanted to make it accessible for her Ukrainian community and asked for permission to translate it. How could I say anything but yes? And there’s more. For each section, Lesia Vilinska added her own reflections and made illustrations. To her, ‘the book is like a family member’, providing guidance for the challenges that come with building a new life and career. That my book could resonate so deeply with someone from a world completely different from my own is beyond anything I could have imagined. The translation was completed last month, and we have launch events coming up in London and Dubai. Her work and dedication deserve to be celebrated!

If readers could take away just one message from your life's work, what would you hope it would be?

Last year I received one of the best compliments I could have dreamed of when I stepped off the stage. I was in Porto Alegre, Brazil where I had wrapped up a two-day conference in LegalTech with a 50-minute keynote. The keynote itself has its own story, created during the last 24 hours before walking on stage. It was supposed to be a fireside chat with an AI expert from Dallas. Then suddenly new visa rules were put in place, preventing her from joining me. Needless to say, I had little sleep and a flutter of butterflies dancing inside. My saving grace was a dinner that same night with my Porto Alegre power women who supported with local references, ppt slides and encouragement.

I had made some new friends during the conference. When I walked off the stage one of them came up to me and burst out: “You are the same up there and when I talk to you, there’s no difference!” As simple as that, it may seem. Like any mastery, the art of presenting is a paradox. It takes years of practice for us to be natural, so we can bring our whole self along. And when we do, that’s when we reach our listeners and live the moment together.

If there’s one takeaway I wish for every reader of this article, it is for them to keep it real. We are the best versions of ourselves when we are comfortable in our own skin. There’s a special exercise for this in my book called ‘Bathing in Yourself’. Welcome to tune in!

Kim A Page / Communication Expert / Voice Coach / TEDx Speaker / Author / Choir Leader

Kim specializes in helping leaders and high-performing teams turn presence into impact. Through voice mastery, strategic storytelling, and embodied communication, she supports professionals in navigating power dynamics, building influence, and showing up with confidence, especially in high-stakes moments.

Over the past 20+ years, Kim has worked across three continents with organizations across all kinds of sectors. Her first book, The Right Kind of Loud: Finding Your Communication Voice, is part of the curriculum at several business schools. She is also an avid choir leader and she speaks six languages. www.rightkindofloud.com

Kim’s profile :https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-a-page/