Dropbox.Design

Personal
Voice
Workbook

A toolkit to unlock your voice

About Culture Kits

The Personal Voice Finder, like all of Dropbox Design’s Culture Kits, is free, adaptable,
The
Finder,all ofDesign’sKits, is free,adaptable,
and Personalmade forVoiceanyonewho like
wants
to Dropbox
make work
better.Culture
We’re sharing
our tools
to emandmadeanyonewhowants
to ownmakework
workculture.
better. Visit
We’resharing our tools
empower
andforequip
you toshape
yourdropbox.designfor tomore.
power and equip you to shape your own work culture. Visit dropbox.design for more.

This workbook
belongs to:

About Culture Kits
The Personal Voice Workbook, like all Dropbox Design Culture Kits, is free,adaptable, and designed for anyone who wants to make work better.
We’re sharing our tools to empower and equip you to shape your own
work culture. Visit dropbox.design for more.
Contributors

Contributors
Contributors

LaDonna Witmer Willems, Michelle Morrison,
Nicole Lavelle,
KellyArce, Jennifer
LaDonna
WitmerWillems,
Michelle Brook,
Morrison,

LaDonna
WitmerWillems,
Michelle
Morrison,Gabrielle
Matte,
Lexi
Visco,Jennifer
CalvinRocchio
NicoleLavelle,
Kelly
Arce,
Brook,
NicoleLavelle,Kelly
GaleanoArce,
AnyaGabrielle Matte, Lexi Visco, Calvin Rocchio Widyawati,
Jennifer Brook, Gabrielle Matte, Lexi Visco,Calvin Rocchio, Erica Lopez, John Mikulenka

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0
International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Version
1.0 Spring(CC2020
4.0 International
BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Version 1.0 Spring 2020

Introduction

Finding your voice can be a very difficult
thing to do. Many of us have been trained
from a young age to take a seat, to raise
our hands, to ask for permission to speak.
Even the most accomplished, most outspoken, most self-aware
among us can still end up silencing themselves, often withouteven realizing what they’re doing. We’re unsure of how or whenor where to speak up. Do we even have anything to say? Doesanyone want to hear it?
Breaking through that silence and lifting up your voice is a processthat requires you to be vulnerable and even uncomfortable along
the way. Finding your true voice is a journey that begins with taking
a deep look at who you are—the entirety of your identity. You haveto be brave enough to crack yourself open and see what’s inside.
You might be surprised by the beauty and power you uncover.
This workbook will walk you through exercises designed to help you
claim your voice; identify the things, people, and/or situations thatsilence it; and envision how and when and where you can use it.
Your voice matters. It’s time to make it heard, to stand up andsay your piece, to share your story. Or sit down and write it. Draw
it. Paint it. Design it. Sing it. Dance it. Code it. Own it.

Let’s get started…
→

Personal Voice Workbook

Introduction

Suggested use → Find a safe,
quiet place where you feelmost yourself. → Turn on music
if that helps, and → pour yourself a cup of tea / coffee /fill-in-the-cup. → Take thisworkbook at your own pace.
→ Remember that you’re notbeing graded. → There are
no wrong answers. → This issomething that is entirely foryou, and about you. → Listen
to yourself with care, andopenness, and compassion.
→ What seedlings of hope, fear,
fascination have set downroots in your heart of hearts?
6

7

EssayPermission to Speak→ 12

Exercises

The Real, True You→ 20

You Have More PowerThan You Know
→ 26

The Story You Tell Yourself→ 32

Fear Won’t Set You Free
→ 40

Give Yourself Permission→ 46

EmbarkYour Voice Matters→ 52

Personal Voice Workbook

Essay

The epiphany began with a phone call. Or, rather, with the lack of aphone call.
My appointment was with a VP of marketing. He was also a friendof sorts, which is why I waited so long for him to call, and why I
forgave the unanswered texts, the unreturned emails.
→

The carrot he dangled in front of me was the promise of a job asa creative director. “I’m building a team of mavericks and creatives,and I want you to lead the team,” he said.
Didn’t hurt that the job was in Vancouver, B.C., so it would tick twoboxes on my wish list: level up in my career, and live as an expat.
So I kept checking my phone and checking my phone and checking
my phone until more than one of my friends said, “ENOUGH!”

Permission
to Speak“Why,” they asked, “are you letting this guy string you along? Thisis ridiculous! If anybody else tried ghosting you like this, you’d shutit down right away. So why are you waiting?”

LaDonna Witmer Willems

Seen but not heard
I grew up in Illinois, in a small farming town where everyone votes
Republican, eats bushels of sweet corn, and warms church pews
on Sundays, both morning and night. And church had a LOT to say
about what I could and couldn’t say. And do. And wear. And think.

With the answer came the epiphany: I was waiting for permission.
I was waiting because that is what I had done my entire life, what
I had been taught to do since I was small. But until that precise
moment, I hadn’t realized it wasn’t a phone call I was waiting for.

In this world of fundamentalists, women were meant to be submissive and pliant. Men ran the entire show—heads of households,
preachers in pulpits, leaders of choirs (the women sat off to theside and played the piano). I was told that the only honorable
options for my future were: wife and mother, missionary to theheathens, or schoolteacher. Scratch that. Christian school teacher.
When I was 15 years old, the principal of my own Christian school
called me out in front of the class to ask if I was a witch. Apparently
12

13Personal Voice Workbook

Essay

I had demonstrated an unacceptable tendency to question him,
which he perceived as rebellion. “And the Bible says that rebellion
is like the sin of witchcraft,” he lectured.

Women, however, were inept, selfish, frivolous, passive, scattered,opportunistic, gossipy, excitable, vain, panicky, temperamental,
and indecisive.

Decades later, that story is almost funny. Now, I’d gladly embrace
the witchcraft. But as a naive and doubt-ridden teenager, thatlabel was frightening and confusing. And so, as I had many times
before, I internalized the real message my principal had for me:
There is definitely something wrong with you.

This type of sexist terminology doesn’t just diminish the particularwoman on the receiving end—it sends a message to society as
a whole, and especially to girls who will someday be women. It
says, “Because of your very nature, you do not measure up to
the acceptable standard by which everything is judged. There issomething wrong with you.”

I am still learning all the ways in which those lessons of silenceand submission are buried within me. When I look back at mycareer, I now see that I paused at every rung of the ladder, waiting
for the nod from someone above me, someone in a position of
power. Sometimes they even had to nod twice and give me apush before I would make a move.
While all along, I already had the confidence and skills to climbthat ladder on my own.
Descriptors and dude walls
No matter where you grew up, no matter what your religion—or lack thereof—no matter how free-spirited or repressed yourchildhood might have been, you have been told over and overagain when and where and how much you can express yourself.
Maybe you haven’t been called a witch. (But if you have, let’s
get together and call some corners.) Maybe you’ve just been
told you’re too much. Too loud. Too pushy. Bossy. Emotional.
Difficult. Shrill.
After the recent televised Democratic debates, a man took to
Twitter with what he assumed was a helpful critique of Elizabeth
Warren’s speaking style. She would benefit, he said, from a voicecoach, because when making an impassioned point, her voicecracks and “goes shrill.” (Search Elizabeth Warren plus shrill and
Google will serve up a library of similar entries.)
In 2018, the Harvard Business Review analyzed 81,000 performance
reviews, and tallied words used to describe men and the words
used to describe women. Men who received negative reviews
were penalized with only two adjectives: arrogant and irresponsible.
14

Is it any wonder, then, that men apply for a job when they meetjust 60% of the qualifications and women apply only if they meet
100% of them?
If, on the other hand, you’re taught from birth that you are entitledto power and a platform, just because of the body and skin you
were born into, then you will act accordingly. Like Beto O’Rourkeon the cover of Vanity Fair, explaining that he’s qualified to be thenext president of the United States because: “Man, I’m just bornto be in it.”A few years ago, Rachel Maddow visited Rockefeller University
to hand out a prize that’s given each year to a female scientist.
When she walked into the auditorium, she saw a wall graced withlarge portraits of scientists at the university who have won eithera Nobel Prize or the Lasker Award, a major medical prize. The
subject of every single last one of those portraits was a man.
“What’s up with the dude wall?” she asked.
There are dude walls in so many conference rooms, waiting rooms,
hallways, lobbies, and lecture halls. So many still lifes of imposing
white men, sending such a loud message.
Of course, we women aren’t the only ones who get this message.
If you’ve ever been shut down, sidelined, spoken over, silenced
simply because you don’t look, sound, or act like the people inpower—you know exactly what it means to be told that yourvoice is not welcome.
But you can refuse to go quietly.
15Personal Voice Workbook

Safety isn’t salvation
Silence can be an incredibly comfortable place. It feels safer tostay there, where nobody knows who you are or what you holddear. You don’t have to worry about how you might be received.
For some, the risk of using their voice is not only real but physical.
Author and activist Ijeoma Oluo has been harassed, doxxed, andsent “fairly regular death threats” ever since she started writing
about race in 2012. After a recent threat, law enforcement told
her it would be in her best interest to stay quiet for a while. But
Ijeoma said, “Nah.”
In a Medium post titled “The Thing About Safety,” she said: I
started writing because every single day I was living a half-life.
I started writing because I was tired of taking in every racist joke,
every insult, every assumption. I was tired of hearing the locks onpeople’s cars click down as I walked past theirs in a grocery store
parking lot. …I was tired of worrying that I might die at each traffic
stop. I was tired of seeing Black body after Black body lying inthe street like so much garbage after an encounter with police.
And I was so very tired of being silent through it all. Silence was
not helping me. It was killing me. …These last years, since I started
writing—I’ve been as free as I can imagine a Black woman to
be in this country. I have been able to speak openly, without reservation, about my lived experience and the experiences of mycommunity. …I am not going anywhere. I’m not going to disappear.
No matter what comes my way.
It takes bravery to own your voice. But with it comes a sense of
freedom, a sense of rightness and purpose and pride. THIS, you
can say to the world. This is who I am. This is what I’ve seen. And
this is what I know to be true.
Your voice belongs to you, and you alone. You don’t need permission from anybody to use it.
So what do you have to say?
I just finished reading Casey Gerald’s memoir There Will Be No
Miracles Here. (It’s a mesmerizing book that you should readtoo.) He chronicles all the ways he remodeled himself to become
the kind of person he thought other people wanted him to be.
16

Essay

And the man he built was truly impressive. Accomplished.
Prominent, even. But that man was, he writes, a dead man.
I hadn’t heard of Casey prior to finding his book, so when I finishedit, I googled the hell out of him and came across a TED Talk in which
he dropped this eloquent gem: Repression is a bitter pill that’soffered to us all. We’re taught to hide so many parts of who we are
and what we’ve been through: our love, our pain, and for some,our faith. So while coming out to the world can be hard, coming
in to the raw, strange magic of ourselves can be much harder.
We have all learned to package ourselves appropriately, togloss on a smile, and to curate a pleasant facade. We waste aninordinate amount of time and sanity trying to crush ourselves
into some shape of “normal.” As if anyone actually knows what
“normal” is.
But often it is the very imperfections we try to hide—our flaws,
our obsessions, our struggles, our mistakes, our fears—that
connect us with other real human people. Think about it and you
might realize that those are the very reasons you love some ofyour favorite music or art or books. Not because they are shrinkwrapped and mass-produced, but because they make you feelless alone. Like you are not the only oddity in the universe.
So peel away all those cultural expectations and polite party
tricks. Embrace the wreckage of your heart. Revel in your own
special brand of weird.
We are defined by the stories we tell each other. How lovely, howamazing if we allow ourselves to tell the truth.
No more waitingThat phone call I waited for so anxiously did materialize, eventually.
But I didn’t answer it. By then I’d realized I didn’t even want thatjob (although I’m still cool with moving to Vancouver).
No, this is what I want to do—raise my voice, tell my story, andhelp others unlock their own. So I’ve created this kit in the hopeof helping you realize the power of your own voice, so you canlift it up and set it free.
17Personal Voice Workbook↓

More than anything else—love or logic or power or internet
rants—LaDonna Witmer Willems believes that stories are thethings that change the world. When humans get real enoughand vulnerable enough to use their true voices and share
their real stories with one another, hearts are won andminds are changed.
As one of the editorial gurus on the Dropbox Brand Studio
team, LaDonna helps create and facilitate the best and mostpowerful expression of the Dropbox voice in all its forms.
Along the personal journey to own her voice, LaDonna has
been a journalist, copywriter, copy director, and poet.
This project began as a personal epiphany, blossomed into atalk, and then grew to become an interactive workshop.
This workbook is an evolution that does its best to put thepower and potential of your voice into your hands. The hopeis that you will embark on this journey to find your voice atyour own speed, in your own way. When you are ready to
speak, your story will be there.

↑

18

Essay

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 1

The Real,
True You↓
Exercise 1 2 3 4 5
–

20

21

Imag
e you
in

f
a
r
u
it
s

Exercise 1

Imagine yourself as a fruit—with all of yourimperfections, bruises, nuanced flavors,
and unique details. Slice yourself open, or
peel back that protective outer rind, andglimpse the luscious goodness inside: thesour and the sweet, the seedy and the soft.
PurposeTo help create a portrait of your whole self, within
and without, as you see yourself and as you areseen by others. If you like, use the stickers on
the following pages to create a fruit-and-naturecollage of yourself. Or choose separate elementsfrom the sticker sheet that represent different
aspects of your identity and personality.

Instruction

Fruit serves as a helpful metaphor—the shape,
the texture, the color, the seeds, the flavor. So
enter Metaphor Land to become a fruit—actualor make-believe. Describe your fruitself withwords, images, colors, or all three.

23

rself aSome provocations to get you started:

Exercise 1→ What do you look like? → What persona
do you project to the world? → Are you
protected by a hard shell like a coconut?
→ Are you spiked and prickly like a horned
cucumber? → Are you soft and fuzzy like akiwi, smooth as a nectarine, flamboyant as
a dragon fruit? → Are you easily damaged,
requiring careful handling like berries, ormore resilient and thick-skinned like alime? → Are you slow to ripen? → Do you
thrive in certain climates? → Do you growsolo or in a bunch? → Do you bloom bestin the jungle, the orchard, the greenhouse,
the backyard? → Have you traveled far to
get where you are right now? → Are you anheirloom variety or a hybrid, like a pluot
or apriplum? → What about when you slice
yourself open? → Are you hiding something
surprisingly different beneath your skin?
→ Are you sour, sweet, or a bit of both?
→ What type of texture do you reveal when
you lay yourself bare? → Do you sheltera multitude of seeds, like a watermelon
or pomegranate? → What shape are they?
→ How big? → How many?

Reflection: What are the biggest differences between your exterior
skin (how people see you at first glance) and your inner world(the soft, vulnerable parts that you reveal only to a chosen few,
or to no one at all)? Does the description of your fruitself surprise
you in any way?

24

25

My self-portrait

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 2

You Have
More PowerThan You
Know↓
Exercise 1 2 3 4 5
–

26

27

also give youthat make you w

The things
power

Exercise 2

Each of us is our own harshest critic, mostof the time. We don’t always see ourselves
as we are. We instinctively try to hide manythings about ourselves—our failures, ourmistakes, our weaknesses, our obsessions.
But these imperfections are actually thethings that connect us with other real humanpeople. In fact, you might realize that thevery reason you love certain movies orsongs or books is because of the flawed
characters, the fantastical storylines, theraw lyrics—things that make you feel lessalone, less weird.
The things that make you you also give
you power.
PurposeTo reveal the strength, beauty, and power that
already live inside you.

Instruction

Look back at your self-portrait. On the following
pages, find some powerful words and titles thatmatch. Circle, underline, or even say the phrases
out loud: “I am passionate. I am lyrical. I havewithin me a Guardian of Hope.” Select one (ormore) of these phrases, write it down, and tape
it to your bathroom mirror or carry it in your walletto remind yourself of the power you hold withinyou, every day.
29

ho y
o
u
a
r
e

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 2

I am...

I have within
me a...

StrongPassionate

Enthusiastic

Witty

Exuberant

Kind

BrightSophisticatedWild

Nurturing

Methodical

Magnetic

Blazer of Forgotten Trails

Tireless Wisdom Hunter

Peaceful

Organized

Articulate

Wise

Spellbinding Poet

Swashbuckling Peacemaker

Brave

Comforting

EruditeLyricalQueen of Shadows

Natural-Born Empath

Energetic

JoyfulExtraordinary

Well-spoken

Intrepid Cliff Jumper

Lionhearted Listener

Confident

Colorful

Artistic

Fiery

Master Risk Taker

Dauntless Truth Seeker

PersistentLevel-headed

InspiringThoughtful

Nurturer of Dreams

Father of Hearts

Calm

Distinctive

Responsible

Compassionate

Fearless Fire Starter

Guardian of HopeCapableClever

LogicalFierceMagic-making Maestro

Paragon of Kindness

Dependable

Determined

Adventurous

Courageous

Pathfinding Prodigy

Vision-casting Virtuoso

Warm

Hilarious

Empathetic

Wonder-filled

Mother of Dragons

Warrior of Love

30

31

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 3

The Story
You TellYourself↓
Exercise 1 2 3 4 5
–

32

33

t
r
w
f
h
a
o
e
e
r
h
o
c

t whatibous,ak from
re
a

u
o
y a
o
Sp
e

Exercise 3

When you tell the story of who you are, do
you tell the whole story? Do you include
the things about your identity that you haveinherited—the things you can’t change—like
where you were born, who your family is,
the color of your skin?
On the journey to finding your voice, makesure to take a look at all the pieces of yourstory. Voice is an expression of character,values, and personality. And the things you
value most are directly tied to your identity.
PurposeTo shine a light on aspects of your identity thatyou value most.

Instruction

On the next pages, you’ll find a two-part self audit
that will help you articulate the varied pieces ofyour identity and then focus on things about itthat light a fire in your belly.

35

the

yo
in ur

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 3

Part One:Ask yourself these self-audit questions.
And remember: There are no right or wrong
answers. Don’t overthink it. Write the firstanswer that comes to mind.

What brings you deep joy? What do you love to do?

What did you inherit? What are things you can’t change about
yourself (such as place of birth, aspects of your body, birth family)?

What do you feel confident about?

What have you chosen? What have you made happen for yourself(things that are true because you changed them / chose them)?

What do you want to be or do?

What have you become as a result of something that happened
to you?

What do you want to stop being or doing?

36

37

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 3

Part Two:
Not everything in this portrait of yourself
is of equal importance. There are going tobe certain things that stand out. The things
that you value most will be outlined in neonin your head. They will be the things you
care about deeply and have experience
with. So when you use your voice to speak
about them, you will have both credibility
and profound knowledge.

→

It won’t go away.
You can’t get it out of your mind.
It’s an idea you keep returning to.

→Take a look at your answers and see
what leaps out. Use a highlighter or pen
with a different color of ink to circle thethings that catch your eye.

It feels right.
You feel it in your bones: this is good,it’s right, it’s meant to happen.

→

It makes sense.
You can see yourself doing it / saying
it / writing it / drawing it / wearing it /painting it / singing it / making it.

→

It doesn’t hurt.
At least not in a bad way. It might hurt
in a good way, because it’s going torequire you to do some work. But if it
is damaging or draining or demeaning,it’s not for you.

→

It lights you up.
It gives you energy. You’re passionate
about it. When you talk about it, youlean forward, gesticulating wildly.

Reflection

Remember that your voice is your power, andit’s most powerful when it’s honest—not when
you’re saying what you think other people want
to hear. So get real. Speak from the core of who
you are, about what is in your heart of hearts.

38

Here’s how you’ll know that you’re using
your true voice to speak about whatmatters most:39Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 4

Fear Won’t
Set You Free↓
Exercise 1 2 3 4 5
–

40

41

y
r
o
t
s
r
u
Yo

Exercise 4This journey to find and use your own true
voice is quite often hard and uncomfortable.

is yt
ours t o

y

ell,

e
v
e
r
n
e
h
w

For some it is much more difficult and scarythan for others. It can even incur real physical and emotional risks. So maybe you’ve
let fear silence you. It would be completely
understandable.
The fear of how people might respond toyou. Or how they won’t. The fear of what
happens next. The fear of making yourself
vulnerable.
Call out those fears. And know that fear
itself is often a signal that an issue, topic,
or piece of your puzzle is important. Whenyou feel afraid, sometimes that means it’s
the right moment to lift up your voice ina meaningful way.

’re re a d
ou

y
t

o

t
i
e
r
a
sh

43

Personal Voice Workbook

Purpose

To name your fears so you can find a way
around, through, under, and over them.

Instruction

Circle any of the fears on the next page that
resonate with you. Add your own fears in theempty space below.

Reflection

Your truth is valid, no matter what happens next.
No matter how your voice might falter. No matter
how many tone police or gaslighters show up in
the comments section. There is no one else who
can say what you have to say, who can tell thestory you have to tell. Your story is yours to tell,whenever you’re ready to share it.
44

Exercise 4→ I’m afraid of looking stupid.
→ I’m afraid of failure. → I’mafraid of rejection. → I feel likeI shouldn’t take up this muchspace. → I’m afraid no one will
listen. → I’m afraid of public
speaking. → I’m scared that
I’m not smart enough. → I’mafraid of what others will think.
→ I don’t want to make anyone
uncomfortable. → I’m afraid
my mom will find out. → I don’t
want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
→ I’m scared that people won’t
take me seriously. → What if
I don’t have anything of value
to contribute to the world?
→ This is too risky.
45

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 5

Give Yourself
Permission↓
Exercise 1 2 3 4 5
–

46

47

ds

e
e
n
o
h
w

e
p
r
s
y
l
n
o
o
e
n
h
T
hare
s
o

to ivegstory is you
issi
rm
pe

y ou

r
u
o
y

Exercise 5Your voice is yours. You don’t need to ask
for permission to be who you are. The only
person who needs to give you permission
to share your story is you.
PurposeTo set some realistic goals that will move you
along this journey of giving yourself permission
to use your voice.

Instruction

Now that you’ve identified some things you
want to put out into the world (your values),
complete the thoughts on the next two pages
to help clarify your message, medium, audience,and real-life plan.
When you’ve completed this exercise, you canpin up the enclosed poster to remind yourself
of what you’ve accomplished.

Reflection

You might ask: How do I give myself permission
to speak? The reality is that it’s a bit of a mind
game. It’s something you have to keep reminding
yourself to do when you feel that you’re sitting
things out or shutting yourself down.
Sometimes you might have to remind yourself
several times a day (or an hour) that you havegiven yourself permission to use your voice. If
it helps, create a mantra for when you need it:
I have given myself permission to speak. My
voice matters. The only one who needs to giveme permission is me.

49

t
on

Personal Voice Workbook

Exercise 5→ What→ WhenI want to use my voice to…

Within the next month, I will…

→ How→ WhenMy voice can be any form of expression.
I communicate most effectively through…

By this time next year, I will have…

→ Who

My audience is…

Accountability: W​​ ant to make sure you keep it real? Set areminder on your calendar to look back at this page in a month,in three months, in a year.

50

51Personal Voice Workbook

EmbarkFinding your voice is a journey, andyou are well on your way down that road.
But, remember, your voice is not fixed. It’s fluid. The questions of
who you are and what you care about are ones that you will haveto revisit time and again. Because your identity is not carved
in stone. Living, if you’re doing it right, changes you.
You’re going to travel to foreign lands and meet new people andread powerful words, and these things will change you. You’regoing to love people and lose people and hurt people and be
hurt by people, and these things will change you. Parenthood
will change you. Getting older will change you.

Your Voice
Matters

52

So you’ll have to recalibrate from time to time—open up and ask
yourself again: Who am I, here at this point in my life? What’s
going on inside of me now? And does that change anything about
how I’m expressing my identity or my values to the world?
You will always have a story to tell. And there will always besomeone who needs to hear it. If you are brave enough to use
your voice, you can give someone else the courage to find theirown. You can inspire someone or awaken someone or makethem uncomfortable enough that they begin to question theirown fears and prejudices. Your story can, quite literally, change
the world.

53

Explore more Culture Kits at
dropbox.design/resources