Passaggio Economics
Why You Can’t Earn in a Higher Range with Lower-Range Behavior
If you want to expand your vocal range as a singer or speaker, one thing you’ll likely have to learn is this: Your best low notes and your best high notes don’t come from the same behavior.
You can’t expect to access the top of your range using the technique that works in your lower, more comfortable range.
But many try anyway—and end up straining their voices.
The same thing happens with income.
People grip.
They get intense.
They try to muscle their way into higher income using the same nervous system, the same over-giving, and the same structural habits that barely held things together when they were at or near the bottom financially.
Then they wonder why it’s not sustainable.
Most people only earn where it’s comfortable—and that can’t last forever…
Let’s be real: there’s no such thing as safety.
But most people default to staying just comfortable enough in what they think is safe.
They go to the same job for the same pay every day for years.
They serve only the same types of clients.
They ask for only the same low prices.
In other words, most are earning in ways that are comparable to just singing in the lower-to-middle modal register.
It’s the range most people naturally speak in.
It feels safe.
Familiar.
Doesn’t crack.
Doesn’t demand new technique.
It’s not flashy, but it works… up to a point.
Because eventually, you won’t just sound monotonous—
you’ll get vocally fatigued. Like any other muscle group, the voice needs variety.
In the income equivalent of this part of your range, you might:
Rely on strict time-for-money trades or strict hourly wage jobs
Price based on comfort or collective norms
Avoid the risks of making higher-level offers at higher prices
Keep things “accessible” to avoid being called out or cancelled
And even if it may be comfortable, just like in singing, too much of the same thing will become problematic.
The longer you hover there, the more you’ll build your compensation—often subconsciously—around not shifting.
You avoid tension by avoiding growth.
You avoid change by avoiding risk.
You avoid the “financial passaggio.”
The Financial Passaggio
Most singers are familiar with the challenge of navigating the passaggio—that tricky transition zone between chest and head voice.
It’s where cracks can happen.
Where breath support gets tested.
Where even advanced singers have to recalibrate again and again over time.
Business growth has a passaggio, too.
It’s that fragile moment when you try to:
Raise your rates
Set firmer boundaries
Shift your client base or niche
Stop marketing with “please like me” energy
Expand your offers without expanding your exhaustion
It’s the point where your old strategies stop working—
but your new ones aren’t fully locked in yet.
For most people, that brings up discomfort.
They call it a mindset block.
Or impostor syndrome.
Or just “resistance.”
But it’s not just emotional.
It’s mechanical.
In singing, what works down low won’t carry you up high.
In business, lower-income behaviors won’t get you higher-income results.
Or—you’ll burn out trying.
The structure has to shift:
How you price
How you position
How you support your work—without exhausting yourself to prove it’s worth it
Because once that register shift is real—not forced, not faked—everything opens up.
You don’t have to push.
You just have to resonate.
Side note: This isn’t about how much you specifically make. It’s about how your current standards and behaviors align with the income range you’re trying to reach. What kept you afloat at one level is likely to collapse at the next—whether you’re moving from $50K to $100K, or from $500K to $1M.
Why Emotion Isn’t Enough
I once had a voice teacher who couldn’t really teach technique. At one point in a lesson, right before the hard high note, they shouted: “JUST SMILE MORE!”
So I smiled—and cracked anyway.
Sometimes it’s apparent when a singer is trying to emote their way through a hard passage.
They’ll oversell the line.
They’ll push the phrase.
They’ll lean harder into “feeling the moment” if their technique feels shaky.
For some, this “expressive” approach to technique might work just enough to where there’s no incentive to actually improve much.
But the tone may become thin.
The pitch can get fuzzier.
The body tends to lock up.
They didn’t transition.
They just performed harder.
The exact same thing happens in business.
You hit your financial passaggio, and suddenly:
Your marketing becomes a vulnerable confessional
Your client calls spiral into therapy sessions
Your energy goes into “holding space” instead of holding structure
You try to earn by over-expressing.
You try to convince through connection.
You try to feel your way into integrity.
But feeling isn’t enough if the structure isn’t there.
Emotion can’t replace technique.
Not in your voice.
Not in your value.
Not in your income model.
What Supported Income Resonance Feels Like
When a singer finally navigates the passaggio with clean technique and full support, everything changes.
The tone opens.
The sound carries.
The strain disappears.
You’re no longer dragging up weight from the bottom or flipping out of fear.
You’ve found the balanced strength of your voice.
Resonant. Clean. Sustainable.
That’s what register-shifted income feels like too:
Your pricing reflects your capacity—not your codependency
Your offer sits in alignment with your actual voice—not the one you used to survive
You no longer need to “sell” because your structure resonates
You’re not begging.
You’re not straining.
You’re earning from a higher register—
not by pushing harder, but by supporting smarter.
“Sing on Your Interest, Not on Your Principal.”
My advisor and voice teacher during my doctoral studies, Charles Roe, would often say: “Sing on your interest. Not on your principal.”
In other words:
Don’t over sing. Don’t overextend.
Allow your natural resonators to do the work.
And in business?
Don’t build your livelihood on an energetic equivalent of vocal strain.
Many entrepreneurs are earning on their principal and then some:
Giving more than they structurally have
Discounting what took years to master
Repeating patterns that leave their system depleted
Holding onto every penny and not investing in greater growth
There’s no compounding effect when you're burning everything you’ve got for every single sale.
But when you earn on interest—
when your offers, pricing, positioning, and boundaries are structurally aligned—
you start generating more interest online, too.
That’s when your income compounds.
You become resonant, even at rest.
So Let It Fly!
You can’t reach the top of your financial range by singing like you’re stuck at the bottom.
You can’t call in higher-level clients with a lower-level offer.
And you can’t unlock your next level by pushing harder with an instrument that isn’t set up to carry you that far.
It’s not about hustle.
It’s not about manifesting.
It’s not even about mindset.
It’s about building a support system that holds, sustains, and expands—like a well-supported vocal line.
And when you’re ready to release into that?
It gets easier.
You just need to remember what my Masters voice teacher and advisor, John-Paul White, wrote on the card he left for me backstage at my Masters Recital in 2008:
Breathe low,
Aim high,
Relax the jaw,
Let it fly!
That’s the work.
That’s the technique.
That’s the turning point.
From here forward:
Voice. Value. Income.
That’s not just what we express.
That’s what we build.
PS - One of the clearest markers of higher-income behavior is this:
You investing in yourself.
Not just emotionally. Structurally.
I’ve learned the hard way: it’s not enough to hustle harder, believe more, or “market like you mean it.”
What we need is structure to go with an optimal mindset.
Structure that sustains your work, your worth, and your voice—without collapse.
That’s why I created Grow Your Money Voice—a 90-day recalibration for private studio owners, creatives, and service-based entrepreneurs who are done undercharging, over-delivering, or waiting to “feel ready.”
We start May 22, 2025.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
– Stop earning from emotional labor—and start building income that actually pays
– Shift your pricing, offers, and positioning without diluting your artistry
– Say no to under-earning with clarity, not guilt
– Collaborate and negotiate from power, not pressure
– Diagnose exactly where your income model is leaking—and fix it
No performative urgency. No bro-marketing scripts.
Just structural clarity, practical income power, and the support to shift into your next level—cleanly with less cracking.
Because income, like sound, moves better when it’s supported.
And so do you.
🟡 We start May 22, 2025.
🔗 thelucrativevoice.com or message me to join.
VOICE. VALUE. INCOME.
This isn’t motivation. It’s calibration.
Send me a DM if you have any questions. We start this week. If you want to make it work, I want to help you make it work. Let’s make this your most prosperous year yet.