A Content Composer

At least once a week one of my trainees tells me “I hate my voice.” This is usually followed by a solemn declaration that somehow all recording voices distort his or her voice in an unflattering matter.

What’s going on here?

Perhaps you have noticed when you hear your own voice on a voicemail or on a home video recording that it doesn’t sound like you at all. Actually, it does sound like you, just not the you that you are used to listening to.

All of us hear our own voice in a distorted manner, only it’s not because we have big or small egos. We hear a distorted voice because we are hearing the sound distorted from the bones in our head. We hear our voices on the inside and the outside. The structure of our skulls messes with our own sound and muffles it in a way that it doesn’t do for someone simply hearing us through their ears from across the room (that’s not exactly using scientific lingo, but that is the science behind the theory)

Often during my trainings when I play back a video recording of one of my students, he or she reacts with “that’s not how I really sound.” But he or she notices that when their colleagues are videotaped, the sound they hear when the recording is played back is exactly the same as when the colleague was giving the speech live. The student realizes that there is noting wrong with the recording device.

When people tell me they hate their voice, they aren’t lying. But the real problem for most people is that they are just unfamiliar with their voice and that when they hear their voices for the first time the way other people do, the difference in perception is so great that it is shocking.

It is this disconnect that they don’t like, not the actual quality of their voices that they abhor.

Very few people have voices so mellifluous that they can make a million dollars a year doing voiceovers for TV commercials. The good news is that you don’t have to have a voice like that to be an excellent communicator.

Barbara Walters has a speech impediment, but she makes more than $18 million a year, in part, with her voice. Rudy Giuliani has a lisp, yet he is paid more than $100,000 for an hour’s worth of work to give a speech. John McCain has a sibilant “s” problem, yet he is a political and media darling.

If you think your voice is holding you back, chances are you are just obsessing over a nonexistent or minor problem.

GET OVER IT!

Your voice isn’t that bad. If you speak with passion and excitement and you have an interesting message, chances are your voice won’t prevent you from being a powerful communicator.

TJ Walker is the worlds leading speaking coach, author of “Presentation Training A-Z.” and “Media Training A-Z.” He is the current host of http://www.Speakcast.com and http://www.SpeakingChannel.tv and can be reached at info@speakcast.com. You can read more of his presentation and media tips at http://www.tjsinsights.com

Comments Off

If you were to ask someone on the street what podcasting is, most of them will not have any idea what you are talking about. They will ask if you said “broadcasting.” You might explain to them that it is a special audio file that you can listen to on your MP3 player. But even then you would not be doing it justice. Here are some other ways of understanding what podcasting is.

Do you remember your childhood when the people in your household fought over the sections of the newspaper that had been delivered to your door? If you can imagine that same newspaper, rather than being delivered in one section to your front door, but being packaged up in individual sections for each member of your family, with the sections that are not read left out completely.

That is one way to think of podcasting: the information that you are interested in delivered to you, without the stuff you don’t want. Some people have called podcasting TiVo radio.

Another way to think of podcasting is like a radio program that is only about your specific interests and when you click the link or synchronize your MP3 player with your computer, it gets downloaded to you automatically.

It’s like you’re the owner of the radio station. You tell the DJ what you want to hear and they’ll play it for you. All news? All sports? Regular updates on the financial markets? Entertainment news? Information on your industry? No problem, it’s all at your personal DJ’s fingertips and in moments it’s playing in your ears.

And a third way to think of podcasting is a targeted audio program for businesses to add value to their customers and prospects, and for organizations to pass information on to their users.

However you think of podcasting, other people will still give you a funny look because it is still in its infancy. In fact, the term “podcasting” was only coined in 2004! It won’t be long, though.

All the best for your online success

Written by Darryl Power editor of Podcasting for profit

Discover how To Start Make Money The Easy Way By Podcasting?

Comments Off