Is your voice giving people the wrong impression about who you are and how you can help them? I want to show you 3 ways your voice may be turning people off from your content and what you can do about it going forward.
Not only do I hear this when I’m perusing social media and watching live videos, YouTube tutorials and reels, but also when I personally encounter professionals who know their content so well — they’ve prepared the speech, the visual aids, the presentation all the way down to hand gestures and what they’ll wear — but what they’ve seemingly forgotten is their most important asset: their voice and how it makes an impression and cuts through to the heart of what they’re saying.
It’s an epidemic, Y’all. Far too many times, people pay attention to the content of the message, the symmetry in their eyebrows, the angle of the camera, the filter, the timing of the clip with the music, the backdrop, the fonts, the colors and all the other things that make up a presentation, but they neglect the one thing that is going to draw us near and hook us in: they’ve forgotten to work on their voice.
Here at The Vocalpreneur, we believe that what you say is important, but how you say it is possibly even more vital to your message. Here are 3 examples of ways your voice may be turning people off with tips on what to do about it.
Ready?
Here goes:
Example #1
Your content is dynamic, it’s innovative and the words speak about energy and excitement, but your voice didn’t get the memo. Your voice is dull, monotone, emotionless and flat. Because of this, I’m getting mixed signals about what you are saying because how you are saying it doesn’t match up! What causes this? Who knows?! Maybe it’s nerves. Maybe it’s your camera/mic voice that you always seem to default to. Maybe you don’t even realize that your normal every day energy doesn’t quite translate to the camera and we’re not seeing your true personality shine through. Whatever the case is, we need to change this EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!
Here’s how:
The next time you prepare to speak about something on camera or audio, I want you to do a trial recording of yourself the way you normally would speak and emote. Don’t do anything different. Just carry on business as usual. You could even do it inside a private group that only consists of you and a couple friends or close business partners. (It would be a great idea to open a critique group of people who trust each other!) Now, after you have finished that recording, go back and do the video/audio again, but this time, overexaggerate EVERYTHING!! Don’t worry about how it sounds or feeling stupid (it will feel strange at first), but I want you to embrace the awkwardness of over-enunciating your words, over-emoting your feelings and over-gesturing to the point where it just feels weird and unnatural. After you’ve done that, now I want you to go back and listen to a minute or two of the first video and a minute or two of the second. Which one do you like more? Which one made you laugh? Which one made you feel just a tad embarrassed? That’s the one you need to go with. The presentation you feel the most vulnerable in is the presentation that others need to see. If you’re not feeling discomfort, it’s probably not going to be worth viewing for others.
Stay with me…
The Heart of the Matter
- A flat, non-expressive tone tells us you aren’t interested and you have no energy to really deliver on your words.
- When you speak too carefully or perfectly, we might immediately make assumptions that you are pretentious or snobby as opposed to down-to-earth and welcoming.
- When we hear a monotone sound which is using just 1-2 pitches when we speak, it can come across robotic, cold and uninterested.
- Uninterested and dull leads to zero engagement. Zero engagement leads to zero sales. Capiche?!
Example #2
The polar opposite of #1 is when someone is overly enthusiastic and a little too animated and happy about something that isn’t really that exciting or life-changing. We get the wrong message there, too, don’t we? We might immediately think: “Wow. That’s fake!” or “What’s wrong with her? It’s just life insurance!”
What causes this? Who knows?! Maybe it’s nerves. Maybe you’re this excited about everything in life. Maybe you don’t know how to match the message of what you are saying to how you are saying it and the fact that you’re even on camera is a HUGE FEAT FOR YOU! Whatever the case may be, congratulations that you are showing up and trying!! But…we have to get down to why you are overexpressing yourself and why you feel like you might have to prove something to your audience instead of just being you.
Here’s how:
The next time you go to record yourself, do a recording like you normally would inside of a private Facebook group where noone but you or a couple of close friends could see. Then, do another recording of you catching yourself using the same words like “I’m so excited!” and “This is AMAZING!!!” and instead, use words that fit the content. Maybe write out some words you don’t normally use because you can’t think of them in the middle of a video presentation. Have those words nearby. And then see how you can match the voice with the message. Now, like I had you do before, go back and listen to a snippet of each of these recordings. Which ones stands out as over the top? Which one feels more aligned with your content? You can also have a trusted friend listen and give you feedback or submit a request for a Speaker Audit and have someone from The Vocalpreneur do one for you as well! In any case, get eyes and ears on your content so you know what to work on and your message makes sense.
The Heart of the Matter
- Overly enthusiastic speech has to match the actual excitement of the message or it will seem disingenuine.
- Exaggerated speech patterns make the listener feel like you aren’t in tune with reality — or at least, their reality — and they will dismiss you as crazy, out of touch or even worse, stupid!
Example #3
You speak at ONE DYNAMIC LEVEL (loudness or softness) and ONE DYNAMIC LEVEL ONLY!!! Everything you say is super loud or super soft. You’re either yelling at us or barely audible. Regardless of which category you fall into, your vocal volume becomes predictable and it overstimulates and annoys us after the first couple minutes. When we are annoyed, we tune out and log off. We may need your message, but your message is delivered in way that is off-putting and hard to deal with. You need to pull from a wide range of tools when you speak like varying dynamic levels, pitches, tempos and vocal color, but ultimately, you need to start with one of these areas and work them in gradually until you have an interesting, varied way of delivering your message.
Here’s how:
Do like you have in the last two examples and record a version of yourself the way you normally speak and then record a version of yourself using soft tones and loud tones, whispering, shouting, laughing and exaggerating in order to utilize all the different dynamics of your voice. It might feel weird. You may forget what you wanted to say. Don’t worry. Just speak. And experiment. Now, go back and listen to those two recordings. Which one did YOU prefer listening to? Have a friend or a spouse listen. Which one did they prefer?
The Heart of the Matter
- The content alone, not your natural bent toward speaking loudly or speaking softly, should dictate the dynamics (and other facets) of your speaking voice. Your voice needs to have varied dynamics so you are not predictable and therefore…annoying.
- When you speak too loudly, we feel shouted at…or that you are mad at us. When you speak too softly, we feel like you are uninterested, timid and uncertain. Either way, we will be turned off and not want to hear your message — even if we may need it or it may be a very valuable message for us to hear.
These are just 3 out of many examples of things I hear from online speakers on a daily basis. And frankly, it’s costing your potential customers time and energy and it’s ultimately costing you your IMPACT and your hard-earned MONEY when you continue in this manner. Because ultimately, we don’t want people to tune us out! We want people to listen to what we have to say and DO BUSINESS WITH US!
What about your voice do you feel like you need to change in order to give people the correct impression of you and your brand? What may be causing people to get the wrong impression?
If you feel like you need help with this, book a call! I’d love to help you figure this out!
Until then…
Happy Speaking!
xo, Amy