Imagine having the ability to captivate an audience with your voice. It’s not just about what you say but how you say it.
By mastering the art of vocal control, you can elevate your everyday conversations and radiate the confidence you desire.
Your message will be heard and understood, no matter the circumstance.
It’s what I do, day in and day out. I help people obtain incredible communication skills. And a massive part of that is our speaking voices.
How does yours sound?
Most people don’t know that they can improve their speaking voices. They don’t know that our voices are hindered by physiological tension. And that by removing that tension, they can make their speaking voices sound better.
You can make your speaking voice sound better. Much better.
But you can. You can make your voice so magnetic and authoritative yet warm.
The impact that improving your speaking voice has on your life is massive. It makes people thoroughly enjoy listening to every word that comes out of your mouth.
But the process also makes you completely relaxed in high-stakes situations.
My clients go on to do awesome things! Many of my clients are asked to be the voice-over for their firms’ video marketing.
Even though they’re marketers & CEOs & lawyers, they end up doing commercials! It’s crazy amazing. You’re not stuck with the voice you hear on the recorder! The way your voice sounds impacts the way people perceive you. Your voice can negatively impact just how well people understand you.
Here are the steps necessary to make your speaking & singing voice sound better.
You weren’t born with these skills. You must learn them along the way.
- Relax your vocal mechanism. Learn to eliminate the tension in those muscles.
- Keep your shoulders down & your throat open.
- Use lots of air for your voice. All sound is air molecules vibrating. The more you use the better you sound.
- Chunk your messages.
- Use back resonance by keeping your tongue down in the back.
We’ll go into more detail further along in the post.
You can easily make your voice magnetic & gorgeous.
Just a few easy changes can give you a powerful, magnetic & persuasive voice.
Here’s an email I just received from a fantastic client:
I just finished a job as an English emcee/interpreter for the grand opening of National Taichung Theater, AND they asked me to record the English pre-show announcements (turn off your devices and whatnot) for the whole theater. People kept saying how wonderful I sounded. And I have YOU to thank for all of this!!
The Pavlov’s dog exercises are incredible for jitters; I could even do the jaw tensing on stage with the camera on me during commercial breaks. Oh yeah, this was on live television all over Taiwan.
THANK YOU!!!
People with amazing voices.
What gives? What do they know that we don’t?
They know the process to have an incredible speaking voice. And they know that that process involves learning to eliminate the tension inside of their bodies.
That tension that’s there because we’re always striving for greater success in our lives.
9 Secret Steps to Influencing Others
Want to be more influential? We all want to communicate our most important messages in a way that encourages others to take action. Whether that action is voting for our candidate or picking up milk from the store, the words we use and how we speak play a huge role in getting the job done.
Sound Amazing & Be Confident
We teach you to be calm cool & collected even when you’re on national television 🙂
Relax your shoulders and your throat to make your speaking voice sound better.
Quick! Where are your shoulders right now? Are they somewhere up by your ears or are they far down so you have a long neck? You’re like a giraffe with your gorgeous long neck and relaxed shoulders?
When I first started this business my shoulders were always hanging about my ears, unbeknownst to me. And I always had neck and shoulder pain. As a small child in my 20s!! It was crazy the pain and injuries I’d have.
Then as I started to apply the relaxation techniques I learned in Speech-Language Pathology school, my shoulders dropped. Woah!
It’s been 25 years and I’ve not had shoulder or neck pain again!
Voice improvement
Your speaking voice needs air!
So the first step was to be relaxed.
Now you must learn to let your voice take a ride on the air. Say what?!
Yup, breathe diaphragmatically (with your abdomen.) And you speak on the exhale.
Your stomach goes out when you breathe in, and it goes in when you breathe out. Then as you’re breathing out, you let your words out. /hi /howareyou
The words need to be glued togerher.
Speak in "units of meaning."
I also call them breath groups. Short sentences or clauses need to be glued together. Say them all in one breath with no stops in between.
/HiJoe /HowsItGoing?
There’s a crazy pervasively accepted myth out there that suggests the best way to speak well is to punch out on each syllable. Au contraire mon frer! No es verdad!
Don’t listen to those folks! Your words get glued together, and the sounds between the words become impacted by each other.
Take The Voice Spa online video course to get this done quickly. Don’t cheap out on yourself. It’s better and faster with help.
“I’ve tried a number of public speaking courses over the years and even hypnosis. Your Voice Spa has been by far the most helpful thing I’ve come across.
Thank you for what you do. The Voice Spa is so well thought out. You saved my sanity.”
-Betsy Clark, Ph.D. co-author of F-35: The Inside Story of the Lightning II,
No One Was Born with Perfect Communication Skills
Bootstrap or hire a coach. But definitely get there!
Don’t be afraid to hire a speaker coach. You spent perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars on college and grad school; you spend hundreds monthly on music lessons, gym memberships, personal training, classes, food and drinks, nights out with friends. Still, you won’t spend money on the one thing that will make you more money? Your ability to get your message across? Your ability to convince others to hire or promote you?
If you’re successfully bootstrapping it, I applaud you and I write these blogs for you. But if you are having a hard time doing it all yourself, know that you’re in the majority. Most people have a hard time doing all of this themselves.
For one thing, it’s hard to assess specifically what you’re doing wrong. And you can’t count on your friends to know either. They have no idea about resonance and intonation!
So if you’re not successful at improving your speaking skills yourself, It just means you need help. And we’re here for you! We have courses for just about any budget. Let us know what your needs are!
Watch this video of Ita Olsen: 3 Amazing Tips to Sounding Smooth in Standard American English
Make sure you take a breath in before you speak and allow that air to come out as you’re speaking.
The more air you use the better you’ll sound. I’m not kidding! Grab the recording app on your phone and record yourself sounding insanely crazy using air for speech.
You’ll want to literally let your voice take a ride on the air.
You’ll expect to sound crazy when you play it back, but instead, you’ll just hear a beautiful voice!
How to Remember Names & What to Do When You Don’t
To really make your speaking voice sound better, use a gorgeous back resonance.
That means to allow the vibration to hover over the back of your tongue–not in the front of your mouth!
Whatever you do, please don’t listen to the hordes of people out there telling you to use a mirror and move your mouth like a madman!
There are so many videos and articles out there with terrible advice about speaking better and using a better speaking voice. Most of them are delivering you bad advice.
Look at Leonardo DiCaprio. Is he moving his mouth all over the place when he speaks? He is not.
Don’t open your mouth wide for “a” and don’t smile for “e” and please don’t round your lips for “u” and “o!”
The 1980s called and they want their incorrect speaking tips back.
I must tell you that communicating in a crystal clear fashion is the ONLY way (legally & morally) to get people to do what you tell them to do. You greatly reduce your odds of people doing what you need them to do when they are having a hard time processing your message.
Obtaining an American Accent Is Likely Not What You Think
Why Speak with an American Accent?
Accented speech in running conversation (or when giving a presentation) can be difficult for people to process. Alas, difficult for them to follow your call-to-action. What is your call to action? It’s to get people to believe you & believe in you. It’s to get people to see how smart & funny you are. To buy your widget or to hang out with you. To agree with you. Plus my clients are tired of people saying, “where are you from?” right after they say something genius.
How to Speak with an American Accent
You can learn more about getting rid of your accent here. For hard-to-believe tricks, check out this article: 4 Steps to an American Accent. You can speak with an American accent.
When you’re done with your fantastic accent reduction program, you don’t sound like everybody else. You sound like yourself. Crystal clear, concise & highly persuasive. You deserve it.
The Top 5 Reasons Why Your Employees are NOT Closing Deals
If your team isn’t getting it done, the reasons may not be what you think they are. Download this e-book for the hidden problems holding business people back.
Of course, you can just make it easy on yourself and take The Voice Spa online course.
Here’s another note I found when I opened my inbox:
I made it through my Bloomberg interview yesterday, and I thought I did well.
I’ve always found that the perfect teacher shows up in life when I’m ready for it, and that teacher sure was you.
I was in total freak-out mode when I signed up for the Voice Spa. Not only is the Bloomberg Radio show live (yikes!), but it has 25.5 million listeners (double yikes!)
I found it so helpful that the Voice Spa starts with relaxing and belly breathing. Those first few days, I did a lot of belly breathing. I was so nervous I was practically bouncing off the walls. Most relaxation programs have you doing meditation or counting breaths. There is no way I could have done those things – I was too agitated. But I could belly breathe – I could belly breathe when I did dishes, when I was exercising, for anything at all, and it always calmed me down. Talking in phrases was also hugely helpful – it’s a great way to slow down without sounding mechanical.
Thank you for what you do. The Voice Spa is so well thought out. You saved my sanity.
I have looked at a number of public speaking courses over the years and even dabbled in hypnosis. Your Voice Spa has been by far the most helpful thing I’ve come across.
Nice work! It’s such a good feeling to hear from clients who are in the real world, using what they worked on with us. Voice work has always interested me. What are your favorite resources? I like Barone’s “Your Voice is Your Business”.
Wow! I’m very impressed that regular people have had enough success with training their voice that they went on to be selected for voice overs. That’s awesome!