iSimplify Presentations

The Power of Voice

How to speak with power and conviction

Heba Abusedou

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Photo by Dmitry Vechorko on Unsplash

Aside from your brain, our voice is our most valuable communication instrument. Having a voice is almost always associated with every conversation on empowerment and self actualization. Finding our voice means being seen and heard, physically and metaphorically. Our voices are capable of infusing great meaning into everything we say. In fact, there are certain people who could be simply talking about puppies but because of the unique qualities in their voices, we are able to connect with them and recognize them almost instantly.

Who is this story for?

I’ve been paying attention to the energy in my voice at different times of the day. This got me thinking, what is about using our voices that makes it a skill for life? I think everyone, myself included, should learn to use our voices to speak our truth, to connect with people, and, above all, to speak with purpose. This story is for everyone who wants to present, speak over the phone, convince someone to do something, connect with a friend or a stranger, or even tell a story.

It is through your voice that people learn the most about you, believe it or not. It communicates how you feel about someone or something. You use your voice to speak your truth and speak with purpose. People are emotional beings, no matter how logical they seem to be. Therefore, they care about the passion in your voice more than what you’re telling them.

It’s all in your gut. No matter how much you do to layer on to your voice to make it sound more interesting to others, the base has to be in your gut, as Pat Rodriguez said. Your gut should always be your starting point. When you speak from your gut, you come across as more believable and relatable. You connect to your true values.

Maybe that’s too abstract. Let me give you an example: when you talk about something you’re very passionate about, your voice tends to go deeper into your gut. You’re comfortable speaking about it. This opens up other question: Why are you even speaking? What is that you want? Asking yourself those questions will help you back track and revisit why you’re speaking, as Tracey Madigan said.

In case you forgot to breathe, read this

It’s clear to everyone who knows me that I am extroverted. I don’t even have to say it out loud. When I’m nervous or excited, I tend to speak so fast, I can hardly breathe. I literally become conscious of everything else and I literally forget to breathe. I don’t even know what to do.

Tracey Madigan shared a top tip and it goes like this, because your voice doesn’t hold any secrets, good or bad, the best technique for breathing while speaking is awareness. It’s as simple as that. It’s like meditating: knowing how important it is will put your head back in the game. Here’s an example, when you listen to someone who’s obviously nervous and everyone around knows they are, how does that make you feel as the person on the receiving end? Most people will empathize with the speaker because they’ve all been nervous and uncomfortable before. But remember that when you speak to others, you want to sound sure and authoritative.

Awareness, though, doesn’t mean that you have to keep thinking about it, as Pat Rodriguez said. On the contrary, you need to stop thinking about it. For example, if you’re sitting across the table from a friend having a conversation about something you feel strongly about, you will feel more comfortable and your whole body will relax allowing your breath to drop in. But when you’re on stage, your voice goes up to your chest and you start panicking and biting flea and even gasping for air. You will tend to up-speak, your vocals will tense up and your throat will close up. Then you will start to shallow breathe.

Get back to the base of your voice: your gut. Make sure that your voice is coming from the deepest place possible. It helps sometimes to recognize the amount of courage and vulnerability it takes to stand out. To take back control, take a pause and enjoy the silence, as Tracey Madigan said.

Address the elephant in the room. Embrace the elephant in the room

Have you been in a room with an elephant that nobody wants to talk about? I have. It’s so uncomfortable to recognize that you’re going too fast when you speak. Tracey Madigan talks about addressing that elephant by calling it our and stating that you’re going too fast and that you need to slow down. If your breath is going out of control because you’re feeling like an imposter, communicate that with your audience. You’ll notice that your comfort level will raise and your voice will slow down.

Sometimes we forget to pace ourselves because of certain power dynamics. The higher up the person is in the hierarchy, the slower they speak because they know they are in control. Often times, we feel the pressure to rush when we speak so we can squeeze in as much information as possible during the time we were given, as Joze Piranian said. However, when we rush ourselves, we indirectly start communicating that our time is worth way less than our audience. You don’t have to always be in control. It’s exhausting. But you have to own who you are on the stage and trust that you have something valuable to share and that you deserve the time you were given by others listening to you. Embrace who you are!

Tracey Madigan noticed that when you deliberately slow the pace down, you make your message stronger and easier to digest. It also signals to your audience that you are sharing something complex so they can pay attention to it.

“The pace by which you tell the story, is the story itself.” — Tracey Madigan

There is nothing more powerful than a timely pause. When you’re fully invested in the topic you’re presenting, the silence becomes extremely comfortable. The information you are sharing will sink in. To help that, John Zimmer suggested that you practice your speech out loud and after each period or comma in the sentence, say: “a thousand and one”. Then, after the next period or comma, say: “a thousand and two” and so on.

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” — Mark Twain

Get to the point, already!

Is there a correlation between the physical voice, what you have to say and getting the point across? Absolutely. When you speak, Tracey Madigan explained, your thoughts are piling up in your brain. You’re always anxious to get the next thought as soon as possible. What can help get your thoughts organized is sign posting.

How it works is very simple: organize your thoughts ahead of time and put them in order. Then, tell your audience what you’re going to tell them so they know what’s coming and they know that you’re respecting their time. Throughout all of that, your voice is giving it away because you’re not panicking and you’re not rushing yourself.

Another technique that really works is what Tracey Madigan calls “the bluff”: bottom line up front. Tell the audience what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. Et voila!

What really puts things in perspective, is remembering that these are merely people like us with families and friends, with hopes, dreams, and failures. It helps you put everyone at the same level because we’re all just people. John Zimmer recommended this to stop focusing on yourself. When you start to apply that when you speak to people, you’ll notice a massive shift.

Writing it the way you speak in real life

People tend to think of the most beautiful and most complicated sentences when they speak to people. However, when you sit across from a friend, you tend to speak in short sentences, using strong verbs and using one thought per sentence. Always pace yourself. Tracey Madigan recommends you do that when you write for the ear because this is how people usually speak in real life. Why should presenting be any different? Write your speeches like a poem: ending every sentence on a keyword, John Zimmer said.

Scream it. Whisper it. Repeat.

When we participate in comfortable conversations, we naturally emphasize certain words and phrases. When you’re practicing your script out loud, Pat Rodriguez recommends marking up your script in every sentence to remind yourself of what’s important. Your pitch could go higher. You could also stretch the word to emphasize it. You could even say certain words softer than others and whisper them. The key here is to mix things up for the listeners.

Get up, stand up, or walk around

No matter what others tell you, and I don’t really know who the others are, you sound more grounded and connected when you speak while you’re standing up. I usually have the best conversation with people while walking around my neighbourhood.

It helps to walk around while you practice your speech. Say it out loud and embed the words in your body. Feel more physically connected to your true feelings about the topic presented. It’s not the same as reading them from a piece of paper. You’d want to try this tip by Pat Rodriguez.

Not sure how people will feel about your topic? Joze Piranian recommends you find someone who falls under the category of your listeners and imagine that you’re having the conversation with them specifically. Speaking to one person is not so much different from speaking to a 100 people.

Always speak with conviction!

If you’re fully invested in what you’re saying, the chance that other people will be invested in it are pretty significant. People not only care about what you say, but also about how you feel about what you say. Always speak with conviction!

I hope I inspired you to tap into the power of your voice, physically and metaphorically. If you like this story, share it with others. Follow my Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter for more stories.

Expert tips

  • Pat Rodriguez — Always warm up your voice. Try articulators and resonators. Try bouncing on your heels to ground yourself.
  • Tracey Madigan — Hydrate well before your speech. Don’t drink water just before you speak because that’s not when you should hydrate. You need hydration ahead of time.
  • Kelsey Ruger — Check out the application Astound for analyzing pace, tone and articulation.

About the speakers

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