Voice Power Studios Speaking Voice Coach

Many of my busy executive clients find it difficult to find the time to practice their speaking voice skills. Therefore I have created the Pocket Voice Coach ™, designed to help one conveniently practice the speaking exercises necessary to permanently build a great speaking voice.

The Pocket Voice Coach ™ first offering is a seven minute” Speaking Voice Affirmation & Voice Warm-Up” and will be available as a download in January and as an App in February.

I recommend that you use it daily to focus your conversational voice delivery and before all presentations, teleconferences and any important speaking event at which you want to make an outstanding impression.

Everyone has a speaking voice pattern which is developed unconsciously during childhood and quickly becomes a habit that is maintained by your subconscious. This is why most people take their speaking voice for granted. Many people think about what they are going to say, however not about how they are going to say it and what the impact will be.

Changing your speaking voice is done by reprogramming your subconscious speaking pattern. The first step is to become aware of your speaking voice sound and the impact it has on listeners. For example: You may be speaking too fast, or not being easily understood. You may have a monotone, or nasal voice, or a heavy accent. Any one of these can hinder you from communicating effectively in a job interview, a sales meeting, an international tele-conference, a stake holders meeting, or an executive strategy meeting.

Secondly it is important for you to have a speaking voice analysis that is accurate and specific. For example, which consonants do you have trouble pronouncing or which vowels are you distorting. You may be too soft spoken and need to use more breath support in order to project a more resonant, authoritative and assertive tone of voice.

Your analysis will help you to make an informed decision as to whether you need to hire a professional speaking voice coach who can give you customized and specific voice and diction exercises that will help you build your great speaking voice. You may wish to slow your speaking rate, or develop a more engaging tone of voice. Some clients need a voice tune-up for specific issues and others need a complete speaking skills program that provides more guidance and help.

No matter what speaking voice improvements you wish to perfect, putting in the practice time is what makes the difference and gives you the power and confidence to communicate effectively. The Pocket Voice Coach ™ used alone or in conjunction with a voice coaching program makes speaking voice practice easier and more convenient.

The Pocket Voice Coach ™ will be here in January 2012 to help you lead, motivate and influence in your next meeting, interview, sales call, tele-conference or any other speaking voice communication.

If you would like to learn more and discover how you can improve your speaking voice. I offer you a 20-minute free Voice Power Studios Accent Reduction & Speaking Skills Consultation, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455?

Yesterday, a young man named Dillon, who recently graduated with a MBA from Colorado University called for a free voice analysis. He said, “I need a job and I know that I need to do everything possible to give myself an edge in today’s very tight job market.” “What I need is a more confident and authoritative speaking voice to get past the first telephone interview.” “What can you do for me”?

When Dillon slowed down his speech, he had a rich and resonant tone of voice. When the first interview is over the telephone, 80% of the communication is transmitted by the tone of voice, diction, projection, speech melody, volume and rate of speech and 20% are the words that are actually said.

First he needs to be prepared with his content, therefore I advised him to write out 14 questions and answers that he is going to be asked and then rehearse saying them clearly and at a good rate of speech. He must have his answers prepared so he can paraphrase them spontaneously at any moment. This gives him more control over his words and thoughts so he has the time to concentrate on connecting with his interviewer. And it also helps him to avoid the filler words of “ah”, “um”, etc.

The deal breaker is how he is heard and as a result, how he is perceived. For Dillon, speaking fast could give the interviewer any of the following impressions: 1. that he has anxiety, 2. that he has a lack of confidence, or 3. that he just wants to get through the interview as quickly as possible for some reason. Most likely the interviewer will assume that he does not want the job or that he doesn’t fit into the organization.

Now we know that none of these assumptions are true, however the interviewer most often will react either consciously or unconsciously first to Dillon’s speaking voice first and then to the words he is saying.

Let’s take an example from the animal world. When two animals of the same species meet for the first time, energy is transferred through sound and body language. One of the animals feels less confident and so sends that message and backs off. Dillon’s speed talking and the resulting mispronounced words and the running of words together sends a nonverbal message which can be perceived as being too casual, unconfident, unsure of himself.

The interviewer is in the position of deciding whether Dillon should be brought back for a second interview. If Dillon’s resume and qualifications are superb, the deciding factor comes down to whether the interviewer believes in Dillon’s potential to do the job and to be a productive part of the organization.

For a moment imagine that the interviewer is looking at Dillon’s resume and listening to him talk at the same time. It is absolutely necessary that the sound of Dillon’s voice engage and affect the interviewer’s feelings in a way that compels him to give Dillon the second interview.

There are so many young, qualified and highly skilled people in the Occupy Wall Street movements across the US, who may not be able to break through the first telephone interview in today’s highly competitive and very tight job market. If you wish to make a permanent improvement in your voice all it takes is awareness and practice. Voice Power Studios offers a free voice analysis and free tips to build your vocal awareness.

If you would like to learn more and discover how you can improve your speaking voice. I offer you a 20-minute free Voice Power Studios Accent Reduction & Speaking Skills Consultation, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455?

Most people feel that speaking is as natural as breathing and they both happen automatically. It’s true that they are inter-dependent and most of the time they work without you having to think about it.

That is until you speak to loudly and lose your voice or you get a cold and find it hard to talk or have other more serious health issues that affect your sound. Where does your voice go? You are still breathing, however, the vocal folds are either strained or covered with excess mucous and can’t vibrate easily.

I feel that one needs to maintain good vocal health if you want your voice tone to sound vibrant, resonant, clear and engaging throughout your life. Here are some tips and life style changes you may wish to make.

Tips for Good Vocal Health

Keep your whole body in good general condition. Speaking is a physical activity and a healthy body creates a healthy voice. Get plenty of sleep, and exercise. Make healthy food choices and remember emotional attitudes directly affect the way you sound.

Reduce the stress in your life. Breathing is the key to self-healing.

If you become hoarse, immediately and drastically reduce your talking time. Save your voice for when it is necessary to speak. The same holds true if you’re are sick, have a cold, allergies or any other affliction of the upper respiratory tract. Knowing how to use your breath correctly is a life saver during these difficult times.

Dairy products, milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream all produce excess mucous and should be eaten in moderation. Before giving a big presentation, I would avoid them. The same holds true for products with excessive yeast in them, beer, etc. are mucous producing.

Red Wine can have an adverse effect on sinus tissue. Rose and white wines are better.

Cigarettes need to be avoided. They impair your breath control and can cause cancer of the throat, lips, etc.

Keep your body hydrated. Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day: water, caffeine free teas and sodas.

Steam or dry sauna is relaxing to your body and voice after a long day of speaking. Using a bowl of steaming water with eucalyptus oil and putting your head over it and covering your head with a towel and inhaling deeply is a very cleansing.

You can also explore cleaning your sinuses with a nasal douche which uses a pharmaceutical saline preparation. This keeps the mucous from building up on your vocal chords.

Using a humidifier and air purifiers in excessively dry climates can keep your vocal chords and sinuses from drying out.

Keep your throat moist. Use cough drops. Avoid clearing your throat continually which can put excess stress on the vocal chords.

Ventilate your sleeping room with some fresh air.

Air conditioning and heating systems and plane air often can be filled with fungus and bacteria that affect your sinuses and lungs causing allergic reactions and breathing problems and therefore voice problems.

When one is exposed for a long time to mold, it can cause upper respiratory conditions, such as bronchitis, asthma, chronic sinus issues, all of which affect the quality of your speaking voice.

YOUR VOICE IS A GIFT.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR VOICE AND IT WILL SERVE YOU WELL.

If you would like to learn more and discover how you can improve your speaking voice. I offer you a 20-minute free Voice Power Studios Speaking Skills Consultation, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455

As the famous American song says, “Make someone happy and you will be happy too!” Happiness is conveyed in the sound of your speaking voice and it is amazing how quickly that sound affects someone else. Your happy sound can give the momentary gift of hope and it is a powerful way to communicate confidence and inspire others to be confident.

Last month I wrote that neuroscientists have established that 95% of our behavior is subconscious and habitual and that 5% of our behavior is consciously determined. The good news is that we can use that 5% to change our subconscious programming and the sound of your voice is a powerful tool for effecting that reprogramming both in ourselves and in others.

For the past several years many have been in very challenging economic times and it is very easy to fall into the “victim response” and to sound flat, frustrated, depressed and even angry without consciously realizing it.

I personally believe that none of us survive alone and that together we can create a world that supports all life including the earth itself. I also feel that if we believe we can create the world we want, we need to start sounding like it.

We can begin by consistently sounding energetic, confident, caring, and persuasive when speak. For me this is the sound of hope, the sound that moves another person to feel better about them self. “Yes we can” needs to sound consistently powerful, caring, and confident.

I realize that we can’t all sound like professional speakers; however, projection and speech melody are two voice skills that will help you to sound more confident, positive, and persuasive in everyday conversation.

1. Projection is the ability to throw your voice into the ear of the listener. The amount of projection and the degree of loudness in your voice depends on how far away your listener is. Even if you are talking on the phone with a relatively quiet voice you still need to project. When you project you are sending the signal to the listener that he/she needs to open and pay attention.

Try this exercise, put your index finger and thumb together and make the OK sign. Pretend that the “O” that is formed by your fingers is the opening of a megaphone, like the Dallas cheerleaders use. Now put the “O” or the opening of your megaphone up to your mouth and speak into it. You will find that you will take a big breath and use the breath to throw your sound and words into your imaginary megaphone. This is called projecting a well -supported and focused sound. Now combine projection with speech melody.

2. Speech melody is the ability to change pitch either higher or lower in order to emphasize the words you feel are important and to create a melody to your speaking voice that is pleasant, engaging, inspiring and motivating.

A simple phrase we say all the time< Hello! How are you? > Try going from a low pitch to a high pitch in the word “hello” to more easily engage your listener. Then start on a low pitch for the word “how” and a little higher for the word “are” and a little higher for the word “you”. The reason you are going from a low pitch to a high pitch throughout the 3 word sentence is because you are asking a question and inviting a response. One always goes up in pitch at the end of sentence that asks a question.

If you would like to learn more and discover how you can improve your speaking voice. I offer you a 20-minute free Voice Power Studios Speaking Skills Consultation, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455

Recently I attended a lecture by Bruce Lipton, PhD, celebrated cell biologist, a warm human being, the forerunner in the Science of Epigenetics and the author of the Biology of Belief. He began by stating that 95% of our behavior is controlled by subconscious programs acquired before the age of six and that neuroscience has established that the conscious mind is in charge only about 5% of the time. Wow!

The subconscious programs such as walking, eating, speaking, etc. function outside the conscious mind and therefore they are making our everyday decisions without us even noticing. These subconscious programs originate from our parents, family, and community and often are limiting and many times disempowering. The good news is that the subconscious programs can be rewritten by the conscious mind putting you back in control.

Most of my clients openly say that they don’t like the sound of their voice. They want to change their voice and change the way people feel about them. Just today, a college student wrote that he has a soft spoken voice and others think of him as weak and unassertive.

When people want to change their voice, it says to me that their conscious mind has decided to reprogram their subconscious speaking behavior. They have decided to take control of their subconscious by asking it to become aware of the speaking skills needed to speak easily and clearly and confidently. Given a new awareness and the time to practice the speaking skills, the subconscious is perfectly willing to get on board. You can reprogram your speaking pattern and habits permanently.

Currently a male client, whose voice tone is very easily affect by his mood of feeling totally overwhelmed on a daily basis, told me that it is very difficult, almost impossible, for him to sound continually engaging when dealing with co-workers and clients. I said that his belief that the content of his message was more important kept him from placing much value on being engaging. I suggested he could start by using voice inflection and modulation in his daily speech, making him sound more engaging even though inside he may be feeling overwhelmed and stressed out.

The speaking skills of inflection and modulation were the tipping point for him to change his long standing speaking pattern and the associated disempowering belief that it wasn’t really necessary for him to connect with the person to whom he was speaking. He started to realize that connecting with people by using his voice inflection and modulation made both his professional and personal relationships more meaningful, enjoyable and productive.

I know we all need to get serious about taking hold of our subconscious programs. The programs that no longer serve us and were given to us before we could consciously chose for ourselves. That is the reason, twenty five years ago; I chose the name Voice Power Studios.

Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455

Life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing and so is the quality of your voice tone. To breathe is to be alive. All animals and plants are dependent upon air for continued existence. One could say that your life is but a series of breaths. Breathing may be considered the most important of all the functions of the body because all the other functions depend on it and this includes YOUR SPEAKING VOICE.

I highly recommend the book, The Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka, which is available at Amazon.com. Yogi combines eastern and western philosophies of breathing in a very unique and highly understandable way and provides many specific breathing exercises for the health of our bodies and the production of our speaking voice.

One of the more interesting principles he discusses is the connection between breathing in air and the intake of Prana, the name given to “the essence of all motion, force or energy in all forms of life, whether manifested in gravitation, electricity, planetary revolution. This Force & Energy is found in all forms of matter. It is in the air and is taken in by the system along with oxygen”. Pg.19.

I began to think about the how this force/energy colors and supports the tone of our voice. How most of us are living such fast paced lives and just take breathing for granted until we are ill or so stressed out that we are told by a health provider to take time to breathe and meditate on a daily basis.

Many of my private clients are surprised at the effect that the VPS relaxation breathing exercises have on the tone of their voice. One of my clients, a young man around 30, was told in his performance review that he always sounded as if he was angry or on the verge of getting angry. It put his co-workers on edge and they didn’t enjoy working with him.

As we worked with his breathing and I taught him to take a complete inhale and then use the exhale to speak, his energy opened up and so did his voice. His tone became much more relaxed, deeper, and resonant. One could say that with deeper breathing the Prana/energy force changed.

This young man had been raised by a physically abusive father resulting in him always steeling himself for the onslaught of his father’s anger. His tenseness, which seemed a natural way of being in the world, was reflected in his breathing and in the sound of his voice. Once he realized the connection between his life experience and how improving his breathing gave him control over the sound of his voice, he was able, with a little practice, to change the way he was heard and energetically understood by not only is coworkers but also his family and the world at large.

Pay attention to your breathing. Another great resource is Breathing, The Key to Self-Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil. We would all benefit from living in a more relaxed world and I know we would all sound better and relate to each other more comfortably. Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455

Sign up for the Voice Power Studios’ May 11^th free speaking skills tele-seminar and learn the voice skills necessary to be a persuasive, powerful and confident speaker in today’s highly competitive business world.

A great voice leads, motivates and sells your ideas. The internet, blogs, & emails are great communication tools; however, mastering your voice is what you need when it comes time to speak and to “seal the deal”.

A great voice allows you to sound persuasive on the phone, makes you speak confidently and clearly in a business meeting, or makes you sound engaging, credible, and personable in a sales call, webinar, or a tele-seminar.

The human voice is the megaphone of the soul and engages the mind, heart and imagination of the listener. The tone of your voice lets your listener know how powerful you are and how important and meaningful what you say really is.

In our May 11^th tele-seminar, I will introduce you to how proper breath support, the foundation of all powerful and polished speaking, will enable you to engage others easily and to sell your ideas more effectively.

To ensure that your meaning is readily understood, it is necessary that you speak clearly, distinctly and at a good rate. If the listener cannot understand what you say, your message has considerable less impact and you lose your listener’s attention. Talking too fast combined with mumbling and running words together further limits your communication.

Finally, the question about accents always comes up. . Many people feel others have an accent but they don’t. Many people have accents that come from wherever they spent most of their childhood. I feel that one needs to be easily and readily understood by your listener. That means if you are speaking English, either as your first or second language, you need to say the entire word and speak with English rhythms.

I look forward to speaking with you in our May 11^th Speaking Skills Tele-seminar. To sign up click on the link to the right hand side of this page.

Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 877-783-2455

Do you need a strong speaking voice to be successful in business?

I put this question to all the social networking executive groups to which I belong. Here is a response with which I totally agree. Many of our professional voices on American radio, TV and many of our celebrities don’t seem to be concerned with maintaining the high speaking standards set by Edward R.Murrow, Diane Sawyer, Walter Cronkite and James Earl Jones.

“Poor speaking voices, overuse of “ya know”, stammering (even Obama does it) and redundancy (What we’re gonna’ do is we’re gonna’…..) are irritations for me. Sadly, the lack of concern over the appeal of one’s voice is prevalent on local and network TV. There’s a celebrity chef who I don’t watch because of his abuse of the language (I quoted him above). I don’t listen to the news on one particular local channel because of the hard edged voice of one of the female reporters. Many young female celebrities have high pitched, thin, whiny voices and I wonder why their manager or publicist doesn’t notice and send them to a voice coach. I turn off the late night talk show when one particular female animal trainer comes on as she has a hoarse, raspy voice, talks very loudly, and has a frenetic quality that I find very unappealing. Yes, I think it is very important to have a modulated, trained voice and a solid command of the language”.PR specialist.

I couldn’t have said it better. Many of us watch CNN, FOX and MSNBC and feel assaulted by the machine gun, slurred speech style of not only many of the reporters, but also many of the pundits and guests. What about the cross talking and vehement disagreement among expert panelists and hosts? Do you like their shrill and harsh sounding voices? I switch the channel.

What about speaking to engage the listener? What about speaking clearly and at an easily understood rate that can be understood and digested fully? The manner of speaking of any public reporter, host, expert, or foreign journalist, sends an important message. Too often their voice tone, vocabulary and speaking style sends the message that they don’t care about the listener. Just tonight on a well-known and respected international news hour, an American expert said that a prominent middle eastern dictator was no doubt listening to his response and he was choosing his words carefully.

What does this mean to the success of business professionals across the world? It means that the high speaking standards of the past now need to be maintained by the business professional community. Many business professionals have a personal voice and speaking skills coach. Effective voice and speaking skills are that important to business success.

A well-articulated, confident, polished and easily understood speaking voice combined with a good vocabulary communicates a strong, positive and powerful message to employees, clients, customers, stake-holders, investors and the media. Are you ready to discover how you can improve your speaking voice by signing up for your 20-minute free voice analysis, http://www.voicepowerstudios.com/analysis.html or call 1-877-783-2455