Defining Your Exact Problems

• 00:03 So now we're getting somewhere.
• 00:06 We're getting your feedback, and feedback from others.
• 00:10 And I want to put the feedback at roughly three possible categories.
• 00:15 It may be that you and your colleagues say, wow, your voice is so
• 00:20 awful, so grating, so irritating, that the second people hear it,
• 00:25 they want to run to the nearest window, and jump off the window.
• 00:30 I hope that doesn't happen, but that could in theory happen.
• 00:35 If that's the situation, I will be honest with you, I can't really help you.
• 00:39 You need to go to a speech therapist,
• 00:42 someone who is highly qualified in every aspect of vocal performance.
• 00:48 So I wish you well.
• 00:49 But if that's the situation, both you and
• 00:52 other people are telling you your voice is just so
• 00:56 beyond the pale cringe-worthy, there's so many problems.
• 01:02 Then you do need a speech therapist.
• 01:05 Now, in my experience, in the tens of thousands of people I've worked with for
• 01:09 30 years, I've only had one client who really had a genuinely irritating voice.
• 01:15 And frankly, it wasn't more irritating than Ben Stein or Fran Drescher, and
• 01:19 they make tens of millions of dollars with their voice.
• 01:24 So that's the first category.
• 01:25 Again, if that's you, we wish you well, but we will say goodbye now.
• 01:31 The next category, is where both you and
• 01:34 your friends listening to you have given you similar feedback.
• 01:40 And that your voice seems a bit emotionless,
• 01:45 bland, flat, monotone, hesitant.
• 01:49 If those are problems, those are very fixable problems.
• 01:54 And I'm going to show you exactly how to do that.
• 01:56 Now the third category of feedback that is very common in these situations
• 02:02 is that your criticism involves all of those things and others.
• 02:08 But your colleagues, your friends,
• 02:11 your family who listened to you said, your voice is fine.
• 02:15 Never thought about it one way or the other.
• 02:17 If that's the case, I have to tell you, you don't really have
• 02:21 a problem with your voice, other than you need to get used to it.
• 02:24 So your solution is to simply record yourself more,
• 02:28 whether on YouTube videos, on your cell phones.
• 02:31 Listen to your voice more, and you'll simply get used to it,
• 02:37 it won't seem alien and strange.
• 02:40 Now, keep in mind, there are only three types of voices that people have.
• 02:45 There's the top 0.0001% of people whose voices are so
• 02:51 magical, so inviting, so different, they are unique.
• 02:56 They're so memorable.
• 02:58 There are some people like that, their voices are so great.
• 03:00 They roll out of bed at noon, go record a voice-over for a commercial,
• 03:05 get their million dollar check, go home, go back to bed at 1 PM.
• 03:10 I don't have a voice like that.
• 03:13 Chances are you don't have a voice like that.
• 03:15 Very few people have that, that's extraordinarily rare.
• 03:18 It's a gift, and it's also something people work on.
• 03:23 But that's extremely rare.
• 03:26 There's also the bottom 0.0001%, and
• 03:29 I'm using these statistics roughly, approximations, but you get my drift.
• 03:34 There's the very, very bottom of people with voices, it's so awful,
• 03:40 it's so irritating, it's so grating that people want to jump out of the window.
• 03:49 Now, if you've listened this far, we've already eliminated you from that category.
• 03:52 Now, there's everyone else in between,
• 03:55 which by my estimate is more than 99% of people in the world and their voices.
• 04:00 Where their voice isn't so great that people pay them money for it, and
• 04:03 it's not awful that people run out of the room.
• 04:05 They're just average voices.
• 04:09 Nothing wrong with that, that's what I have.
• 04:12 So if that's what you have, we can breathe a sigh of relief.
• 04:18 We can get a little more relaxed and comfortable.
• 04:20 Sure, there are things we can do to make it sound even better.
• 04:24 And I'm going to give you those techniques.
• 04:26 But let's have an honest assessment of where we are in the spectrum.
• 04:32 I firmly believe, based on statistical probability,
• 04:36 that you're like me in that middle 99% of people.
• 04:40 Not fantastic beyond belief, and not awful beyond belief.
• 04:45 So I need you to make this determination though.
• 04:48 Now, you of course may still see problems with your voice.
• 04:52 It may seem flat, may seem too tentative, too soft.
• 04:57 Those are easy things to change, and
• 05:00 I'm going to show you exactly how to do it next.

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