Listen to Natural Conversation

• 00:04 So let's talk about the number one source of problems for
• 00:08 most people with their voices.
• 00:10 And again, I'm excluding that bottom less than 1% who truly have something awful.
• 00:16 The biggest problem for 99% of us, who are displeased with their voice,
• 00:21 is that because we are nervous in certain situations,
• 00:24 whether it's getting in front of a boardroom to give a presentation,
• 00:28 speaking in front of a classroom, is that we get nervous.
• 00:32 Once we're nervous,
• 00:34 we stop doing the things we do with our voice that we do when we're comfortable.
• 00:40 So when we're nervous, we might start speaking quickly.
• 00:44 We might start speaking in a monotone because we're thinking about,
• 00:47 how do we get through this?
• 00:48 You now how awful that sounds?
• 00:51 And I really want you to know I'm right,
• 00:55 we put doubt into our voice and with question marks at the end.
• 01:01 Or we're not certainly we are right, so we speak so
• 01:04 softly no one can understand us, we mumble, we whisper.
• 01:09 So these are not technically problems with your voice,
• 01:13 this is simply your voice expressing your emotions and the voice often doesn't lie.
• 01:22 So the key here is you've got to figure out how you come across
• 01:27 your best anytime you're speaking and then do it that way even if you are nervous.
• 01:34 That is the key to solving most people's vocal problems.
• 01:38 Because if you hear yourself giving a speech and you're thinking,
• 01:43 I sound boring, I sound droning, I would hate to listen to myself.
• 01:47 The problem might not be your voice,
• 01:50 the problem might be that you're reading a really boring PowerPoint.
• 01:54 So here's what we got to do to, a,
• 01:57 thoroughly diagnose the problem, b, come up with a solution.
• 02:03 I need you to call a friend, let your friend know you're doing this,
• 02:07 although you don't have to, because you're only recording your side of the voice,
• 02:12 you're not recording your friend.
• 02:15 And I need you to just forget about the recorder for a while and
• 02:19 I need you to talk to a good friend about something you care passionately about.
• 02:23 It could be NFL football, it could be Olympic Ice Skating,
• 02:29 it could be politics, it could be a religion.
• 02:34 Anything you care about passionately,
• 02:38 just have a 20 minute conversation, record it.
• 02:44 Try to forget that there's even a recording.
• 02:46 And if it's a friend, sometimes you yell, you get excited, you get upset.
• 02:50 You're angry about the ref's call at last night's college basketball game,
• 02:55 I need you to record it, I don't care what you're talking about.
• 03:01 Here's what I do care about, is once you record it, I need you to listen to it.
• 03:06 And here's what most people find.
• 03:09 When you're simply talking naturally, your voice has great variation,
• 03:13 sometimes you're louder, sometimes you're softer.
• 03:16 Sometimes you get excited and you're faster,
• 03:19 and there's more excitement, sometimes you slow it down.
• 03:23 And occasionally, there's a pause.
• 03:28 A good voice is kind of like a roller coaster.
• 03:33 Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow, sometimes it goes around the corner,
• 03:37 sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down, there's variation to your voice..
• 03:41 That's what makes somewhat interesting to listen to,
• 03:43 not sounding like a generic TV news anchor.
• 03:46 That's not what necessarily makes anyone interesting to listen to.
• 03:51 So that's what I need you to do right now, call a friend, and
• 03:54 you don't have to listen to it all.
• 03:55 Just fast-forward or go to the part on the digital audio file, halfway in,
• 04:00 or two-thirds in, where you think, okay, we were getting in a debate
• 04:05 about something there and I'd forgotten we were recording.
• 04:10 Listen to just that one minute.
• 04:14 Chances are you're going to hear a lot more variation in your voice than when you
• 04:20 were practicing that speech that you had to give at next week's trade association
• 04:26 convention, where you sound boring and flat and monotone, the way I do.
• 04:31 So I need you to do this diagnosis.
• 04:35 Because if I'm correct, and I often I'm, your voice is going to sound a lot better,
• 04:41 because you're going to have the full range of your voice, louder,
• 04:46 softer, faster, slower, pauses and your voice will come alive.
• 04:52 So please do that for me right now.

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