I spend a lot of time helping people find their voice, but not in the way Claire Fry does.
Recently I spoke with Claire, a veteran voice actor and vocal coach, who teaches people and teams how to connect, persuade, and demand attention with their voices.
Perhaps your voice is something you don’t think about much. But you should! Or perhaps your voice is something you hope to change and improve. After all, your voice literally says a lot about you!
Read on to learn the three key takeaways from our conversation, plus the implications of Claire’s rhetorical question, “Why are you staring at yourself on Zoom?”
3 Things to Talk About This Week
- Finding your strongest voice (Hint: it shouldn’t take that long to discover)
- How to pack power into your voice
- Suggestions to optimize your online presence
1️⃣ Find your strongest voice
When you think of a voice that commands attention, what does it sound like?
I’d bet any money that it’s deep and authoritative.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that a deeper voice holds authority and credibility. It’s so common that many people often force their voices to a pitch that isn’t natural. And it’s usually pretty obvious. (Right, Elizabeth Holmes? Yikes!)
The best way to demonstrate credibility and authority through your voice is—you guessed it—by using YOUR voice.
Consider your unique instrument. Are you a flute or an oboe? Just go with it!
As you might guess, this idea resonated with me. My definition of personal branding is being yourself on purpose. Keyword: Yourself! Not someone else.
A flute is a flute. An oboe is an oboe.
I love this metaphor! What instrument is your voice?
2️⃣ How to support your voice
Your best voice, your strongest voice, is a supported voice.
What does this mean? You can support your voice through deep breathing and by thinking about your diaphragm.
Here’s Claire’s breathing exercise to create a supported voice (a.k.a. your best voice):
Do you feel that?
(Yes, we both got up out of our chairs during our conversation to demonstrate!)
Claire was quick to point out it’s unrealistic to be thinking about our diaphragm all the time, never mind give a presentation with your hands on your stomach and back. “That’s a pretty heavy lift!” she said.
But even practicing a minute of deep breathing into your diaphragm before an important presentation will help you remember to breathe deeply and maintain breath support while you’re speaking.
Watch Claire’s demonstration of how to breathe from your diaphragm, at the 7:33 mark of our YouTube recording.
3️⃣ Suggestions to optimize your online presence
Work culture has adapted to virtual meetings, virtual presentations, and virtual town halls. It’s amazing what we can get done online, isn’t it?
When it comes to our communication, many of us still operate with the same approaches we use when we’re in person. In some ways this is a good thing. But in some ways it is not ideal. There are some important differences between digital and in-person environments. Here’s a big one:
Digital is a flattening medium
What does this mean?
Your digital presence will be flatter. Your voice will be quieter, your expressions more neutral, etc. So what can you do?
Increase your volume
- Speak more loudly that you might think is necessary or appropriate. Claire mentioned how many of us are quiet when we’re online. We need to increase our volume!
Get a microphone
- Even a less expensive mic that you wire into your laptop will sound better than your computer mic. Peripheral mics will capture the nuance of your voice and filter out the background noise.
Smile
- When online, your neutral facial expression might look negative. (I’ve experimented with this one and it’s true! A neutral expression reads as negative, and a slight grin reads as neutral!)
Use expressive body language
- Use slow purposeful hand gestures to reinforce your points.
It’s almost like our digital presence goes though a filter to neutralize everything, including how we look and how we sound. But there are things we can do to overcome this!
Now, a bonus suggestion from Claire. Not exactly related to optimizing your voice, but yes, this will help you with your online communication:
Turn off “self-view” when you’re in virtual meetings.
Why? Well, it’s distracting. And as Claire so smartly puts it: “You wouldn’t bring a mirror to an in-person meeting, would you? So why are you staring at yourself on Zoom?”
Great point!
I hope you enjoy listening to (or watching) my conversation with Claire in this week’s Talk About Talk podcast ep.180. Thank you Claire!
Talk soon,
Dr. Andrea Wojnicki
executive communication coach