Confidence is one of the defining factors for those who are successful in business. When you hear yourself on any type of recording equipment, be it your answering machine, a video recorder or your iPhone, does your voice exude confidence? I am not asking if you like what you hear – most people do not. I am asking if your voice makes you sound competent and assured. If you listen to the great voices, like those of Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, Kate Beckinsale, Julia Ormond, Kathleen Turner, Diane Sawyer, George Clooney, and James Earl Jones, their voices all possess the quality of warmth. They all sound confident as well. For many people today, their businesses are being handled on the computer. With the advent of webinars, teleseminars, conference calls, and the like, the sound of the voice is as important as the content of those meetings. In many of these situations, there is no visual in which to see the speaker. When such is the case, judgment of the host is often determined by how he or she sounds. When I was working in New York City, I was offered a job with a company over the phone. I had never met these people in a face-to-face meeting. All of my business dealings with that firm had been handled over the phone. When I questioned my ability to handle the job offered – Director of Public Relations – I told them I didn’t know any about PR. Their response was that they knew I could do the job because they had confidence in me. What led this company to give me the job? My speaking voice. While in graduate school prior to my move to NYC, I had discovered my ‘real’ speaking voice in one of my music classes. My ‘real’ voice was deeper in pitch, warmer in tone and more mature in quality than my habitual or previous voice. Everyone has a better voice inside of them. It is powered by the chest cavity and has resonance just like the voices of the actors I mentioned above. If you want to project a confident image, then you should consider the sound of your speaking voice because it is an important part of your image. Over the phone or in a webinar, it is obviously much more important than your visual image. When you discover your ‘real’ voice, you will sound confident and assured. And, by the way, you will like hearing your voice on recording equipment as well. Now there’s a bonus! The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement. If you would like to see a dynamic voice change - from childlike to mature - check out Trisha's Before & After Video Clip.
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