College of Public Speaking Free Articles

Be True To Your Voice

DOWNLOAD AND USE FOR FREE!

Your voice is your signature. It is the authentic, quintessential you. For many legitimate reasons, people like to change and improve their voice. This is quite natural, especially if you feel that your voice could be holding back your career.

However, there is one major problem with vocal development and that is when folks decide that they will change their voice to sound like their favourite film star or newsreader or friend from their local speakers club. They lose their authenticity and credibility. My point here is that you must be true to your voice, personality and character. Always do a first rate impression of yourself rather than be a second rate impersonation of somebody else. Everybody is unique and they must not pretend to be something or somebody they are not.

Many years ago I joined my local speakers club and it was a wonderful experience to receive objective feedback in such a supportive and quality setting. I remember there was a chap their called John and he had one of those voices that you would die for. I was very taken by this chap's style of speech and I inadvertently started trying to speak like him. I didn't realise how bad this had become until I entered a speech contest, didn't do very well, and some of the informal feedback I received after the contest was to say the least, blunt! One person even asked me why I was mucking about and trying to be John the 2nd, when Vince the 1st was perfectly acceptable anywhere.

A thought that had held me back was that this chap John was so many years in advance of me in terms of technique, experience and delivery that I would never be able to peg him back. How wrong I was.

By this time, I had become rather despondent. No success in contests and then my boss asked me to do a big presentation at short notice. I reacted rather badly to this request at first, but soon realised that it would hold me back at work if I didn't bite the bullet and take up the challenge. I then had one of those 'light bulb' moments. I suddenly realised that it wasn't about trying to be like John to wow the audience for the future, it was very much a case of being the best possible Vince for tomorrow's big presentation. I liked the comment that Vince the 1st was perfectly acceptable anywhere and that feedback gave me an enormous boost of confidence.

Actually, it was getting a bit awkward family wise too. I had recently attended my mother's 70th birthday and my three brothers were having a laugh at the expense of my newly acquired voice tone.

Once I changed my mind set and returned to the authentic Vincent Stevenson, I never looked back. Always be yourself. Never be a phoney.

• Return to Article Index