better business blog

Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

Finding Your Voice

19 November 2017

I love radio. It’s such an intimate medium. You have your voice, your personality and a microphone and that’s about it. I’m the creator and host of the Business Life show on Future Radio …107.8fm or DAB or with an app or via www.futureradio.co.uk 12-2pm every Thursday. I have to find my voice every week, for two hours of live radio. No pressure!

Anna Stevenson is our producer and co-host and she does a great job of booking guests each week …most of whom are nervous about being live on air. Yet when the mic goes live they find their voice and share successes and showcase their business.

Despite their reservations they fly! 

It proves to me that we all have the capability to speak up when we need to. Of course we are super friendly and supportive and put our guests at ease. I mention this because often our personal fantasy is that our voice is horrible, we are boring and that the experience will be ghastly.

The truth is that people want us to succeed. We can be our own worst enemy at times, when the reality is that we are lovely people, with great voices and a story to tell.

To find our voice the first step is to brush aside any anxieties we have about our accent, or our diction. I tend to roll my r’s when not concentrating, which used to be a nuisance being called Richard. However, I am me and we are not looking for perfection. Good enough is good enough and I’ve learned that our voice is part of our character. We can enjoy being ourselves!

The next step is to speak out. We can practice talking out loud in the safety of our kitchen. Most kitchens have a natural echo to them so this mirrors speaking out in a big room when networking. I pretend the chairs are people and talk to them …and being chairs they don’t undermine my confidence by looking bored, or rolling their eyes.

If we really want to get good then we can use a phone app to record ourselves. Listening back helps us to improve and don’t worry if you hate the sound of your voice at first …after three goes you will be more used to it. Wearing headphones when recording can be a big help too, as they give us instant feedback on our pace and volume.

Remember that our skull and ears are designed to reduce the volume of our voices so what we sound like to ourselves is not what people hear.

If we practice when we are calm we can find our voice when we are under pressure. Pianists, footballers, politicians all practice to hone their physical or oratorial skills. We are no different and the more we practice the easier it gets.

So this week we can all have fun talking to the chairs in our house. Maybe we can tell them a story, or read out a poem? I’m sure they’d enjoy either!

Next week: The Box Trick