103. Is your voice stuck on default?

Is your voice stuck on default? Stuck on total automatic, with no ability to change it? In this episode I share three great reasons for getting off your default voicewhat's involved - and how anyone can do it!

Transcript

Hello. Hello! Welcome back to That Voice Podcast. Welcome if it's your first time listening. I'm Sally Prosser. Most people call me Sal. In my time. I've had variations like Saldog. Salby. Salbymangles. Just stick with Sal! In today's episode, we are talking all about your default voice. And the question is, is your voice stuck on default? Is it stuck on automatic? Is it just the same voice that comes out all the time in any situation? It's just what you would consider your normal voice. Even though that word "normal", oh my gosh. What does it mean? But it's your voice that comes out without even thinking about it. Now, you might be like, "Well, isn't that the point? Don't you want to speak freely without thinking too much about it?" And I say, yes, yes you do. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your default voice, your automatic voice, your beautiful, natural voice that's coming out.

But do you know how to get off that default voice? Because I wanna share with you today, three reasons why that is really useful. Think about it like wardrobe. Imagine having just one outfit in the wardrobe, let's just say it's activewear. Activewear in the wardrobe, that's the only outfit to choose from. And if you are around the house or going to the gym, then absolutely fantastic. But if you're going to say a job interview or the office or a black-tie ball or a cocktail party, then potentially you're not gonna be making the best impression that you can in that outfit. So wouldn't it be great if you could expand your wardrobe, expand your wardrobe, and have more outfits to choose from? And the key here is every wardrobe has its own style, and you should feel like you in every single one of your outfits.

So this is not about changing you or changing your style or putting on a weird voice, which is what a lot of people say to me. When I say that I work with TV reporters, they say, well, "Why don't you make them put on that stupid voice?" It's not about that. It's about developing range in the voice. Because just like having a beautiful killer wardrobe that you can choose the best outfit for the right occasion, you can do that with your voice, but not if you get stuck on your default. So there's three reasons getting off your default is a great idea. And the first one is you can control your voice when the pressure's on. So if you are in a high stakes situation-- a meeting, an interview, maybe a bit of a difficult conversation, and that heart rate starts to rise, weird things can happen with the voice. It goes to a weird pitch, or maybe you struggle to get your tongue around certain words, or the breathing goes weird. And you just feel totally out of control of your voice. In order to take the reins of your voice and be able to say in those situations, when the pressure's on, "Oh, I've got this and I have control over the sounds coming out of my mouth." That's what you can do when you can get off your default voice. Very handy. The second reason you want to get off your default voice is to have more influence and impact when you speak. So when I was working for Channel 7, up in Rock Hampton, I remember meeting one of the other bureau chiefs at an in-person event. And he said to me, "Sal, you're really friendly. You're really friendly. You're really cool. You know, really warm, not gonna lie on the phone. You sound like a megabitch."

I was like, "Oh," He said, "Yeah, you sound really cold, aloof, abrupt all these things." And so I thought, "Oh no, that's not, that's not good!" And if I didn't have of the skills to get off default, I may not have known how to change it. But I was able to say, "Right, I can lighten the tone, put a smile in the voice, consider my word choice. Think about my inflections." All of these skills that I use to be able to not be stuck on the default. So that's the second reason you can more influence and impact when you speak if you've got that control. So, one and two are kind of similar. You can control your voice when the pressure's on, but then you can control your voice in any situation.

And the third reason for getting off your default voice is to enjoy the process of speaking. You know, things are a lot more enjoyable when you are skilled up in that area. I think about backyard cricket growing up, and you know, if you're standing at the wicked with this bat and you're just getting these balls bold at you again and again and again, and oh, it's not fun. But when you can actually connect bat to ball and smack it over the neighbor's fence, it's like, yeah, this is good! I also did a lot of swimming growing up and I could never get those breaststroke legs. I was just doing like that little dolphin kick, but, and I always hated breaststroke. But then when I learned actually how to do the kick and coordinate the arms with the legs and I was actually getting some progress through the water, I was like, "Yeah, this is alright!" It's similar to a musical instrument.

Oh, what was mine, keyboard? And when I first started, it was a bit of a slog. I had to put the masking tape with the letters on all of the the keys. And I was like, you know, murdering Mary had a little lamb with one finger on the key. Once you can actually get both those hands going and you can really play some great music, it's so much more enjoyable to play. So voice is the same, when you've got those skills to be able to get off your default voice, then speaking becomes such a more fun experience. And that's what it's all about, right? So I wanted to ask yourself, do you love your voice? Is your voice working for you? Are you getting the impact you want to? If your answers were yes. Yes, yes. Then that's awesome. That's the goal. That's exactly where I want you to be.

But if you are listening to this thinking, "Oh, I would actually like to be able to control my voice, especially when the pressure's on. I want to have more impact and influence and potentially correct myself. If I'm giving off a completely weird tone. And I want to actually enjoy speaking!" Then I'm here to say, we can do this. We can absolutely do this. And how do we get more range in your voice? More range in your vocal wardrobe and get off default. When it comes to voice it's things like the pitch, the highs and lows. It's the pace, the pace of the speech. Speaking really quickly, and slowing it right down. It's the volume. It's how loud you're going or how soft you're speaking. It's the inflections, it's the rise and the fall. And being able to be in control of when you rise and when you fall. Important, because you want to be rising in the middle of a phrase, but you don't wanna be rising at the end of a phrase.

You wanna be going down at the end of a phrase. So all of that, is really cool to have that control. Then there's the clarity of speech. Can you up the clarity of speech? This wasn't one of the reasons, but it can be really useful to be able to do this, especially in cross-cultural conversations. So all of us have an accent and it can be difficult to understand all the accents, but if you've got the ability to slow down and speak clearer, really useful. I did a lot of Airbnb hosting at my place, finished it up right before COVID hit, which was good timing. But I had so many travelers who'd been making their way down from North Queensland. And they were like, "Whoa, Sally, you are the first Australian. I can understand. I thought that I didn't know how to speak English until I met you. We really appreciate that you slow down and speak clearly because we haven't been able to understand anything!" So being understood is a big part of this as well.

Then there's the tone of voice. The register your voice is sitting in. And taking away the vibrations. There's also the gestures that we make. There's our resting listening face. What are the expressions we're making when we are listening? There's so many ways that we can develop range in our voice. And when we develop range in our voice, we can control it. When the pressure's on, we can have more influence and impact and be understood, and we can really enjoy the process of speaking. And these are the things you'll learn to do in My Six Week Voice Makeover, we go through a step by step process to make an impact. Every time you speak, this includes a whole bunch of practical exercises and techniques to unlock this range in your voice, even if you've never done any kind of voice coaching, even if you believe, "Ah, no, this is my voice. You can't change it." Oh, well, challenge accepted. I guarantee, with this course, you'll be able to make sounds you did not think you could make. It's really exciting. It's empowering. And it's a hell of a lot of fun, but just prepare to get some weird looks from pets and partners during the process.

We get started on Feb 27th. Make sure you are on that waitlist. I will link to it in the show notes. And I'll also link to my calendar where you can jump in for a quick chat. So especially if you're new to the podcast, this is a really great chance to say hi, let me know where you're at. And of course I can let you know whether My Six Week Voice Makeover is the best fit for you. Thank you so much for joining me and I will be back on the podcast airwaves next week.