Presentation Secrets: Do What you Never Thought Possible With Your Presentations

VOICE

Voice is a big issue in public speaking. There's tons of advice about on how to speak, how to breathe, and how to resonate. Also, lots of people don't like the sound of their own voice. If you've ever tried to record your voice, you know it sounds a bit alien. We don't hear our voice the way other people do. When I first heard my voice recorded on an answering machine, I was enormously disappointed. That's not my voice! I wanted my voice to be lower and deeper. Later, when a career of professional public speaking appeared on the horizon, I decided to do something about it. I visited voice seminars for actors and public speakers, but none of them worked for me. They were too short; it seemed like voice requires longer practice. So, I decided to learn to sing.

NOTE Just if you're really interested, this is why your voice sounds different to yourself. When you attempt to speak, you automatically trigger the so-called vocalization-induced stapedius reflex. One of the nerves in your cranium contracts the stapedius muscle in your middle ear. At the same time, another cranial nerve contracts a muscle in the auditory tube, called the tensor tympani. The result is suppression of the sound of your own voice by approximately 20 decibels. Earwax further decreases the sound intensity. All mammals have this reflex, and birds do, too. Otherwise, they'd go deaf from their own tweeting.

I always loved singing and was naturally good at it as a child. However, by adolescence, my voice had ...