While doing a Masterclass last month, I brought a young woman, about 24 years old, up onto the stage with me. She is an up-and-coming millennial in the public service sector and found that she was getting lost in empty words ie- umms and ahhs. A highly intelligent young lady and totally switched on but is finding that her voice matching her professional profile.

I asked her to deliver her 60-second elevator pitch, just telling us her name, where she was from and what she does, to give us an idea of why we should invest in her. She started her pitch and it was very embellished, she was trying to be “tricky”.  A common practice where the individual tries to say what they think they should say, rather than just keeping it real.

I stopped her quite quickly, (it is often quite clear in the first few seconds what they are doing wrong) and readjusted what she was doing.

I told what I was hearing and asked her if this was the message that she wanted to send?”

“Well, no,” she replied.

“Alright, let’s try this a different way.” I responded

I asked her to tell me simply (in her own words), what it was that she was trying to say.  And there it was, with a clear tone she told us with beautiful clarity who she is and how she helps her industry.

The audience spontaneously erupted into applause.

So, I turned to the audience and asked them what was different about that delivery?

There were a few little kids in the audience and one little kid yelled out, “Yeah, that was awesome!”

I honed in on this little kid and said, “Why do you think that was soooo awesome little dude?”

At this point, he got a little bit shy and coy and said, “I don’t want to say.”

I responded with, “No, I really respect your opinion because children are strongly attuned to vibration. I would  like to hear what you have to say.”

Becoming brave, he said, “Well now I can FEEL that she is telling the TRUTH.” The entire audience erupted into applause again.

It was so perfect! She had cut all the fluff, articulated clearly and it unlocked her truth.  You see the voice will always follow your lead.  If you remain present, keep it simple and speak with a purpose the tone will compliment the content beautifully, the nuances and inflections come alive and the rhythm  within your voice starts to dance.   For us the audience, this is far more interesting to connect with.

Whenever people start working with me, this is always the first step, we need to work out what your message really is and get that clarity. We don’t want to make things fancy because that is not being authentic and people see through it straight away. That then allows you to move onto the voice itself, strengthening it and making it work for you, not against you..

If you would like to have a free 15-minute chat with me about your voice just click HERE