***If You are a Whisperer, You are Doing Great Harm to Your Voice!

By Nancy Daniels, the Official Guide to Public Speaking
The official guide to Public Speaking

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I met a website designer named Donna at a business expo who had a wonderful, eye-catching display that was drawing large crowds of visitors. Unfortunately for Donna, she lost her voice after having spoken to perspective clients for only 1 hour. It was 10 o’clock in the morning and the expo was not going to close for 8 more hours. While her booth was bringing great traffic, she was struggling to speak. Her voice was very hoarse and very soft in volume. In addition, her throat was sore. Barely able to whisper, she lasted only another hour, packed up her display, and departed.

Having spent $850 for her booth, Donna would have likely recouped her investment tenfold had she had a voice. Apparently, this had happened to her on more than one occasion. While obviously gifted in her abilities to build websites, she was lacking in a basic fundamental. She had no voice. How much potential business was this woman losing because of her refusal to acknowledge that she had a problem?

Vocal abuse is usually caused by misuse of the voice. In Donna’s particular case, her vocal abuse was the result of a lifetime of whispering. Just as hard on the voice as continual yelling or shouting, chronic whispering means that the vocal folds (cords) are doing all the work in producing vocal sound.

We have 5 resonating cavities that all work – or should work – together to produce voiced sound, including the voice box, throat, mouth, nose & chest cavities. In whispering, only one of those cavities is working and that is the voice box. Unfortunately, whispering for great lengths of time causes tremendous strain on you vocal folds (cords) and, if done continually, will often result in loss of voice.

While you may not have considered your voice as a commodity, it is a valuable tool that you cannot afford to be without. In truth, much of your success in life is based on your ability to speak. Without a voice, where would your life be, both professionally and/or personally?

If you are a whisperer, it is time to make the change because the abuse your voice is suffering will not improve until you stop this bad habit. Whispering is a poor method of speaking. Learning how to increase your volume properly is the only way you will end your vocal nightmare, save your vocal folds, and have the power to speak for much greater lengths of time without doing harm.

See my next article, Don’t Ignore Vocal Abuse – It Won’t Go Away on Its Own! for more information on the causes of vocal abuse and the only way to remedy the problem.