If you are like most people, you probably don't like hearing yourself on your voicemail or answering machine. Did you know, however, that what you hear on any type of recording equipment is exactly how everyone else recognizes you?

Your inner ear, the means by which you hear your own voice inside your head, is unable to distinguish how you really sound because of distortion. Essentially, your voice is vibrating in the solid and liquid of your brain and is telling you that you sound a lot better than you really do.

On the other hand, the voice coming out of your mouth (or nose, depending on how much nasality you possess) is sound travelling through the air away from your ears. Your outer ear, in this case, is unable to distinguish your sound the way others do. Of course, your outer ear recognizes everyone's voice - just not your own.

The good news amongst all the bad is that you have a better voice inside of you. Probably deeper in pitch and definitely more mature in sound, your 'real' voice is powered by your chest cavity, which most people are unaware of and not using. It is the breadth and depth of your chest cavity that makes the difference in the amount of resonance you will discover in your 'real' voice versus the lack of good resonance in your 'habitual' one.

When you compare the size of your chest cavity, your most powerful and largest of your resonators, to the other 4 - the voice box, throat, mouth and nasal cavities - you can begin to understand how and why your 'real' voice will possess a much richer and resonant quality than the one you have been using throughout your life.

In order to find your 'real' voice, you will need to do 2 things:

1. Learn to breathe with the support of your diaphragm.

2. Find the optimum pitch your speaking voice. (Please note that pitch is not volume and refers to the highness or lowness of sound.)

In 99% of the cases, your optimum pitch will be deeper. Thus if you are a man and want a deeper, more commanding voice or a woman who sounds like a teenager, pre-teen, or even younger, your voice can change dramatically once you change the placement.

The vibrancy and warmth you will discover is something you hear in the voices of James Earl Jones and Diane Sawyer. Both exude a quality that is like a blanket around your shoulders, not high-pitched, whiny, nasal, shrill, childlike, wimpy, wispy, or weak.

If you are intent upon making the best impression possible for an interview, a promotion, a sales presentation, or even for that certain someone, voice training could make all the difference in your success.

Author's Bio: 

The Voice Lady, Nancy Daniels, offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It! the only video training on voice improvement. If you would like to see a dramatic ‘before & after’ clip, visit Voice Training Website and check out Craig’s video.