Recently I held a 2-Day Voice & Presentation Skills Workshop in which one of the attendees, named Mohammad, was quite soft-spoken. He came to the seminar not just to work on his presentation skills, but more specifically to learn how to speak in a normal volume of sound. Notice I said normal.
Nothing is more frustrating for your listeners than not hearing your words. If you are soft-spoken, then not only are your listeners not hearing you but they are also pre-judging you. The purpose of speaking is to communicate. If you are not being heard, then essentially you are not communicating. When that happens, you frustrate those trying to hear what you are saying.
What is interesting is that your soft-spoken voice is not normal. What this means is that you are not part of the median group when it comes to your volume. Your volume is falling somewhere below the median – somewhere below average.
The problem for those of us who strain to hear your message is that we tire of straining to hear you – we tire of asking you to repeat yourself. If that happens often enough, those of us with larger voices will take over the conversation. And, being constantly interrupted or talked over is not good for your self-esteem.
What it says to your listeners, however, is definitely not positive. When we think of those whose spoken words are valuable, it is only because we have physically heard those words. If the words are not heard, then we cannot consider the message valuable.
If you want others to take you seriously or to place value in the words you are speaking, then it is up to you to learn how to speak within a normal volume of sound so that you are heard the 1st time you say it. With good voice training, you will find your volume increase automatically once you learn how to power your voice the correct way. Presently you are relying on your throat and voice box – with a lot more emphasis on your voice box – as your primary amplifiers of voiced sound. Change your power source and you will be amazed at the difference.
What happened to Mohammad at that 2-Day Workshop I mentioned earlier? He made a change – literally overnight. Now when he speaks, others sit up and take notice. By no means does Mohammad speak loudly – just within a normal volume range.
Make the change with your voice and watch the reaction of your listeners when they hear you the 1st time you say it.
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 Mohammad’s ‘before & after’ video clip, visit Voice Training.