Introduction
Your voice is a noteworthy aspect that leaves a lasting impact when you communicate. It may be loud or soft, emotional or flat, yet it is a vital instrument of your body. It has the power to bring context and meaning from daily conversations to professional discussions. Just like how your appearance leaves a physical impression, your voice does the same, leaving a sensory one.
You may wonder what it takes to have a vibrant and captivating voice. Just as singers dedicate themselves to daily practice, you too can train your voice for improvement! The most important thing to remember is that your voice doesn’t sound as bad as you think. As a virtual receptionist service, SOI is here to help unlock the potential of your voice.
If you are looking for guidance on enhancing your voice this handy guide will equip you with some simple tips, to help craft your professional voice to be more confident and commanding, attracting more clients and leaving a confident response.
Why Does Your Professional Voice Matter?
Consider linking the Introduction and why does the sound of your voice matter
Just like your appearance, your voice leaves a lasting impression when engaging in a conversation. It is important to have a professional voice, during a business conversation rather than using your personal one.
Whether you are having a conversation with a client, hosting an event or making business calls, it is important that your professional voice is clear, easy to understand and engaging. This determines the perception people have towards you and your business, as perception plays a huge role in representing your business.
11 Tips for Making Your Voice Sound Better
Below are some valuable tips to help you cultivate a more refined professional voice, resulting in enhanced impressions during conversations.
Step 1: Get to Know Your Voice by Recording
The initial step towards enhancing the quality of your voice involves becoming familiar with it. One effective method is through recording. It is important to recognize that our voice can sometimes sound different when we play the recording back compared to how you perceive it in real-life situations.
While it may be challenging to confront any displeasure or discomfort when listening to your recorded voice, it is important to resist the temptation of switching the recording off. Embracing your voice and improving it requires evaluating these recordings.
An effective technique is to for yourself and repeatedly record yourself reenacting a specific scene or scenario. By engaging in this practice, you will gradually get used to your own voice, hence being more comfortable and confident with it.
Step 2: Note What You Do and Don’t Like About Your Voice
Once you are more comfortable with your own voice, start listening back to your recordings and writing some notes on what you like and don’t like about your voice. Take these elements into consideration:
- Your Volume: Can people hear you are speaking too loud or too soft?
- Your Speaking Tempo: How quick are you speaking, is it too fast or too slow?
- Your Voice Quality: What is your authentic voice, is it nasally, breathy or raspy?
- Your Enunciation: Do you finish all your words by pronouncing each letter sound?
- Your Auditory Tone (Intonation): Does your voice fluctuates when you speak? Is it high, low or medium? Or maybe even flat?
- Your Emotional Tone: Does the pitch of your voice match the content of your words? Do you sound friendly and cheery or unsure and fearful?
To understand your voice even more, it is crucial to note down these elements when listening to your recording, as they make up your entire vocal profile and will help you to evaluate even more.
Step 3: Observing Professional Speakers
It is always helpful to get inspiration from other places, especially when it comes to voices. Part of developing your professional voice is by listening to other speakers that inspire you. Don’t hesitate to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, speeches or even TikTok as they are great resources to help you find inspiration.
Listen and observe as different speakers might give you different impressions by articulating topics through their insights and perspectives. See how they control their voices and tweak their tone depending on the context of the conversation. Mimic voices that you find interesting and see if their tone, accent and volume suit you.
Step 4: Learn Ways to Improve Your Breathing
Pay attention when your voice arises, does it come from the breath you take through your diaphragm, stomach or nose? Improving your voice starts with breathing techniques, as every speech starts with a breath. Be mindful of how you breathe as this can impact your tone. Controlling your breath through the diaphragm helps to protect your vocal cords from strain, resulting in a richer and more consistent speaking tone.
An excellent tip is to practice reading a passage that contains a mix of long and short sentences out loud. Reading this gradually while taking deep breaths will improve your breath strength, resulting in better articulation, and avoiding a breathier sound.
Step 5: Slow Down and speak Deliberately
In many ways, most of us tend to speak quickly, especially when we get nervous during an important engagement or conversation. It is crucial to know that the quicker we speak, the harder it is for people to understand, hindering others from engaging well in a conversation. If you are uncertain of the pace that you are speaking at, a good tip to have been by paying attention to your counterpart’s reaction.
Slowing down the pace of your voice helps to improve your enunciation and enhance better communication. You can start by talking and pronouncing word for word in each sentence slowly, making sure that all the letters are articulated. This will help you engage in a clearer more confident dialogue.
How To Make Your Voice Sound Better /How To Make Your Voice Sound Better On A Phone Call
Step 6: Mind Your Pitch
Everyone has a different pitch when it comes to engaging in a conversation. Depending on your original recording, you may or may not need to work on your pitch. If you find your voice to be slightly flat or husky, it might be an ideal time to work on your pitch.
An ideal pitch sounds clear, full, and varied; hence a pitch variation is very important as it emphasises different parts of the sentence that will likely enhance the people’s interest and help convey your emotions better when speaking. The slightest implication of a word can lead to a different emphasis or meaning within a sentence.
A good way to practice your pitch is by doing simple exercises like this:
1. Hi, I’m Katie I was born in Sydney (emphasizing “Hi” implies a welcoming tone) .
2. Hi, I’m Katie I was born in Sydney (emphasizing “I’m Katie” implies an introduction).
3. Hi, I’m Katie I was born in Sydney (emphasizing “I was born” implies natively from).
4. Hi, I’m Katie I was born in Sydney (emphasizing “in Sydney” implies a Sydney local).
By emphasizing different keywords within a sentence, you imply different meanings to the whole sentence, giving a variety of ways in which, you can use your pitch.
Step 7: Practicing your timing
Having good timing in your speech demonstrates a good indication of how you are as a professional speaker. Practising your timing or adding pauses to what you are saying, might help your listeners understand and process what you say better. This will also help train you to slow down your thoughts and make your voice sound less breathy by taking deeper breaths.
Pausing in certain parts of a sentence and having well-placed breaks, will help you emphasize the points you are trying to make, hence resulting in a more attention-grabbing speech towards your audience or listeners. It is important to practice your pauses and see what comes naturally to you. Different pauses might help you get used to the notion of speaking at an optimal pace.
Step 8: Be Mindful of Your Body Language
Your voice emerges not just from your mouth and throat but from your entire body. Adjusting your body language can impact the tone of your voice, such as your posture, diaphragm, stomach, spine, nose and most importantly your brain all play a significant role. Be mindful of these elements when you are speaking:
1. How You Breathe: As mentioned before, breathing deeply through your diaphragm, helps to protect your vocal cords from strain and embody a richer and more consistent speaking tone. This may also help you reduce your vocal endurance in turn making you sound less tense and forced.
2. The Way that You Sit: Having poor posture, may affect your voice in many ways. For instance, slouching and being tense may result in putting a strain on your larynx and throat muscles, and it may also constrain your jaw, causing breathing difficulties. Start by sitting up straight, elongating your neck, and relaxing your shoulders. This will help you to feel more relaxed and improve your professional sound.
3. What You Ingest: Have you ever heard the phrase, “You are what you eat”, what you consume matters! As your body is complex, paying attention to what you consume is crucial to your voice. Besides what you eat, smoking can also cause negative effects on your voice. Another common problem most people have is acid reflux, as digestive problems can also cause multiple problems, irritating your vocal cords, throat and oesophagus . Leading to breathing problems such as hoarse voices or wheezing.
Additionally, don’t forget to put a smile on your face when you are on the phone. This will make you sound more pleasant and engaging. Also, remember to take breaks and not overuse your muscles. In turn, being mindful of your body, will help you sound and feel more confident and professional.
Step 9: Don’t Forget to Stay Hydrated
Just as important as what you eat, hydration is key to a healthy voice. Drinking plenty of water will help lubricate your throat and protect your vocal cords. This will help you sound better and clearer to listeners because of a smoother and easier speaking experience. It is also best to avoid alcohol or any carbonated drinks that might dehydrate your voice. Consuming drinks like that, can result in making your voice sound raspy and hoarse.
A good alternative to consume, if you are not a water fan is warm herbal teas. Also, make sure to have a water bottle nearby throughout the day, this will help to remind you to drink more as the day goes by. It is also equally as important to avoid beverages that caused indigestion or heartburn, as this may cause burping that might affect you while you are talking or presenting.
Step 10: Do Warm Up Exercises
Professional actors and singers warm up their voices before doing any performance through a variety of exercises. It is important to do this as it helps warm up your vocal cords, by keeping your voice healthy and protected. Simple exercises can help your voice get in shape when preparing for a public speech, podcast appearance, or even during a business call.
Here are some simple exercises, professionals use to warm up their voices before any big engagement:
1. Yawn and Sigh Technique: Take in a relaxed and gentle breath as if you were yawning. Then, exhale as if you are sighing. Repeat this exercise by adding in different vowel sounds like “oo,” “ahh,” and “ee” as you exhale.
2. Humming Out a Song: Relax your facial muscles and place the tip of your tongue behind your bottom front teeth. Produce a “hmmm” sound with your jaw open and your lips closed. Hum notes up and down your range while keeping your mouth closed.
3. Repeating Silly Phares: By relaxing your jaw, will help you move your mouth freely. Open your jaw wide to say simple phrases like “apple,” “meow,” “oo-ee,” “mamamamama,” and “wawawawawa.”
Another fun way to warm up is by singing in the car, this helps to reduce nervous jitters and warm up your voice. Besides vocal exercises, you can also do physical exercises to help you relax your mouth and jaw. This will help you be more relaxed and help decrease jaw tension which can affect your voice range and quality.
Step 11: Ask for Assistance and Feedback
Once you have practised and self-assessed, the last step is to seek feedback from your peers. You may get better insight into your professional voice after talking to close friends and family. You might be surprised to find great feedback coming from your parents or even teachers alike.
One thing you can do, if you still struggle to find your professional voice, is to invest in a professional voice coach. They might just be able to give you actionable tips and tricks to help improve your professional voice and business conversations. Just because you aren’t an actor or singer, doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from professional training.
Another fun tip is to also be involved in drama clubs. This may also help to improve your voice, at the same time build your confidence when speaking in public settings. Before people hear what you say, they hear how you say it.
Be Authentic, Be You!
Fundamentally the most important step is to just have fun and be kind to yourself. You can always practice improving your tone, pitch, and even your posture, but what makes people gravitate to you is by being the best version of you! Remind yourself that your voice is unique and that taking good care of it may lead you to bigger potential in the future.
Let go of your insecurities and step into a voice that makes you feel the most comfortable. Instead of thinking to change your voice, find ways to improve on it naturally, to help you communicate more effectively. Just remember that practice makes perfect, although there is no such thing as a perfect voice, you can make little improvements that will help enhance the uniqueness that makes your voice yours.
Contact SOI Today, We Are Here to Help!
Introducing SOI, a virtual receptionist service that is designed to cater to the unique needs and challenges of every business. Based in Australia, our team of professional virtual receptionists in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane is dedicated to helping you overcome challenges and support your growth. We understand that each business has its own journey, and we are here to support you throughout that journey.
With our extensive experience of over 23 years, we have honed our skills in various industries, including Allied Health, Accounting, Real Estate, Medical, Law, and Engineering, among others. Our virtual receptionists are available to assist you beyond regular business hours, including weekends, public holidays, and overflow situations. We offer messaging and hotline services, ensuring that urgent calls are promptly transferred to the appropriate personnel. You can rely on us to handle any volume of calls generated by your business.
Contact us today. Our experts in live answering services will answer any questions and queries to find the best phone answering service for you and your business.
