I just finished a session with a client where we worked on vocal presence, and she said:
“Are you telling me to change my voice, Sarah? I can change my appearance, that’s quite easy, but changing my voice? That feels really hard.”
She’s right: if the goal is to change your voice, that’s not only tough, but hard to maintain. We’ve been with our voice for a long time!
But that’s not what I was asking her to do.
We were talking about low contrast in her delivery, that sameness in tone and rhythm that makes it hard for audiences to stay engaged.
Her ideas were valuable, and in fact what she speaks about can be the difference between lives being saved or lost in a crisis.
But the way she was delivering them didn’t help her listeners tune in or stay interested.
So I reframed it:
“You’re not actually changing your voice,” I said.
“You’re changing how you think about communicating with that group of people. Your voice will then naturally follow.”
Here’s the key: when your intention shifts, your vocal expression shifts naturally – you don’t have to focus hard.
We know how much focus it takes anyway to speak well – you don’t need that extra load in the moment!
So – when you see your presentation as a genuine conversation rather than a performance…
When you’re tuned into your audience and how you want them to feel…
That’s when your voice starts to open up, with more variety in pitch, pace, and pauses.
You see it as a conversation. A ‘virtual’ one maybe but a conversation.
It’s not a monologue!
You begin to:
- Speed up when you’re excited.
- Slow down when something matters.
- Add silence so your audience can reflect.
- Inflect your voice to create contrast and interest.
It’s not about layering on techniques or sounding like someone else. It’s about aligning your delivery with your intention. When you intend to engage, connect, and invite, your voice knows exactly what to do.
Before your next meeting or presentation, try this:
- Imagine you’re talking to just one person in the room, rather than perhaps a group ‘blob’.
- Notice what shifts.
- And remember to breathe and pause!
When your intention changes, your voice doesn’t need to be “fixed”, it evolves.
Warm wishes for your next ‘conversation’,
