Amber Larsen, New Faces Director at the McCarty Agency, helps strengthen the most important tool you possess – your voice.
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The neuromuscular systems for facial expression, posture, poise, gestures, and tone of voice are intertwined together. Communicating with your body language and voice go hand in hand. They are programmed by the same modules of the emotional or limbic system. If you struggle with your confidence– you need to start speaking like the person you want to be. It is hard to hide how you feel about yourself due to your body communicating in a programmed way.
I have learned that, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”….I am totally in agreement with this quote because your body language and your voice tone speaks louder than your content! How you say something is often more powerful than what you say. Your tone of voice and facial expression tell people more than words. You don’t need a Master’s degree or a big vocabulary to communicate assertively. You just need to be aware of how you say things. Our purpose in understanding how we communicate verbally is so can persuade, convince, inspire, inform, and entertain those we love, acquaintances, or those we do business with. Understand that your voice displays a trueness, honesty, authority, attitude, and/or power. Just as listeners make assumptions about your personality by observing how you dress and act; your voice tone expresses the rest of the picture. By listening to your voice tone, people make judgments about your personality and feelings from what is said and how you said it!
My close friends and family can’t be fooled by my voice tone even when I try to hide my mood. When my friends first call me they can tell my emotions from my hello. My family can tell a lot of times who I am talking with by my tone. Is it a professional tone? My voice will get serious and deeper in tone. A parental tone? I use a soft, gooey voice tone. A good friend? I will answer laughing, “Hello Darling!” So without knowing who someone is talking to, you can tell if it is a husband, a child, a co-worker. Since 30% of the way we communicate is through our voice, you can hear if someone is stressed, angry, happy, excited, tired, nervous, uncomfortable etc…. Your tone can tell the truth even if your words do not match what you feel.
Listen to your voice tone. Record it, if possible. Pay attention to two things: the quality- its pace, rhythm, clarity, enunciation and loudness. Also, note what your tone expresses from your emotions or mood- warmth, passion, confidence, arrogance, superiority, negativity, condescension, unsureness, hoarseness, submissiveness, or sarcasm. When referring to someone’s tone, you can tell a person’s stance or opinion on what they are saying. In this way, tone is interchangeable with voice. However, tone does not refer to the “truth” of the message, unlike voice.
In my experience, some of us are reluctant to explore this aspect of effective communication. We often put much more energy into mastering our content and organizing it in a logical manner but less in our presentation, using our body language and voice tone. We want to sound vibrant, not lifeless. Those who struggle with low self-esteem sound deflated, unstable, and soft spoken. Those who are angry in life can sound aggressive and uncontrolled. Those who feel happy come across warm and friendly.
I took classes in voice training to expand my career opportunities into radio spots, anchor women roles, and cartoons. My voice coach taught me to shape my facial expressions with the lines. For upbeat commercial work, she told me to smile as I read my lines. She said smiling would produce a softer, more inviting tone of voice. When delivering a serious news report, she showed me to stay serious in tone and keep composed with my body posture. She explained the importance of using one’s whole body in the sound booth of the Recording Studio to relay the message with my voice. Behind the large tinted glass window you could see an empty room filled with sound pads around the walls, and in the middle of the room a microphone and symphony stand where the script is laid. My body was totally engaged with the words that I was speaking. I ended up acting out scenes even though no one was watching me in the sound booth. The words not only came out of my voice but also through my body language. Studies show that the use of natural speaking gestures aid in verbal fluency. Using one’s eyes, face, shoulders, and hands while recording—adds intimacy and energy to one’s voice.
BABY TALK: William Sears, MD and Martha Sears, RN are the parents of eight children and have practiced Pediatric medicine for more than 30 years. Millions have sought advice from their 40 + Pediatric books, articles in parenting magazines, and from their more than 100 television appearances on programs such as 20/20, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, NBC’s Today Show, and Dateline. Dr. Sears explains that how you talk to your baby has a profound effect on your baby’s brain development. Luckily, this comes natural to most women. Mothers instinctively speak “Motherese” which is upbeat tones and facial expressions—to talk to their babies. They raise the pitch, s-l-o-w down the pace, and E-X-A-G-G-E-R-A-T-E the main syllables. We naturally draw out the vowels—”Sweeet baaaby.” “How a mother talks is more important to a baby than what she says”, Dr.Sears explains. This is all inclusive from newborn to adult. For those animal lovers, your pets feel the difference in your tone as babies do. Pets respond to your body language and tone over the content you are saying. For more information on talking to your baby, go to askdrsears.com and select the article on, “How Baby Brains Grow- 8 Ways to Build a Brighter Baby.”
UNDERSTANDING VOICE TONE IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE: There have been tests where members of a native tribe in Ecuador, who knew no English, can understand what English-speaking mothers are saying as they talk to their babies. They succeeded in grasping the meaning of the speech about 75% of the time. (For more information on this report go to Psychological Science August 2007 issue.) This makes sense when your voice tone as researched is more meaningful then words. When I talked to my baby I would speak in a gooey way, whisper and coax them, and speak “up and down” with our voice to tell stories and share feelings.
PROFESSIONAL VOICE TONE: Great communicators in the work place pay close attention to how they say things. In the work field, part of the behavior a company looks for is our positive voice tone. It goes without saying that a negative voice tone is a NO-NO in the office. Between 9-5, maintaining a positive voice tone call after call or meeting after meeting, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 50 weeks a year can be exhausting and frustrating. Anyway, what’s so bad about a neutral or negative voice tone? This means you are not optimistic or happy, right? Our energy can rub off on others and make the difference in our personal life as well as the work field. Great energy in your voice helps sell a product and convinces you to purchase. But when it comes to your energy level or describing a tone of voice, then NEUTRAL actually becomes a NEGATIVE. The power and energy level of our voice tone can show competency or personal strength.
We would rather talk with someone who has good energy in their voice then with a bored, tired, monotone, indifferent, detached, or unenthusiastic person. Thus, moments like these make me reflect on how my voice comes across in a professional setting. When clients compare our business to another do I reply overly-confidently that we have been the largest and oldest agency in the business. Do I sound snooty and stuck up because I know we are the best?? We need to reflect on the power of positive thinking and if we really are what we think; then changing our behavior is really as simple as our changing thoughts. We can choose to remain in a negative mood and self-destruct, or change our thought patterns! Therein lies the positive behavior which opens the flood gates to positive experiences due to a kind voice tone. No, not always an easy choice to make but……the only acceptable choice to make in such a competitive market place. For those who feel competitive, there is a hidden battle for dominance waged in almost every conversation. You can tell by the way we modulate the lower frequencies of our voice and by who is showing up on top.
The energy in our voice can be contagious and have a tremendous influence on how others respond to us! Surely, none of us want to fail at communicating but having an impersonal style tends to increase bad ratings on the “communicating poorly chart”. Sounding mechanical has made a few rich actors, like the voice in the movie that says, “Bueller”- “Bueller”-on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But in general the monotone voice is considered boring, depressing, and aloof. Others assume you are unable to communicate with such an emotionless tone. Some try to sound “academic” and try too hard which therefore sounds unnatural. Trying to communicate in a coherent way can be so overwhelming that you forget to consider the influence of your voice, or persona.
Improving the Quality of Your Voice Tone:
1. Make sure you breathe from your diaphragm. Many people are shallow breathers. Try this exercise to improve your pacing and to control your breathing. Count 1-2-3-4 inhaling and 4-3-2-1 exhaling.
2. Drink lots of water to keep your vocally cords moist. This increases the clarity of your voice.
3. When speaking, sit up straight. Your posture effects breathing. Poor posture can effect voice tone negatively.
4. Use gestures to make your voice sound energetic. This is especially important when you are tired.
5. Smile. This helps create warmth in your tone.
6. Practice speaking at a lower octave. Deeper voices have more creditability than higher pitch voices. This is common practice for on-air radio personalities.
7. Slow down! People will perceive you as nervous and unsure of yourself. Don’t speak too slow that other people are finishing your sentences.
8. Animate your voice. This gives energy and creativity to your voice. Your pitch should fluctuate.
9. Enunciate your words. Speak clearly, don’t mumble. If people are saying, “What” or “Huh” then that might be a clue that you are mumbling.
10. Use appropriate volume. Make sure your volume coincides with your setting. Within an intimate setting your tone is usually quieter. However, in large groups your voice tone tends to be louder.
11. Be an effective communicator. Do not send mixed messages. Make your words, gestures, and facial expressions match your tone.
12. Strengthen your speech rhythm. Read out loud often. I tell my actors that I work with at the McCarty Agency to do this to improve your clarity, enunciation, and quality in their voice tone.
13. Adapt your voice tone to connect with others. Capture the atmosphere and the spirit of the conversation by matching your tone with theirs. This helps build a stronger relationship. You are communicating ways others can relate too.
14. Put together a “Voice Journal”. Pay attention to how your tone of voice effects how others respond to you. Learn from this and build better ways to communicate.
15. Relax your voice tone. Calm your voice when you speak. This creates a more comfortable, less stressful atmosphere.
16. Watch your local TV anchor and take notes. Notice the quality of tone fluctuation, pronunciation, and animation.
17. Get feedback on your voice quality, and tone. Ask a trusted business associate, friend, or family member. What message does your voice send to others?
Tell us about how your “body language” or “voice tone” has effective others. Email Amber Larsen at ambernewfaces@yahoo.com or contact the McCarty Agency (801) 581-9292.
By Amber Larsen, © 2007, All rights reserved
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Amber Larsen, the New Faces Director for McCarty Talent Agency, is a talent-developer, model, actor, and modeling coach. She has worked in the fashion and entertainment industries for over 20 years. Her career began with modeling in her early teens and escalated when she won the title of Miss New York Teen, USA at age 18. Since then her experience has been extensive nationally and internationally with years in print, runway, industrial film, stage, television and as spokesperson for companies such as Liz Claiborne, Switcher and Joy & Fun, Overstock.com, Spa Victoria, Tuscan Hills, to name a few. Because of her expertise and her deep interest for the entertainment industry and love for people, she became the New Faces Director for McCarty Agency and has discovered, developed and molded countless talent careers for the last 13 years; marketing top celebrities to international agencies such as Ford, Elite, IMG, Whilmenia, and Next. Amber’s dream, passion and experience for helping people to develop not only their outside beauty, but also their inside; has led her to coach several seminars and co-write an inside/outside beauty book with Heather Christensen, writer and training developer.
Through all of her accomplishments, Amber feels her greatest is with her three beautiful children. Together they reside in Stansbury Park, Utah.
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