Bad Voice

especially powerful personal competitive advantage
Just “loving your voice” won’t gain you personal competitive advantage . . . certainly not if you have a case of bad voice

On the issue of bad voice, much can be said.  But better than the written word are examples.

Particularly examples of bad voices.

Egregious voices.

Heinous voices.

Voices of persons in the public eye, who really ought to know better.

I encourage people to take control of their voices rather than allowing them to simply unspool by themselves.

Instead of watching the voice grow like a weed in a chaotic and undisciplined way.

Instead of mimicking the ignorant elite.

Voice development is essential for you to improve your business presentation delivery and crucial to gaining personal competitive advantage.

Here, I point out what makes a pleasant communicative voice and what makes for annoying, weak, distracting voices.

A voice that undermines your credibility.

CAVEAT:   Bad Voices . . .

Here I offer two examples from reasonably well-known personages.

Examples of heinous voices that irritate and grind upon the senses.  They offer textbook instruction on what not to do if you are presenting.

The first video features actress Demi Moore, who is afflicted with two glaring voice pathologies that result in an incredibly bad voice.

Her first issue is a verbal grind that sounds as if she needs to clear her throat of something thick and unpleasant.

Her voice gurgles and grinds along.  It sounds grotesque because she does not push enough air across her vocal cords to hold a steady, let alone mellifluous, tone.

Demi also is plagued with the infuriating verbal uptick – sometimes called the moronic interrogative – in which every declarative sentence is formed as a question.  She sounds as though she isn’t sure of anything she’s saying.  She seems to seek validation from you for everything she says.

The grinding and upticking go on interminably . . . truly painful to hear.  It begins at the 60-second mark . . .

 

 

This second example is a young lady by the name of Danica McKellar — an actress, author, and “mathematician.”  She is certainly not a public speaker, given her cartoon voice and her own vocal fry pathology.

She sounds suspiciously like a Disney Channel-trained former kid actor, possessed as she is with the tell-tale end-of-sentence rasp and shrill cartoon words.  Words sourced direct from a pea-sized voice-box.  Result?  Bad voice.

 

 

If you find yourself afflicted with these pathologies, you can correct bad voice with a few minor adjustments.  Push air across your vocal cords, use your chest as a resonating chamber, and stop inflecting your voice up at the end of each sentence.

With just a few changes, you can dramatically improve your presenting voice.

And with those changes, you can begin acquiring personal competitive advantage on the podium.