5 Tips to Improve Your Voice… just don’t go too far!

So my voice, sounds a bit like a Newsreader. Why? Well, it’s because I trained for it to sound like that, which means you can too. You might not want to sound like a newsreader of course! But if there are things about your voice you don’t like, you CAN change them.

I was fairly lucky, I grew up being told I had a nice speaking voice and I actually enjoyed public speaking (even though it made me nervous). So the leap into radio and later, podcasting wasn’t too hard for me. That said, I did grow up in Western Sydney... and those from the northern and eastern suburbs like to joke that we have a certain “westie” accent.

So, when I started as a broadcast journalist in the mid-2000s, my aim was to hide this. This meant I had a few pronunciations to iron out. The “an” sound in words like “man,” “stand” and “land” were particularly harsh. They are for a lot of Australians. I remember being pulled up on my pronunciation of “Caaaaannnbra”.

I must have sounded working class, heaven forbid!

So I worked hard to change it. I practiced with a voice coach and felt like Julie Andrews, in ‘My Fair Lady’, “the rain in Spain, falls mainly on the plain”... or in my case; “The Canberra man will stand, holding her hand.”

I practiced my voice excercises at home and my breathing too. And it worked. I was reading the Melbourne radio news by the age of 24. That said, I still had a fear of the “an” sound, I once pronounced “Cann River” in Gippsland on air, as “Cahn River” because I was so afraid of making a harsh “an” sound. Someone wrote about it in the Letter to the Editor in the Age the next day, saying how plum I sounded. Little did they know!

The point is, everyone has hang ups about their voice. And it can come from some pretty weird places. I just don’t want it to hold people back from making a podcast or even simply coming on a podcast.

In podcasting your voice is your most powerful tool. But it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be a warm reflection of you. But if there are some slight tweaks you’d like to make to how you sound, here are five essential tips to improve you voice and presentation. These tips will help you to come across as more confident, engaging, and professional to your listeners.

1. Breathe

Before you start recording, take a moment to breathe in deeply. Make sure you are sitting upright on your chair with both feet flat on the ground. If you prefer, you can also stand with good posture. Breathe in deeply from your diaphragm so you see your stomach going out, not your chest or shoulders going up. This technique will help you to focus and make your voice sound calm and strong.

2. Underline Your Script

We often hear the advice, "just be natural!" but that can be hard when you're starting out. To help you not sound like you're reading from a script, underline the words or phrases you want to emphasize. This will give your reading a more conversational tone.

Another technique is to imagine you’re speaking to your best friend. It helps to create a more intimate and engaging listening experience. And if you feel confident enough, go off script! Tell the story from dot points, as if you were telling a close friend. This spontaneity makes you sound more natural.

3. Say it With Confidence

Confidence is key in any form of communication, and podcasting is no exception. Always make sure what you’re saying is true and accurate. Once you're sure of your content, speak with confidence. Avoid going ‘up’ with your voice at the end of a sentence, which makes you sound unsure. (The exception to this rule is when you’re asking a question, then your voice should go “up” at the end of the sentence!). This tone variation adds dynamism and helps keeps your listeners engaged. Your podcast is not a “sleep story!”

4. You Can “Fix” Your Voice - But Why?

Believe it or not, you can change the tonal quality of your voice over time and the way you pronounce things. But should you? If you sound like everyone else, what will set you apart? Your quirks are what make you relatable and interesting. Instead of trying to sound like someone else, embrace your unique vocal characteristics and say it with confidence. We all don’t need to sound like newsreaders.

5. Practice

If you really want to ‘iron out’ some of your rough edges, you can. But it takes practice. You can see a voice coach or speech therapist, or you can practice tongue twisters, humming, and other vocal warm-up exercises at home. If you want to lower the register of your voice, you can practice reading passages from a book in a lower register. But again, ask yourself, do you really want to? Concentrate on making what you already have, even better. Your authenticity is what will make your podcast shine.

A Final Reflection

Rather strangely, sometimes I feel sad that you can’t hear a faint western Sydney accent in my voice anymore. These days, I’m proud of where I came from and I love going back to my home town as much as I can. As someone who lives in a completely different part of Australia to where I grew up, it would be nice if that part of me was still there in my voice. It’s funny how things change and we accept ourselves more the older we get. So make some slight improvements to how you sound if you like, but don’t ever change who you are.

For more tips to help you build & grow your podcast sign up to my Newsletter. (Plenty of podcast recommendations here too!)