Now for a more personal take on speaking effectively on Zoom. As I’d said, one of my former voice clients, Richard Draper, agreed to speak to me about his experience on Zoom.
Before coming to me, Richard had already had years of training and time spent both in front of and behind the camera. As a longtime broadcast television reporter, former media manager for Intel and now the New Mexico state director for a nationwide health system nonprofit, Richard has trained plenty of others on how to speak well—with confidence and authority—on camera.
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Although Zoom first went public in 2013, it probably didn’t cement its presence in peoples’ overall consciousness—and their daily lives, especially their daily working lives—until the pandemic hit in early 2020. After passing its 1,000,000thuser in May 2013, by April 2020 (at the height of the coronavirus lockdown), Zoom had topped 300 million daily meeting participants—a figure it has maintained since then (and, if you’re into percentages—that lockdown bump represented an increase of 2900% from the year before).
According to Notta, an AI-powered audio transcription tool company, “Remote work,” since the pandemic (and along with other advances in technology and changes in how we work), “made virtual meetings the norm in many organizations, and video conferencing tools became more popular.” Also, according to Notta, there was this informational nugget: “Virtual meetings grew from 48% to 77% between 2020 and 2022 . . . evidence that virtual meetings have come to stay.”
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Maybe it’s because I’m a singer that I just naturally know that one’s voice has an intrinsic, almost automatic relationship to happiness. Singing brings me untold joy. And connection—to myself and to others. And it’s not just based on my own personal feeling or intuition. Over the last 20 years, researchers and study after study have shown that singing—
--boosts your immune system, thereby staving off illnesses
--lowers the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, in our bodies
--releases endorphins (the peptides that relieve pain and reduce stress)
--releases oxytocin (aka the “love hormone”) and increases our sense of connection and wellbeing
--assuages grief
--improves mental health and one’s mood
And lastly, and of particular relevance to my work as a voice coach—
--improves one’s speaking abilities, especially among people who have autism, Parkinson’s, aphasia or who stutter
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My best piece of advice: practice. Practice by yourself. Practice with a friend. Make one or two or even three podcasts that you can listen to afterward.
That’s the best first thing you can do: a dress rehearsal. Listen to it. Take notes on what you’re hearing—in your voice, in your rhythm, the way you ask a question, the way you listen to whoever it is you’re interviewing, other sounds, the quality of the recording itself, your tone, your mood, your presence. These are all elements of a podcast that you’ll want to work through before you actually post your first podcast.
I myself have done about a dozen podcasts now—The Celebrate Happiness Roadshow Podcast with Sandra M —and even for me, a voice coach who’s been training other people for over 40 years on how to be a better speaker, a better listener, a better communicator, I have learned a great deal.
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Project! Project! Project! Come across vividly, make a memorable impression, and gain that ever-elusive competitive edge over all the other speakers in the room. Projecting gives your voice power and keeps your message ringing in the ears of your listener. When you were young, parents, teachers, coaches probably bombarded you with that word constantly: “project.” Don’t be such a wallflower. Put yourself out there. Make yourself heard.
The problem is, nobody really tells you how to do it. And most people mistakenly confuse “project” with “Shout!” “Be louder!” So it forever remains a mystery—and an unused tool for communicating well, especially speaking well and getting your message across to others.
It’s a shame because projecting is what makes people sit up and listen. Have you ever said something important in a business meeting and no one pays attention, and then five minutes later the person four chairs away says the same thing and gets all the credit? Why? You got it: he or she projects themselves loud(ly) and clear(ly).
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