"Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all." Helen Keller
In the 1962 movie, “The Miracle Worker”, a young Helen Keller, deaf and blind from a brain fever at 2 years old, found her voice through the efforts of Annie Sullivan who broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing Helen to blossom as she learned to communicate.
Annie gave Helen the gift of sign language: the one power she needed to communicate with the outside world and become a national symbol of courage. With her new found confidence Helen Keller became one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, author of many books, international lecturer, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.
This anecdote beautifully illustrates one of the most important reasons you may not be advancing in your career.
The director of operations for a small IT company, who was taking my online Speaking Voice Workshop, shared this comment. “I am currently hiring new people and many of the applicants look great on paper, however, when I interview them they are difficult to understand”. “I myself am an Israeli with an accent; however I am in this workshop to speak even better”.
As the famous American song says, "Make someone happy and you will be happy too!" A happy positive sound is a powerful way to communicate confidently and inspire others to be confident. Use your voice in an uplifting and positive way and just watch how quickly the gift of positivity affects your client, patient, or customer.
It was a long time ago when this was said to me and it has stuck with me through the years for many reasons.
I know I’ve used it many times when helping clients to speak more confidently, clearly and powerfully. Too often they were slow to grasp the power of the speaking voice to be more influential in business and/or to make money in the market place. This uncertainty and indecision could cause them to miss out on a great opportunity for success.
After teaching voice, speech & accent reduction for 25 years to over 40,000 people, I have seen how powerful and transformative it is to speak with a confident, clear and persuasive voice.
No matter where you are in the world, people who speak well are more successful in reaching their goals both personally and professionally.
The Wall Street Journal reports that CEOs who have trained their speaking voice remain in their jobs longer and make over $150,000 more a year. Why, because they have taken the time to develop a charismatic leadership voice.
