This was Tim Noonan's overriding message when he spoke last night to The National Speakers Association of NZ at the Waipuna Hotel in Mt. Wellington, Auckland, on Voice and Public Speaking.
Tim, who has been blind since birth, has had a lifetime of studying voices. His vocal consciousness system emphasizes the importance of blending the warmth from our hearts with the clarity and crispness from our minds when we speak. Tim feels too many people speak only from their heads without really feeling into what they're saying.
Tim reminded us of what communication researcher and UCLA professor, Albert Mehrabian found in his studies: Only 7% of our communication is transmitted in the actual words we speak. 38% of our communication is in our voice, and 55% is transmitted visually through body language and facial expressions.
Tim also noted that Mehrabian found that when the visual component of our communication is not present, such as in media like podasts, CDs, radio interviews and telephone conversations, the importance of our voice more than doubles in significance to comprise 84% of the content of our message. The importance of the actual words also more than doubles to 16% of our message. These statistics underpin the need for us to really pay attention to the quality of our voices.
Tim said that the voice is all about resonance. The voice is an actual physical vibration we can feel - it goes into us deeply when we hear someone speak. He feels we need to listen to our intuition more when we hear someone speak to feel the person and to know whether we can trust them.
If we close our eyes, we can better hear the qualities of warmth, love, and strength, for instance, than when we’ve got our eyes open and are distracted by visual stimulation.
Tim mentioned several other teachers who were passionate about the importance of voice and vocal consciousness: Chloe Goodchild, author of "The Naked Voice", Dr. Louise Mahler, Australian speaker on vocal intelligence, and Dr. Don Campbell, author of
"How to Heal Yourself with Your Own Voice" and Katherine Scott , Canadian teacher of vocal integrity.
He also quoted poet David Whyte on the importance of the authentic voice.
One exercise Tim gave us to practise our expressiveness is to tell a story with our mouths closed, with no words. Then, we must pay attention to the tone of voice, the rise and fall of our pitch, and the changing moods we communicate.
Tim recommended that we also include 'metatalk' in our speaking, where we share our inner thoughts with our listeners spontaneously. This makes for a less structured but more real and spontaneous style, as Tim demonstrated himself. For example, as he was talking about his belief in a free flowing speaking style, he spoke his inner 'sidetalk' outloud by saying something like, "I could probably do with a bit more structure myself". With this 'metatalk', he exposed his vulnerability and some inner conflict about his balance of structure and spontaneity in speaking. As he spoke and continued to expose his humourous slightly self-deprecating inner thoughts, he was giving us all permission to be vulnerable. He made it OK for us to not be 'polished'. He made it OK for us to not put on the appearance of 'having it all together.' As if any of us really do!
Tim told me later that this was his first 'unplugged' presentation he'd delivered for fellow professional speakers and he really wanted to share more complex aspects of his work than for a general audience. He felt he would have liked to have his talk be 'more tight in some areas' but as he was unsure what aspects the audience would most want to hear about, he was continually adjusting the talk as he went, based on audience feedback and engagement.
Tim also gave us the tip to talk aloud more often to ourselves and to notice what we like about our voices. If we can learn to love our own voices, we can then express more love and warmth in our communication with others. Tim modeled a free, lively, and spontaneous way of speaking, stream of consciousness style. At first I found this very uncomfortable to follow, as I was waiting to hear some structure so I could neatly write down all the bullet points of his speech to share with you. Eventually, I realised, however, that striving to find structure was futile. Tim was helping me to break free of the strict controls I've put on myself and others around speaking. I have had a rule I learned that speeches are supposed to be linear and follow a logical progression. Do you have that rule too?
Instead, Tim was giving us all permission to be free to be ourselves completely and authentically in front of an audience, without the need for a polished performance. What a relief!
So many people feel they need to wait until they’re polished to be speakers rather than just offering who they are fully to their listeners as they are. Tim called this freestyle speaking a 'conversational keynote'. The aim is to communicate our humanity more than our cleverness and to create a relaxed, comfortable connection with our listeners.
So, I'm wondering if what I've just written is polished enough OR if it's just perfect because I've spoken about what I remember in a sincere way to share with you something I genuinely found interesting. Better for me to share now when it's fresh in my memory than wait until it's perfectly polished! Perhaps we're all better off to share NOW and not to wait any longer, until we're totally ready. Life, as the saying goes, is NOT a dress rehearsal.
So, what is it you want to share NOW that you think you'll do later when you're more ready? Take the risk to share now, however imperfectly, vulnerably, and passionately. Let the true beauty of your emotional sincerity shine through.
Thank you, Tim for modeling for us the courage to share who we are as we are talking about what we care about :-)
Also, you can check out Tim's article, "Your Voice is Your Business: Tim's Top Voice Strategies for Vocal Brilliance" here...
www.timnoonan.com.au/YourVoiceArticleByTimNoonan.pdf
Sally Mabelle c. 2009 - if you want to publish or print this article, please contact Sally for permission and include the following acknowledgement and link to my website:
by Sally Mabelle, The Voice of Leadership Specialist:inspiring clear, confident, and connected communication. www.sallymabelle.com
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