How to reprogram your voice to be effective in business and sales

As the famous American song says, “Make someone happy and you will be happy too!” Happiness is transmitted in the sound of your voice when you speak and it is amazing how quickly that sound affects another person. Its happy sound can give the momentary gift of hope and is a powerful way to communicate confidence and inspire others to be confident.

It was previously written that neuroscientists have established that 95% of our behavior is subconscious and habitual and that 5% of our behavior is consciously determined. The good news is that we can use that 5% to change our subconscious programming and the sound of your voice is a powerful tool to effect that reprogramming both in ourselves and in others.

Over the past several years, many have been through very challenging economic times and it is all too easy to fall for the “victim response” and sound flat, frustrated, depressed, and even angry without consciously realizing it.

I believe that none of us survive alone and that together we can create a world that supports all life, including the earth itself. I also feel that if we believe that we can create the world we want, we have to start sounding like that.

We can start by consistently sounding energetic, confident, loving, and persuasive when we speak. For me, this is the sound of hope, the sound that moves another person to feel better about themselves. “Yes, we can” should consistently sound powerful, caring, and confident.

I realize that not all of us can sound like professional speakers; however, projection and melody of speech are two voice skills that will help you sound more confident, positive, and persuasive in everyday conversation.

1. Projection is the ability to launch your voice into the listener’s ear. The amount of projection and how loud your voice is depends on how far away your listener is. Even if you are talking on the phone in a relatively low voice, you still need to project. When you project, you are sending the signal to the listener that they need to open up and pay attention.
2. Try this exercise, bring your index finger and thumb together and make the OK sign. Imagine that the “O” formed by your fingers is the opening of a megaphone, as used by cheerleaders in Dallas. Now place the “O” or the opening of your megaphone in his mouth and speak into him. You will discover that you will breathe deeply and use your breath to launch your sound and words into your imaginary megaphone. This is called projecting a well supported and focused sound. Now combine the projection with the melody of speech.
3. Speech melody is the ability to change the pitch, either higher or lower, to emphasize the words you feel are important and create a melody for your voice that is pleasant, engaging, inspiring, and motivating.
4. A single phrase that we say all the time “Hello! How are you?” Try going from a low tone to a high tone on the word “hello” to more easily attract your listener. Then start at a low pitch for the word “how” and a little higher for the word “are” and a little higher for the word “you.” The reason you go from a low tone to a high tone throughout the 3 word sentence is because you are asking a question and inviting an answer. One always raises his tone at the end of the sentence that asks a question.

In a lecture by Bruce Lipton, PhD, celebrated cell biologist, a warm human being, forerunner of the science of epigenetics and author of the Belief biology, began by stating that 95% of our behavior is controlled by subconscious programs acquired before the age of six and that neuroscience has established that the conscious mind is in charge only about 5% of the time.

Subconscious programs like walking, eating, talking, etc. They function outside of the conscious mind and therefore make our day-to-day decisions without our realizing it. These subconscious programs originate in our parents, family, and community and are often limiting and often disempowering. The good news is that the subconscious programs can be rewritten by the conscious mind to bring you back in control.

Many business professionals say they don’t like the sound of their voice. They want to change their voice and change the way people feel about them. In fact, a college student recently wrote that he has “a soft voice and others think of him as weak and not very assertive.”

When people want to change their voice, they tell me that their conscious mind has decided to reprogram their subconscious speech behavior. They have decided to take control of their subconscious by asking it to realize the oral skills necessary to speak with ease, clarity and confidence. Given a new awareness and the time to practice speaking skills, the subconscious is perfectly willing to participate. You can permanently reprogram your speech pattern and habits.

Another example is a man whose tone of voice is very easily affected by his mood of feeling totally overwhelmed on a daily basis, he stated that it is very difficult, almost impossible, for him to continuously sound engaged when dealing with co-workers and clients. I told him that his belief that the content of his message was more important kept him from appreciating participation. I suggested that he start by using inflection and modulation of the voice in his daily speech, making it sound more attractive even if he feels overwhelmed and stressed on the inside.

The inflection and modulation speaking skills were the turning point for him to change his long-standing speech pattern and the associated daunting belief that it was not really necessary for him to connect with the person he was speaking to. She began to realize that connecting with people through the inflection and modulation of her voice made her professional and personal relationships more meaningful, enjoyable, and productive.

We all need to get serious about controlling our subconscious programs. Programs that no longer serve us and were delivered to us before we could consciously think for ourselves.