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You could be the second coming of Albert Einstein or you could be telling people the cure for cancer, but if you use these two vocal tonalities when you speak, people will not listen.
What I just wrote has great implications for people who wish to become great speakers.
You could be absolutely brilliant and have amazing ideas to convey to people (i.e. WHAT you say), but if the WAY you say it conveys uncertainty or lack of knowledge, then your message will not get through.
And, that is a sad thing.
You could even be extremely knowledgeable, but the WAY you say something through your vocal tonality, can convey that you are not and turn people off from listening to you (when they really should).
In particular, there are two vocal tonalities that will shoot dead in the water, any message you try to convey if you use them in your speaking.
So, let me share with you what the two deadly vocal tonalities are:
(1) The “unsure” tonality
(2) The “searching tonality
The first tonality, the unsure tonality, is pretty obvious and I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
But, the second tonality, the unsure tonality, is not quite as obvious or well known.
One of the most common places where you’ll be able to see these two nasty tonalities are…surprise surprise…beauty pageants.
I’m sure many of these beauty queens are actually quite intelligent, but let’s be honest, they need work on the WAY they say things.
Watch this video (or any beauty pageant) and you’ll see countless examples of the two deadly vocal tonalities:
Now that you know what the two deadly tonalities are, let’s talk about how to fix them so you never come off like an air-headed or super nervous beauty queen.
With the unsure tonality, you need to focus on never ENDING your sentences with a rising tone.
The rising tone is what makes every sentence sound like a question, even sentences that are not questions.
When you end your sentences with a rising tone, it sounds as if you are unsure about what you are saying, hence, the name “unsure tonality”.
Again, this is a pretty obvious negative vocal tonality that most people are aware of not to do already.
So, it is nothing revolutionary, just something you need to be aware of and eradicate ruthlessly if you currently habitually do this.
And the way to do that is to simply end all your sentences with neutral or falling tone!
It’s not hard, but just be aware if you do this and implement this very small tweak.
Now, the searching tonality is not as obvious. I wasn’t even aware of this tonality until recently when I was watching these beauty pageant videos.
(Um…don’t ask me why I was doing that!)
The searching tonality comes out when you are pausing to think about what to say next, i.e. when you are “searching” for the words to say.
The hallmark of the “searching tonality” are (1) the slowing of speech, (2) a rising tone in the middle of a thought (as opposed to the end of a sentence), and (3) the extension of a word, i.e. dragging out finishing a word.
Now, it is impossible to avoid having to think when you speak, so it is very easy to fall into the bad habit of using the searching tonality.
Too easy.
Which is why it is too easy to end up sounding like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
So, in order to fix this tonality, this is what you should do:
When you get to a point within a thought where you have to think about what to say, just cut that word short.
And, make sure you do not use a rising/high pitch on that word. Instead, use a neutral pitch. Just don’t change your pitch when you get to that point in your sentence or thought where you have to think.
When you do that, it just sounds like a deliberate pause instead of making you come off as not knowing what you are talking about.
That’s how you do it!
Now that you know the two deadly vocal tonalities that you should never, ever use from now on, I hope you practice eliminating them from your speech.
When you do, you will find that people will be much more willing to listen to you.
Let me know in the comments how this advice works out for you!!
Having said, that, there is SO much more about learning to how to speak so that people listen to you.
My new program, The Million Dollar Mouth: How To Speak So People Give a F-ck, will teach you everything you need to know to GRAB and KEEP people’s attention when you speak.
For a preview and to be notified when it is finally released, click HERE or the picture below.
Hope you check it out!
