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Articles from Nancy Daniels | Selfgrowth.com
- ***Does Your Voice Complete Your Profressional Image or Detract from It? - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2014 from Nancy DanielsAs a people, we are concerned about the image we project. Certainly in business we want to project a professional image. Does your speaking voice complete that image or does it detract? By the way, I’m not talking about the voice you hear in your head. I’m referring to the sound you hear on ...
Views: 1656 - ***Does Your Voice Drop Off at the End of Your Sentences? - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2011 from Nancy DanielsIf you find that your voice drops off at the end of your sentences, you are probably male. While this problem is not confined to the male sex, it is much more common among men than women. Why this happens could be for a few different reasons. 1. Fear of Interruption. You are hoping ...
Views: 6150 - ***Does Your Voice End BEFORE Your Sentence Does? - by Submitted on May 02, 2009 from Nancy DanielsThere is an interesting lesson we learned in our early elementary school years that has managed to cause more negative results than the positive results for which it was intended. In 2nd or 3rd grade, our teachers taught us to wait until we came to the end of the sentence before taking a ...
Views: 3438 - ***Don't Just Talk to Your Audience -- Captivate Them! - by Submitted on Oct 15, 2011 from Nancy DanielsThere are so many people with so many great messages but the moment they open their mouth to speak, the sound that emanates from their lips is anything but captivating. All too often, we are so preoccupied with the message and subsequent delivery, that we never take into account the vehicle ...
Views: 1699 - ***Don't Push Your Voice - Empower It! - by Submitted on Jan 06, 2014 from Nancy DanielsOne of the difficulties people have with their speaking voice is that they have no control over it. They push hard from their throat and vocal cords to speak instead of allowing their sound to be powered by their chest cavity. And the difference between these two practices can be quite ...
Views: 1747 - ***Easy, Effective, Efficient - 5 Steps for Improving Your Presentation Skills - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2010 from Nancy DanielsPublic speaking is only as difficult as you allow it to be. Unfortunately, many people make it more difficult than it is because their fear or their nervousness is in control. If such is the case with you, then you should consider changing your approach so that you have the upper hand over your ...
Views: 3473 - ***Excessive Nasality Smothers a Deep, Masculine Voice - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2012 from Nancy DanielsSo, you’re looking for a deeper, sexier speaking voice but you’ve got a nasal twang. Does this mean that you’re stuck with a high-pitched voice? No. Is it possible to have a better sound? You bet! Most people are not speaking at their optimum pitch or within their optimum range. The ...
Views: 2219 - ***Face 10 - Figure 10 - Voice 3? - by Submitted on May 10, 2011 from Nancy DanielsYes, we are a people very concerned with the image we project. We exercise on a regular basis; we are more aware of the foods we are eating; we try to get a good night’s sleep. As women, we want to look good; and, as we age, we know it takes more work. Our clothing is of the latest fashion; ...
Views: 2137 - ***Fear of Public Speaking: Is It Justified? - by Submitted on Jan 12, 2009 from Nancy DanielsThey say that man’s greatest fear is public speaking and that his second greatest fear is dying. According to Jerry Seinfield that means, "that most people at a funeral would rather be in the coffin than give the eulogy!" To my knowledge no one has died from public speaking. Your hands may ...
Views: 2583 - ***Follow These 2 Steps to Discover Your Deeper, Richer Speaking Voice - by Submitted on Sep 07, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWe all have one – a voice that has resonance and depth. It sounds more mature but not old. It is ageless. In fact, it will continue to improve as you age. Unfortunately, 99% of the population is unaware that they have a better voice inside; and, that same percentage is unaware that their ...
Views: 3766 - ***Forget Perfection in Public Speaking - Seek Excellence! - by Submitted on Oct 11, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWhen it comes to public speaking, my most difficult clients are those of the A-type personality who are seeking to deliver a perfect presentation. Let me ask you this. What is perfection in public speaking? Do you have a definition for such a thing? The art of oral communication with an ...
Views: 1800 - ***Freezing, Forgetting, & Other Foibles In Public Speaking - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2008 from Nancy DanielsNo matter what your phobia in addressing an audience, there is a reason that man’s greatest fear is public speaking: we don’t want to make a fool of ourselves. And, no matter how many courses or programs you take, no matter which techniques you use to control, eliminate, or ignore your ...
Views: 1850 - ***Getting Rid of the Um's and Ah's Is Easier Than You Think - by Submitted on Nov 10, 2011 from Nancy DanielsWhile the phrase ‘you know’ has not yet replaced the verbal tics ‘um’ and ‘ah,’ it is gaining momentum both in the delivery of presentations and in normal conversation. If you are aware that you use one of more of these fillers, it really is not difficult to eliminate them if you willing to ...
Views: 2458 - ***Good Voice Training Is the Best Preventative for Vocal Abuse - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWhat many people may not understand about vocal abuse is that changing only one aspect of your vocal delivery will stop vocal abuse in its tracks. Done. Over. Finished. It is truly amazing when you realize that, aside from abuse which may be caused by certain prescriptive medications, ...
Views: 2148 - ***Good Voice Training Means Discovering the Voice You Don’t Know You Have - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2010 from Nancy DanielsThere are various approaches to voice training that you should be aware of if you are interested in improving your vocal image. Even some coaches who are published will not teach you the basic fundamental of good voice improvement because they are working with the voice you already have. Good ...
Views: 4271 - ***How Breathlessness and Nervousness Go Hand-in-Hand in Public Speaking - by Submitted on Oct 01, 2012 from Nancy DanielsOne of the greatest problems for the novice in public speaking is nervousness which often results in lack of air. While nervousness should be one of your greatest benefits when addressing an audience, breathlessness is not. The problem with the latter is that it increases your stress which in ...
Views: 2751 - ***How Do You Exude Confidence and Composure in Public Speaking When You Are Dying a Thousand Deaths? - by Submitted on Jan 12, 2011 from Nancy DanielsYes, nervousness in public speaking may be man’s greatest fear but those nervous jitters do not mean you cannot exude confidence and composure in the process. We often wrongly believe that the secret to dynamic public speaking is to eliminate our nervousness. Nothing could be further from the ...
Views: 4097 - ***How Fast Is Too Fast in Speaking - Be It in Conversation or at the Lectern? - by Submitted on Sep 17, 2012 from Nancy DanielsSpeaking too quickly is a problem not just for those of us who hail from one of the Mid-Atlantic States, it is a problem as well for many whose 1st language is not English. One of the fastest talkers I’ve encountered in the thousands with whom I have worked was a man from Portugal. But India ...
Views: 2060 - ***How Good Are Your Storytelling Skills in Public Speaking? - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2011 from Nancy DanielsThe value of storytelling in public speaking is undeniable. Audiences love true stories especially if they are recounted with a good description. You may use them in your opening, your closing, or place them in the development of your delivery as long as they are relevant to your ...
Views: 2208 - ***How to Address an All-Female Audience - by Submitted on Dec 15, 2010 from Nancy DanielsMy first piece of advice is to relax and enjoy it. With a doubt, an all-female audience is much easier to address than an all-male audience. Women are quicker to voice their approval and to express laughter. And, it is their response to your words or your message that can boost your ...
Views: 3889 - ***How to Address an All-Male Audience - by Submitted on Dec 15, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWhile it is definitely easier to speak to female audiences, you can have as much success with male audiences if you understand the differences between the two. In addition, knowing the makeup of the particular male audience you are addressing will be to your advantage. If the group to whom ...
Views: 3263 - ***How to Avoid Public Speaking Excuses - by Submitted on Nov 12, 2013 from Nancy DanielsI love to hear the excuses my clients give for why they did not do well at their last speaking engagement. Whatever the excuse, in most cases, the real reason for this problem is lack of preparation. I cannot tell you how many people tell me that they went over their material several times and ...
Views: 2225 - ***How to End Breathlessness in Public Speaking - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2009 from Nancy DanielsOne of the most common complaints I hear from my clients is that they run out of air in public speaking. And, not surprisingly, breathlessness at the lectern often goes hand in hand with nervousness. Let’s look at the picture in its entirety. Nervousness does not cause breathlessness. It ...
Views: 1857 - ***How To Make A 10-Minute Presentation When You Need 40 to Do the Job - by Submitted on Oct 31, 2008 from Nancy DanielsOne of the best courses I had in college was an English class on the 18th Century Novel. My professor assigned one book per week and would ask one question per book for which we were allowed to answer on only one typewritten, double-spaced page. The problem was that the question asked could be ...
Views: 3146 - ***How to Select a Topic for a Persuasive Presentation - by Submitted on Oct 15, 2011 from Nancy DanielsNothing is more frustrating than finding a topic for a persuasive presentation for your public speaking class or for Toastmasters, especially if you are not one to voice your opinion on subjects that could be controversial. If you are stymied for a topic, do some soul searching and make a list ...
Views: 2274 - ***How to Stand Out From the Crowd in Your Job Interviews - by Submitted on Oct 28, 2009 from Nancy DanielsToday, unemployment is higher than it has been for quite some long time and, in many cases, older workers are looking for a job after years of security in their former positions. For some, just the idea of being interviewed is a frightening experience. With the high number of applicants ...
Views: 2393 - ***How to Strengthen Your Voice - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2011 from Nancy DanielsVoice power is something many are lacking. Some people can talk all day without a problem but many of us cannot. Do you find your voice getting weaker as the day progresses? Do you sometimes lose your voice by the end of the day and you are not sick? If so, then you should consider voice ...
Views: 3774 - ***How to Succeed in Public Speaking When Outside Stress Gets in the Way - by Submitted on Jan 02, 2009 from Nancy DanielsThrough my many years of speaking, teaching and training, I have found that by concentrating on the moment you can move ‘above’ the stress that you may be experiencing at a given time and deliver a dynamic speech or presentation. Most actors, musicians, athletes and public speakers as well are ...
Views: 2770 - ***How to Tap the Full Potential of Your Speaking Voice - by Submitted on May 17, 2011 from Nancy DanielsSpeaking voices come in all shapes and sizes – literally. And, while you can attribute your vocal apparatus to genes, it is not just your genetic makeup that entirely determines the quality of your speaking voice. Your environment helps shape the sound of your voice as well. If you study ...
Views: 2524 - ***I Can't Believe He Said the D-Word! - by Submitted on Oct 24, 2011 from Nancy DanielsRecently I had the opportunity to hear an international speaker address a large group of women. The women’s ages ranged from their 20’s to their 60’s. While the speaker used the F-word once, the silence in the large ballroom was much more palpable when he then used a 4-letter word that begins ...
Views: 1644 - ***If Only One Voice Matters, What Is Yours Saying? - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWhen I was in graduate school studying music composition, my singing professor told me that the pitch of my speaking voice was too high and proceeded to show me my ‘real’ voice. Deeper in pitch, warm and resonant, my ‘real’ voice no longer exhibited whiny, young-sounding qualities. At the ...
Views: 3189 - ***If Voice Training Doesn't Cover Volume and Projection, It Isn't Voice Training - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2012 from Nancy DanielsThe other day I received an email from a young man who told me that he was getting a sore throat by speaking loudly at the clubs and wondered if my training dealt with volume. I had to smile when he said that he had read several books on voice and none of them talked about how to increase or ...
Views: 2375 - ***If You Absolutely, Positively Cannot Face an Audience, Try This Exercise - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2010 from Nancy DanielsWithout a doubt, most people experience some type of nervousness in delivering a speech or presentation. It is normal; it is natural; and, in truth, it is beneficial. There are others, however, who are filled with such fear and dread at just the thought of public speaking, that panic ensues. ...
Views: 2906 - ***If You Are Expecting Perfection in Public Speaking, You Will Lose the Battle - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2011 from Nancy DanielsIf you are an A-type personality, public speaking can be most frustrating for you because of your need to make your delivery perfect. One of the definitions of perfection is to be entirely without fault. Have you ever seen a theater performance or listened to a concert that was entirely ...
Views: 3034 - ***If You Are Looking for a Way to Improve Your Image, Do Not Forget Your Voice - by Submitted on Apr 22, 2011 from Nancy DanielsYou have probably heard the statistics: when you meet someone in a face-to-face situation, 37% of the image you project is attributed to your speaking voice; 55% of your image is the visual and a mere 8% your content. Whether those percentages are true is not the issue. The issue is whether ...
Views: 3214 - ***If You Are Seeking Perfection, You Just Failed Public Speaking 101! - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2013 from Nancy DanielsWhat do you think constitutes perfection in public speaking? Is it saying every word perfectly without a mistake? Is it never losing your train of thought or emphasizing a particular word in a particular sentence or smiling at the right moment? There is no such thing as perfection in ...
Views: 1576 - ***If You Are Soft-Spoken, We Can't Hear You! - by Submitted on May 28, 2013 from Nancy DanielsYou know others ask you to repeat yourself (a lot) and you know that you lose control of the conversation when people talk over you. You know you have great ideas but those ideas are not being heard because you are often interrupted. You know you are frustrated when you hear, “What did you ...
Views: 1788 - ***If You Clip Your Words, Your Message Can Get Lost - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2010 from Nancy DanielsRecently I was talking on my cell phone to a woman from my credit card company and I was continually asking her to repeat herself. When our business was completed, I told her that because of the way she clipped her words, I had missed much of what she was saying. Admittedly, had I been facing ...
Views: 5243 - ***If You Don't Believe in Yourself, Why Should Your Audience? - by Submitted on Dec 12, 2011 from Nancy DanielsOne of the most important skills you need in public speaking is the ability to believe in yourself; otherwise, why should your audience? Many people approach the lectern or the head of the boardroom table, thinking they are going to fail. If that is your approach, then your chances of success ...
Views: 2309 - ***If You Don't Know Your Material Well, You Are Selling Your Audience Short! - by Submitted on Nov 30, 2010 from Nancy DanielsOne of the secrets of good public speaking is to know your material very, very well. You may not think it a secret but you would be surprised how many people approach the lectern, the stage, or the boardroom table and do not know their script. And, the only way that can happen is if you ...
Views: 2466 - ***If You Expect to Hear What You Are Saying, They Must Be Able to 'Hear' You Saying It! - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2010 from Nancy DanielsNothing is more frustrating than not hearing the person who is speaking. The problem for the soft-spoken, however, is that they do no recognize this problem for what it is. If you are soft-spoken, the reason you are being interrupted or talked over is because others tire of straining to hear ...
Views: 2230 - ***If You Hail from New Jersey or New York, How's Your Diction? - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2011 from Nancy DanielsYou know what this article is not about? Nasality. I know, New Yorkers, you have heard it over and over again. Have you ever considered how fast you talk, however? While there is much to be said about diminishing, lessening or even eliminating nasality, one of the greatest problems for ...
Views: 2814 - ***If You Plan A Career in Public Speaking, Start With the 'Freebies' - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2010 from Nancy DanielsIn order to establish yourself in the business of public speaking, you should begin contacting local clubs and organizations in your area as soon as possible. It is important to understand that the majority of those engagements will not be paid. In fact, at this stage, I would doubt that any ...
Views: 2346 - ***If You Plan on a Career in Public Speaking, Take Notes on Your Audience - by Submitted on Apr 19, 2011 from Nancy DanielsWhen given the opportunity to speak, most people are so concerned with their material and delivery, that little, if any, consideration is given to their audience. After finishing your speech or presentation, take notes on your audience and how receptive they were as well as your specific topic. ...
Views: 2824 - ***If You Sound Like a Wimp, You Are Guaranteed Not to Get the Job or the Girl! - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2011 from Nancy DanielsI just received a phone call from a young man who asked if I was hiring. I am not hiring; however, were I looking for help with my business, this man would definitely not be on my list of candidates. He sounded like a wimp; and, while I did not use those exact words, I suggested that in ...
Views: 3661 - ***If You're Serious About Public Speaking, You Should Be Serious About Voice Training - by Submitted on May 21, 2012 from Nancy DanielsI am ever amazed at the number of people in public speaking who never give any consideration to their speaking voice. Concerned about their physical image, their content, and their delivery skills, they have yet to realize that the vehicle for transmitting their message is the voice. And, it ...
Views: 3647 - ***If Your Nervousness Is in Control in Public Speaking, You Will Lose the Battle - by Submitted on Nov 24, 2010 from Nancy DanielsOf all the articles written on public speaking, the most frequent subject deals with nervousness and how to get rid of it. And while you may find that you are able to eliminate those nervous jitters after the first 5 minutes of your presentation, the problem is that your audience judges you the ...
Views: 2881 - ***If Your Voice Is a Monotone, Think Energy - by Submitted on Mar 05, 2013 from Nancy DanielsRecently I was working with one of my clients, describing how to add more color to her voice. Color is the emotion, the life, the animation one expresses in speaking. Her response to me was, “You want me to speak with more energy.” While I certainly want speakers to have an energetic ...
Views: 2089 - ***If Your Voice Is the Vehicle for Your Words, Are You Driving a Cadillac or a Jalopy? - by Submitted on Nov 23, 2010 from Nancy DanielsNo matter how great your message or how powerful your delivery, have you ever considered the vehicle or instrument that is transporting your words? What does the sound of your speaking voice say about you? If you are over 21 and sound like a teen or preteen, do you know that you image you ...
Views: 2955 - ***Is a Voice Improvement Workshop Something You Should Consider? - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2013 from Nancy DanielsToday there are numerous ways you can improve the sound of your speaking voice. There are books, CDs, DVDs, webinars, private sessions, group sessions and even Skype. I find that one of the most effective means of discovering your ‘real’ voice is the 2-day workshop. While voice training ...
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