My office-mate, Elisa Wood, energy writer, editor, and publisher, has this stickie note on the computer where she regularly hosts virtual meetings, conferences, and interviews. “Talk slower,” is her kindly nudge from her composed self to her harried self. She knows her communication habit: she speeds up when anxious, when excited, when raring to go. My tendency is to do the same thing during talks and trainings—gallop breathlessly ahead. My inner stickie note is a mantra: …Read on.

ACCENT vs. AFFECTATION or ( TRENDY VOCAL PATTERNS)

Accents are wonderful—we all have them! Accents are determined by country, region, culture, family, and even generation. Accents only cause a problem if the audience cannot understand our communication. So, if there is a possibility that even one person might lose our meaning due to our accents, make sure every word is heard and understood by enunciating clearly.

Affectation, on the other hand, is determined by trend.

We’re looking at the two I hear most often:

Vocal fry and up-speaking.

Vocal-fry is fine(ish). I don’t like it because I know how it impacts the vocal folds over the long-term. Not good.

As a teen, I heard it mostly in surfer and skier dudes. Now I hear it mostly in young women.

I want us all to have choice about how we use our voices, so if vocal-fry is a vocal quality you choose, go for it. But look into the physical impact.

If we find ourselves falling into vocal-fry unwittingly and want to stop, the first thing to do is…Read on.

Look at this photo of Deborah Lawrence about to start her TEDx Talk. She is, what we call in the movement technique, Nia, “RAW:” Relaxed, Alert, Waiting. She is free from this place to speak as her full self.

In order to get to this place of RAW, I help people strip away the habits and anxieties that cloud our presence. By “habit” I mean, any behavior that has a constant cadence, feels stuck in a repetitive, rhythmic pattern, is restrictive. The most exciting communication is fresh, jagged, unexpected, alive. Habits tend to appear or amplify when we feel the spot-light upon us. Habits might show up in gestures, how we hold ourselves and move, and how we use our voice. In the next few weeks, we will delve into each of these areas and play with a few ...Read on.