Are you struggling to find your unique podcasting voice?

Maybe you can “fake it” and sound good on a podcast, but you struggle when it comes to sounding like you.

Remember, your voice IS your brand.

When you try to copy how someone else sounds, you’re basically just getting attention for their brand. People will say “oh man you sound like…” They’ll think of that other person when they think of you.

Your voice is not only your brand, but it’s your trademark. It’s your unique fingerprint. Develop it. Cultivate it.

I had a heck of a lot of trouble when it came to developing my own unique voice for my podcast. Let’s just say that there was a lot of trial and error. Ironically, I think that most of my problems were up in my head. There weren’t any real problems with my vocal cords.

I’ll admit it — I suffered from IMPOSTER SYNDROME. I was scared that if I started to sound like the real me, then no one would listen to my podcast. I was also afraid that when people criticized my show, it would cut so much deeper. They would be criticizing the real me, rather than some online character that I had developed.

One day, I ended up meeting a podcast listener in person. They were a video production expert and had this massive penthouse in manhattan where they would film commercials. It was pretty sick.

Anyway, I met up with them in the early days of my podcast. They gave me a few tips when it came to my up and coming YouTube channel. I got some great info on the best camera to use, how to do lighting, and even some video editing tips.

We were hanging out eating lunch when the guy leaned over and said, “You know you’re a lot quieter in person than on that show.” He took a bite of his sandwich.

“I kinda like this version of you better. It’s more natural,” he said, taking a swig of a coke can. “They’re both good, but you seem more human to me now.”

I paused and thought a moment. He was right. I didn’t sound authentic on my podcast. I didn’t sound like a human being. After that meeting, I set out on a quest to transform my voice. It led me to many vocal experts and teachers, and eventually, I was actually able to change the way that I sounded.

You can listen to the “before and after” effects of my training here.

Anyway, I wanted to put together a few tips and tricks for any podcaster out there who also is working to transform their voice. Hopefully this will help guide you in the right direction. Remember that no one else can be you. It’s your unique identity. Its powerful, when you embrace it.

1. When Did You Last Sound… Powerful?

Take a second to take inventory of your life. I want you to think back to a time when you ENJOY the way that you sounded.

That could be when you’re hanging out with friends, giving a talk in front of employees, chatting late at night at a bar, or any other scenario that comes to mind.

Chances are that you can think of SOME time when you like the way you sounded. Probably, because you sounded confident, powerful, witty, charismatic, or had the attention of whoever you were in conversation with.

You have sounded good before, so now it’s all about replicating that same mindset, speaking cadence, tonality, and volume when you’re live on a podcast. Do you get my drift? 

If you’ve never been happy with how you sounded in life, then you’ll probably want to start to drill into the actual mechanics of voice. This is what I had to do. I had to get a crystal clear understanding of the different components that make up my voice, so that, like a violinist, I could play different notes depending on my mood.

I’ve always been a little shy, awkward, and introverted, so I had to go through this bottom-up process. By the end of it, I had changed the way I sounded on my podcasts, but also in my personal life! I had many people (especially in dating scenarios) take notice of my newfound confidence.

2. Write Down Your Assumptions About Others

I know for SURE that I thought you had to speak a certain way just to get noticed as a podcast host. Not only that, but I saw everyone speaking like they had a “radio announcer voice” so… I just kind of thought that’s what you were supposed to do!

Boy, was I wrong.

You see this in a lot of industries. Some YouTubers will “hype up” the way they talk, because they think that’s what’s required to connect with their audience. Only, there are thousands of examples to the contrary.

You might even think people like Russel Brunson have a certain fast-paced crazy way of speaking, but if you actually pay attention to when they use this voice, it’s ONLY during a sales scenario. They only adopt this rhyme and cadence when they are trying to sell you something. The rest of the time, they sound like a normal human being.

Write down your assumptions of why you have to talk the way you are right now. Maybe you have seen other podcasters doing it that way, so you’re just copying them. Maybe you think you gotta shout in order to get noticed. Who knows. Write it down.

In order for you to ever truly embrace your authentic voice, you’re going to have to let go of all of the reasons you came up with. You’ll have to find counter-examples to prove to your mind that you don’t have to speak that way in order to be heard.

Don’t you get it?

You’re silencing your own voice, because you don’t think anyone would ever listen. You’re afraid, so you’re sheltering it from the world.

3. Make The Decision

You have two paths.

If you can never think of a time in your life that you liked your voice, then you have to commit yourself to improving it. I run a course called the Perfect Podcasting Voice that would greatly help you with this. I’ll show you step-by-step how to master your voice and take control of your podcasting career.

However, if you CAN think of a time in your life that you liked your voice, then it’s all about your mindset.

You need to put yourself in the same mindset as that time you recall in your memory.

This might mean:

• Relaxing yourself before a show
• Going through exercises to get more talkative
• Having pre-show banter with the guest to warm up
• Adopting confidence-building mantras to build up your conviction
• Removing any mental filters that stop you from talking off the cuff

I tend to find that your actual mindset is guided a lot by your environment. Meaning, if you’re around a bunch of your friends who already accept you, then it’s easy to be yourself. But, if you’re around a stranger or someone who you deem as being “higher in status” than you, then you might freeze up.

In these latter cases, you may need to do some more pre-interview warm ups to actually befriend your guest. This way, they don’t feel like some kind of stranger that you’re talking to. You’ll stop being robotic and start being authentic.

To be honest, I think you would also benefit from some vocal exercises to get you into a better mental state, as these exercises are designed to relax you and make you feel more confident.

No one gets on stage and just wings it. 

Actors, comedians, singers, and any form of performer will go through a gradual warming up process before they get out there in front of the crowd. Podcasters are no exception.

Just like you would stretch and warm up your muscles before a big dash, as a podcaster, you should go through regular vocal exercises to take care of and strengthen that valuable instrument, your voice!

Not only will you sound better, but you’ll also make sure that you don’t damage your vocal cords from long discussions. I know that sometimes I’m doing podcast interview after interview, and it can be a lot of stress on my own vocal cords.

Here are some effective ways that you can warm up your podcasting voice. By the way you should also look into these techniques for speaking better in general.

1. Loosen Your Jaw and Lips

This is a great vocal exercise if you don’t talk a lot in your normal life, but suddenly turn into a chatty wizard when you go on your show. A lot of the times, we forget that our lips and our jaw are an important part of our voice.

When you are “tight lipped,” or don’t open your mouth very much when you speak, you’ll find that a lot of your words sound mumbly. That’s because your lips aren’t open enough to allow the sound to travel from your vocal cords to the listener’s ears.

By “yawning,” stretching open your mouth, and practicing over-enunciating what you say, you’ll warm up your lip and jaw muscles for when you go on your podcast.

2. Do Scales to Warm Up Your Pitch

Start with the lowest and most resonant voice that you can muster, and proceed upwards saying “ah.” See how high you can go and where your voice begins to crack.

We have two types of voices:

• Chest voice: that lower, more resonant sounding voice where your chest vibrates when your chest vibrates when you talk.
• Head voice: that higher pitched, upper-range part of your voice. Singers report feeling a vibration in their head, rather than in their chest.

When you do scales, you engage both types of voices, and typically there is a break point in the middle.

3. Practice Breathing Through Your Nose

The breath is fundamental to your voice, just as it is for any wind instrument. To speak effectively, you must master your breath! This begins with breathing through your nose to moisten the air quality that you take into your lungs.

When you breath through your mouth, the air coming in is much dryer and can dry out your through, the longer you talk. It’s more damaging to your mouth. When you breath through your nostrils, the little hairs in your nose referred to as nasal turbinates (or nasal conchae) will help to moisten that air.

As an exercise, breath through your nose and then speak when you’re breathing out to get into the habit of it.

4. Lower your adam’s apple (aka your larynx)

This is a big sticking point for MANY podcasters. You gotta lower your adams apple, relax, and that way your vocal cords don’t have to do as much work. When your larynx is pulled upwards, it makes it harder for your vocal cords to fold and close. If you’re nervous or anxious, you might tighten up in this fashion.

By relaxing, you can lower your larynx, making it easy for your vocal muscles to do their work. your adams apple should be as relaxed as possible (without forcing it to lower). You’ll produce a much better quality of sound this way, and it will take a lot less effort. If possible, I’d watch a vid on how the vocal cords actually work.

As a simple exercise, pay attention to whether or not you’re tightening your adam’s apple as you talk, and relax yourself if it does happen.

5. Improve Your Body Posture

Your body IS the instrument that you’re using to command your voice. If you’re slouched over, it’s going to be hard for air to travel to your lungs effectively. The sound and volume of your voice will be effected. You won’t sound your best.

By being aware of and improving your body posture, you’ll also affect the emotional inflection of your voice. By simply having a more confident body posture, you’ll notice more tones of confidence in your voice. I discuss this more in the Perfect Podcasting Voice, my online course.

For this exercise, first assess how your body is positioned. Make sure that you role your shoulders back, that you’re sitting upright, and positioned in a confident manner.

6. Breath Into Your Diaphragm

When we’re going through our daily lives, many of us will breath into our chest. You might be stressed, nervous, or anxious. As a result, you take shallow breaths. You can feel your shoulders rising up and down, along with your chest.

To maximize the punch of your voice when podcasting, you’re gonna want to make sure that you breath into your belly, using your diaphragm. By doing this, you’ll avoid straining your voice on the podcast. You’ll also feel much more relaxed.

For this exercise, I recommend doing a little bit of meditation, but if you’re not interested in that, then just take five minutes to breath into your belly. As you exhale, practice speaking so that you get used to using your diaphragm this way.

7. Get Your Mind Nimble

As I discuss here, there is a lot more than just your vocal cords when thinking about a great podcasting voice. So much of interviewing guests and speaking on the show comes down to psychology.

If you’re not in the right frame of mind, then you’ll never be able to do things like come up with witty comebacks, illustrate concepts using beautiful analogies, or maintain your confident voice when you’re interviewing someone who’s powerful or famous.

A simple way to get your mind nimble is to practice tongue twisters, so that you can easily talk quickly. Another is to do a game of word association, so that you get used to talking on your feet and coming up with ideas on the fly.

Wanna sound natural on a podcast?

When I first started podcasting, I sounded meek, monotone, and boring.

Haha – I went from sounding like that to sounding like a radio announcer. It was freakin’ cringeworthy.

If you really wanna hear how I first sounded, you can watch the video below.

I sound pretty weird, right?

Okay, enough laughing at my expense.

I want to get into some practical and effective tips to help you discover your authentic podcasting voice. These tips will get to the root of how you sound naturally, so that you don’t sound like a caricature of yourself.

Some of these techniques might seem silly, but I promise you, if you follow along, you’ll start sounding better in no time!

1. You’re Stuck In Your Head

Have you ever noticed that it’s pretty easy to sound natural while you’re talking with your friends, but the second you go on a podcast, it’s suddenly hard to speak the same way?

You get all flustered, nervous, and you don’t feel comfortable. You don’t feel like yourself.

While you can be witty and funny with your friends, you struggle to be so on a podcast.

The reason behind this change is that you suddenly go from being relaxed and unfiltered to feeling like you need to filter the words that are coming out of your mouth. You put so much mental energy into “sounding good” that it takes you out of the present moment and you get stuck in your head.

When you’re filtered, you don’t sound organic. You’re spending too much energy carefully selecting the words you’re gonna say. You’re acting in the same nervous fashion as when you’re talking to a hot girl. It’s almost like you’re putting on a mask to avoid being yourself.

To get over this problem, I recommend that podcasters go through a specific process before they go live on the podcast. This process is designed to make you unstifled. You’ll feel more free to express yourself. You’ll stop suppressing what comes to your mind.

I detail the specifics of this method in my FREE course, The Perfect Podcasting Voice, but put simply, you’re going to want to start doing a word association game. In this game, you must NOT STOP TALKING for the span of five minutes. You ignore the critical judgement and critical faculty of your mind. Instead, you let each thought cue the next, until you’re associating each thing you say to the previous sentence.

This simple exercise will help to make you less stifled. It will get you thinking on the fly.

2. You Try to Replicate a Famous Podcaster

I’ve seen this happen countless times, where a beginning podcaster will try to sound like a pro that they admire. They will take on that person’s tone of voice, mannerisms, and common phrases.

Heck, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to doing this myself. I totally have.

I remember when I published my first few episodes in 2015 that I tried to sound like Tim Ferriss, a podcaster that I looked up to at the time. From my transitions to the ending of my show, I would mimic the way he did his.

Why did I do this?

Because I thought that meant I would get more downloads. I also though that podcasters were SUPPOSED to speak that way. Boy, was I wrong.

I remember one time, I met one of my listeners in person. He was nice enough to give me some video editing tips for my new YouTube channel, and in return I was going to give him some advice on his business. About thirty minutes into our convo, he said, “You know Sal, I’m surprised. You sound different in real life than on that show.”

Internally, I started to panic. I could feel a cold sweat forming on my forehead. Had this guy figured out that I was a sham? That I’m not as cool as he thought?

He smiled and said, “I think you should sound more natural on your show next time. You sound better in person. More human.”

The second I stopped miming others and developed my own authentic voice, I started to finally make a connection with my listeners. I had fans reaching out, saying that they felt like they personally knew me, because they had been binge-listening to my show for the last couple of months.

WOW!

To sound natural, you have to give up your persistent desire to mimic other successful podcasters or shows. This might be an internal belief, that you’re not even aware of. You have to be willing to go all in on YOU.

You don’t want to be a shallow copy of someone else. You want to be an original.

Still searching for your voice? Here’s my guide to a Perfect Podcasting Voice.

3. Use literary devices (like these)

When you talk to your friend, you don’t sound robotic. If you did, no one would listen to you. You might not realize it, but when you’re having a good time with your friends, you naturally tell stories.

You tell silly stories of what you did last week, use metaphors, and make use of analogies. Rather than having a boring logical table conversation, you two are laughing your asses off telling jokes and bonding over memories.

All too often, the second a podcaster sees that they are “recording,” they start to panic and focus on two things:

1. Talking quickly to maintain attention
2. Sticking to dry, boring, logical facts in an attempt to be useful.

No one wants to read some company memo or listen to a boring professor drone on and on about philosophy. It’s a shame, because philosophy is a really interesting subject. If only that professor had spiced things up a bit!

The way to transition from sounding inauthentic to sounding organic and natural is to use the same literary devices that all of us use in conversation. It takes a bit of practice. I run my students through specific vocal exercises to get them better at coming up with metaphors on the fly.

A simple exercise you can do at home is to take five minutes and come up with as many visual images as possible to describe an object in your surrounding view. For example:

• “The water in this water bottle is very cold. It’s almost like the kind of water you’d expect canoeing on a glacier in Alaska. Just imagine dipping your cup into that crystal clear water and taking a sip. It’d be the coldest and purest darn water you’ve tasted in your life!”

Now, I could have just said that the water was cold. That is LOGICALLY what the water is. However, by describing it visually, it makes listening to me far more interesting. I suddenly create a mental movie in my head, and I can almost taste how darn cold that water is.

Copywriters do this all the time to sell products. You can also do this on the podcast to be more authentic and relatable. I would consider incorporating:

• Analogies: situations that are similar to the one at hand. It tends to be an elaborate explanation “Life is like fishing. When you fish…”
• Metaphors: short direct comparison. “Life is a roller coaster.”
• Smilies: comparison using like or as. “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
• Stores
• And, when you can, a sprinkle of humor.

These are some easy ways that you can begin to sound more natural on a podcast. Hope they help!

Why did you get into podcasting?

There are a lot of reasons I did, but one was that I wanted to share my voice with the world!

My name’s Sal and I recently did a podcast with an expert voice coach (which you can listen to here), and I’d like to share some of the things that I’ve learned!

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog, to get more tips and my monthly podcast traffic stats :).

Here we go!

1. Slow down when speaking

Chances are, you’re speaking too fast. I have this problem more than anyone. I want to hold everyone’s attention and get out a bunch of information, as quickly as possible.

But, when you rush, stumble over your words, and use up your breath before you’re done with your message, you’re sacrificing quality for quantity.

The key here is to deliver a message with proper emphasis so that you’re listeners really internalize it. It’s not to just broadcast at them like a talking head.

For me, and some of you out there, speaking quickly is a defense mechanism because we’re afraid of losing someone’s attention.

You shouldn’t be spewing out words, like you’re a fervent talk show host. You should be speaking TO the listeners, like they are your friend. That’s how you’ll engage them.

2. Use pregnant pauses for emphasis

If you’re like me, you also fear silence.

But, watch any charismatic speaker and you’ll see that they use silence to their advantage.

They use pregnant pauses to emphasize key messages, take a breath to get ready for a next segment, or make the listener really take in what they just said.

Pauses create variety, which keeps the listener guessing and tuned in to your frequency. If you’re constantly going at one speed with little variety, it becomes much easier to tune you out.

3. Pay attention to your speaking volume

Even if you’re confident, a weak speaking volume can communicate fear, anxiety, or discomfort.

Don’t shout, but make sure that you’re speaking assertively and not trailing off. Don’t speak as though you’re looking for validation. Don’t make the listener strain to hear you.

You can also always do some audio editing to improve the base or volume of your voice.

The key here is to develop a natural speaking volume, which communicates confidence and is pleasant to listen to.

Once you have that, then you can vary your volume or pitch to emphasize points to keep a listener’s attention.

4. Be upbeat and positive

There’s no doubt that we should always be ourselves, but when we’re in public or communicating via a public forum, we should be our BEST selves.

We naturally want to listen to people who are upbeat, positive, and give off good vibes. We don’t want to listen to someone at a party who is a downer, sad, uncertain, or gives off low-energy vibes.

I hate to say that, but it’s true, and I’m actually part of the latter category.

Spend 30 minutes before the podcast episode preparing yourself to be positive, happy, and energetic.

Get yourself riled up and passionate. I like to run over talking points to warm up my vocal cords, but you could also listen to music, chat with a friend on the phone, or get some coffee.

5. Pay attention to how you’re breathing

If your vocal cords are the strings of a violin, then your voice is the bow.

Your breath is what powers the machine. You need to be in control of it if you want to speak effectively and have proper intonation, speed, and pitch.

I noticed that when I’m nervous, I naturally breathe differently than when I’m calm. This effects my speaking speed and the above mentioned variables. Therefore, when I’m nervous, I need to consciously be aware of my breath and make sure that it’s consistent, regardless of how I’m feeling internally.

The name of the game is to disconnect your emotions from your pitch, tone, volume, breathing, and etc if they are not playing to your advantage.

Ideally, your emotions should be in sync with how you SHOULD be sounding (excited, enthusiastic, confident, calm), but that’s not always the case, so you need to recalibrate.

6. Your voice = your personality

When I first started, I thought that the most important thing about delivering information is the quality of the information. But that’s not true.

It’s also about the carrier of that information. It’s about their personality (particularly if you want to sell something).

People buy from and connect with other people, not static content.

If you sound angry, people are going to think you’re an angry person. If you sound meek, people will think your content isn’t good. If you sound excited, people will be excited to listen to the rest of the episode, because something good is going to come.

People use your voice as a cue for how they should be feeling about your content or your message.

Listen to your own podcasts multiple times throughout an interval (like a month). I listen to mine when I edit them, take notes, and when they come out. It gives me a bit more perspective on how I’m sounding.

By having some distance between the time you recorded the episode and the time you listen, you’ll get a more objective view.

7. Tell a story

Although this isn’t a part of voice quality, Tracy Goodwin, the expert I interviewed, is a former actor and she had some great tips for crafting a compelling story.

People connect with stories. I personally think that they are the best way to instill emotions and communicate key bits of information.

By combining varying pitch/volume, you can tell an engaging story that has your listener’s complete attention.

As you’ll notice, this is all about sustaining the attention of your listeners. Stories are a great way to do that, whether you tell them yourself or bring them out of guests that you interview.

New FREE Course: The Perfect Podcasting Voice

8. Forget all of this once you learn it

Lastly, I think that you should forget all of this once you really learn it.

That doesn’t mean that you should stop employing these techniques and paying attention to your breathing, but once it becomes a habit, you should stop thinking about it.

A great speaker doesn’t memorize their speech or constantly think about what they’re going to say next. They’re paying attention to the audience. They’re feeling themselves in the moment. They are completely focused on the task at hand.

Learning technique helps you let go and be in the moment when you’re podcasting. That’s where authentic reactions and serendipitous moments really come from.

If you’d like to learn more, listen to my interview with this expert voice coach and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for more free content on podcasting!