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Vocal Branding: How Your Voice Shapes Your Communication Image | Wendy LeBorgne | TEDxUCincinnati

Jun 07, 2021
Hello, it is my pleasure to be here with all of you today in those 13 syllables. You all just made judgments about me about my socioeconomic status, my intelligence level, and whether you're going to sit here and listen to me for the next 10 to 12 minutes based primarily on the perception of my

voice

. In general, none of us likes to hear the sound of our own

voice

. However, have you ever considered how others perceive you based on the sound of

your

voice? We've all made that phone call and listened to the person on the other end of the phone who had this picture in our head of what they look like only to find out that when we meet them in person they look nothing like that picture we have in our head,

your

voice.
vocal branding how your voice shapes your communication image wendy leborgne tedxucincinnati
It's like your fingerprint or your facial features, it's unique and authentic, whether you're a Fortune 100 CEO, a student looking for your first job, or one of my elite

vocal

performers, your voice is your calling card and it's the most important element in your personal brand if we think about marketing and

branding

for a moment and when things come into a logo or brand we talk about fonts, colors and

image

s that are designed to evoke a certain emotion in a target audience and if we do not achieve that goal then we go back to the marketing drawing board, we recreate it and it's the interaction of those elements of color and logo that ultimately goes into that emotional response, we take it and we'll compare it to the personal brand and your voice is the most important element . of your personal brand is how people perceive you and personal brand is what people say about you right when you leave the room, so what are those elements that go into brand voice?
vocal branding how your voice shapes your communication image wendy leborgne tedxucincinnati

More Interesting Facts About,

vocal branding how your voice shapes your communication image wendy leborgne tedxucincinnati...

As a voice pathologist for the last 20 years, my job has been to look at what elements are present in the most elite voices, what recruits them professionally, and how we maximize those elements, it goes far beyond the words we say correctly, for There's that old saying that it's not just what you say, it's how you say it. and there are a lot of coaches that talk about intonation and things like that, but the reality is that it is the combination of certain elements that go into creating your voice brand, so let's take a look at these five elements.
vocal branding how your voice shapes your communication image wendy leborgne tedxucincinnati
The first thing is the intensity of the voice. The intensity is something. that we can measure we measure intensity in decibels our perceptual correlate of intensity is volume and our prejudices are cultural prejudices our personal prejudices our aesthetic prejudices of volume influence our perception my 13-year-old son's perception of volume is very different from my threshold of volume but intensity is something that can be measured we know there is a comfort level for intensity if I take a simple phrase I need you to do this today and the only element I change is the intensity I need you to do this today suddenly all of you give a small step back because suddenly I am perceived as aggressive, assertive or potentially enthusiastic if I were at a sporting event if we take the same phrase and all I do is change intensity.
vocal branding how your voice shapes your communication image wendy leborgne tedxucincinnati
I need you to do this today. I'm potentially perceived as shy or unsure of what I'm talking about, so intensity as an element alone contributes to this overall idea of ​​

vocal

branding

. The second element that goes into speech marking is inflection or intonation in music, very rarely do we hear a piece that is on a single note from beginning to end will be quite boring, so international speech patterns are those that make it interesting. At the two extremes we have a very sing-song rhythm where it sounds like you're talking to a two-year-old all the time and you're perceived as unintelligent in what you're saying or we have the complete opposite where someone doesn't totally change your tempo or their inflection in absolute.
I need If you do this today, they're bored, they're not interested in what they say, and they're not connected to that in today's culture. An inflection sound that tends to be very pervasive in everything we hear is this idea of ​​Talking everything ends with a question, there is never a statement and what we know is that it is actually preventing people from getting jobs because they are not completely sure of themselves. The third element that goes into your branding is speed, that is, how fast or how slow. you speak, the average pace of our favorite TED talk is between one hundred and sixty-two and one hundred and seventy-five words per minute.
I hope to be within that range. I haven't actually measured my speaking rate and I'm pretty sure. has sped up today in front of you right now, but the average speech rate is important and many times we will hear people say to slow down, slowing down alone is not going to change the overall vocal mark again, it is the interaction of the components that are going to change your voice brand, so if we have a super fast speaker, I needed you to do this today, suddenly you feel super, you're a little agitated and what they have to say is correct similarly if we go down speed.
Lower that rate of expression I need you to do this today I'm perceived as condescending because I'm talking down to you because I'm speaking very slowly, like in music, it's the give and take of the rhythm of what we do makes it interesting, so If we take that sentence, I need you to do this today and within that sentence we change the rhythm or the tempo, I need you to get to stun today, that makes it much more interesting for our listeners, right? the fourth element is frequency frequency is measured in hertz and we know that there is normative data for men, women and children here in the United States and abroad on what the average fundamental frequency should be for us to like their voice if the tone of your voice is too loud I need you to do this today generally for women high voices are perceived as young although a little less intelligent mm-hmm if we lower the tone of the voice I need you to do this today in women that is, perceived as authoritarian sometimes if we also increase the intensity with it I need you to do this today we have all read that we suddenly crossed that line to be aggressive interestingly the average frequency of women's voices decreased after 1960 because in the women's lib era when we had That sitting at the table with our male counterparts we needed to compete vocally, which is why the average fundamental frequency fell in this country after 1960 because we know that men with lower voices make more money, father more children, and hold higher leadership positions. and that's not only true in the human species, it's also true in animal species, with the exception of making more money because I'm not sure animals make more money, but the males in the group with the lowest voices are the ones. leaders. the pack and do it more frequently, which inherently results in more children, so frequency becomes important.
The fifth parameter that is interesting in our voice brand is the quality and the quality can vary from clarity of voice to hoarseness, a rough and hoarse voice or voice in my elite voice. The uniqueness of the performers is hired, it's not always a perfect voice, but it is an interesting voice and sometimes that means the voice can be a little hoarse. One of the ubiquitous elements of quality today is this idea of ​​glottal frying, which is what you heard me do. I need you to do this today, we hear this all the time, especially among our upper middle class white women, it's ubiquitous and it's actually part of a social culture phenomenon that we see thanks to some of the Kardashians, but that glottal lift is super omnipresent. and what we know is happening is that we now have technology called voice biometrics where when you call a human resources company for a job and I say hello, my name is Wendy, they run my voice through an algorithm and determine that the characteristics of my voice are it's not nice and I don't even get an interview, so those five elements are ultimately what make up your voice brand, so we'll take our phrase.
I need you to do this today in a sexy voice in light of the fact that it's Valentine's Day. week for women the intensity will drop to be perceived as a highly inflected sexy inflection the pace slows down a lot the frequency of my voice will decrease and the quality adds encouragement eNOS I need you to do this today right, everyone perceives it as some version of sexy right at the Ultimately our voices are made up of cartilage, ligaments and muscles and we can train those elements of the voice brand. We move forward one more slide.
We can train those individual elements of the voice mark using the principles of exercise physiology and the principles of motor learning. to maximize what you have because your voice defines you and your voice can empower you, so you want to think like a vocal athlete and maximize those elements to create your ultimate voice brand, thank you.

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