One of the things I’m constantly coaching aspiring television hosts away from is that fake newscaster voice. If you don’t know what I mean, think of Ron Burgundy from Anchorman and how he talked, or close your eyes and picture a stuffy old news anchor saying, “Our top story today is gridlock in Congress and how that’s going to affect your wallet. Let’s go live to Capitol Hill for the latest.” If you’re envisioning it the way I hope you are, it sounds really boring and really phony. Just because you’re delivering hard news doesn’t mean you have to sound like a news person.

I end up spending a good amount of time coaching aspiring broadcasters out of these habits and helping them rediscover who they are, because it seems like they’ve forgotten it along the way. It’s the same for public speakers. Many public speaking clients come to me essentially trying to impersonate successful speakers they’ve seen. They come in with a really cool energy, but as soon as they start reciting their speech they sound overly proper. Or, they go the other way and curse every five words. I can tell, in both situations, that’s not who they authentically are, so it doesn’t resonate. To be honest, even if cursing every other word is who you are, I personally wouldn’t recommend it. You certainly don’t need to sound like a stodgy English professor, but constantly swearing because “that’s how you talk” when you’re with your friends will probably alienate a lot of people and you might have trouble being taken seriously.

Whatever words you end up saying, say them in YOUR VOICE. Don’t put on an unnatural voice because you think you’re supposed to. Don’t change who you are. I always say, on camera you should be a heightened form of yourself: more energy, more presence but the same person. It’s much easier when you just have to concentrate on being yourself. THAT’s how you’ll get people to connect with you.

To chat more about public speaking and media coaching, just contact me here.

Have a great day!

Dave