New York Executive Speech Coach » Voice and speech training

Sims Wyeth & Co. offers Training the Speaking Voice

SimsBeth — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:58:04 +0000

Client facing skills are the skills of a dynamic and purposeful conversationalist. The medium of conversation is the voice, and as Marshall McLuhan said, the medium is the message, or at least a large part of it.

A speaking voice that lacks clarity and expression can undermine the success of an otherwise bright and talented individual. And when there is a regional or foreign accent present, the challenge can be even greater.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides voice and speech training for executives and professionals of all stripes who need to have their voice and speech do justice to their knowledge and professional abilities.

The process begins with a diagnosis of the clients’ needs. A curriculum is then developed to address those needs, light homework is provided, and teacher and student meet regularly to address those speech habits that require improvement.

The method emphasizes “the whole voice.” In private and group instruction, clients learn that the voice is a wind instrument. They learn to strengthen the breath stream, open the back of the throat, release the jaw, and expand their verbal expressiveness, so that the speakers’ logic is more evident, and their personal presence more appealing.

The method also helps speakers improve their diction. Physical exercises requiring the student to increase the mobility of the tongue and lips can change the speech and vocal habits of a lifetime. Drills and cold readings challenge the speaker to use greater range in pitch, volume and speed, which can lead to greater confidence and the ability to be more assertive. The physical change can give birth to a psychological change.

Course materials include written exercises, and digital sound files for student practice.

About the instructor

Sharon Wyeth is a veteran voice and speech coach to executives in high tech, pharmaceuticals, professional services, theater and other industries. She is the former head of the Voice Department at Actors and Director’s Lab, then part of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

“My goal is to bring out the best in my clients,” says Sharon, “which means insisting that they speak with confidence, conviction, and clarity without sacrificing what makes them unique.”

She holds a B.A. degree with honors from Harvard University and an M.F.A. with distinction, from Hunter College, City University of New York.

General areas of study:

1. Breath control

2. Clarity of articulation and accent reduction

3. Expressiveness, i.e. pitch, volume, speed, inflection

4. Alignment: an area where qualities of vocal expression are aligned with intention. For example, clients often need to sound “enthusiastic” or communicate “confidence” in their products.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

Training the speaking voice

SimsBeth — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:28:07 +0000

In her work with clients, our voice and speech coach Sharon Wyeth often works with people who are soft-spoken.

As she introduces her voice and speech students to breathing techniques that strengthen the voice, she finds it necessary to differentiate between volume, projection, and intensity—three words that at first glance appear to be synonymous—but upon closer scrutiny have useful and distinct shades of meaning.

Volume implies loudness, or number of decibels. However, we’ve all encountered deranged people on the streets who have loud voices. And any sane person who is consistently loud, no matter the social circumstance, will have difficulty building a trusting relationship with an audience of any size. So loudness is sometimes necessary for an effective vocal presence, but certainly not sufficient.

Good presentation skills require adequate decibels, but they also need the voice to project to its intended listeners. This means it must carry the intention to connect with those it seeks to influence. It must be suitable for the environment, appropriate for the audience, and couched in a discriminating awareness of the occasion. It is volume moderated by calibrated intention.

Finally, in addition to volume and projection, a highly effective voice has intensity. Sharon defines intensity as the expression of emotion, or conviction. Intensity implies belief, confidence, and intellectual certainty. Intensity has energy, a sense of urgency and excitement.

The words we use to describe a good speaking voice, one suitable for highly effective presentations and speeches, are similar to those we use to describe music. As we train the speaking voice to be stronger, we increase its musicality, and thus expand its capacity to hold attention and influence the thoughts and feelings of others.

How to stop speaking too fast during your high stakes presentation

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:19:29 +0000

We all know speaking too fast during our high stakes moments is not good, for us or our listeners. It makes us sound nervous, disorganized and hard to understand.

So what can we do in private to teach ourselves to slow down?

Here’s a presentation tip, practice the following voice and speech training techniques every day:

Break your speech into breath-groups

A breath-group / is basically a phrase. / For instance, / if I were to recite / the Gettysburg Address, / I would take a breath / at each of the following marks./

Four score and seven years ago / our fathers / brought forth / on this continent / a new nation, / conceived in liberty / and dedicated to the proposition / that all men / are created equal./

Start by whispering each phrase, and use up all your air on each phrase. Take your time, (count at least to 3) when breathing in at the breath marks.

Don’t grab with the muscles of your throat when whispering. Keep an open, relaxed throat so the air can stream out without any tension.

Honor every consonant

When whispering in short phrases, pronounce every syllable (every letter!) with care and love. Lavish your attention on each little letter. Hold the “n”s and the “m”s longer than you normally would. If you whisper the word, “lavish,” you can stretch out the “L” the “V” and the “SH.”

Paying attention to each of the building blocks of speech will help you slow down, and will teach your tongue and lips to shape each and every element of the words you speak.

There are other voice and speech training techniques, but this is a good place to start. Ten minutes a day is a good regimen and the beginning of your own public speaking course boot camp. Mark a newspaper or magazine article into short phrases and whisper it, breathing at all the breath marks.

Let me know when you make progress, share the results of your next high stakes presentation, or call if you have any questions.

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Movie Review: The King’s Speech

admin — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:13:38 +0000

It begins with an agonizing silence–The Duke of York standing at a microphone in Wembley Stadium trying to bring the world’s greatest exposition to a dignified conclusion for the entire British Empire listening on the radio. His stammering and stage fright make him unable to speak.

In the historical moment, when the new medium of radio is the new global technology for the dissemination of the English language, this is a crisis both personal and institutional.

The institution of the monarchy is shaken by the death of George V, the Duke’s father, and the abdication of Edward VII, the Duke’s brother, leaving the stammering Duke (and future king) to be regent of the Empire as Hitler sets war in motion.

The country needs a king it can stand behind in its darkest hour. The Duke and his wife search for a speech teacher, and after engaging a few quacks, find a keeper in Geoffrey Rush playing Lionel Logue, the Australian son of a brewer smitten by Shakespeare yet lacking in the peculiar talents required for the thespian art.

Nevertheless, Lionel is a fine teacher, and pulls the King out of his tailspin to stir the nation with his radio addresses to the Empire.

If you’ve ever had stage fright; if you’ve ever stuttered; if you like anything English; if you like eavesdropping on Royals; if you are fascinated by history; if you love Shakespeare and “sad tales of the death of kings”; and if you want to see two or three extraordinary performances in one movie, go see this film.

I particularly liked it because it casts a speech teacher in a heroic light. There is in the film acknowledgement that through his speech, the King confers an identity on his people, that through his personal courage in overcoming his affliction, he communicates courage to the nation.

As the new King is left alone and ill-equipped to lead by the death of his father and the abdication of his brother, so is England left alone in Europe to confront the German war machine. The king rises to his challenge, and in so doing, embodies the story of his people.

Presenting for Results is Reborn

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:55:36 +0000

I am excited about the rebranding of our public program, an executive education experience called Presenting for Results^SM.

This is not like other executive education programs. It is creative rather than analytical. It calls on the imagination more than the intellect. It asks that you work from the neck down as well as from the neck up. It demands presence more than subject matter expertise. And it attempts to get you to care more about audience outcomes than you do about how you look.

Presenting for Results^SM is designed to serve our client base in New Jersey and the larger metropolitan area, where so many large organizations must attract and retain executive talent. Talent is considered the scarcest commodity in business, and perhaps the key differentiator.

While I agree with the premise, (that talent is important), I think the statement is missing a qualifier. It would be more accurate to say that “developed talent is the scarcest commodity.” Everyone has talent lying dormant in the cells of their body. It requires effort to wake it up and get it in shape.

Presenting for Results^SM is designed to develop the most valuable talent that a person or a business can have—the ability to communicate well. Most of our careers depend largely on how we speak, write, and think, in that order. But nobody knows or cares what we think until we speak or write, and these days, no one has time to read. (Geez, why am I writing this?)

So speaking is crucial to those of us who aspire to leadership and influence. And speaking not so much about information that we’ve mastered, because information can be gotten in any number of ways, but speaking in order to make people feel something.

Feelings create actions, and that’s what good speaking is about, and what Presenting for Results^SM is about too.

To register, or to download the brochure, go to http://www.simswyeth.com/services/pfr/ And if you know people who could benefit from an invigorating educational experience, would you please forward them this post?

Scientific research on communication

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:41:51 +0000

I was steered to a web video the other day by an e-mail from a friend, and found myself in a garden of presentation skills coaches (also on video), many of whom quoted research done by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of Stanford University.

You may be familiar with the data, which suggests that voice and body language carry much of the message spoken by a presenter, while the actual words used carry much less meaning.

I have spoken to Dr. Mehrabian, who is now retired and dealing in antique musical instruments. He is powerless to do anything about this misunderstanding of the findings of his research.

As a professor at Stanford, his research investigated how human beings communicate emotion. His data do not suggest that the fine distinctions needed for strategic plans, legal arguments or scientific presentations are communicated predominately by voice tone and body language.

His data do suggest that humans communicate emotion primarily through tone of voice and body language, which confirms intuition and/or common sense. They do not suggest that the entire meaning of your careful and thoroughly prepared presentation is carried by your voice and body.

How you feel about your content is important, but it’s not the whole story. Of course your delivery is important, but it is in service to ideas made of words that delivery earns its value.

Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

How to work with a speech writer

admin — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:38:50 +0000

Senator Howard Baker said that he and his speech writers had a great relationship. “They write what they want me to say, and I say what I think.”

They got along just fine.

The remark points to the essential challenge of speech writing: it needs to be done in the voice of the speaker.

This is important because the speaker will be more effective if the text of the speech is aligned, in style and substance, with the way he thinks and talks.

There are great speakers who can read anything from a page or a teleprompter and make it sound like them. President Obama is good at this, as was President Reagan.

In fact, anyone continuously in front of crowds develops a knack for reading text.

But most of us are not up at the lectern every day, and so we need a speech writer who has the ability to collaborate with us—who has a good ear for our speech patterns, and can get our thoughts into the right words.

A collaboration with a speech writer should begin with your thoughts about what you want to say and what you want your audience to think, feel, and do after hearing your speech.

Your speech writer should also explore with you the problem that you are trying to solve for your audience. Audiences like it when your speech is all about how they can solve a problem or capitalize on an opportunity.

Audiences like speeches that are short, humorous, and generously sprinkled with stories. But make sure that the humor is your own, not offensive, and takes a back seat to the point you want to make.

Similarly, the stories in the speech should be your own. A good speech writer should spend time with you talking about your life experience and pull some stories out of your memory. Of course, if your speech writer offers you a story that you can make your own, use it. Just make sure you practice enough so that it feels natural.

For some of us, the chance to speak is rare, and so it leads us to want to say everything. Your speech writer should be firm. You can only say a few things to an audience before they get dazed and confused.

Make sure your speech writer doesn’t use any big words that are undeliverable. Undeliverable is one such word. So is indomitable, which can come out as “indominabubble.”

William Safire, the great speech writer for President Nixon and columnist for the New York Times, was once asked for a synonym for indomitable and gave indefatigable. He was fired on the spot when someone nearby suggested steadfast. Safire says in retrospect that he now sees he was intransigent.

In plain language, your speaking style should never be fancier than you are.

Above all, when you deliver your speech that someone has helped you prepare, you must feel comfortable with it and sound natural. The pleasure of listening to a good speech depends on the connections that can exist between the elements of the occasion.

First, there is the speaker and the speech. They need to connect.

Then, there is the speaker and the audience. The speech should help the speaker create that connection, and not get in the way.

And within the speech, your own thought should connect with the writer’s language deployed to express it.

Finally, the speaker needs to connect with his own feelings, and rehearse enough so he can bring to the occasion, with his voice, gestures, and the vivid words of his speech writer, a full-throated belief in what he is saying.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Defining Presence

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:02:46 +0000

Presence is like pornography: it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it, or in the case of speech, see and hear it.

Presence is a powerful commodity, one that leaders, entertainers, and influencers of all types would like to have. In fact, anyone who wants to be persuasive on the job or in social settings covets it.

Three questions. First, admitting that it’s hard to define, can we sketch in its elements? Second, can we cultivate it? And if so, how?

What are the elements of presence?

Let’s start with what it’s not. It’s not beauty or physical attractiveness. There are lots of Barbies and Kens who look perfect and lack presence.

It’s not intelligence. The socially inept genius is a cliché.

It’s not talent, because some creative people are dull in person but vivid and electric in their work.

So what is it? Here’s my attempt to describe it. Presence is confidence, composure, and responsiveness. It is the capacity to communicate with others in an emotional, intellectual, and expressive manner.

Can presence be cultivated?

I believe it can be developed through deliberate practice, which is a term that has emerged over the last few years to describe how average people achieve extraordinary results.

Actors, singers, dancers, figure skaters and speakers all try to cultivate it. It’s part of their job. For some, it’s a performance, for others it comes naturally.

Presence could include posture and a self-possessed quality of movement. It could include an appealing voice, a sense of humor, the capacity for intimacy, and the ability to respond to the signals you pick up from others.

Presence can also derive from the perception that you don’t care whether people like you or not. Since we are deeply social creatures, a person willing to walk away from the herd tends to get attention.

How can we cultivate presence?

Be curious. Endlessly curious. Be a good listener. Ask a lot of questions. Sit up straight. Be expressive when listening. Acknowledge what the other person has said so that they feel heard and recognized.

Dress in order to dignify your encounters with others. Have convictions and express them with care for the views of others. Develop your voice so that it is resonant and musical.

Explain your point of view knowing what history and science have to say about organizing your thoughts for maximum persuasiveness. Take such an interest in your audience that you care more about their understanding than you do about the outcomes.

This is an important point. If you have an objective you want to achieve, others sense it, and feel that you are talking at them, not with them or to them. You have to start where they are, and lead them from that spot toward the spot on which you would like them to stand.

In other words, you must be highly empathetic, highly assertive and highly expressive. None of us bats 1000 on all three, but presence is a journey not a destination.

It will come and go depending on the circumstances. For some of us who are shy, or young, and surrounded by those with more power and experience, we will have to fake it ‘til we make it.

But the best way to change behavior is to practice changing behavior. We can behave in a manner that is outside our comfort zone for short periods of time, and when we repeat those short periods for lengthier periods, we begin to find a new way of being.

And that can serve us well.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills andpublic speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

UPMs: The Filler Word Debate

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:00:10 +0000

Twice last week I encountered speakers with a high number of UPMs: Uhms Per Minute.

I was willing to forgive one of them. His UPMs were around 16. I wasn’t so easy on the other guy. His UPMs were around 12, but they were more disruptive.

I’m not sure why. Let me blog out loud.

The guy with the higher UPM rate was older, and the Chairman of a company. He spoke with quiet confidence at a thoughtful pace, taking his time to choose his words carefully. It was during his thoughtful moments that his UPMs came out. They were quick and discreet UPMs, like tiny bubbles of sound.

The guy whose UPM rate was about 12 was much younger, in his late 20s, and he spoke quickly. It could be that his youthful appearance and the rapidity of his speech combined to create an impression of insecurity, which was made worse by the presence of his uhms.

His UPMs seemed to be signals of anxiety, whereas the Chairman’s UPMs seemed to be quirks or eccentricities. No one could argue that the Chairman had not had a successful career. He is at the top of his industry, and at the top of his game.

I could say no such thing about the younger guy. He looked nervous, sounded nervous, and made me nervous about his ability to do the job being asked of him.

Could it be that the Chairman’s credibility could withstand the presence of 16 UPMs, while the younger guy’s relative youth and inexperience made his credibility vulnerable to the presence of a mere 12?

I think so. The Chairman would be a better speaker, and a shorter one, if he cleaned up his act. But the younger guy is going to have to find a sense of ease in front of a crowd, and that will take a whole different set of muscles.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

NY Voice and Speech Training Helps Overcome Fear of Public Speaking

simswny — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:03:25 +0000

Busy executives who want to improve their public speaking skills now have a new opportunity to master effective speech and public presentation techniques with “Training the Speaking Voice”.

We are judged by how we speak, write, and think-in that order. That’s why it’s crucial that professionals speak their thoughts in a manner that is easy to understand, and inspires trust and respect in their listeners. Training the Speaking Voice, is a developmental process customized for each individual and group to achieve targeted outcomes.

We created the program after an increase in demand from executives and professionals seeking ways to improve the clarity and impact of their sound and enunciation, or with those who speak English with a regional or foreign accent.

The program is excellent for public speakers or executives looking to enhance their professional opportunities with dynamic speaking capabilities. The exercises open up new possibilities for self-awareness as well as professional and personal growth.

Typical voice and speech training issues include:

speaking too softly
speaking too quickly
lack of expression (monotony of pitch, volume, and speed)
vocal fatigue
too many “ers” and “uhms”
an accent that makes the speaker hard to understand

About Training the Speaking Voice

Training the Speaking Voice is an Executive Education Program, customized for each individual and/or group, to achieve targeted outcomes.

Candidates for the program include those whose clarity or personal impact is impeded by an accent, or by less than optimal voice and speech habits.

The program follows an intuitive path.

First, we record & identify the voice or speech challenge.
We introduce exercises to address the issues.
The candidate receives coaching in person, and practices on her own.
We measure the change, report the results, and provide guidance for continuing growth and awareness.

To support the face-to face instruction, we provide easy to use written materials, customized recordings for home (or car) study, and web and phone tutorials.

More information is available online at http://www.simswyeth.com/services/voice-speech-training

Training the Speaking Voice

simswny — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:16:56 +0000

When I was in acting school in New York, I was sent to a famous voice and speech teacher named Marian Rich. She lived in an apartment on East 16th Street, and taught her group and private sessions in her living room. As a group student, I sat in a circle of folding chairs and got to know the other students rather quickly.

Marian had taught many of the luminaries of Hollywood and the Broadway stage, including Marlon Brando, Geraldine Page, and Al Pacino, to name a few. She was a demanding teacher, and did not tolerate bad attitudes or behaviors.

She taught us that the voice is a wind instrument, and that to use it well, we must start by learning how to breathe. This we did, lying on the floor, observing our lower abdomens, floating ribs, lower backs,and upper torsos as we inhaled and exhaled with care and precision.

We learned to find the energy of the voice in the breath stream rather than in squeezing the throat or lifting and dropping the sternum.

We learned to speak with an open throat, to find our optimal pitch and resonance, and to expand our range of expressiveness. I recall Marian saying that in well-spoken English, there is a change of pitch on every stressed syllable.

Most of us don’t like hearing our own voices. One reason is that we normally experience our own sounds through the conduction of bone, whereas a recording is made through air–the way others hear us–two very different media.

The sound of your voice is a huge part of your presence in this world. If you have an attractive voice, people give you the benefit of the doubt.

If you have a deep, powerful, authoritative voice, people are more likely to agree with you.

If you have a tentative, whiney voice that goes up at the ends of sentences, you are more likely to be dismissed as a lightweight.

The great thing is, your voice can be developed, expanded, strengthened. It is there for you to mold into a thing of beauty and power.

If you don’t like the sound of your own voice, you can change it.

I know this, because I did it. And it’s not a phoney, cosmetic change. It’s basically knowing how to use the equipment you were born with.

Public Speaking Success Tips: Accoustics Setup

simswny — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:25:36 +0000

Bad Accoustics Distract From Speaker’s Message

I recently attended an event in a school auditorium where I listened to three speeches. While the hall itself was elegant, the acoustics made it difficult to hear the speakers.

What could have been done to make the speeches more accessible to the audience? Here are some suggestions on proper accoustics setup for public speaking:

1. Reduce the echo in the room. For this, I suppose one would have to hire an expert in acoustics.
2. Get a better public address system, with more speakers in more places, with a sound engineer constantly adjusting the quality of the sound to make the most of the voice doing the speaking.

3. Teach those doing the speaking how to speak into a microphone so that their vowels and consonants will be heard. This can be taught by a private speech coach.

Part of this is voice projection, which comes from breath control. Part of it is enunciation, which comes from training the muscles of the tongue and lips to shape each sound like an Olympic figure skater. And part of this is simply learning to stand still and find the proper distance between mouth and microphone.

I was impressed with each of the speakers, but I had to work like a mule to hear what they had to say.