Master Your Voice, Own Your Message

TLDR: Helen Jonsen's science-backed speaking tips - from vocal cord control to signature remarks - help ambitious women become more powerful, memorable speakers.

For this week's blog I'm again with Helen Jonsen.

In part one we talked about Girl Talk versus Women Talk.

In part two, we talked about Kaleidoscope Careers.

You will find links to those and more information about Helen in the show notes.  

In this blog I ask Helen about something that has always intrigued me - media training. 

What media related success factors or tips did you employ in preparation for and during this podcast that women will be able to use whenever they're publicly speaking?

Helen: That's a big question, Susan. You're really asking about more than just media. It's anytime you have the opportunity to speak and put yourself forward.  

So the first thing I tell people is take a deep breath.  Take a really deep breath. And I mean that kind of cleansing breath that they teach you in yoga or even in a Lamaze class.

Take that big, deep breath once or twice for a couple of reasons.

You've heard people say, it makes you more at ease, right? calms your anxiety. That's true, but it also does something to your body.  Taking that breath relaxes your vocal cords.  Your vocal cords are strings like a guitar string.

When  you get nervous, they get stretched, your voice goes up, it becomes thinner and harder to control, and you run out of steam faster. If you take those nice deep breaths, you bring your voice down to your normal register, and then you can go vocal variations from there, but you're not straining anything.

So I'd like to tell people that first.

Susan: I never realized  what you just said about our vocal cords. That's fascinating to me.

Helen: Most people don't know this, every time I give this as a talk or a conversation, people stop and say, I didn't know that, but it's true. It's true. It's an instrument.

Your vocal cords are an instrument and they need to be protected. So whether you're speaking for a long time or a short time,  that helps.

Secondly,  it's like, how do you get to Carnegie hall?

Practice, practice, practice preparation and practice for  anything you want  To talk about or perhaps have the opportunity to talk about.

Beyond breathing and preparation and practice, I tell everyone they need to have signature remarks. 

Whether you are  top leader, whether you're a middle management, whether you're an entrepreneur or someone in the nonprofit field, you need to think through what is your  key points that you want to always say. That reflect you or reflect your mission.  

1. One way to think about that is starting with your passion statement. I don't mean an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a sell. A passion statement describes you and your work from the heart.

A very simple line.  For me, I might say, "My passion is to help others   amplify their voices to be more confident and memorable in everything they do."

Well, that's one off the cuff,  but each person has that in them, has whatever their personal mission is.

It's something to think through. It's something to write down a couple of versions of and actually practice it. So you can say it easily and get it off the tip of your tongue in an introduction at any time.  

2. The second part of signature remarks is just that. A bunch of remarks. What do you want people to know about you or your work or your mission?  Write them down.  What kinds of questions do people usually ask you that you'd want to be able to answer well?

Write them down, think them through, even finesse them a little bit, and then practice them, say them, read them, so that they're already in mind and you are comfortable with them when you need to speak about them.  Maybe it's three to five pieces of information that you know you want to convey before the end of a podcast, before the end of a meeting.

You don't want to forget them, so you want to be able to hang on to them, hold them, and use them all the time. 

Really good speakers and leaders do this. You'll hear them be able to, at the moment's notice, run through a  number of things that they want to talk about, without feeling like they've done  that.

3. And the other piece of that is to think about a story that really feels good - that conveys your mission or your work.

I'd like to explain how I got into speaking - my own passion for speaking.  It doesn't come from being on television. It goes way back to when I was in high school. I didn't know what public speaking was. I hadn't really trained in that. I didn't know anything about it.

And yet my teacher liked the things I said in the classroom when I was arguing a point.  An opportunity arose for a couple of students, to enter a speech contest.  We had to write an answer to a particular question. And the question was, "Will the Constitution always be valuable?"

A typical high school type question.  

I wrote my speech a little differently than some people might have written a speech. I was already always a writer. And I was supposed to memorize that speech word for word, and the judges would have it in front of them, and you could not move off that speech.

I really didn't like memorizing. I was also a very busy kid. I worked after school, I had some other volunteer work I did, and so I wrote it, and as we're in the car, on the way, my father driving, to the venue. I'm editing the speech. I'm also an editor. I never leave a word alone. Imagine...I'm editing the speech and realizing as I'm editing, I can't memorize my changes.

But I've never been in this situation before.  So I get up on the  stage, it's time for me to give my speech. And I get through the beginning, really well, and it's a powerful beginning. I can see in their faces the judges like it. Then I go 100 percent blank and cannot remember anything else.

Oh no! 

Because I was editing up to the last minute I confused myself. I hadn't practiced. I hadn't prepped. I just couldn't remember, and I wasn't allowed to have a paper in front of me.  So I looked at the judges and I said, "I'm sorry, I can't go on. I cannot remember the rest of the speech."

And I sat down. 

A couple other students went. That was that.

I came in second that night. The judges told me I came in second because I ranked the highest in poise. 

Susan: Wow. That's remarkable.

Helen: Yeah. That told me that speakers don't have to be the people who memorize.  That speakers don't have to be the ones who get down to the finest detail. But speakers need to be the ones who are memorable.

And that's what that evening was all about.

This is why when I talk about preparation, I don't talk about memorization. I talk about being comfortable with the things you need to be able to say to position yourself - in whatever venue you're in - whether you're on mic, on camera, on stage, or in a conference room.

Susan: I'd love to summarize these tips. 

1. One, take deep breaths. 
2. Two, have signature remarks, which include your passion statement - remarks that you want to make sure that you hit. 
3. Three, have a story that relates to what you're doing or what they've asked you to speak about, a personal story
4. Four, to not memorize. 

Helen if any of the women who are listening to this podcast are interested in finding you for media coaching, I believe you still do that, right?

Oh, absolutely. My key work is, I'm the founder and I say chief storyteller of Helen Jonsen Media, and  the key work is in  media training, speaker coaching, and ambassador training. Helping your entire organization. Understand and become empowered to be ambassadors for your mission.

 I love that having the whole organization aligned in service of its mission.

Yes, and I'm talking about all of the stakeholders, because you never know when anyone attached to your mission may meet. their potential  employee, donor, funder, member, client, volunteer, or key advocate.  

That's so true.  We are running out of time for the micro podcast.

. Thanks Helen again for being here and offering such actionable tips to our listeners. This is great, Susan. Thank you for presenting. Be business savvy.

Oh, thanks.