Watch this video on what you can learn from Mariah Carey.
What can you learn from Mariah Carey? No, not about her voice.
Hi, this is Cynthia, your voice coach.
I was at Mariah Carey’s show last Friday. It was legendary. It was not only her voice that was enchanting, but her stage presence.
In this video, you’ll learn 3 points that’ll help you as a speaker, presenter, trainer, to grow your presence on stage like a super star.
1. Develop the potential in your voice
As a speaker or presenter, the audience comes to listen to your wisdom, which are communicated through your voice. When you have a powerful voice, you’ll enjoy an unfair advantage.
Listening to Mariah Carey and you’ll see how vast the potential is in the human voice. Surely not every one has such a wide range as Mariah Carey, but every one has great potential in the voice. The reasons that most people, probably including you, haven’t tapped into that potential, are that you are either too tense in the body which prevents a better voice from coming out; or you have been breathing improperly; or you haven’t used all the cavities in your body for voice projection. When you solve all those 3 problems, you’ll start to experience the real power in your voice.
2. Be here now
You’ve probably watched another video I did on this point. Being present is what separates an average speaker from a great speaker. If you want presence, be present.
Do you know Mariah Carey has been singing the same songs a week in a roll: Beijing, Shanghai, KL, Singapore, Taiwan? If you were Mariah Carey, how would you feel? “Ur, another show tomorrow.” Do you think the audience would feel it when you had that thought? You bet. But when I was in the audience last Friday, I felt she was so present and gave her best. Her spontaneity and interaction with the audience made everyone feel so engaged.
What can you do to be present? Focus on the audience, instead of focusing on your own nervousness, focus on what value you could add to the audience.
3. Respond to the audience
Speaking and presenting, just like performing, are not a one-way communication. It’s an interaction. You are not there to finish all that you have in your mind, or even worse, all that you have on your slides. You need to observe the audience’s response and respond to that. This, of course, requires you to be present.
I’ll leave you with a few clips I recorded from Mariah Carey’s show and see how she responded to the audience. Bear with the quality of the clips.
You may be thinking, “Oh, she’s a super star and I’ll never get to that level.” Do you know Mariah Carey cancelled a few tours in the beginning of her career because she had stage fright? No one is born a super star. You can have strong stage presence if you decide to work on it.
Enjoy her performance! Until next time, this is Cynthia, your voice coach. Be excellent.
