I was coaching a client last week. One of the major issues for his voice was the lack of impact. My client told me, “Cynthia, the cheering people up with a lot of energy is not my style, like those we see, rah rah, let’s do this, let’s do that, not my personality. How do I convey impact by being me?”
Do you have the same concern?
You don’t need to turn yourself into a highly energetic person to convey impact. You certainly don’t need to change your personality. There’s one easy way out.
Hi, this is Cynthia.
Suppose you are delivering the following line to your audience, how are you going to say it?
The proportion of internet users conducting on-line e-commerce transactions is expected to quadruple from 12% to 48% over the next 5 years.
If you deliver in this way, any impact? Boring. Nothing will be left in your audience’s mind.
How about this one?
What are the differences in the delivery?
The major difference was emphasis. I emphasized certain words in the 2nd delivery. Which words did I emphasize?
Emphasis is the easiest way to add impact in what you say. It makes your key message stand out. Our brain is designed to be keenly aware of changes. When you emphasize a word, you made that word distinctive from the rest, so it gets noticed and better remembered.
To apply emphasis in your voice and achieve what you want to convey, take note on the following 3 stages:
1. Before you make that point, think what key message you want to convey, because different messages require different emphasis. E.g. The sentence, this is important. When you say, this is IMPORTANT vs. THIS is important, you convey different meanings.
Get clear on what the key message is. That determines which word you need to put the emphasis on.
2. During: how do you make the emphasis on a word, by raising the pitch or increasing the volume? A client of mine said, “This is important.” Well, you did make the emphasis, but I guess a few audience members also experienced a sudden shock. Emphasis does not necessarily mean you need to raise the pitch or increase the volume, it simply means to set that word apart from others, remember what we said, make it stand out and distinctive! That’s the key.
3. After. After you said that word, pause to really make that word distinctive, it also helps to leave time for your listener to reflect on the word you just emphasized.
Now you have it, the easiest way to add impact to your voice. Ready to apply?
Well, some participants in my workshop said, “Cynthia, in our conversations, we don’t really think that much.” That’s true. We seldom think which word to emphasize. The key is before you convey any message, know what the key message you want people to get, if you can get clear on that, everything else will fall into place.
Try it in your conversations and let me know how it goes.
