Here is the full transcript and summary of Wendy LeBorgne’s talk titled “Vocal Branding: How Your Voice Shapes Your Communication Image” at TEDxUCincinnati conference.
In this TEDx talk, voice specialist Wendy LeBorgne discusses how your voice can shape your communication image and how important it is to have a voice brand. She uses voice biometrics technology to explain how you can determine your voice brand, and offers tips on how to train your voice to be more powerful and successful.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, it is my pleasure to be here with you all today. In those 13 syllables, you all just made judgments about me, about my socioeconomic status, my intelligence level, and whether or not you’re going to sit here and listen to me for the next 10 to 12 minutes, based primarily on the perception of my voice, right?
Generally, none of us likes to listen to the sound of our own voice. However, have you ever considered how others perceive you based on the sound of your voice? We’ve all made that phone call and listened to the person on the other end of the phone, had this image in our head of what they look like, only to find out that when we meet them in person, they don’t look anything like that image we have in our head, right?
Your voice is like your thumbprint or your facial features. It is unique and authentically you. Whether you are a Fortune 100 CEO, a student looking for their first job, or one of my elite vocal performers, your voice is your calling card, and it is the most important element in your personal brand.
If we think about marketing and branding for a moment, when things go into a logo or a brand, we talk about fonts and colors and images that are designed to evoke a certain emotion from a target audience. And if we don’t hit that target, then we go back to the marketing drawing board, we recreate that. And it’s the interaction of those elements of color and logo that ultimately go into that emotional response. We take that and we’ll parallel that to personal branding.
And your voice is the most important element of your personal brand. It is how people perceive you. And personal brand is that thing that people say about you, right, when you leave the room.
So what are those elements that go into voice brand? As a voice pathologist for the last 20 years, my job has been to look at what elements go into the most elite voices, what gets them hired in the professional arena, and how do we maximize those elements. It goes far beyond the words we say, right?
So there’s that old adage, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. And there’s lots of coaches that talk about intonation and things like that. But the reality is it’s the combination of certain elements that go into creating your voice brand. So let’s take a look at these five elements.
The first thing is intensity of voice. Intensity is something that we can measure. We measure intensity in decibels. Our perceptual correlate of intensity is loudness. And our biases, our cultural biases, our personal biases, our aesthetic biases of loudness influence our perception. My 13-year-old’s perception of loudness is much different than my threshold of loudness. But intensity is something that’s measurable. We know that there’s a comfort level for intensity.
If I take a simple sentence, I need you to get this done today, and the only element that I change is intensity, I need you to get this done today. All of a sudden, you all take a little step back. Because I’m all of a sudden perceived as being aggressive, assertive, or potentially if I was at a sporting event, enthusiastic. If we take that same sentence and all I do is change intensity, I need you to get this done today. I’m potentially being perceived as shy or uncertain of what I’m talking about. So intensity as an element alone contributes to this overall idea of vocal brand.
The second element that goes into voice brand is inflection or intonation. In music, we very rarely hear a piece that is on one note all the way through from the beginning or at the end. That would be pretty boring, right? So the intonational patterns of speech are what make it interesting. In the two extremes, we have a highly sing-songy rate where it sounds like you’re talking to a two-year-old all the time. And you’re perceived as being unintelligent in what you’re saying.
Or we have the complete opposite where someone totally doesn’t change your tempo or their inflection at all. I need you to get this done today. They’re bored. They’re uninterested in what they’re saying, and they’re not connected to it. In today’s culture, one sound of inflection that tends to be really pervasive in everything that we hear is this idea of up-talking. Everything ends with a question. There’s never a statement. And what we know is that it is actually preventing people from getting jobs because they’re completely unsure of themselves.
The third element that goes into your brand is rate. That is how fast or how slow you talk. The average rate of our favorite TED Talkers is somewhere between 162 to 175 words per minute. I hope I fall within that range. I haven’t actually measured my rate of speech, and I’m pretty sure it’s sped up today standing in front of you all right now. But average rate of speech is important.
And oftentimes, we’ll hear people say, slow down your rate. Slowing down your rate alone is not going to change the overall vocal brand. Again, it’s the interaction of the components that are going to change your voice brand.
So if we have a super fast talker, I need you to get this done today. All of a sudden, you feel super rushed. You’re slightly agitated in what they’re having to say, right?
Similarly, if we slow down that rate of speech, I need you to get this done today. I’m perceived as condescending because I’m talking down to you because I’m talking so slowly. Just like in music, it’s the give and take of the pace of what we do that makes it interesting. So if we take that sentence, I need you to get this done today. And within that sentence, we change up the rate or the tempo. I need you to get this done today. That makes it much more interesting for our listeners, right?
The fourth element is frequency. Frequency is measured in hertz. And we know that there are normative data for men, women, and children here in the United States and abroad of what the average fundamental frequency should be for us to like their voice. If the pitch of your voice is too high, I need you to get this done today, generally for females, high-pitched voices are perceived as being young, albeit slightly less intelligent. If we drop the pitch of the voice, I need you to get this done today. In women, that is perceived as authoritative sometimes.
If we also increase intensity with it, I need you to get this done today, we’ve already all of a sudden crossed that line into being aggressive. Interestingly, the average frequency of women’s voices dropped after 1960. Because in the era of women’s lib, when we had to come sit at the table with our male counterparts, we needed to compete vocally.
So the average fundamental frequency dropped in this country after 1960. Because we know that men with lower voices make more money, father more children, and hold positions of higher leadership. And that’s not just true in the human species, it’s true in the animal species as well, with the exception of making more money, because I’m not sure that the animals make more money.
But the males of the group with the lower voices are the leaders of the pack, and they mate more frequently, which inherently results in more children. So frequency becomes important.
The fifth parameter that is interesting in our voice brand is quality. And quality can range from clarity of voice to hoarseness of voice, or rough, raspy voice. In my elite vocal performers, uniqueness gets hired. It is not always a perfect voice, but it’s an interesting voice. And sometimes that means that voice might be slightly hoarse.
One of the pervasive elements of quality today is this idea of glottal fry, which is what you heard me come out doing. I need you to get this done today. We hear this all the time, especially in our upper middle class white women. It is pervasive and actually part of a social culture phenomenon that we see, thanks to some of the Kardashians.
But that glottal fry is super pervasive, and what we know is happening is we now have the technology called voice biometrics, where when you call into an HR firm for a job, and I say, hi, my name is Wendy, they run my voice through an algorithm. And they determine that features of my voice are not pleasing, and I don’t even get an interview.
So those five elements are ultimately what constitute your voice brand. So we’ll take our sentence, I need you to get this done today. In a sexy voice, in light of the fact that it’s Valentine’s week, for females, intensity we need to drop to be perceived as sexy. When highly inflected, the rate is slowed way down, the frequency of my voice will drop, and the quality adds breathiness. I need you to get this done today.
Good, you all perceive that as some version of sexy, right? At the end, our voices are made up of cartilages and ligaments and muscles, and we can train those elements of voice brand. I went forward one slide too many, we can train those individual elements of voice brand, using the exercise physiology principles and motor learning principles to maximize what you have, because your voice defines you, and your voice can empower you.
So you want to think like a vocal athlete, and maximize those elements to create your ultimate voice brand. Thank you.
SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:
Wendy LeBorgne’s talk “Vocal Branding: How Your Voice Shapes Your Communication Image” emphasizes the significance of vocal characteristics in shaping personal and professional impressions. Here are the key takeaways from her presentation:
Initial Impressions and Voice Perception: LeBorgne begins by illustrating how people make snap judgments about others based on voice characteristics, affecting perceptions of intelligence, socioeconomic status, and engagement.
Uniqueness of Voice: She highlights the voice as a unique and authentic feature, akin to a thumbprint or facial features, crucial for everyone from CEOs to performers, in establishing their personal brand.
Voice in Personal Branding: LeBorgne parallels voice branding to marketing, where just like colors and logos evoke emotions, voice plays a pivotal role in shaping personal brand – what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
Elements of Vocal Branding: She outlines five key elements that constitute voice brand: intensity, inflection, rate, frequency, and quality. Each element influences how a person’s voice is perceived and contributes to their vocal brand.
Intensity of Voice: Refers to the loudness or softness of the voice, affecting perceptions of aggression, assertiveness, or uncertainty.
Inflection or Intonation: The musicality or monotony in a voice can make speech interesting or dull, impacting perceptions of intelligence and engagement.
Rate of Speech: The speed at which someone speaks can create impressions of being rushed, agitated, or condescending.
Frequency: The pitch of the voice influences perceptions of authority and youthfulness in women and leadership qualities in men.
Quality: The clarity or hoarseness of the voice can affect perceptions of uniqueness and professionalism.
5. Cultural and Social Influences: LeBorgne notes the influence of cultural and social trends on voice, such as the prevalence of vocal fry in certain demographics and its impact on job prospects.
6. Voice Training for Personal Branding: The talk concludes with an emphasis on the ability to train and modify these vocal elements, likening it to training as a vocal athlete. This training can help maximize the effectiveness of one’s voice in personal branding.
Overall, LeBorgne’s talk underscores the importance of understanding and consciously utilizing vocal characteristics to shape one’s communication image and personal brand effectively.