Find Your Own Voice

How many times have you been sitting in an audience, listening to a speaker, and thought to yourself "Hm. I think I've heard these words before...?". What was the impact of this realization? Did you lose just a tiny little bit of respect for the speaker, because they're grabbing someone else's lines? Do you tune them out a bit because it's the vocal equivelant of a television repeat?

I do. For right or wrong, hearing the exact same words coming out of someone's mouth does all of those things.

But note: I said the same "words" - not the same "message". The reason this is an important distinction is because hearing the same message in different words often has the opposite effect - it reinforces everything that you've heard already. It adds to the significance of what's being said, because it's not longer a single, solitary person standing on a soapbox. Furthermore, different deliveries are going to resonate with different people, so the more ways that the same message gets out there, the more people are going to absorb what's being said.

So - going forward, I offer you a challenge. Don't allow yourself to become a mimic - take the way you receive information one step farther. Listen to what's being said. Understand the core message. Then share that message - but do it in your own way, in your own style, in your own voice.

I guarantee that even if it doesn't resound with every member of the audience (or any, for that matter), at the very least your sincerity and therefore, your credibility, will come through.

Nothing can destroy the value of a message faster than lack of credibility in the messenger.

~Guy