8 Secrets To Becoming A Strong And Resilient Speaker

Today, we're diving into a topic that's incredibly important for anyone who uses their voice in their profession - being a resilient speaker.

That means a speaker who can continuously use their voice, adapt their voice, has a lot of flexibility and they rarely suffer from any down time. Or if they do, they bounce back very quickly.

As a speaker, your voice is your most precious asset. It doesn’t matter if you're addressing a packed auditorium or presenting on camera, maintaining vocal health and clarity is crucial.

So, I’m going to jump right in with some expert tips to make sure your voice stays in top form, all the time. So it doesn’t easily fatigue, or even worse, start to be painful and hoarse. If you have ever lost your voice, you will suddenly realise the importance of this instrument and how hopelessly lost you are when you can’t make yourself heard.

I think most people have had this experience, when you’ve been out with friends and tried to hold a conversation over really loud background music or a crowd. You wake up the next day and your voice is raspy and hoarse..

I know speakers who experience this after speaking for just 30 mins from a stage.

Many speakers come away from delivering a speech and they feel exhausted.

Well, my friend speaking is physical. Speaking involves a whole series of different muscle groups to create sound and the more animated you are as a speaker, the more you will work your muscles.

I’m going to start by giving you insights into how your voice works and then I’m going to give you techniques and some basic exercises to warm up your voice, strengthen your instrument and keep your energy present when you are speaking to a crowd.

How Your Voice Works

To begin with, I want to explain in very simple terms how your voice works. We all know the vocal cords sit in the throat. But they don’t work magically on their own, the minute you decide to speak or sing. Creating sound involves 3 key stages. 

1 Generator

Something has to initiate the sound production. If you think of a wind instrument, you’ll know that no sound will come out of that instrument unless you blow into it. Well your voice is similar. It needs air to initiate the sound production. That means your breath is your generator for your sound. And for this reason, how you manage your breath will be the foundation for how you speak.

If your breath is grounded and deep into your core, your voice will be grounded. If your breath is shallow and you are only breathing into your upper chest, your voice will be shallow and lack strength and depth.

So training your breath and the muscles connected with breathing is an important part of working your voice.

2 Vibrator

Your vocal cords sit just behind your adam’s apple. Ladies you also have one, it’s just not as obvious. To find your cords, run your fingers from your chin down your throat until you feel the first bump. Now swallow. Feel how the lump rises and falls again? That’s your larynx, which also has the function of blocking your osophegus when you swallow to prevent food from going down the wrong way.

Now create a sound and feel the vibration behind your fingers. Your cords are vibrating together to create sound, while riding on the flow of air.

3 Resonator

The last stage in sound creation is resonance. Let’s go back to the musical instrument and think of how each instrument has a unique sound. That’s because the shape and the material they are made from make them unique. Sound is reverberating around in the hollow spaces of that instrument.

Your body has natural cavities for your voice to resonate in, and if you are using them properly, your voice will be full, rich and resonate. If you are not using them properly, you voice might sound, harsh, weak, thin or blocked.

The Importance Of Vocal Exercises

To help you warm up and strengthen all the muscles connected with your voice we need to exercise them.

So we are going to start with warming your voice up. What? My voice needs a warm up? Isn’t that just for singers?

Well, if singers need to warm up, why not speakers? It’s the same instrument you are using after all.

Your vocal cords are delicate muscles; you wouldn't run a marathon without stretching first, right? The same goes for your voice.

To help you understand the importance of warm-ups, and how they can benefit you, I’m going to talk you through some specific exercises and techniques.

Then if you want to get access to my complete speaker warm ups to add into your daily routine, I’ll put the link below so you can go and get your copy to download and have on your phone to use anywhere and anytime.

Vocal warm-up exercises are like calisthenics for your vocal cords. You want to start gently and build on that.

An easy gentle vocal warm up could be a humming or some easy lip rolls or tongue trills to ease tension and get the blood flowing to the vocal cords.

Soundbite demonstrating humming

Soundbite demonstrating lip rolls

Soundbite demonstrating lip trills

We then move on to scales and sirens to increase flexibility. It's like a workout for your voice.

Soundbite to demonstrate scales and sirens

Warm ups are important to get the blood flowing to you vocal cords, but to be a resilient speaker, you also need to work on your vocal strength, your breath support and establishing your natural resonance . That’s like going to the gym and doing strength training and stretching, for the rest of you body, well we do this for the voice.

Let's dive into some exercises that can help you to build strength .

One of my favorite exercises is straw phonation. You take a straw, place it in a glass of water, and then blow bubbles while making different sounds. It's a fantastic way to build breath support and maintain vocal strength.

Post recovery techniques

Now, let's talk about post-speaking recovery. After a demanding presentation, your vocal cords need some TLC.

One effective method for recovery is hydration. Always have a water bottle with you and make sure to drink room-temperature water throughout the day. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol helps too, as they can dehydrate your vocal cords.

Did you know that the water you drink on stage does not reach your vocal cords until about 4 hours later? That means when you drink on stage or when you are in a recording session, that water you are sipping doesn’t have any effect on your voice in that moment. You should be hydrating well in advance, drinking room temp all throughout the day. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty. Also, avoid caffeine and alcohol because they will dehydrate your cords.

Join the Professionals

To gain even more insights into vocal resilience, I’m going explore some vocal care routines that many professionals use.

Vocal rest

Your voice needs a break, especially after an intense speaking engagement. You might remember in Episode 3 we had Devon Brown on the podcast who is one of the worlds most renowned event hosts. He was talking about the importance of down time after a gig, not just for his voice, but for himself to renergise, Like I said, speaking is physical and if you are on stage or doing live coaching over several days, you will need rest. That’s sleep, and limited vocal use.

Steam

Steam is amazing for your vocal cords. You could do a steam inhalation of just go into the shower, pump up the temperature and breathe in the steam.

Listen to your body

If your voice is feeling tired or hoarse, make sure you listen to it. Pushing through vocal cords which are swollen and inflamed can lead to bigger problems with inflammation, nodules or even a hemorrhage. So be careful.

Nutrition

Lastly, what you eat can also affect your voice. Some people notice that when they eat dairy products their body produces more mucus making their voice sound unclear, blocked and causing them to want to clear their throat more frequently.

Throat clearing

And speaking of clearing the throat…did you know this can become a nasty habit that can put you into a constant spiral of feeling like you need to clear your throat all the time. In fact, you may be clearing your throat, without even realising it until you listen to a recording of yourself.

Other considerations

Suffering from reflux can also lead to inflammation and swelling of the vocal cords.

Stress, nerves and anxiety can play havoc on your entire body, but for many people the voice is the first muscle to show signs of stress.

Remember your vocal cords are a thin membrane, that vibrate to create sound. When the muscles surrounding the vocal cords tense up, this prevents the vocal cords from vibrating freely and evenly, which can lead to dysphonia, where the cords can’t vibrate evenly and the voice will sound hoarse, weak, airy, crackly or there may be no voice at all. In this case a vocal therapy will be needed to retrain the patterns of sound production, alleviate the tension and strengthen the sound producing muscles.

Conclusion

The vocal cords an a fascinating part of our anatomy. We take care of our fitness, our health through diet, we train our muscles, but not many people think about training the vocal cords. Yet they are one of the most important muscles in the human body.

Today, I’ve just tapped the surface of understanding your voice, exercising your voice and signs that you need to be aware of.

If you notice changes in your voice that don’t feel or sound normal and this persists for more than a few days. Make sure you get your vocal cords checked by an otolaryngologist. That’s a doctor who specializes in the throat and the voice. I’ll also put a couple of links below to Otolaryngologists in the UAE.

Vocal health and vocal resilience is not just about the voice, but about your overall well-being. A healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, and managing stress are all crucial components of vocal health.

As always, practice makes perfect. Your voice represents you, your passion and expertise. Take time to understand this amazing instrument you have within, take care of it, learn how to use it to it's full potential, exercise it and with care, and it will serve you well throughout your speaking journey and your life.