Mastering Voice and Presence as a Multimedia Creative Tool (The Performance Spectrum)
Few things have elevated my career quite like the ability to appear on a mic, on video, and on stages and appear natural. Something just always clicked in my head that, hey, I can just “be myself” and it comes off as casual, approachable, and likable… as opposed to lots of creators we see who either sound bored/uncomfortable (watch their eyebrows!) or forced (why do they TALK that way?).
I’m aware that this is a creative superpower I possess, though it’s hard to admit it, because it feels a little too self-congratulatory. But the thing is, it’s not saying anything about ME. It’s saying something about this TOOL that I have learned to grasp and wield.
I think it’s a tool we can ALL learn to control, too. Our voices. Our faces. Our motions and our emotions. Our PRESENCE.
This is practiced. This is learned. This is a skill we can develop.
At first, I had no idea.
When I started Unthinkable, I thought to myself as I recorded episodes, “My voice right now sounds natural. I have the warmth and energy I want.” Then, listening back, I realized, “Wait, I sound BORED!”
That’s because, especially at first, how we sound in our heads is ALWAYS different than how we actually sound. Usually, if we think we’re performing it big … it’s actually just right. Because in reality, what others hear isn’t as big. Our voice was more subdued than what we heard in our heads.
Don’t believe me? Record a call with your parents or partner or someone you interact with at home sometime. Listen back. You sound BORED. But in the moment, you thought you sounded casual. Comfortable. Natural.
That’s because how we SOUND is actually lower-energy than how we FEEL when making those sounds. (Some people call that part “talking,” I guess.)
This is something we need to learn to calibrate in order to show up publicly with a more natural, non-performative presence. (Yes, I just said we have to learn to perform so we don’t come across as performative. Stay with me…)
When I started my show, I was aiming for a voice that approximated a casual chat among friends. What listeners got, however, was more like a call with my wife, discussing Tuesday’s dinner.
I sounded flat and low-energy.
But then, I started to perform it a bit bigger. I began to aim for a voice I’d describe as “Work Presentation,” and not Casual Chat with Friends. Then, listening back, I landed in my sweet spot: I sounded like I was having a casual chat among friends.
I had to “bring it” with more energy and effort at first, whether on the mic, on camera, or on stages. If I “brought it,” listening or watching back, I sounded comfortable and natural. But when I felt comfortable and natural in performing it, at first, I sounded flat.
What’s happening here? I had no grasp of the gap between how I heard it and how others perceived it. I had not yet calibrated my voice.
So, if you create audio/video content or just appear on podcasts and video shows as an interviewee, remember: There is a spectrum of performance “voices,” and your job is to ensure you don’t hit either extreme, then calibrate your voice along the interior of the spectrum.
What you hear may not match what THEY hear. Maybe you’re too big or too bored. Calibrate your voice.
Maybe you think you’re a bit too big, but you end up sounding natural. You’re where you want to be. Remember that level of effort and performance. Calibrate.
Your voice is a creative tool. The thing is, it’s also something you use without thinking. When you start to consciously think about it, there’s usually a noticeable gap between how you sound to yourself and to others. The trick is to understand how big that gap really is, then work to close it, so when you show up it feels like I felt in this video below:
Natural.
Enter: The performance spectrum.
This video from WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed is an “anti-example.” Watch his eyes and even more specifically his eyebrows. In my video below, when I say we should watch the eyebrows, that’s what I mean. It’s a sign he’s not entirely comfortable or, if he does FEEL comfortable, he has not learned to PROJECT comfort and the sense that he’s natural on camera. And we pick up on that as viewers, though until I pointed this out to you, maybe you couldn’t figure out what felt off. But something definitely feels off.
It’s the eyebrows :)
