It's Not What You Say, But How You Say It.

What does your voice say about you?

Today, we are extremely conscious of our ‘image’. We spend hours on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok looking at images of other people. We pass judgments on their appearance, their clothes, their jobs, the filters they use, their posts – everything. A picture is worth a thousand words, so it makes perfect sense that we have thousands of thoughts cross our minds in a split second when we look at an image. Our image does not just live on the internet or our perfectly curated Instagrams; it ventures out into the real world. Our image consists of things like our hair, our clothes, how we walk, how we interact with our environment, and how we talk. Notice I said how we talk, not what we say – how we sound is more important than what we say. By the time “Hello” leaves your lips, your audience has already made judgments regarding your intelligence, socio-economic status, educational level, trustworthiness, and much more. That is both frightening and incredible.

Our voices are as unique as our fingerprints. No one has the same sounding voice as another. And many people make careers out of their voices that we can identify the actor, podcaster, or singer almost instantaneously. I’m a 90s baby and grew up watching Disney movies. One of the most distinguishable and unique voices was introduced to me when I was 4 years old… Gilbert Gottfried. You know, the parrot named Iago. Honestly, his voice lives in my head. Before seeing him as a human (and not as an anthropomorphic parrot), I had built this abstract image of what I thought he would look like based on his vocal image. How he actually looked was not at all what my brain predicted. This works vice versa: you meet someone new and you build this image of her based on what you can see, and then she opens her mouth. Sometimes the vocal image matches the physical image, and sometimes… it shatters your world. *Cue Chandler Bing’s girlfriend, Janice, from Friends*

Needless to say, your voice is an important aspect of your image, and it can change how people view you in an instant. Paralinguistics (aka vocal communication) plays a major role in our success in social and professional situations, so I decided to integrate this topic into my social communication classes. During my lesson prep, I stumbled upon a TedTalk by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne called "Vocal Branding Beyond Words: How Your Voice Shapes Your Communication". Highly recommend -- I'll link it below. She deconstructs the voice, its role during job interviews, and how it can make or break your chances of being hired. So what makes your voice, well, your voice? It is comprised of 5 parts: frequency, intensity, rate, inflection, and quality.

Frequency

Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz), but it is more widely known as pitch. Pitch is your perception of someone’s voice, high versus low. While women tend to have higher-pitched voices, both men and women have optimal frequency ranges. Men with lower-frequency voices are more successful socially and professionally. Studies have found that they make more money, hold positions of higher power, and father more children. Unsurprisingly, women are judged for having voices that are too low and too high. Women with lower-frequency voices are viewed as more aggressive, and women with higher-frequency voices are seen as young and immature. However, you can adjust the negative perceptions toward your voice by modifying the other aspects of your vocal image.

Intensity

Similar to frequency, intensity is the measurement in decibels (dB) of the perceived loudness of our voice. I am a loud talker, averaging 75-80 dB in a conversation. A normal speaking voice is ideally somewhere between 60-70 dB. Speaking too loudly can come off as intimidating or aggressive, but speaking too quietly is viewed as shy and unsure. Although I am a loud talker, it’s not seen as ‘yelling’ because I modify my other vocal components to match how I want to be perceived.

Rate

Rate is how quickly or slowly we are saying words, usually measured by words per minute (WPM). Our rate of speech might increase when we participate in something that makes us nervous, such as public speaking. The optimal rate of speech varies based on the situation but is usually in the range of 140-170 WPM. However, it is not ideal to talk at the same tempo all the time. Think about telling a story. Your rate ebbs and flows to create rhythm while you speak. This is what makes a story more engaging and dynamic. Ever heard a story told with no change in tempo? It’s hard to maintain focus and, eventually, you start tuning them out.

Inflection

And what kind of story is told with a monotonous voice? Not a very captivating one, that’s for sure. Inflection is the melody we hear in a voice. It’s the rise and fall of our voice when we speak. We want to fall somewhere between monotonous and sing-songy. Not enough up and down in our voice, and we start to bore our audience; too much up and down, and people might start thinking you’re in a musical. Inflection also helps us add emotion to our voice and relays that to our audience. Our ears are very keen to pick up on subtleties in others’ voices. If you’ve ever told someone good news (i.e. a promotion), you can identify who is truly happy for you based on how they sound. “I’m so happy for you,” with the right amount of inflection portrays genuine happiness, whereas not enough inflection portrays resentment.

Quality

Quality is where the professionals come in. The previous 4 can be manipulated fairly easily with a little direction. Quality is what my ear is professionally trained to identify, and it is indicative of how your vocal folds are interacting with each other. This is what truly makes your voice unique to you. A voice can sound clear, rough, hoarse, breathy, strained, strangled, or pressed. A unique voice isn’t inherently bad, but if it is considered an outlier, or too extreme, people tend to find it annoying. *Enter Janice and Gilbert Gottfried*. Two very extreme voices. Janice is known for her nasality, and Gilbert was known for his harsh, strained voice. Both are considered annoying. But a breathy and slightly raspy female voice is considered one of the sexiest voices around. It’s unique but not too extreme. A rough, raspy male voice is also considered attractive. Unique enough to be memorable, but not too unique to be annoying.

These 5 elements combined create our vocal image that influences our social and professional success. Your voice can be fine-tuned to increase your success in relationships and the workplace. Is your vocal image on brand for you? How do you want people to perceive you? We spend hours in the gym to mold our bodies and hours getting ready in the morning in order to portray a certain image to the world, so why wouldn’t we invest just as much time into our vocal image? It could be the one thing holding you back.