If you're more nervous, you're more likely to be short of breath and slightly more tense. So therefore speaking may feel harder for you. If you assess, you know, do a bit of a, risk assessment, of, of the stakes involved before you record, then what you can do is make sure that you're hitting all the points that you need to, to prepare your body and your voice, appropriately.
Dylan:This is the show for creative entrepreneurs who have a message to share and want to live a life of freedom. Learn how to grow your network and net worth. Hear from exciting guests and more. My name is Dylan Schmidt, and welcome to Digital Podcaster. Joining me on the podcast today is voice coach Nic Redman. Nic helps podcasters reach their speaking recording and performance goals. In this episode, I chat with Nic about getting over the sound of your own voice, how to warm up your voice before recording, and she shares a few quick tips at the end. You can start using immediately to improve your voice, which will help you improve the quality of your podcast. Please enjoy my conversation with Nic Redman. Welcome to the podcast.
Nic:Thanks. I've been lurking in your dms for edges, so I'm really glad that I'm here, . Yeah,
Dylan:thanks for having me. I had an easier time getting Obama on the podcast, but you know,, Nic: I'm just kidding. Well, you know, I'll, I'll tell him to pull his, uh, finger right next time and get back to you, . I don't even know what I would talk to him about if he was on the podcast. Um, thank you so much for joining me. I. Love what you help people do because I come from a background of some more technical gear related stuff, more marketing related stuff, and that all kind of is secondary to speaking and using your voice, which you help people with, and your tips are absolutely amazing. Right off the bat, like visit the episode description to learn about all things, Nic, because if you're listening to this podcast, you need Nic in your life because we all need your advice and tips, and I don't see enough people talking about what you're talking about. It's a long-winded way of asking this first question, how do you get over disliking the sound of your own?
Nic:Yes, it's the age old question, isn't it? And funnily enough, this was my first foray into the TikTok. Um, my, I accidentally, after like three tos, had this mad viral TikTok, and the thing that I asked was, do you hit the sound of your own voice when you hear it played back and it got like, it's gone, like 600,000 views or something, which for me, with. Followers at the time was insane. And it turns out loads of people hate the sound of their own voice. Um, I think the roots to loving your voice are. Manyfold. Uh, the first one is very, very simple and not as listened to it a lot, . So if you're preparing to start a podcast, then there's absolutely no excuse or no reason why you can't every day just talk into your. Recording device on your phone or whatever your setup is if you're practicing, and just record and listen back and record and listen back. You can start with five seconds a day. If it makes you wanna die inside, then you can up it to like 30 seconds and you could just free talk or you could read something from a book if your podcast is gonna be scripted and you need to get good at site reading and signing conversational anyway. But you have to just keep hearing yourself because one of the, uh, reasons we don't like the sign of our own voice when we first hear it, is actually. Literally signs different to us. So when we hear our voice, when we speak, just generally like to the general public, we hear it, uh, through our ears obviously cuz the sign comes out and it goes into our ears. But we also hear it through the internal structures in our head. So we hear internal vibration as well. So that gives us this weird kinda human stereo effect, which is a very different quality to when you hear it coming., um, a little boom box or a speaker or out of whatever phone you happen to be listening to your voice on. So it literally sounds different, and that can be terrifying., you know, you think you've spent your entire life signing kind of like this, and then, yeah, you sound like this sign like this, and that's a little bit shocking for people. So listen to it over and over and over again. That's a really good tip. Second thing is, um, maybe this is going from like a really super beginner tip to a, a really kind of extreme tip, but maybe that's okay , and that is that, remember that actually. A podcast isn't about your voice at all. It's about how you're trying to affect somebody, the impact you're gonna have, what you're gonna inspire somebody to do or think, or feel, or need, or explore, and that's what your focus has to be. So the biggest tip I have for getting used to your voice, Is trying not to listen to. Conversely, when you're recording, trying not to worry about it at all. You've got to focus on your message, connecting with the person you're speaking to, and that is about much more than how you sound. Now, there's loads of ways that your voice can. Uh, betray you sometimes, you know, whether it's nerves or breath or adrenaline or you're tired or you're ill. And of course there are loads of ways I help people with that, whether it's warmups or vocal health or dealing with nerves and breathing and things. But ultimately, it's not about your voice at all. Thank you very much. It's about your message and how you're trying to affect somebody. So try and just focus on that a wee bit.
Dylan:Wonderful. I, this made me think of a question that I don't know the answer to, and it seemed to go away, and I don't know why it went away, but it would happen randomly. Are you famil? I don't even know if there's a word for it, but before I would talk, this has happened over the years where I would talk and randomly my voice would hit some, it's kind of like it'd go off road a little bit. What do you like it? It's like a going through puberty again or something. Um Oh, right. Yeah. Have you ever had that happen or have you ever had a client be like, why does my voice do this?
Nic:Yeah. Lots of weird things happen to people's voices, and I think most of the time it's down to, well, a couple of things. One can be tension, so physical tension is the main thing that gets in the way of freedom, of voice and control of the voice and variety and range and clarity. It's about tension. It's about the tongue being tense or the muscles around the larynx or the jaw or the breath coming from a tense place, you know, with the abs tight and the shoulders tense, and maybe the posture being slightly inefficient. the first thing that nearly every single voice quandary that I get through my virtual doors. That we deal with is tension. So you know it's about alignment in the body, making sure that you are as physically aligned and head bone connected to the neck bone as possible so that you can release excess physical tension in the body. And then also about working on the breath, making sure that the breath is flowing. Cuz a lot of the time people sort of talk on a held breath and then it kind of sounds a little bit tight because they're trying to make sure they get right to the end of the sentence. And actually what we. Breath is movement and flow. So it's all about letting the breath go when it comes out. Weirdly letting your breath come out when you speak rather than hold it back and letting the in breath come in really flowing and easily as well. Um, what can sometimes happen with that little flip thing is that sort of, it's what's happening is something at vocal four level. So you're going from, for example, , this is a bit technical, but like thin fold to thick fold, , vocal use of the vocal folds, or you're sort of starting in one place and then the vocal folds are vibrating one way, but then they're sort of vibrating another way for the next bit. And the main thing that's happening there probably is airflow. So I would definitely deal with breath and that situation to get the breath moving. Um, but those sorts of things happen a lot with nerves. Um, like I said before, When we get nervous and we get that adrenaline, uh, impact, you know, which is exactly the same reaction in the body, then if, you know, in caveman days there was a wooly mammoth coming to eat your entire family, like it's the same reaction. It's just. It's not a woo wooly mammoth anymore. It's a microphone or an audience of people or a difficult conversation at work. And our body has that fight or flight response and those nerves cause all sorts of crazy things to happen. Sometimes people trip over up over their tongue. Sometimes people completely freeze and they don't know what they were gonna say. Sometimes, um, it's, um, manifest, um, in, um, lots of um, um, You know, um, sort of, um, signs , that's a bit of a nerves tick
Dylan:because I'm from California. I like to throw in a lot of likes, like total. Oh, like, like for sure. Like
Nic:the, like Yes. Well, that's your accent. That's totally like brilliant. I'm the same Northern Ireland. We have like, and in, in Northern Irish people are renowned for using more words than they need to use in every sentence. So they are because. They use words like that aren't even ever needed, like to say what they wanna say all the time. So they do, do you know what I mean? Like, like we add words in like all the time. So we do now, uh, that's just Northern Irish people, so we always use too many words. So I'm all here for likes and ums and ass. I love them. Uh, some people on the listening end get a little bit upset with them. I dunno if you've ever, ever had that experience where. Commented on any vocal tics that you have? Lots of my clients have . Um, I've completely forgotten the question. No,. Dylan: I did. Oh, it was just that little vocal flip, but you like Oh, yeah. Answered it so beautifully that I was like, I'm learning so much there. I am throwing in the, like, no one's commented on it about me. It's something that I just highlight in my head, I think, because listening back more and. Yeah. And then I start noticing it sometimes in other people, especially looking at content all day, uh, editing and things like that. When people throw in new nose, and I gotta say, listening back to my own voice, I feel like I, my vocabulary has gotten so small with, when I listen to the, my voice more, I'm like, I need to read more or something, because I feel like I'm saying the same words over and over , but I think it's just me consuming a lot of my own. Unfortunately. Question for you. Do you have a warmup routine that's like beginner friendly podcasters could use to get their voice warmed up? Yeah. Do you know, I have one on my website actually that you can download. It's an audio track and it's a video. What a convenient thing to have available.. Um, it's on my website under the resources section, so if you've go to nicola redman.com, um, I'll link that. There's a, there's, I'll make link. There's literally a podcast at warmup, but it to, to summarize what happens? It, it's basically, my approach is always four stages. It's. Body, breath, sound and speech. So it's about preparing the body, getting some tension released, getting the energy going, if that's what you need. If your podcast is really peppy and you know, upbeat, then it's about breath, getting the breath going, whether that for you needs to be release of the breath and centering and grounding and chilling it out. A weather again, that needs to be energizing it and connecting to support and getting the breath flowing. And then the third thing is the vibrations. The. So that's getting the vocal folds going and getting the sound and opening up some variety and different tonal qualities and different, um, sort of resonance qualities in there. So you get an exciting and interesting voice and nobody's like in your DM saying that you sound really monotone and boring, which isn't actually a thing. I mean, monotone just hardly ever happens. But that's a sidebar. And then the fourth thing, oh yeah,
Dylan:sorry. I was gonna say, I DM a lot of people say this sounds monotone. Just. Nic: Yeah. Be so people are really mean to people on the internet. You know, , you just a really lovely man. I think just, just picturing someone DMing like, this is monotone. And I'm like, what a jerk. Sorry. Poor thing. I know,
Nic:right? Continuing, it happens. I get people in my, like, clients coming to me going, my boss says I'll never get this promotion without, uh, changing my accent. Or my listeners tell me I'm too monotone. Or, um, somebody said, I sound stupid, or da da da da. Like happens all the time. Um, I like finding examples.
Dylan:Maybe I just of like popular monotone people then being like, look at this person. They can talk in this straightforward voice. Lex Friedman, uh, pop, one of the most popular podcasters. I mean, that's, I love his podcast. Uh, and I love Lex, but., that's pretty, he doesn't have much of a range there. Um, I could
Nic:see people say, well, exactly, and ultimately it's about the connection with your message and your passion to share that and how you wanna affect people. You know, it's about, so it's ultimately, as much as, I hate to say it about so much more than your voice, Yeah. But the whole point is I help people not worry about their voice. I help people not freak out and prepare their voice so they don't have to think about it. That's the point. Anyway, the fourth step, . Yes. Thank you. Brain, don't forget. Let's get back on the motorway, uh, sorry. Highway. Um, fourth stage is speech, and that's all about the clarity of the sign. So let's making sure that you don't trip up over your words, making sure that things flow freely and you're not worrying about. Creating the signs and also making sure that it feels really effortless to get the tongue where it needs to go to make whatever signed or to get the lips to close and that kind of thing. So yeah, it's a body breath, sound speech process for me. It can take and shouldn't need to take more than five minutes for a Podcaster, maybe 15 if you need a little bit of chilling out and a bit of grinding from nerves. But yeah, head to my website cuz there's one you can literally download, does
Dylan:the voice and kind of the warm up. And I'm, I'm gonna make sure to. To the resource page, uh, in the show notes, but does the voice have, does any of that relate to being prepared for what you're gonna say? or is it doesn't really matter.
Nic:I think probably there's a psychological element to preparing for what you're gonna say and that probably depends on your context, whether it's a live podcast, whether it's prerecord, there may be slightly higher and lower stakes or a feeling of higher and lower stakes there. Um, also whether you're interviewing somebody or not and whether you are really excited cuz they're like one of your crushes or whether. Nervous cuz you have to actually take them to task and it's gonna maybe be, get a bit crunchy. So there's definitely an element of, of psychological preparation that you need to go through. But what that can do to your voice, those environments can impact your voice. So if you're more nervous, you're more likely to be short of breath and slightly more tense. So therefore speaking may feel harder for you. If you assess, you know, do a bit of a, a risk assessment, of, of the stakes involved before you record, then what you can do is make sure that you're hitting all the points that you need to, to prepare your body and your voice, uh, appropriately. Um, so what I. Funny enough, I've, I've written a book, , I dunno if I can mention it now., what? It's, it's, it's, it's out soon or maybe out already, depending on when you're listening to this. But one of the things that go through in the book is, you know, in those particular mic environments, what's at stake and how do you prepare for it? So it's like if you are nervous,, yes, you have to warm up your voice, but you need to do your body and your breath first, definitely, because you're gonna be hyped up a wee bit. So I think if you're feeling, um, a bit nervous or there's something going on in the record that psychologically you think will have an effect on you, then definitely focus on tension release and the oat breath. That
Dylan:is such a great point. You made me think of something I never pieced together a few years ago. Are you familiar with Tom biu? He has a podcast and YouTube personality. He has a show called Impact Theory. He's more of like a kind of a motivational type guy. Uh, really popular podcast. Anyways, he like really popular and I had a client that was a guest on his podcast, but he had no idea who this guy was. He had no idea who Tom Bili. and had he known who he was and the other types of guests he'd had on and like, how big it would've been, it probably would've been a different interview and he would've answered differently. He had no idea going into it. He was just like, wow, this studio's really nice. I thought it was, it was just, uh, the PR firm had set it up and so he just shows up, you know? And Wow, that's really professional. He just does the interview. He's like, wow. Yes. Really great questions. And then like a month or two later, , it comes out. He's like, what? Oh, I had no idea. This guy was a big deal. And it's grown since then, but it was the best interview this, this client had ever given because he, he went into adding no context, , nothing That's good or anything just cracks me up because I just know that if it, if he would've known the, the result of it, he probably. Tripped up, maybe would've tried to like over answer some words and really nail it. But he went in cool, calm and confident because he, he didn't know how big it would be,. Nic: He just was Yeah. Show up. I know. And, and the, I think as well, people are always like, Doing loads of research and making sure they know who they're talking to and all that kind of stuff. And I would certainly wanna go in super prepared, and I'd probably have accidentally found out who this person was. But it's, it is interesting to hear it from that side that maybe ignorance is blessed in some, in some ways. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you've listened to Digital Podcaster more than once and you're enjoying the episodes, you've probably noticed that I don't have ads where I try and sell you something. The reason for that is because I'm just simply trying to share tools and strategies that will help you become a better Podcaster if you're a repeat listener. All I ask is that you help the show by taking. 30 seconds and leaving a quick rating and review@ratethispodcast.com slash Dylan. It really only takes 30 seconds, helps the show out, and it would mean the world to me. All you have to do is go to rate this podcast.com/ Dylan, D Y L A N. Thank you so much for listening and taking a quick moment to do that. Let's dive back in. last question for you. Do you have any quick voice tip for podcasters that you wish podcasters maybe knew more of? You just don't see it talked about enough? Just like a simple, quick tip for.
Nic:Hmm. Yeah, I think, let me, let me, let me just think about this a little bit. What's the best
Dylan:wedding? Think? Unfortunately they only speaking cause
Nic:this is a voice , I have put loads of ums in. Is that allowed ? Um,
Dylan:buy some time. Um,
Nic:okay. Okay. There's so many things that I would like to share, but one is fine. Okay. Can I give two? Can I give two? Two tiny ones? It's
Dylan:okay. Two's okay, but it's gotta be the absolute best two. They've gotta be perfect. Okay.. Okay.
Nic:You know me, I love perfection. I'm such a perfectionist. Um, number one, first one is alignment. So one of the. Alignment on the microphone. So one of the things that some Podcasting clients talk about is the fact that if they're doing a few episodes in a row, they get a bit vocally tired, or that their voice sounds different at the end of the day to how it was when they started. And one of the main things about that is their physical alignment on the microphone. So, Sometimes as a tendency, depending on your set as you adjust yourself. Well done. Just coincidence, by the way.. Yeah, . Sure, sure. Um, one of the things I see is a lot of people reaching towards the microphone or kind of jotting their chin forward, and that puts a kink in the well voice. Apparatus. You know, it's like when you're drinking through a straw and a straw is nice and straight, it comes out easy. But if you put a kink in a straw, all of a sudden it becomes a bit harder. It's the same the, you know, if your alignment is outta whack, it's harder for your voice to be made and harder for the breath to get through and for the vocal folds to vibrate. So just checking that your head and your neck, um, and your shoulders and your back are all aligned in the most efficient way. It's a really useful thing to explore. So check, you're not a chin judder, or that your shoulders aren't kind of hunching over.. Um, and they
Dylan:lot podcasters do that thing too, where they have a mic stand, but then they like talk. They're like, it's like a, they see their, it's like the cliche radio announcer guy that's like leaning into it. So Nic, uh, tell me about the, but.
Nic:Yeah. Well, it's a, I think it's a plosive thing as well, isn't it? They kind of work across the mic to like resist a, sort of, remove plosives a little bit, so you get a bit less popping sometimes as well. Mm-hmm. So I just, food is like, so like a Howard story. Oh, this whole thing? Where did that come from? Yeah. Oh, this podcast. Oh, hey. What? Oh, hey, Mike. Didn't even see you there. Yeah, so I, one of the tips in the book is like, forget the mic's there, you know, you need to set up your text so you don't even have to worry about the mic and you can just talk. Um, oh God. I think we've already given two and I was only supposed to give one, and I know it's gonna
Dylan:be three. Three, but three feels like a sweet spot if one comes to mind. If one doesn't, that's okay. No pressure. Nic: Um, let your breath out Most people when they're nervous or when they're preparing to record, they kind of get themselves all set up and they get ready and then they take a big breath, hey. Um, and actually it's much more useful to focus on the out breath. Then let a breath come in nice and easily and then get started. Um, mainly because when we take those big hulking breaths in, we're actually making it harder for our vocal folds to vibrate because there's lots of air pressure underneath. So it's harder to speak generally. Um, and the other thing is those big breaths tend to bring the shoulders and the chest into it, and that can also create tension in the voice and freedom, uh, res restrict freedom in the voice. So I like to try and get people to focus on the out breath because it makes speaking easier, because they tend to then work with a little bit less breath and trust the breath that's there. But also it's really nice for nerves. So when you're dealing with nerves, what you don't want is to take breaths in. You wanna be. Blowing the breath out and then just releasing your belly and letting a nice, relaxed, easy breath come in afterwards. So alignment and breath, please also stay hydrated. Okay, that's it. Yes. Yes ma'am. right away. Um, , is there any recommendation on like breathing in through the mouth, out through the nose? Does it.
Nic:Now when you're speaking, you breathe through your mouth. That's the end of it. When you're doing lovely meditative breath work for your mental health, like stability knows for sure, but nobody. Breathes through their nose when they talk. Like no one's going to that party where the person's like, hi, thanks for coming. Can we just talk about the cheese that's on offer here? It's really, really tears day actually. Like . I am sorry that made I such a big nose point is I think you just made
Dylan:a great example
Nic:Exactly for speaking mouth breath is efficient and absolutely. Um, Perfect . We don't need no spraying. I did once go to a workshop and every time that you ask the guy the question before he answered the question, he would take a big kind of really dramatic pause with a nose breath. And I was like, I have a life to live. Can we please get to the end of this queue there Especially
Dylan:if they got a little whistle. Thanks. They got a little whistle like in their nose isn't clear and it's like, like
Nic:yeah. Or like mine's a bit stuffy today. So like there's a big snotty kind of the microphone. It
Dylan:up. Like that's what I'm unfortunate. Um, can we remove that in post please? Yeah. Right. Unfortunately not. Um, Two quick last questions for you. One, I just have to ask your book. It's gonna have an audiobook version, right?. Nic: You know, everybody keeps are you gonna do it ? Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, cuz I'm a voiceover artist. Like it's part of my job. I hope to, yes. I'm currently not quite sure when or that is gonna happen cuz I don't do audiobooks as a voice of artist because I have a very bad attention span. Um, but hopefully if it's my own book I'll be able to commit to that for long enough to to get through it. But yeah, it will hopefully have an audiobook version. I love that I, this is a story for another time, but I had someone offer me like a good chunk of money. I'm not a voiceover artist and nothing. And like 10 years ago, they were like, I'll pay you X amount of money to read this book that doesn't have an audio book version. Because they knew I had like this studio set up. I was like, okay. And I read it and I was like, this is so much. It was.. I was halfway through. I was, nothing was making, I didn't know what I was doing. It's a, it's a large undertaking.
Nic:Oh my gosh. It's huge. Yeah. I have a lot of audiobook narrator clients, and I have the utmost respect for them. It's such a skill and they do not get paid enough. Yeah. Well, you know, they do eventually, but like when you first get started, I mean, you've gotta read the book, you've gotta prep the book, you've gotta record the book. A lot of them edit it themselves as well. It's like, , I mean, days, weeks, long time. It's a lot of work. It's endurance. Real endurance. It
Dylan:really is. Um, last question. How can people work with you?
Nic:Uh, well, a myriad of ways. Um, I do one-to-one, so I do packages of two sessions or six sessions, depending on what people would like. I do online courses as well, so whenever this goes out, I think I'll probably be in the middle of my online. Program, which is called the Vocal Empowerment Program, which is this amazing like six week program where we just deep dive into the voice training process and we give you all the tools and the techniques to prepare your voice, look after it, know what to do, and it's not feeling great. Get the most outta your breath and your range and your expression and just like really own and understand your instrument. Um, and.. I also do, I have a, uh, Facebook group, um, called The Voice and Accent Hub. You can pop in there and ask me questions and stuff. I've got a podcast. I've got two podcasts, but the most useful one for this is the Voice Coach podcast. Um, and I also do retreats. So you can come and hang out with me at my house and we can just do like voice training all weekend and sit in the hot tubs and it's great fun. So, loads. There's loads of. A lot
Dylan:of talking at that retreat too.
Nic:A lot of talking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of talking. A lot of talking about talking.
Dylan:I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today, Nic. And, uh, I can't wait for us all to take what you've shared and implement it, uh, because we need it.. Nic: You were very welcome. Did I say what my book is called?? No, wait. No.
Nic:I don't think I did called. This is classic person who's wrote their first book trying to tell people about the book, but not saying what the book is
Dylan:called Should we leave it a mystery? Is this a Shall We? It's a
Nic:book with words that by voice Google. It's called Google That Nic's book. It's called. On the mic and it's, uh, voice training for voice of artists, podcasters, speakers, and presenters.
Dylan:Sweet. Sweet. I'm gonna link to that. I love that title too, on the mic. So good. Thanks. Thanks, you Nic.