Voice what Matters: the Podcast

What is an authentic voice? Part 1

April 11, 2021 Christine Mottram Season 3 Episode 5
Voice what Matters: the Podcast
What is an authentic voice? Part 1
Show Notes

This is the first episode under the new 'Voice what Matters' title and, to celebrate, I've picked a juicy topic:

Authenticity. It’s definitely a buzzword these days. Everyone is talking about authenticity. It’s something we value in our friends, our partners, our leaders and ourselves. And it comes up a lot in voice coaching— clients often want to find their authentic voice. But what exactly does that mean? This is the first episode in a 3-part series where I look at this topic. In this episode I explore the conversation around the authentic voice—what is it?

I talk about the dictionary definition of ‘authentic’, and what questions that brings up from a communication perspective: 

What does authenticity sound like? And how do we know?  Can it change based on context? We often speak differently professionally than we do personally. Does that mean we are being inauthentic? To what extent is it ‘cultural’? 

And Who gets to decide— the speaker or the listener? both?

I talk about how your authentic voice relates to finding your authentic self, and why it’s not as simple as— if you have to think about it or rehearse it, it’s not authentic. For many of us, because of how we were raised, finding our authentic voices (and selves) takes practice. 

Let me know what you think. What does authenticity mean to you?