How to avoid sounding like a robot

In high school, my brother had a homework assignment to write a report of what one of his parents did for a living. So, he pulled out the slightly battered Zenith cassette recorder we had and sat down with my father. After clearing his throat a few times, my father started, “a typical day in the life for a civil engineer starts out…”

Within 30 seconds, it was hard to pay attention to what he was saying because he was speaking in the most monotone voice we’d ever heard.

As a matter of fact, we’d never heard him sound that way before. From my Dad’s perspective, this was “for the record,” so he wanted to be sure it was official and correct, but it could put you to sleep almost instantaneously.

Is this happening to you when you’re addressing a group or leading a call or webinar?

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Get some sort of sample text and hit the highest pitch you can on one word, then the lowest pitch on the next. Like this: Today (high), we’re (low), going (high), to (low), review (high), the (low), yearly (high), budget (low). This should sound absolutely ridiculous.
2. Now, go back and read the same sentence without thinking about changing pitches.
3. Shazam! Because you’re established that you can hit different notes, you’ve broken your monotone habit.

Record yourself throughout this exercise and when you run through your talk/webinar beforehand. You'll quality control your delivery and assure you don’t sound like a robot, and your audience will be thankful (and much more engaged).

Photo by Rock'n Roll Monkey on Unsplash