Two Tonys walk into a bar. One of them leaves.
Alistair Davis
Helping Tech Teams Get Leads & Sell Complex Tech Licenses & Services Using Psychology & Tried-Tested approaches
Two Tonys walk into a bar. One of them leaves.
?Hi, it’s me, Al. Welcome to this issue of the Speakeasy. If you want to hear the punchline to that joke, you’ll have to scroll down. Trigger warning: it will make your eyes roll.
But first…
Has anyone ever told you something about yourself that you didn’t realise was true until they said it?
?It can be a mildly embarrassing thing, like someone telling you that you have spinach in your teeth.
?(That said this does get significantly more embarrassing when they start directing you while you visit each of your tooth gaps with your fingernail desperately trying to find the culprit.)
?‘No, still there.’
?‘Now?’
?‘Still there. It’s more on the left.’
?‘And NOW?’
?‘Still there!’
?‘What the heck Gary!? I don’t have an infinite number of teeth. It’s gotta be somewhere.’
?Then there is the OTHER kind. The kind where someone points out a habit or a trait you have that up until that point was not on your radar at all.
?Maybe you learn that you’re a bit of a spitter when you speak. Or that you’re an incessant nodder. Or that you stand too close to people (Covid sorted this one out, thank goodness).
?It can feel pretty earth-shattering. Like the fabric of reality has been ripped apart.
?One that’s quite common is finding out you’re ‘a boring speaker.’
?Nobody thinks they’re a bore. In our minds we are mellifluous songbirds bringing the hills to life with the sounds of our very important opinions.
?BUT often we are not.
?One factor that contributes significantly to being perceived as a boring speaker is MONOTONY.
?In this episode of The Speakeasy I’m going to show you how to identify monotony (before someone else does it for you) and bring a little more life back into your speaking voice.
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What is Monotony?
?Monotony is when two Tony’s walk into a bar and then one of them leaves. (I told you it would make your eyes roll!)
It is also the practice of speaking in a low frequency with no pitch variance and at similar speeds in words per minute with similar breaks ALL THE TIME. Monotone speaking is actually quite common, especially in men and especially as we get older.
?In some instances it can be effective (here’s an example ), and is even considered sexually attractive in some English-speaking cultures. Maybe cowboy movies are to thank/blame here. But for the most part, monotony - or monotonousness, to be more specific - communicates disinterest and a lack of life force and creativity.
In a business environment, especially, in sales, this can have DISASTROUS effects.
4 ways to combat Monotony
●?????Try to speak as if you are singing a song. Every song (OK, maybe not drum and bass) is a story. Energy builds, it levels off, it drops, it rises again. Apply these waves of peaks and troughs to your speaking.
●?????Vary your speed. Speak a little quicker as you move to an exciting point (not too fast that you become unintelligible) - a crescendo in your sales pitch so to speak. Slow down and make eye contact when you want your listener to take information in deeply.
●?????Use descriptors! Describing-words have more energy, they paint pictures in your listeners mind and colour the sentences they are in. When you add more descriptors to your sentences (again, don’t overdo it) you automatically speak them out with more pitch and variance.
●?????Inflect down at the end of a sentence. Think of it like the catharsis in a movie. The hero comes home, the challenge has been won. There is space to meditate on the message. You don’t want to leave your listener dangling at the top of the cliff, (this is called uptalk and makes your sentence sound like a question) you want to bring them down to a point that solidifies your message and completes the story.?
Do this exercise
Prepare a short speech of about 100 words (roughly 10 sentences). Record yourself saying it over and over. Do the first one as you would normally. Then do one as monotonous as possible. Now do several more. Vary your pitch and pace each time. Get experimental with it. Go crazy. For this exercise there is no wrong way to do it. Now listen to them over again. Some will sound weird. Some will sound completely wrong. Others will sound hilarious. Others will sound really good!
What you will pick up is that there will be a melody in at least a few of them that sounds pleasing: a variance of pitch and pace that has a natural-sounding but strong, communicative force behind. It’s in you already! Trust your ear, identify those patterns and work them into your next big pitch!
In case you missed it…
?This week’s top posts on LinkedIn. I love hearing your comments and learning about the particular challenges you’re facing when it comes to speaking confidently in your workplace so click the links and let me know your thoughts!
Does a monotonous voice influence what partner you will get?
Do you want people to follow you when you speak?
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