Excerpt

1

‘‘Can We Talk?’’

An Overview

I was presenting a workshop on Voice Survival at the National Speakers Association Conference in Hollywood, California,

when one of the female presenters approached me in the hallway. ‘‘Joni, can you help me?’’ she asked in a raspy voice,

‘‘My speech is in two hours and I don’t know what to do . . . I have to speak in front of eight hundred professional speakers and my voice is completely gone.’’ She stared at me hopefully, waiting for my answer.

Stop right there and hold that thought while I backtrack eight years to the time when I had just finished writing my first book on voice. Having spent the weekend in an inspiring motivational seminar with Mark Victor Hanson and Jack Canfield, the authors of all those Chicken Soup for the Soul books, I was flying high with enthusiasm and untapped potential. I was ready to establish myself as the voice expert—not just another voice teacher.

In the years that followed that powerful weekend, I attended many workshops and conferences, sometimes as the presenter/speaker and sometimes as an attendee. At many of the events, following my presentation on voice techniques, women—speakers and business professionals—often approached me looking for answers to what seemed to be their never-ending voice problems.

As my reputation as a voice expert grew, I received telephone calls and e-mails at all hours of the day and night from women searching for answers to those success-robbing voice dilemmas that seemed to pop up at the worst possible times. The problems, which ranged from chronic vocal fatigue to total voice loss, often occurred for no apparent reason. But, of course, there is always a reason.

Over the years, I’ve worked with female teachers, lawyers, politicians, speakers, singers, business executives, media professionals, and even stay-at-home moms. They were all experiencing voice problems caused by straining their voices as they tried to be heard above life’s boisterous noise and chatter. I understood their frustration because I too had lost my voice at a pivotal time in my life, and that catastrophe almost ended my singing and acting career just as it was about to take off. I was twenty years old, singing in Las Vegas with the world by the tail, when my voice problems began. I had just been booked as an opening act for Elvis (the real one!), and people were actually coming to see me. I had wonderful opportunities flying at me from all directions and a secret fear—that I could not trust my voice to be there when I needed it—which kept me from acting on any of them. Like most women with voice problems, I just kept pushing my poor, abused voice by tightening, forcing, and strangling it into submission. In my ignorance, I actually believed that I could make my voice perform by pushing it harder and forcing it to be louder. The frustrating result of all that pushing was, when I

pushed it too hard, my voice would wisely say, ‘‘Enough is enough, Joni,’’ and completely shut down. It would simply thumb its nose at me and take a mini vacation while I canceled gig after gig and missed opportunity after opportunity because I had no voice.

Like Aristotle searching for the meaning of life, I went from voice teacher to voice teacher searching for the perfect voice

method to solve my problems. Nothing was working and I was inconsolably turning down those once-in-a-lifetime possibilities, while watching my career sink like the Titanic. My voice had always been the focal point of my work and my true joy in life.

Then, to top it all off, a leading throat specialist dispassionately told me, ‘‘Forget about singing Joni, your voice is shot. Go find another career.’’ Fortunately, I did not take his advice.

Why You Need a Voice Book Designed Especially for Women

It wasn’t until I became a voice teacher eighteen years ago that I realized this problem was not mine alone. I knew there had to be an answer, not only for me, but for all of the women whose livelihoods depended on strong voices that would last for more than a few hours, even when they were overworked and tired. I spent the next eighteen years watching the answers unfold before me, student by student and lesson by lesson. Each person became a link in a chain of events that, I’m happy to say, completely resolved my voice problems as well as those of my clients. My tenacious search for answers paid off. Today my voice is stronger than ever, which is why I know I can help you find your perfect voice—one that will let you share your message with confidence and control.

Knowing that your voice will be there when you need it most eliminates fear and builds the self-trust so essential for success in every business situation. In my years of teaching, I have seen shy, soft-spoken women perform minor miracles once they learned how to use their voices properly. Sharing this important information is the reason I wrote this book.

Well, that’s my story; now let’s go back to that NSA Conference in Hollywood. Thankfully, there is a happy and successful

ending to that stressful cry for help. My answer to the question, ‘‘Joni, can you help me?’’ was, an emphatic, ‘‘yes.’’ I could help her. We found a quiet corner where I showed her a simple exercise that freed her constricted vocal cords and calmed her anxiety.

The whole process took less than ten minutes and she walked away grinning from ear to ear. Two hours later, she gave her speech and received a standing ovation. This is just one of many success stories to let you know that there is a very bright light at the end of the voice tunnel. As you will discover, the beauty of the techniques you will be learning is that you can instantly fix your voice problem with a few simple exercises.

Excerpted from The Voice of Success: A Woman's Guide to a Powerful and Persuasive Voice by Joni Wilson. Copyright ©  2009 Joni Wilson. Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, New York, NY. Used with permission.

All rights reserved. http://www.amacombooks.org.