Recently, on social media, an NLP Practitioner asked a question about a client who reported having a phobia, and with whom he used the NLP Fast Phobia Cure, which may have partly worked, but it came back a few days later?
Developing a more Irresistible Voice... (practical tips)
an earlier version of this post first appeared in one of Jamie Smart's newsletters back in 2005.
For more than a decade, I've been recognized as an expert on voice development, both amongst Neuro-Linguistic Programmers, and outside of that domain as well. With my audio program "Finding Your Irresistible Voice" being my most popular home-study resource, it's no wonder my customers and students have asked for additional material in this area, to help them improve their voice even further.
I've also had the opportunity to run multiple "Irresistible Voice" NLP workshops, in NYC, in Melbourne Australia, London UK, San Francisco, and elsewhere... and the pleasure and privilege of extensively coaching at least 1000 different people (students and coaching clients included) on improving the quality of their voices, not to mention offering thousands of people quick & targeted suggestions for vocal improvement, based on whatever I was hearing them do & say while they spoke with me briefly or during teleconferences. It's one of the most common interests I experience, both at my own events and when I visit other trainers' courses.
In short, without doing anything intentional to get to this point, I now have ample additional experience and knowledge working with vocal improvement, far beyond the level I was at, at the time when I first produced the "Irresistible Voice" CDs back in 1998.
Back in 2005, I attended an Influence course given by Kenrick Cleveland down in Miami Beach as a guest. While there, I was asked to spend 30 minutes working with Kenrick's student group to train them on the value of improving their tonality and resonance. So I spent 15 minutes training a range of techniques, and then worked individually with a handful of "voice-challenged" participants. I asked the audience members who thought they could use some vocal improvement, and from the group that responded, I hand-picked 4 specific people who I felt could improve the most, in a very short period of time. My intuition was sorting for poor posture, poor breathing patterns, poor voicebox timing, excessive speed and muscular interruptions, etc.
I ended up doing what I would call "rapid voice interventions" to show what we could do with each person -- by offering exercises & suggestions that each person could do to uniquely improve their voice. In each case, the "diagnoses" were different, the "treatments" were different, but the results & "prognoses" the same: the "problem" voices were replaced by warm, resonant voices, getting a round of applause for every example.
No one is beyond help -- anyone can (and most people should) improve their voice. ESPECIALLY people interested in NLP and/or Hypnosis.
In fact, one of the guys that had the most fun with (and says he got the most from) my mini-workshop was a fellow with an absolutely World-Class voice (in my opinion). He said he had gotten coaching from another audio program author, and that author told him his biggest problem with his voice -- was that he (the person asking for voice coaching) didn't like his own voice enough, and he'd get the best results -- by just "getting over it" (i.e., getting past his own dislike, since other people loved his voice!). I told him I thought it was great advice, and we both ended the conversation agreeing that no matter how great we get our voices to sound, each of us can always find areas of improvement.
My own biggest area of continuous voice improvement is a really tough call for me -- it's my slightly nasal sound, which comes from my deviated septom. I could have the nasal surgery to get past that, but... I've heard some horror stories about people who've done the surgery and then had additional sinus problems for years afterwards. So I work my butt off to improve & continually refine other qualities of my voice, which overshadow the slightly nasal quality it sometimes has.
So, to get your mouth watering for further development, here's a couple of ideas for each of you to explore when improving your voice.
Stand up when you're talking on the phone.
Smile when you speak to people. It engages FAR better tonality.
Breathe deep using your belly. If your rib cage is expanding measurably, you're not using your belly. Breathe in, belly goes out. Breathe out, belly comes back in.
Drink -only- water. Juice, Coffee, caffeine, sugar -- all will help constrict your vocal cords, and diminish your voice. A lot more than you think it does. Fact, not Fiction. Besides, drinking more/only water is much healthier for you anyway, as if that wasn't reason enough to forego the rest.
If you have to speak for long periods of time, use a Glycerin Spray on the back of your throat. A speaker's little-known mastery tip! Keeps the throat moist. Great stuff!
Imagine your vocal tract as though the space inside it were solid. Look for the tight, angular, constricted spots. Change or open up your posture to loosen and open up those constricted areas. Create a larger, more open wind-instrument in your vocal tract. Move/rock your body back & forth, until that more open posture feels more natural/comfortable.
Learn to speak using a metronome. Practice different rhythms until it's absolutely second nature to synchronize with different rhythms presented to you.
Learn as many different accents as you can. The nuances you'll develop with shifting your vocal qualities -- will make you world-class at mirroring other people's voices.
These are just a few good additional suggestions. I have so many more -- even better than the above -- and -- these should keep you going for a while! Feel free to email me & tell me how these go for you!
Inbox Insights
- Knowledge Engineering (& Belief Craft) have evolved, into GeniusMapping™
- As of September 2020, we're in the process of moving from Tampa, Florida, to the Youngstown Ohio area. Currently, during the Coronavirus era, we're mostly focusing on Zoom-based Coaching, and aligning resources to run online courses.
- How "Civil Engineering" totally reframes the word "Stress," redefines the phrase "Stress Management," and leads us to embrace Stress!
- Many NLP Practitioners are more sloppy with their thinking patterns, than they'd like to admit, or... would even notice.
- Watch NLP Co-Founder Richard Bandler use NLP to eliminate Michael Strahan's phobic response to snakes -- in minutes (with Kelly Ripa bringing over a BIG snake at the end to test Michael's response). Spoiler alert: It worked ridiculously well.
- No matter what skill you want to learn, no matter what fears or concerns or hesitation you may have, there are and will always be a wide range of approaches, to learning that skill. It's important to keep that in mind when making learning choices.
- Many more famous people have been trained in Ericksonian (indirect) Hypnosis and NLP than you might guess. There are certainly far more who have strong interests here than have publically admitted so.
- On January 1, 2015, Jonathan Altfeld and 20 other co-authors released a digital book entitled "Creating Business Growth."
- What are the Four Stages of Learning?
- Brian TracySpeaker, Author, World-Renowned Business Expert, Brian Tracy International,Bought Audio : Finding Your Irresistible Voice
"This is a wonderful program that will give you a powerful, authoritative voice. It can change your life."
http://briantracy.com/2000 
Elmer H. "Pete" YoungCriminal Defense Attorney, Augusta, GAAttended Course : NLP Practitioner TrainingI am waaay late in fulfilling my earlier intention of thanking Jonathan for the exciting and enlightening experience of his Practitioner course in February, 2012.
I have since attended another and both have literally changed the way I approach, my clients, my trials and indeed, my life! I would tell every lawyer I know to engage Jonathan to improve their skills, but only if they didn't practice in my jurisdictions! These skills have enhanced my life, for sure! Thanks, Jonathan!http://www.GeorgiaDefense.com2012- Tim O'KeefeWeb Developer & SEO Strategist, Spider Juice Technologies, Los Angeles, CAAttended Course :
Jonathan, your K.E. Workshop is superb. I got 100% more than I ever expected. I find you engaging and a tremendous model. Your obvious respect for your attendees is admirable. What struck me the most is how fluid the 3 days were. By the 3rd day, everything easily and naturally shifts into understanding. After 1 week, I can tell you I have shifted. The models in my own life (that we worked on in exercises) have been shifting. I have come to some realizations that will be a major change in my business, ultimately allowing me to more fully enjoy my business for the reasons I started it. Thank you!
http://www.spiderjuicetechnologies.com2004 - Alex KravchenkoIT Consultant, New York, NYAttended Course : Speaking Ingeniously
Consider taking Jonathan Altfeld’s "Speaking Ingeniously" course. To start with, Jonathan is a very powerful public speaker himself, so even if there was nothing else to recommend about this course, just the ability to model someone who’s able to deliver an amazing impromptu presentation on just about any topic I can think of is well worth the price of the workshop. What’s even better, Jonathan, in addition to being a great communicator, is also a very skillful and dedicated teacher who’s quite able and willing to deploy his considerable NLP skills to make his students better public speakers. Add to this a powerful "Speaking Ingeniously" model of delivering both prepared and off-the-cuff presentations and you get a hell of a training! Before the course I had some idea about spatial and tonal anchoring, as well as state-chaining in the context of public speaking. After the course, I have experience of moving people through various states while creating anchors. I also became much better at generating attention grabbing headlines. Bottom line – Jonathan delivers what he advertises and then some! I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills.
2007 - Claudio SennhauserDemo Coach and Author of "Giving Memorable Product Demos", ThailandBought Audio : Automatic Yes CD-set
In this program, Jonathan teaches how to elicit and influence emotional states in elegant and natural ways. Although the program focuses on one-on-one communication, all of the skills and knowledge taught can be applied to product demonstrations and group presentations as well. In the Sample Track from CD 1, Jonathan says: "Lead your audience to an Action State in a way that aligns with their values and beliefs." That sums up what you will get from the program: the ability to elicit and influence emotional states in your audience. You will learn how to lead someone from an Encounter State to an Action State through the chaining of smaller state changes in between. This is a skill that will set you apart from other presenters. Thinking about how your audience will feel will most certainly help you add great stories, and sequence them for maximum impact. For me, this program is a keeper! I recommend it to any product demonstrator as a secret weapon. Armed with it, you will be able to elicit and change the emotional states of your audience with elegance. I consider this the main ingredient that will lead to truly memorable demos.
http://sennhauser.com/2009 - Michael RoachCoach, London, UKAttended Course : Knowledge Engineering
I used to think modelling was strategy elicitation and from that I could never figure out how people like Richard Bandler so successfully modelled Erickson etc. I thought that maybe it was innate genius or maybe its something they don't teach explicitly now. In this training Jonathan brings his expertise from the domain of Knowledge Engineering (modelling experts and encoding that knowledge in software) together with his expertise in NLP. [...] What I had no idea of how to do before was how to code the information that I elicited. A Knowledge Engineer writes the rules that enable an expert system to make decisions, and while Cyberspace may be an overused word, its interesting to think of having a dataspace to represent the matrix of information you construct to build your model. [...] I recommend this training to those who want to learn how to model the excellence in other people and make it their own.
http://michaelwilliamroach.com/2000 - Michael DeBuskNLP Master Practitioner, MarylandAttended Course : NLP Skills-Builders (course)
Jonathan, I absolutely loved spending the weekend training with you in DC. As a Licensed Master Practitioner, I was delighted to find myself learning new ways to further refine my skills and discovering new parts of my brain. That fingertip exercise you demonstrated--the one that increases interhemispherical communication in the brain--I use it daily and am impressed with the results. And I'm noticing that I have an even greater ability with language patterns. My favorite part of the weekend, though, was watching the personal transformations made by other members of the class, specifically the skeptics. These folks went from "show me" to "show me more!" in an incredibly short period of time. You've helped them begin the process of dramatically improving their lives, and it was an honor to observe and take part in it. Thanks, too, for spending extra time with the class... running longer than scheduled so you could share "just one more cool thing" with us, even having meals with us "out in the real world." We all got much more than we paid for. I'm very glad I trained with you and Mastery InSight, and I'll very likely do so again in the future. Thanks again.
http://nlphilia.net/1998 - Donna McGeorgeSpeaker, Facilitator, People with PEP,Attended Course : Speaking Ingeniously
I have just come off a 3 day training program with 13 people. I have to say I experienced amazing results and have integrated more HC than I thought. During each of the breaks David [another Holographic Communication student] was coming to me and saying things like 'great amnesia patterns' and 'cool embedded commands' (or words to that effect). There were some that I was conscious of, and others that demonstrated unconscious skill. However, this course (Cert IV), through other public offerings, is often delivered in anything from 8 days to 6 months, and I had some (secret) concerns about pulling it off in 3 days... [judicious pause]... and I did. I believe that using the HC techniques of headlines, universals/truisms, moving people through states and using embedded commands meant this program had real legs and the content was delivered in an extremely accelerated, yet satisfying, way. In any case, the proof was in the pudding. Participants, in their final presentations, demonstrated *all* of the techniques that I had taught them and performed beautifully and "passed". Thanks again for an amazing workshop and more amazing experience. I will be recommending this program to my colleagues, and look forward to an 'advanced HC' program when it eventuates.
http://www.peoplewithpep.com.au/2005 - Mark WilsonBismarck, NDAttended Course : Flirtopia DVD-set
When I grew up we moved many times. I hadn't developed any social skills, so as I grew up I would always be shy around strangers. I begin to feel anxious in meeting not only women but also any new people. What would I say? What happens when the conversation dies? I would hang on to anyone who showed any interest in me. Needless to say, I dated many "Ms. Right Now's" rather than "Ms. Right's" because they accepted me. After I attended the Flirtopia seminar, now I feel comfortable in any social situation. In having a new perspective in reading their comfort level, interest and willingness to follow me, I can lead them into many other activities that I enjoy. As I look back in my life, without attending Flirtopia, I know I would either be alone or with people who not only would tolerate my shyness but eventually become bored with it and take advantage of me. Now I find there is so much more to life. More doors have opened through becoming more social and I have been able to choose a woman who enjoys my company and we enjoy a much richer relationship. I know there have been events that have changed who I am today. Flirtopia is one of the most important in becoming who I am today. Thank you Jonathan.
2000 - Aaron SpurlingNLP Master Practitioner, Indianapolis, INAttended Course : NLP Master Practitioner
One of the things people interested in NLP often wonder about is where they can get high quality training. I did my Master Practitioner training with Jonathan Altfeld and Doug O'Brien, and in my opinion they are two of the very best trainers out there today. Both Jonathan and Doug have vast knowledge and experience in NLP, and they are both gifted teachers. Furthermore, Jonathan's unique Knowledge Engineering" approach to modeling, together with Doug's mastery of "Sleight of Mouth" and Ericksonian hypnosis, make for an incredibly powerful combination that is not being taught literally anywhere else. I recommend that anyone who wants to take their NLP skills to truly world class levels should sign up for Jonathan and Doug's training immediately!
2008