Have you ever experience stress and fear in public speaking? Public speaking is a learnable skill and as the result of preparation and practice, and courage, you have the potential of becoming one of the most persuasive and influential speaker in your field.

I feel that presentation/public speaking skill is essential to deliver the message/information clearly, concisely and confidently. And…the magic of voice is surely a powerful instrument to verbalise our thoughts and essential tool of communicating well.

Here are some points that I’ve learnt from a recently attended communication course entitled Vocal Charisma:

1) Your voice is a vocal instrument, most important tool that can be trained to be powerful, reach higher level of quality, resonance, modulation and projection.

2) All powerful speakers speak slowly, enunciate clearly & crisply and express themselves with confidence. A human voice is like a muscle and can be made stronger and powerful with exercises like breathing, voice toning, stretching and mental exercises (visualisation & positive self talk).

3) Discipline, consistent practice of using our voice and vocal exercises are important to achieve a crisp, clear and powerful voice.

4) Visual impact dominates communication where the impact of the message is made up of 55%- visual, 38%-vocal and only 7% is verbal.

5) The ABCs of communication is A=Attitude, B=Body Language and C=Confidence. Communicating effectively is indeed a wonderful journey of self-growth, exploration and exciting possibilities. So speak up clearly and be understood and… also use your powerful vocal instrument to communicate crisply and effectively. At least I know I will make a conscious effort to do so! Hope you will too!