The secret to closing sales

The saga continues.

To a better voice that is.

I wrote an email about this a couple of months ago, and how I’m working to get a more expressive and less boring voice.

Well, my learning journey has taken me to a new area, and I want to share it with you.

I’ve learned that a few of the commonalities all my favorite speakers share include:

• Expressive range of tones while speaking (tonality)

• Space of words relative to each other (cadence)

• Authentic energy

• Dynamic volume

And as it turns out, there’s a ton of info online about the first 2.

Here’s what I’ve learned about tonality

There are 5 main tones that can be used:

• Playful

• Curious

• Confused

• Concerned

• Challenging

Each has a range of musical notes that you employ to get the full effect.

If you think of monotone, or 1 note, it is extremely boring and tiring to listen to. 

But when you start adding in different notes, you start creating more emotion. Each of the 5 tonalities are essentially just a modulation of notes to get the effect you’re going for.

Simple but not easy.

Some people do this automatically and don’t need any training.

But for me, I need to practice.

Part of the reason is that I’ve worked as an engineer for a good amount of years. There’s been studies that show engineers, on average, speak very close to monotone. This has rubbed off on me, unfortunately.

I have hope though. When I’m talking to my son (4 months old), I don’t talk in monotone. Pretty interesting. I use a much greater range of tones and notes, which means that I can do it when speaking in public (just with less baby-talk).

So, my training regimen is to listen to people that I admire, speaking-wise, and copying them. I mentioned Tony Robbins in the past email. I’m also adding Alex Hormozi and Jamie Foxx to this list.

Finally, the last step is to actually put it into practice.

How am I going to do this?

Well, in the past, a big part of both my content strategy and speaking practices was 𝕏 Spaces.

Now I still love Spaces, but, for me, async works way better. It’s just hard to spend hours on spaces between job, side hustle, gigs, and family. 

So, I’m leaning into video and podcasts as a way to get the reps in.

These are way more async. I can do them at 12 AM if I need to (and have).

At the end of the day, if you can get the reps in, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you get them in. 

Just like throwing a kettlebell around in your garage vs. a group Crossfit workout in a high-end gym, a rep is a rep.

One is just funner than the other, haha.

Cheers,

Swanagan

P.S., if you don’t follow me on X, here’s a link to my profile: https://twitter.com/Swanagan. Would love to see you over there!