This booklet is called ‘The Vocal Athlete’. Why? Quite simply because if you are one of the many professionals who now use their voice everyday to make a living you should be thinking of yourself as an athlete.

This booklet will introduce you to simple ideas, techniques and exercises that will enable you to gain greater control over the way you communicate with others. It will hone your existing communication skills into an incisive business tool whether you are on the phone or speaking to people in person. It will help you become a vocal athlete.  In addition this booklet also shows you how to care for your voice.

Your voice is your bread and butter and you need to know how to use and care for it effectively. Many of the problems people experience can be dealt with by applying some very simple principles. 

Occupational voice loss is now affecting record numbers of workers in the UK. One quarter of the workforce experience problems with their voice. For some people these problems mean the end of their careers. It is estimated that UK plc loses £200 million each year from occupational voice disorders.

Many of us rely on our voice to make a living and yet very few of us have ever been given any specific training on how to care and develop our voice effectively. Yet if you use your voice for a whole day speaking on the telephone, running presentations, meetings, training sessions or coaching, you are doing the equivalent with your vocal muscles as running a marathon. Nobody in their right mind would attempt to run a marathon without warming up or without training to ensure they were capable of going the distance. Yet this is what many people are doing with their voice.

Very rarely do we use our voice consciously. We learn to use our voice as children and as a result the way we communicate is a series of techniques which we adopted as sub-conscious habits when we were very young. Yet if we want to be successful within our professional life we need to learn to use our voice consciously as a key part of our personal toolkit.

Most professionals know exactly how they would like to communicate; they know how they would like their voice to sound, and the impact they would like to make. What most people don’t know is how to build on their existing abilities. Yet, anyonecan attain greater influence and control over the way they communicate with others.  This is what the vocal athlete understands. In much the same way as a professional athlete develops an understanding of their body, practises and hones it into shape and develops a game plan, the vocal athlete does the same with their vocal communication.

How we see the booklet being used

Background on the author – Paul Ogden
Paul is one of the country’s leading voice and performance coaches specialising in personal communication in business.

He started coaching people in voice work in 1992, recognising the impact this had on people’s overall confidence and performance. Over the years he has developed his own approach to management development from practical experience and detailed research. This work forms the basis of the Communic8 model of conscious communication, which underpins his work with senior executives and managers in the areas of personal impact, presence, motivation skills and performance management.

Over the years he has coached a range of clients from a variety of backgrounds including board directors, senior managers, trainers, coaches, psychologists, musicians and West End actors. More recently he has been working with senior executives and managers from KPMG, Swiss Re, Atos Origin, Fujitsu, PwC, HM Revenue & Customs, and The Shaw Trust.

Quotes from satisfied customers
“We won the proposal – a real success for the region - and I strongly feel that the input from Paul  was invaluable in ensuring that I was able to perform at the required level.”

“I certainly would recommend Paul to other people wanting to improve their ability to portray themselves confidently and competently in front of an audience. He helped us act as a team, be aware of our “body style”, how we behave naturally, voice projection and for me personally he was able to assist in getting a clear, but personal message across.”

“Paul was extremely knowledgeable regarding the subject matter, and able to interface and communicate effectively those points to the team presenting to the client, concerning both vocal and physical aspects. Would definitely use him again.”
  
“I found Paul to be both helpful and thought-provoking in the approach to our major presentation.  He gave us handy tips and hints to keep our body language and vocal tones right, showed us how to identify what we might be saying without actually using words, and gave us some of the background/academic context that helped put it all together.  He also made it fun, which broke the ice for a few of us and made us laugh.”