Yes… with clear goal setting and focused awareness you’ll enjoy results in under 10 minutes per day!  Try it!

This exercise is designed to change your phrase-final melody, which will enable others to better follow you from idea to idea:

1. Go to a website that provides video with accompanying transcripts.  High on my list is Ted.com because their transcripts are interactive; meaning wherever you click on text is where the video plays.
   
   

2. Choose a speaker that interests you.  I love Stuart Brown’s talk about PLAY.  Copy and paste the first paragraph of the transcript into a text document.  Highlight the most important word at the end of each idea like this:
   
   

   “So, here we go: a flyby of play.”

   
   
   

3. Read aloud, making the highlighted words longer, louder and lower in pitch.  Listen to the speaker…is Stuart Brown longer, louder and lower at the end of his ideas?  He sure is!
   
   

4. Work your way through the entire transcript, 10 minutes per day.  By the time you’re done, you will have begun to hear people around you speaking with this melodic pattern and before long, you’ll be producing it yourself!

What you should know about the accent barrier and what you can do to overcome it.
If your tone of voice, word choice, pronunciation, body language or grammar is somehow different from the folks around you, you may be met with comments like “Where are you from?” or “What do you mean?” or even “What did you say?”  Sometimes, it’s just a look: the slightly raised eyebrow, the widening eyes and subtle gasp, the furrowed brow or (and perhaps worst of all) the perfectly blank, vacant stare followed by an awkward, almost palpable silence.  You know the signals, and it can make you feel pretty crummy.  At the very least, it’s a distraction and over time, it can chip away at your confidence.

But what if you depend on your voice for your job? The consequences can be quite grim. If you’re an actor, for example, you may not get the part or media attention.  If you’re a pro athlete, you might miss out on post-game interviews or endorsement deals.  In the business world, you may be passed over for promotions, and in the medical field, mispronunciations can be a matter of life or death.  Pretty daunting stuff!  While it may seem unfair, the truth is people like to be around people who look like them, think like them and sound like them.  It’s just human nature. So what can you do about it?

For starters, no one has to get rid of their accent to get to where they want to be. It’s time to change that thinking once and for all!  Your accent isn’t a problem that has to be fixed or removed.  In fact, your accent isn’t a problem at all.  It’s home, it’s your family, it’s your neighborhood, it’s who you are!  What you know doesn’t hold you back.  Think about it.  If you are a doctor who wants to become a lawyer, you don’t have to “unlearn” or get rid of your medical knowledge before you acquire a law degree.  You simply add to your knowledge base.  You get another degree.  You train for another sport.  You prepare for another character.  So as far as accent is concerned, learn the speech patterns you need to get to where you want to be. Learn another voice.

Standard American English is a powerful business tool. Standard American English opens doors.  Isn’t it time you learned how to use it, when you need it, to get to where you want to be?  Take charge of your voice!  You may be surprised to learn that with just a couple of tweaks to your natural speech patterns, your accent burden will be completely lifted.  Find out what your voice says about you and get it ready for what you want to do next.  Schedule an appointment with us today to find out exactly what you can do to get more from your voice and move forward in your career!