How Much Voice Training Do You Need Before You Launch Your Podcast? Q+A with Jen Rogers | #237

↳How important is your voice in podcasting?

↳How much training do you need before you press record?

If you're highly critical about how your voice sounds when you listen to it, I've got you.  And...I'm inviting you to be adventurous - join me in contorting our faces in unique, voice amplifying ways as we do vocal exercises in this episode!

↳We'll cover the importance of voice training for aspiring podcasters. Get expert tips on how you can prepare before you launch.

We'll practice to get better in our speech, articulation, and resonating timbres that attract our ideal clients.

↳I'll answer Andrea's questions on voice training and tips for starting out confidently so you, too, can have a binge worthy, successful podcast where you serve beautifully.

In the Kansas City Area? I'm speaking at the Wise Women event November 13 + 14.  Register and learn more here!

Interested in the Q, E, Q, R Exercise I shared? Here!

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Transcript

Time To Simplify
 Jen Rogers | Creator of the 90-Day Sprint | Certified Coach | Keynote Speaker

I help Christian entrepreneurs leverage resources so they can stop running around with their hair on fire and have time for the people, places + play they treasure most by podcasting.

If you’re a 6 or 7 figure business owner and you haven’t launched a show, it’s time to talk about how to put your voice to work for you!

#237 Time To Simplify
 
How Much Voice Training Do You Need Before You Launch Your Podcast?
Q+A with Jen Rogers | #237

[00:00:00] Jen: If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. And let's be clear, I've heard it.

[00:00:07] Jen: Do you know what that one thing is that I've heard a thousand times when it comes to recording a podcast or showing up on a video? Jen, I hate my voice. Or some variation like, I just don't even like to listen to myself.

[00:00:24] Jen: That's why I love this question I received from Andrea. She's coming at this voice challenge from a completely different angle. Take a listen. 

[00:00:35] Andrea: Hi, Jen, it's Andrea, and I had several questions, but I tried to narrow it down. So here goes one. How much training do you recommend as far as voice training? And part B to that is how much voice training would you need just to get started. 

[00:00:55] Jen: Andrea's questions are solution focused, and those are the best kind of questions. They reminded me of voiceover talent, Jennifer Clark, who I recently met at a Wise Women Luncheon in the Kansas City area.

[00:01:08] Jen: Jennifer's dynamic voice range, the sound of human kindness, sharing the heart of your story, is featured in many big name campaigns, and she has trained extensively to use her voice. Do we need to do the same thing as podcasters?

[00:01:26] Jen: Well, yes and no. 

[00:01:28] Jen: More on that in one hot second. 

[00:01:31] Jen: 

[00:01:31] Jen: Know another thing I love about Andrea's question; I've never been asked it before. So I went down the rabbit hole looking for answers instead of answering off the cuff. My off the cuff answer remains the same. 

[00:01:45] Jen: Hey, whether you are a podcast host, podcast curious, or preparing for your next guest spot on one of your favorite shows.

[00:01:55] Jen: Your voice is your most powerful asset, which is what makes [00:02:00] Andreas question a delightful launch into today's show! On today's podcast, episode number 237 of Time To Simplify, you'll know exactly what it's going to take to get your voice ready to rumble, so you too could be your own, uh, podcast hostess with the mostest and serve your audience with melodic, meaningful mouthfuls of your powerful message.

[00:02:27] Jen: When you learn how to master your message using your voice, what it's going to take to train it and also learn what not to do with your voice, your confidence and influence will skyrocket.

[00:02:40] Jen: The mission of Time to Simplify is to do just that, to simplify your business. We're spending time together because you want to leverage your resources and your voice well. I believe your voice is your most valuable resource. Just as the gospel is preached and faith comes by hearing, your audience must hear your melodic message to discern how you can help them over the hump so you and your audience can stop running around with your hair on fire and have time for the people, places, and play you treasure most.

[00:03:14] Jen: Hi friend, I'm Jen Rogers, Certified Professional Coach. 

[00:03:17] Jen: Lover of all things podcasting, and a woman on a mission to use her voice to teach others to love their larynxes. Because those four-to-five-inch hollow tubes, commonly called voice boxes, not only play a vital role in your respiratory system, loving your larynx is leverage, and we're all about leveraging.

[00:03:39] Jen: I want to help you speak your dream into being through the power of podcasting, no matter which side of the microphone you're on, because the alternative is a devastating loss to the world. You are uniquely gifted to share your message. There's only one you. My mission is to encourage you on your journey and help you launch, create binge worthy [00:04:00] content, and 

[00:04:01] Jen: use your larynx for laughter. Sometimes our focus does get distorted, and our dreams feel really big.

[00:04:10] Jen: I propose the way to bring that dream back into focus is to raise your voice confidently one small step at a time or one word at a time. If you'd like some help elevating your confidence and your voice, I'd love to learn more about your big dream and share podcasting can be an integral part of your overall business plan. 

[00:04:34] Jen: Start the conversation by booking a call with me. Head on over to www.coachjenrogers.com/bookacall .

[00:04:42] Jen: Are you ready to dive in and explore with me how much training you need as far as voice training goes and how much of that voice training you need just to get started podcasting? All right, let's do it.

[00:04:54] Jen: Remember when I said off the cuff is where I started, and I ended up in responding to Andrea's question? Well, I learned some fun things in my research. Do you 

[00:05:05] Jen: know who Peter Miller is? 

[00:05:07] Jen: Well, he's the recipient of $47 

[00:05:10] Jen: from my pocketbook. Let me explain.

[00:05:13] Jen: I found his YouTube video for voice training and I got hooked on the idea of doing exercises to improve my voice. I said yes to 70 vocal exercises to improve my voice for less than a dollar an exercise. There's a marketing lesson in here somewhere. Hey, I'll consider this a grand experiment between you and me, and we will decide if it makes a difference on later episodes of the show.

[00:05:40] Jen: Andrea, I'm going to message you about Peter Miller, the man who had me practicing moving my mouth in exceedingly comical ways as I followed along with him. do you want to have some fun with me practicing what I just learned regarding articulation? Peter says, we simply don't open our mouths enough in the Western world.

[00:05:59] Jen: [00:06:00] Now, that's something I wish I had known, so I could have used that line with my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Litersky, who said I talked way too much. Okay, okay, 

[00:06:09] Jen:  back to voice lessons and enhancing articulation and I'm going to call it resonation. How our voices resonate. And I've got two exercises to go through together. The first one reminds me of when I was in eighth grade, going to all those roller-skating parties and asking the question, how low can you go with a limbo?

[00:06:30] Jen: Well, my question for you is how low can you go with a hum? 

[00:06:35] Jen: let me model it for you.

[00:06:40] Jen: And now I'm going to see if I can go lower. Hmmmmmmmm, Uh, Are you doing this with me? Do this with me. Now, I'm going to see if I can go a little bit lower. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Uh, That's the beginning to tickle my lips. OK. Practice the humming exercise for resonating. And get as low as you can go without it becoming choppy. So you get to practice humming.

[00:07:13] Jen: All right. Well, this is some stinking fun, isn't it? Okay, next up, Andrea. Are you hanging with me sister friend? This is for you. We may sound a bit like a warped vinyl record in this next exercise, but I'm declaring that's part of the fun.

[00:07:26] Jen: You'll find even more joy in this vocal warm up if you do it in front of a mirror. Okay, we're going to say three letters. The letters are Q, E and R. And we're going to mix them up just a little bit.We're going to start by stretching our mouths into a tiny little Q. So it's going to sound something like this. Q. My mouth is really, really tiny. Q. Then we're going to go to the letter E and we'll ensure that our E [00:08:00] expands our mouth from left to right. E. E and then we're gonna go back to that tiny QQQ.

[00:08:13] Jen: It's almost like your lips are pursed but not quite And then finally we're going to do a mouth widening from the top to the bottom R, Where your mouth will expand as you say, the letter R.

[00:08:26] Jen:  it will sound something like this, R , which of sounds more like a pirate, an R. Okay, so QE, QR. Alright, are you having fun? ? Okay, so the letter's Q. EQ and R. Let's do it together one more time. QEQR.

[00:08:48] 

[00:08:51] Jen: Andrea, in response to your question of how much time do you invest doing vocal exercises, I'm going to say if they're fun like this, we're going to want to do a little bit of this almost every day. That was tons of fun. how much time you spend 

[00:09:06] Jen: that's really up to you. And full disclosure here, I didn't really think about getting voice training as a podcast host. I will tell you the training came in through doing the reps. This is episode number 237. That means there's a lot of reps that have gone in to how I'm showing up. My level of confidence, my level of know how of the tech, my level of comfort with a microphone are all 

[00:09:35] Jen: significantly higher than when I first sat down to record my first Episode and when I did that, I had no idea what I was doing. I really didn't understand any of it. I just plowed through. you're going to get better when you put the reps in, and there are certain things 

[00:09:54] Jen: you only learn by doing. That being said, there are plenty of [00:10:00] unknowns when you decide you want to launch a podcast. And that's why I'm here doing this show, because I want to save you some of the hard, and the hurt, and the confusion, and the overwhelm, and buying way too many things when you decide to launch your show.

[00:10:13] Jen: So while the question today is all about our voice and how we use them and practice them, The deeper question about whether or not you become friends with a microphone is what will your podcast do for your business? What will your podcast do for your ministry?

[00:10:29] Jen: You might be here because you want to learn more about podcasting so when you show up as a guest, you'll be a stronger guest. This is such a great strategybecause you can grow your business from guesting on podcasting as well. There is an art to how you show up.

[00:10:47] Jen: there are strategies you can use so the podcaster who has invited you to be a guest will refer you to other shows. And the number one way to do that is to show up ready to serve.

[00:11:01] Jen: The number one way to launch your podcast is to show up ready to serve. Your voice is a unique gift that has been given to you to use to share a powerful message. When you join me inside a 90 day podcasting sprint, you'll learn all the nitty gritty about how you put a great binge worthy episode together.

[00:11:24] Jen: You'll learn about Where you strategically place a call to action. You'll learn how to grow trust, build trust, and get responses from your podcast audience, so you can grow organically. If that sounds like something you're interested in, be sure you book a call with me.

[00:11:39] Jen: Head on over to www.coachjenrogers.com/bookacall .

[00:11:44] Jen: Let's keep moving forward and respond to the second part of Andrea's question. Here it is again, just to remind us. 

[00:11:52] Andrea: And part B to that is how much voice training would you need just to get started?

[00:11:58] Jen: Well, Andrea, I suppose at some level you've already started because you are in this podcast. How do you like your voice? How are you feeling about hearing yourself? Listen, we are highly critical of how we sound. I promise that as you put those reps in, I mentioned earlier, you will learn to not just tolerate your voice and not just like your voice.

[00:12:23] Jen: You will learn to love your voice. I have learned to love my voice. In fact, it reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a new colleague, Staci. She was saying when she was looking back into her journals. She learned to love each version of who she was at that point in time. I don't know about you, I have never done that.

[00:12:47] Jen: I do journal and I do go back and look at my journals and I update them when God has answered prayer. Or if I'm still hanging out there waiting, God, where are you? You haven't answered this prayer from five years ago! yet, when I look at the pages, never once did I say, I love that version of me.

[00:13:09] Jen: Staci has challenged me in several areas, and I am especially grateful for this.

[00:13:14] Jen: I'm sharing this challenge with you. When you look back at where you've been and where you are now, have you given yourself the grace to love the woman you were then? Because the truth is, we can't be where we are right now if we weren't where we were back then. Such an interesting observation to really appreciate the work that has gone into it.

[00:13:41] Jen: So as far as part B of this question, right now, you can start right now. 

[00:13:48] Jen: However, starting without training and starting without hiring a coach and doing the research is the long route. Now, my husband and I often take the long route by mistake, and we make a joke of it now. Oh, I guess we're taking the long cut. Instead of the shortcut, we're taking the long cut.

[00:14:06] Jen: If you want to get your podcast out there with confidence and with a structure, I strongly recommend you hire a coach. And if that's you, if you're interested in launching your show, of course, I'd love to talk with you, but regardless of whether or not you and I work together, I strongly urge you to hire a coach to get clarity on the purpose of your podcast.

[00:14:28] Jen: What is the business purpose of your show? What do you want your show to do for you? You'll also ask yourself and answer questions like who is my show for? When someone listens to my show, what do I want them to walk away with? How do I want to show up serving them? Listen, all too often we focus on being immersed in thinking about how we sound.

[00:14:52] Jen: Oh, gosh, did we sound okay? I mean, I just made a, uh, ridiculous number of noises with the Q, E, the Q and the R, and I had a ton of fun. I probably wouldn't have been able to do that at the beginning. I'm just saying I would have been too self-conscious, but what you learn as you go is people crave connection.

[00:15:11] Jen: They want to feel connected with you and know that you're a real person, that you're not just reading things rehearsed over and over again, that you're showing up authentically you, using your voice in a powerful way to serve others., do you know what else that means?

[00:15:28] Jen: It means you share your failures. You know, the ones that have created a bunch of shame that perhaps are still written in your journals that you need to go and revisit. Those. You need to share your fails to create an intimate connection between you and your listener. Because when you share them, what you're doing is you're teaching and identifying lessons learned.

[00:15:53] Jen: what you're also doing is saving someone else the pain of making the same mistakes. [00:16:00] As you use your voice powerfully on your show, it's important that you focus on what you know, and you grow from there. So you decide what your podcasting voice is when you start out. And I highly recommend, well, these voice exercises for one, but also just getting on a microphone and recording some things like you're having a conversation with someone in a coffee shop or record a zoom session with someone and ask them to prompt you for questions that you can respond to. What you'll learn are the number of verbal fillers that you have, the ums, the uhs, the likes, the right, you know, um, yeah, all those things.

[00:16:41] Jen: And so! I learned, and so is one of my verbal fillers. That is how you practice to get better. You learn what's coming out of your mouth. As someone who has guested on a ton of shows, what I work to do before I show up: clear my brain and have a game plan for what my intention is.

[00:17:02] Jen: I'm setting my intention. This is how I want to show up. This is what I know the host would like me to share. And I'm very attentive to my speech. So the and so's and the um's and the likes and the rights and the you knows are not prevalent in my speech. My speech patterns have improved since podcasting and that makes for better communication, which makes for better connection

[00:17:25] Jen: I highly recommend that you record yourself and listen to how you're talking in a normal conversation so you can improve your speech patterns and give yourself a break and allow yourself to at least tolerate your voice as you're working to improve it. Here are three things to be aware of as you're practicing using your voice.

[00:17:48] Jen: I've alluded to it already. The fear of judgment. You judging yourself for how you sound. And also how others might respond to your voice. we are [00:18:00] afraid of how others will respond in addition to how we're responding because we're critical of ourselves. Two, we're afraid of rejection. What if people don't like my show?

[00:18:11] Jen: What if nobody listens to it? What if I do all this work and then, at the last minute I just decide, uh, I'm not going to go there. Well, listen, rejection is a real thing. We have lots of lessons to learn from rejection. This reminds me of the flags. I learned this in the first few months when I became an entrepreneur , you want people to reject you.

[00:18:31] Jen: rejection How do you handle rejection? The flags. Let me, let me talk about those flags. There are three. There's a red, That's the rejection flag.

[00:18:42] Jen: There's a yellow. That's a meh flag. Where somebody could take you or leave you. As in, they're not going to recommend your show, because they don't really care one way or the other. And then you have the green. The green flags. Those are your people. You listening right now? You are my people. I love connecting with you.

[00:19:01] Jen: If you were bold enough to do those exercises, especially if you were in a compromising situation, I would love to connect with you. Be sure to reach out to me on the socials and let me know how the Q E Q R exercise went for you.

[00:19:16] Jen: Okay, one more thing. I've talked about fear of judgment. I've talked about rejection and the flags, the red, the yellow, and the green flags, and you want green flags, that's who you're talking to, to your ideal listener, that person, that is who, needs you to show up authentically you with your full voice.

[00:19:38] Jen: The final thing is imposter syndrome. Oh my gosh, imposter syndrome, it rears its ugly head everywhere. Whenever we're at a level of something and we want to go to the next level, I always think of Psalm 27, 

[00:19:52] Jen: where God raises us up and puts us high on the cleft of the mountain so we get a perspective shift. When we're experiencing imposter syndrome, we haven't been raised up yet. We're looking up there wondering, how do we get there? And we feel unqualified or underqualified, and we wonder if we're ever going to make it.

[00:20:12] Jen: Listen, you just show up, you keep doing the things that you are doing, create connections for your audience where you can get feedback, just like I'm inviting you. If you want to send me a text, you can click on the link in the show notes. If you want to send me a voice message, which by the way, If you have a question and you want it featured on the show, I would love to feature it.

[00:20:31] Jen: I love these Q& A's. Send me a voice message and you will be featured on the show, and I will answer your question about podcasting. You want to create these connections with your audiences. Another way to do that is in a community group. If you haven't joined the community group yet, head CoachJenRogers.com/community.

[00:20:48] Jen: and join the Voxer community group. We are just beginning to grow and I can't wait to see what God is going to do with that group. you create meaningful connections through the power of your voice. 

[00:21:02] Jen: To recap what we've shared on today's episode. Avoid taking the long cut. If you know, podcasting is right for you, it's time to get started. Whatever level of voice experience you have, you continue to get better. I don't know how many, I can't even imagine the number of hours we spend talking.

[00:21:25] Jen: you already have lots of experience, Talking. The art of podcasting is you take all of that experience and you hone it and you offer it up in a way that serves your ideal client and aligns with your business or ministry purpose.

[00:21:43] Jen: Which is a beautiful segue into what we are going to talk about in episode number 238. You see, Andrea, she's one smart cookie. She didn't just ask one question. She asked another one. Here is the question we'll be answering in the next [00:22:00] episode. 

[00:22:00] Andrea: Question two is how much time do you need to start, get everything together and how long does it take to record edit each time?

[00:22:10] Jen: So basically how much training and time is this going to take to make it worthwhile? Well, I definitely have ideas about that and I will be sharing them in the next episode. Until then, if you are wondering, is podcasting right for you? I've created a powerful training to help you decide to know because the one thing that is the worst thing that you can do is decide I'm going to start a podcast and then you don't, or you started.

[00:22:37] Jen: And you quit. That is, it is so, uh, difficult to bounce back from that. And the truth is unfortunately, over 90 percent of the people who attempt to launch a show don't stick with it. They simply quit, and it's usually at about episode number 6. this is no small decision.You are creating long form And long term content, there's so many powerful reasons why podcasting works organically. From the SEO that is in the show notes to the transcripts, to how you repurpose your content into a blog on your website.

[00:23:13] Jen: There's so much you can do through the power of podcasting. If you're wondering, is podcasting right for you that you want to know the nitty gritty of podcasting, I can help you with that for free. This power packed training, you can find it at CoachJenRogers.com/NittyGrittyTraining. You like that?

[00:23:34] Jen: Nitty gritty training. I love that name. Go learn about the nitty gritty. When you find yourself confronted with something that you are unsure of, or you have questions about when it comes to podcasting, send me a message on the socials. I would love to respond to you. All right, that's going to do it for this week's episode. I'm your host, Jen Rogers, and you've been listening to Time to Simplify.

[00:23:56] Jen: It is definitely time to simplify launching [00:24:00] and guesting on podcasts. All right, I will catch you in the next episode.

[00:24:04] Jen: If today's episode helped you, encouraged you, or blessed you, I invite you to share it with a friend. And if you're feeling like giving an extra special dose of love, like Donna did, by leaving a five-star review, I invite you to leave a five-star review, or you know, however many stars are available, on your favorite podcasting app.

[00:24:23] Jen: Before we go, Let me share with you what Donna shared on her review. Productivity and simplicity. I am one of those people who loves implementing simplicity and productivity in my life and business along with biblical principles.

[00:24:38] Jen: Jen offers insightful and helpful resources to get it together. Well, thank you so much, Donna, I appreciate that review. Let's get it together, together, shall we? Let's do that. Let's work together. All right, I'll catch you in the next episode.