How To Find Your Unique Preaching Voice

When I was a kid, one of the first impressionists I saw was a comedian named Rich Little. Rich did a spot-on impression of President Richard Nixon, and almost any big-time celebrity back in the day. The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson would have Rich on his show and Rich would actually do an impression of Johnny. It was uncanny. The fun part though was watching Johnny see things about himself that he didn’t know he did.  As Johnny sat and watched Rich, it was as if Johnny was looking into a mirror.

The same is true of you. If we hired an impressionist to study you, your mannerisms, voice and style, and then had that person show you – you, I bet you would be amazed and surprised.  It would reveal much about you to you. And it would help you become an even better presenter by giving you new data to improve your next presentation.

In a similar way, the Four Presenter Voices test is like looking into a mirror.  Over the past 16 years of coaching communicators, I have discovered four primary voices.  Much like a personality strength, we typically have one voice that is more dominant and natural.  Each of these voices has a strength, and each has a weakness. Many communicators are unaware of how the strength and weakness of this dominant voice drives our preparation and delivery. The more we understand this the better our next presentation can become.

If you missed our Whiteboard Session on the 4 preaching voices, you can view it here.