Finding your voice: the phrase makes it sounds like an arduous odyssey. But it’s my belief that your voice, if you haven’t found it yet, is hiding in plain sight. Maybe you can’t hear it. Or you choose to ignore it. Or perhaps you lost a once-strong voice because doubt set in.

Many of the lessons I’ve learned over my radio and TV career are applicable to every type of presentation. 

First and foremost, how to tell stories, whether that’s a 30-second report or a half-hour documentary. Plus, how to pitch stories to an editor. And how to tailor a story to the audience – what they want to hear, not just what I want to say. You learn how to distil a top line: that is, the most important, newsworthy element, and which content to leave in and which to cut out. You learn to be selective and less precious about the material you’ve gathered.

You also learn how to handle nerves. One tip is to imagine you are only talking to one person at a time, even if you have an audience of millions. Remember that if you’re faced with a room full of people.

Focus on the audience

Similarly, whatever we are presenting – at a conference, in a meeting, even on a phone call, we must know why we are doing it, what the audience needs to know and what our key message is. That one thing that we need them to take away. Perhaps it’s a new approach to a project we need to convince them to take. Or persuading the CFO to give us some money. We must be concise and we must tell stories to illustrate our point. We are programmed to lap up stories. They bypass our critical faculties. We want to know the ending! Tell your own stories. No one can easily contradict them.

What’s great is you only have to be yourself – we do not want identikit presenters. Your uniqueness is of huge value. We want you in your natural, preferred state, comfortable, and with enough energy to sound interesting. Pretending to be something else requires concentration, and it is difficult to sustain indefinitely. It is exhausting to put on an act, and your mask might slip. 

You will not to be everyone’s taste. Thankfully, personal branding is shifting away from the overly polished, curated and performative content, towards a style that’s “real and raw” – driven by purpose and focused on the community you are serving. And that realness includes candour, offering behind-the-scenes glimpses, mistakes, and lessons learned. People suss out fakery. Use humour and be honest. The more you practise, the more at ease you’ll be. You’ll know instinctively if something suits your style. My style was once described as “witty, shrewd, inclusive”.

Finding your voice will futureproof your career- it will help you beat the robots! As we become saturated by AI-generated content, audiences are placing a higher value on human experience. In a tech-centric world, sharing personal stories, family milestones, and community involvement are what will make you memorable. While AI provides efficiency, we are craving human voices to be front and centre – it fosters trust.

The real you means every facet that’s useful in a presenter: the language you use, the energy you bring, how you use your hands, movement, stance, eye contact, intonation, pace. The key is making it all congruent so it all ties together. Everything you do physically should match the words you’re saying. If not, your words may not be believed.  

How will you use your voice

So, how are you going to use your voice? It’s much easier to exercise these skills if you have a clear goal or motivation. Walt Whitman said: “If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders”. Our deepest passions and our true selves are revealed in moments of stillness or daydreaming, when our thoughts drift toward what we truly care about, or what we feel compelled to change.

What matters to you? What can you speak about with conviction? Where do you think you could make a difference? Start small. 

While the obvious examples of using your voice are presenting at a conference, presenting to the board or taking part in a panel discussion, there are less obvious opportunities every day to use your voice: in meetings, pitching ideas, or having a chance conversation with colleagues. Before every encounter,  ask yourself the all-important questions that need addressing: what’s the purpose of the meeting, who do I need to persuade or influence, what’s the one non-negotiable key message I need to land to get my desired outcome. It may be tempting to skip it, but preparation is never wasted.

Where to amplify your voice

Seek out communities where values and aims are shared – whether in-house in your company, or in professional or networking organisations. We are seeing the rise of employee advocacy. Organisations are increasingly recognising that individual employees’ voices can be more credible and even more viral than corporate channels. You might be able you add value in this way with corporate blessing and support.

We are spoilt for choice with platforms to help us get our message out there and to attract support. These days the revolution will not be televised – It’ll be on TikTok. There’s a move away from chasing “followers” to fostering “fierce loyalists” in smaller, more engaged communities who want quality posts, not quantity. While reels are still dominant, they too are becoming less curated. And the rise of podcasts and the popularity of YouTube are enabling deeper conversations.

If some social media sites are too toxic for your tastes, don’t worry: People are moving away from relying solely on algorithms and investing in their own platforms, such as newsletters and personal websites, to engage with their audience. All the principles of good presentation apply.

You’ll be surprised how quickly your reputation as a speaker can grow. 

So, I’ll leave you with an invitation – your voice is hiding in plain sight – find it, use it, amplify it!