During every Tele-class I do, someone inevitably mentions they don’t have a good radio voice. I always ask, “Who says you don’t?â€
I want to share a success story. It was during one of my first classes when I was talking about how much I love guests with accents because my listeners take notice and wonder…“Who’s Wayne talking to now?â€
Strong accents stand out. They are gold on the radio!
After the class I was contacted by a lady who had this tremendous New York accent. She mentioned that she had always felt self-conscious of her voice after leaving the Eastern US.
I loved her voice. She spoke with such authority and conviction. She is unique and I’m sure I mentioned a few times how I could listen to her for hours.
She contacted me a few weeks ago to share the news that she was asked to do voice-over work for a big corporation. They want her voice on the sales training tapes for the company. The best part…she made more money than I ever have doing voice over work. Isn’t that glorious? If you have an accent and a topic I’ll get you in the radio quickly.
Wayne Kelly
PS: I am like a proud father whenever I hear of my client’s success, so I have to share.
Gidday Wayne,
Being born in Australia, my deep aussie accent literally stops people dead in their tracks whenever I am overseas, especially in American and Canada and I had never realized how powerful my accent was and still is, until my first visit to America in 1997.
On my last trip to the US in November, on 3 seperate occasions, I was asked by my american associates to simply talk on their cell phones, just so the other person could hear my voice.
A few weeks ago, I was at home in Australia, talking to a lady in America for business, who said she was putting me on speaker phone – because her daughter wanted to hear an aussie accent.
I went to America 5 times during 2005 it was the same every time – I would simply talk and heads would spin. As a public speaker, it's great for business.
I will be in America at least 6 times during 2006 and even though I don't think I have an accent and that my voice is nothing special – the response from attendees and people in general, will prove that theory wrong yet again!
So Wayne, I can only agree with you about the awesome power of an accent.
Warmly
Trevor 'Toe Cracker' Crook