Secrets to Sounding Your Best with Voice Coach Nic Redman

The Best Guest

In this week's episode of The Best Guest we welcome author, voice actor and coach Nic Redman to the podcast.

We talk about:

• How to warm up for a podcast interview
• Nerves, breathing and umms and ahs
• Nic's set up for podcasting and voice overs

About Nic Redman

Nic helps professional voice users explore their vocal potential so they can reach their speaking, recording and performance goals. She’s taught voice, voiceover & accents at some of the top drama schools & theatres across the UK and has carried out voice overs for clients including the BBC and Tesco. She is the author of On the Mic, the ultimate book for Voiceover Artists, Podcasters, Speakers and Presenters.

Key Takeaways

• Humans get in the way of themselves when it comes to breathing. Breathing can be affected by nerves and tension in the vocal tract but there are things you can do to control it.
• When preparing for a podcast appearance or voiceover focus on releasing breath and tension
• Nic's preparation process for speaking on the mic involves four steps: body awareness, release of tension, breath exercises, and exercises for sound and speech.
• Nic also works on getting mobility of the vocal folds and the larynx and just working on range expression and variety to avoid sounding monotone.
• Before an interview make sure the mic is in a useful position, and ensure that you're comfortable
• You shouldn't worry too much about using filler words like "umms" and "ahs" because flawed communication is a natural part of human communication, and people are used to processing flawed communication in their everyday lives.
• If someone is using too many filler words to the point where it becomes distracting or impedes their ability to communicate effectively, it could be a sign that they need to reflect on their level of preparedness or comfort with the topic at hand.
• One way to deal with filler words is to replace them with another sound or phrase or to simply pause and take a breath to gather one's thoughts before speaking.

Quote

There's this weird idea that if you're on a show... you have to like be perfect and your speech has to come out in this really perfect informed way. The reason you're being brought on to speak about something is because you're passionate and informed about something, right? When you're passionate about something, sometimes you trip up over your words.

Mentioned in This Episode

On the Mic Book

Free Warm Up for Podcasting

The Vocal Empowerment Programme

Descript Tutorials

Connect with Nic Redman

Instagram

Website

Connect with Victoria Bennion

To learn more about working with us visit https://victoriabennion.com/