Keeping me company on my long walks this week is a CD set from pioneering self-help author Napoleon Hill called “Your Right to Be Rich.”
Unlike other audio recordings of Hill’s works, this product features Hill himself lecturing to a live audience. While I find Napoleon Hill’s professionally narrated written works and audiobooks valuable, this series is especially compelling, sometimes electrifying. What is it about the author’s own voice that creates such a powerful impact?
After reflecting on this question and trying to isolate the received impressions of Hill’s voice from the content of his lectures, I can say this:
* Hill gives the impression of being remarkably grounded. It’s clear from his delivery that he knows who he is and what he believes. He has nothing on his mind other than the lecture he is giving. He feels confident in communicating what he believes instead of trying to impress others.
*Hill obviously cares about his audience. He wants them to believe in themselves and improve themselves. In my opinion, this is something that cannot be faked. I am now listening to CD #5 of nine, and the audience is responding much more than before in the series. They are definitely becoming more on your wavelength. I know that if I were in his conference room, he would have 100 percent of my attention.
* I love his wry sense of humor, which comes across as much in the way he says things as in what he says. He has a pleasant, well-modulated laugh that can occasionally go on for quite a while when he has made a humorous comment about human nature.
Hearing his voice instead of an actor express his ideas made me like Hill more and want to know more about him. In fact, I’ve had a Hill biography in my buy-it-later cart on Amazon.com for over six months. Today I actually asked for it.
Now think about the essential qualities your listeners get from you when they tune in to your teleseminars, whether by phone or recording. Imagine how the impressions that emanate from your voice influence indecisive people to want more from you: hire you and buy your products. Then decide it’s time to start or upgrade your teleseminar programs so your perfect customers can take action with your voice and content.
The impact of voice is more important when it is essentially you who buys when doing business with you. For example, if you are a coach, lawyer, consultant, architect, financial advisor, etc. Are you selfish or compassionate? Pleasant or harsh? Tolerant or closed-minded? Listeners pick up such qualities from your voice, often without consciously realizing it.
I’m not sure when the Napoleon Hill lectures I now listen to were recorded, maybe in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Don’t you want the opportunity to electrify people 50 or 60 years from now? That’s another benefit of leveraging your voice. Yes, by producing teleseminars you can be creating a legacy.