Keeping me company on my long walks this week is a CD set from pioneering self-help author Napoleon Hill titled “Your Right to Be Rich.”
Unlike other audio recordings of Hill’s works, this product features Hill himself speaking to a live audience. While I find Napoleon Hill’s professionally narrated 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 pondering this question and trying to isolate the received impressions of Hill’s voice from the content of his lectures, I can say this:
* Hill is remarkably entrenched. It is clear from his delivery that he knows who he is and what he believes in. He has nothing in mind other than the lecture he is in the process of giving. You are sure to communicate what you believe rather than 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 more and more in his wave. 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 is reflected in both the way he says things and what he says. He has a nice, well-modulated laugh that can occasionally last for quite a long time when he’s made a good-humored comment on human nature.
Hearing his voice rather than an actor’s deliver his ideas made me like Hill more and want to know more about him. In fact, I’ve had a Hill bio in my “Buy It Later” cart on Amazon.com for over six months. Today I really ordered it.
Now think about the essential qualities that your listeners get from you when they tune in to your teleseminars, whether it’s by phone or recordings. Imagine how the impressions emanating from your voice influence the people on the fence to want more from you – to hire you and buy your products. Then figure out that it’s time to start or upgrade your teleseminar programs so your perfect clients can move into action by both your voice and your content.
The impact of voice is most important when it is essentially you that someone is buying from when doing business with you. For example, if you are a coach, a lawyer, a consultant, an architect, a financial advisor, etc. Are you selfish or compassionate? Pleasant or severe? Tolerant or closed-minded? Listeners pick up on those qualities in your voice, often without consciously realizing it.
I’m not sure when the Napoleon Hill lectures I’m listening to were recorded now, maybe in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Don’t you want the chance to electrify people 50 or 60 years from now? That’s another benefit of harnessing your voice. Yes, by producing teleseminars you may be creating a legacy.