It has never been a more relevant or popular time to share your story, speak your truth and write about your experiences. But the big question for many is –
How do you find your voice? The voice that expresses you and your story? That unique sound that carries your personality?
It seems everyone famous, infamous and all of us in-between has something to say and is revealing their story!

-Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something you own –  Michelle Obama

I am not an expert on Finding Your Voice and neither do I have all the answers for everyone. But I do know that telling your story is about sharing your expertise, your wisdom and knowledge with your own unique voice.
It is something I write about passionately in my new upcoming book. Because I do believe we all have good stories inside of us. We all have adventures and experiences worth sharing, worth writing down. It takes courage and confidence to share but it all comes from taking action, gaining experience, making mistakes and learning from them. And, you have heard these lines before – you know it makes sense! You just have to do it.

A friend of mine is preparing for her speech, it will be a 30 minute talk in front of an unknown and large audience of 500 people. She asks me how to control the ‘Um’s and Ah’s’ Those killer fillers, the evidence and residues of nerves.

“Repetition!” I respond. “Learn, rehearse, know your words, know your speech inside out.”
“But how can that help?” She asks unsatisfied with my answer.
“When you know your words, know the meaning, understand and believe what you have written and practised it – probably one thousand times – those killer fillers will disappear.”

And almost all of them will. But remember this – we want to reduce our nervous ticks and vocal um’s and ahh’s – we want to improve our skills and deliver a top notch – a tip top – a hot and swinging performance. But we are human! Using breathe, sighs and pauses are techniques you can add to your skill set that will certainly improve your confidence and control over your speech.

-It took me quite a long time to find my voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent – Madeline Albright

Receiving encouragement and some solid advice is invaluable. Having an accountability partner to push you along and check your punctuation is reassuring. Support is key. But in the end it is about you Finding Your Voice  and sharing your unique story with yourself, your listener, your audience and your publisher. Then you can pepper your stories, experiences and wisdom into your work and create a riveting article, book or a Talk.

-Everybody talks about finding your voice. Do your homework and your voice will find you – Branfor Marsalis

Telling it like it is is not for everyone. With rehearsal (or call it repetition) you will find your voice. You will know how much to share, how much to give.
Feedback of the honest kind, shows you the difference between self indulgence in your story telling and holding the attention of your audience.
In my Book Ride Roller Coaster, I had huge support, guidance and feedback.
And from those collaborations:
I learnt – took action – made mistakes- learnt – took action – made different mistakes – and then I learnt more new amazing things to develop my book writing skills. It is a life time of learning. How wonderful!

Keep learning – taking action and Finding your Voice.