The Secrets of Vocal Influence are the cornerstones that everything else sits upon. Your voice is your most powerful tool. It is also the one that is most commonly overlooked. That is why it is the very first thing we work on at the Essential Skills Accelerated Seminar.

 

 

One of the things that Kim and I noticed very early on in our studies of NLP, hypnosis and other stuff, is that at the seminars that we attended it seemed that the one problem that was the most common was the use of tonality. People seem to be so focused on being clever that they took no time at all to work on the quality and content of their voice. The result was that people were either mimicking someone else or were sounding like they had a speech impediment. Neither is advisable for everyday conversation and influence.

 

There are three aspects of vocal influence.

 

The first is the actual sound of your voice. Everyone has their natural voice but many people do not use it. Your natural voice is a voice that you use when three things come into alignment. The first is your physical body. That is your posture and body positioning. Second is your breathing. Third is your projection. When these three mechanical things come into alignment you're on your first step speaking with a vocal influence.

 

The second is the quality. This includes the ability to use emotion and inflection. Asking questions that are not really questions but our commands structured as questions is a powerful tool. If the first half of the sentence has question tonality it opens up an unconscious door. The second half of the sentence becomes a command that slides straight into that unconscious doorway. Making statements in a question tonality induces doubt and opens up possibilities. Taking an emotionally charged thought and repeating it as a statement without emotion can take the charge out of it.

 

Learning to empower your words with emotion can make playfulness actually sound playful. Can make intensity, intense. It can make relaxation truly relaxing. Learning to speak in this manner is essential when eliciting states. If you can't demonstrate the emotion and lead with that emotion tonally, it's going to be much more difficult for you to influence others.

 

Third, is the vocabulary of influence. That means the actual use of embedded commands and ambiguities. In embedded command is a command that is marked out to the unconscious mind in a way that is NOT obvious. You can mark out in embedded command several ways. You can mark it out with volume, time or physically. These need not be exaggerated. They're supposed to be subtle and undetectable. More importantly he should not be able to distinguish them from normal conversation.

 

When learned properly vocal influence sounds like normal conversation. It has no similarity to what Kim calls the dreaded hypnovoice. Yes that probably works fine in a therapeutic situation. Most people I find do not want to become therapists. They want become influential.

 

Vocal influence is the foundation that everything else is built upon. Inducing trance without control of your voice is very difficult. Leading people's imaginations is almost impossible without control of your tonality.

 

This is a very first thing we teach in the Essential Skills Accelerated Seminar will be conducted on October 7-10 in New York 2004. Over the next four days Kim and I will be giving many examples of using the skills. You will be giving many exercises that require them. The best way to learn is by using the skills. That accelerates learning process in a safe environment where feedback is available.