The Be Heard Newsletter

Hello, my name is Rachel Taylor and I specialise in teaching people about communication skills. I start by helping you to become more self-aware and to do this we look at your current communication style along with the other factors which determine how you are interacting with others now.

Armed with this information we can then look at how you can best improve your communication with others. This involves rapport building and people reading, i.e. body language interpretation. This will really help you understand how well your communication and message are being received and understood by others.

The Latest News… Be Heard is blogging its message all over the Internet!
Not only is information available on the blog section of the website but I’m also posting information, articles and products on Twitter and there’s also a Facebook group on which I’d love you to join. Get discussing the things you like, hate and would love to overcome and address with us!


Powerful Perspectives
Like many businesses you’ll find that some of your services and products really stand out and for January there was a definite desire to learn how to communicate with power and authority. As I tell my clients, authority is all about what you do with your body and your voice, not the content; i.e. not what you say. As the psychology professor Albert Mehrabian found, the total impact of a message comprises of:

• 55% body language/non-verbal
• 38% vocal (tone etc)
• 7% verbal (words)

Therefore, we could conclude it’s the way that you look and how you say what you say. Not what you actually say.


The Power Programme
The demand for help in this area has been so great, that I am now offering a specialist coaching programme to help people find their own authority. This is not as simple as it may seem. I have found that people are simply not used to having, nor are they comfortable with wielding power. Unfortunately power has become a dirty word and I often substitute it for authority, command, influence, control – any word that turns on an inner light bulb or rings an internal bell with the person I’m coaching. Once over that first hurdle, then the barriers can be further broken down and we address what specifically works well for them. This entails finding a level of authority which is right for them. And it’s so important to point out that this level is different for everyone and most crucially feels different to everyone.




All Communication Programmes From Be Heard include …
…the option to video record our session which will help you focus on exactly how you’re coming across. Now, this is painful for some! But once you are over the initial embarrassment hurdle, you can objectively identify what’s working and what’s not working for you. I’ve found that this is by far the short cut to learning how to communicate well quickly and it’s important to note that many people have no idea at all how they are coming across. So it makes sense to be clear about what you do well and what you need to improve. I’ll give you a copy of your DVD which you can keep and refer to. It’s a great reminder of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve improved too!


Presenting And Selling Yourself
January’s busy schedule also included teaching presentation skills at a local school. I was fortunate enough to work with a very energetic and enthusiastic group of young ladies who were full of ideas and fun things that they were itching to present to the rest of the group. It was a pleasure to work with such a dynamic group of individuals and they were positive exemplars of the younger generation who seem to be getting a lot of bad press these days.

When working with anybody on their presentation skills the key thing to remember is that you must be you, completely and entirely you.

If you learn nothing else at the end of our session on how to present yourself well, then that’s it. Your most valuable lesson and any nerves that you have will be reduced right there. After all, you cannot fail at being yourself can you?


The Sell Yourself - Sell Your Product Training Course The Complete Guide to Reading People and Projecting Yourself Well to Maximise Sales…
In this course I will give you an overview of all the skills you’ll need to consider in order to communicate to the best of your ability and leave the competition standing. The course gives you a greater insight into human behaviour and brain processing in order to enhance communication with others and in turn deepen your understanding and awareness of yourself.
You can use this information to improve all aspects of your life, read attitudes and emotions, aiding communication and connection. To see the full course contents take a look at my course summary here.

The Training Products
The training programmes are designed to help you make the most of your communication at all times. Please contact me to discuss your requirements. All products are available as one-to-one coaching and for small groups of around 5-6 people. Please note, all initial discussions are free. I will send you a proposal following that meeting for your unique development programme.


Coming Soon…The products under development and available for Spring 2010 are:
• Persuasion techniques – understanding people’s motivation to agree and say yes to your message; use them to enhance your communication.

• My brand new voice audio programme to repair, boost, grow and reach your spoken voice’s potential.

Please contact me to discuss your requirements. You can contact me via the website, link below.

Thank you for reading!
Be Heard Coaching and Training www.be-heard.biz

Sell Yourself; Sell Your Product - The Complete Guide to Reading People and Projecting Yourself Well to Maximise Sales

We will cover all the things that you need to know in order to come across to the best of your ability and leave the competition standing.

• Do you have a sense following important new business meetings that you could have done better?

• Do you find that you’re not getting the work even though you’re doing all you think you can to close the deal?

• Would you like to learn the skills to make the most of you, your first impression and your products and services?

• Do you want to bring in more clients that you ever thought possible?


Then this course is for you!


In this day-long, crammed to the max training course you will learn:


• How to put together your message effectively and deliver it with confidence and conviction

• How to ensure that you and your product are both warmly received

• How to speak your client’s language

• Communicate your message quickly and effectively



The course also gives you a greater insight into human behaviour and brain processing in order to enhance communication with others and in turn deepen your understanding and awareness of yourself. You can use this information to improve all aspects of your life, read attitudes and emotions, aiding communication and connection.


And if that’s not enough, you will also learn how to:


• Read a handshake

• Build strong business connections with rapport skills

• How where you sit in a room can make or break a meeting


In addition, by the end of this day-long training course you will:

• Know yourself a little better so that you can express yourself efficiently and congruently

• The right words to use and the right way to say them

• The art of conversation

• What your body is saying about you

• Enhanced listening skills

• How to be cool, calm and confident – effortlessly!

• Enhanced rapport building skills – how to read people, sense what they’re thinking and communicate your message; selling your product or service irresistibly

• Design and deliver a slick business pitch when you need to


Courses delivered in-house to suit you and one-to-one coaching is available.


What are Be Heard’s clients saying?
“Rachel has helped me dramatically improve my presentation skills taking my existing style and totally rebuilding it so that I am much more confident when presenting to large or small groups. This has already paid dividends with an improved referral rate from more recent presentations.” Steve Tancock.

"Rachel has an incredible talent that will truly help you get the best out of your voice and some. Her techniques have really helped me have more control over my voice. A true master at work, thank you Rachel." Simon Jordan.


Please contact me for more information – why would you wait? I look forward to working with you very soon.
Rachel Taylor

Singers' Masterclass Videos Now Available

Please check them out and I hope they help!
Click my youtube channel link - enjoy.
Rachel.

Reshape and Design Your Voice - Who Are You and Who Do You Want to Be?

Never underestimate your voice, it has the power to influence and it gives vital clues as to who you are. People often ask me if they can actually change their voice. I always answer yes you can, easily.

What is the image you want to project? Ask yourself how you want to come across. If you care about that all important first impression you will want to invest in your voice.

Do you have a vital message to impart? Just a little investment in the voice can make it easier for you to sell yourself and your message. I will give you the tools that will enhance your voice and your life. This sounds like a bold claim; how can changing your voice change your life? Because your voice plays a part in how you are perceived by others. When trying to make a good impression you put on your best suit or dress. But are you aware of what's coming out of your mouth? What is your voice saying about you?

This system is easy to understand and easy to do. It works with the natural impulses of the body and builds up your physicality in order to produce a strong and commanding tone, if that's you want. It will soften any harsh edges to produce a calming warm sound, if that's what you want. This is how flexible this system is and that's how much potential your voice has. You now have access to the tools that will change your voice and in turn your life.

With this technique you can rebuild your voice if it's damaged. Did you know that you can make your voice louder and more resonant quite easily? Did you know that with these tools you can protect your voice so that when you have to speak all day it won't feel uncomfortable? Did you know you can guard against long-term wear and tear and allow your voice to last a lifetime?

Why this process is natural and gets fast results.
When a baby is born it can make a very loud noise as you may have noticed! Babies don't lose their voices very often and can wail for hours. During its development a baby learns to speak and talking in a conventional manner means the baby loses contact with some of the natural ability to project and the freedom of voice production. I'm sure you're aware of the huge ranges of sounds that babies can easily produce. This programme will reintroduce you to and give you back a sense of your natural capacity for volume and vocal freedom. You will find that your body will respond quickly to the exercises because the technique will be distantly familiar to it and will feel very natural.

Why First Impressions Count
You invest time and money in how you look, knowing that judgements are made about you. We can't help making judgements. Way back in our ancestry much of the time we had to ascertain if we were in danger. Making that snap decision became second nature to us and so that impulse affects us today. We still do it instinctively, so when we see someone we make a judgement. So it follows that when we hear them another piece in the puzzle slots in. We get clues as to where that person was born from their accent. We formulate clues as to what type of person they are. We assess them and put them into a category. Are they shy or outgoing, happy or depressive, lively or low energy, capable and confident or lacking in self-esteem?

In addition, we can tell what kind of a mood they're in, good or bad, positive or negative? The list goes on and the judgements go on. So are you making the most of your voice? Does it sell you? Or undersell you?

Who are you and who do you want to be?
This material covers more than just the voice. What you have to understand is that the voice is reflective of who you are. I can work with you to alter your voice, build and repair a damaged voice, but what you need to be clear on is that your voice is or should be a reflection of who you are. Some outgoing and confident people have come to me with weak voices. They know that there is something wrong and want their voices to reflect their authoritative nature. They were not even aware that their voice could be enhanced. They felt disabled in some way and they were; their voices were holding them back. Similarly very timid or shy people have come to me wanting to develop a big voice. True these exercises can give you a powerful voice, but after all their work, will they use their newly discovered big voice? Probably not. This is why I have written this programme with the concept in mind that the voice is a reflection of who you are.

So who are you?
Think of at least half a dozen words to describe yourself. And think about who you are in a social situation. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Are you an extrovert, who is quite comfortable taking control of a room full of people?

2. Are you a relatively quiet, thoughtful person who has a low-key presence? Maybe an understated personality, with charisma.

3. Are you a bubbly, lively type who has loads to say, but sometimes people seem to not really take much notice of you?

4. Are you very timid and in social situations believe you can contribute very little?

The fundamentals of these exercises are the same. They will help you fulfill your vocal potential. I will suggest ways for different voices to get the most out of the exercises as we go along. This program with help you design your voice and in turn alter your impact on others.

For more information on my voice developing coaching, training and voice-training CD course, please contact me. Further details on my website: http://www.be-heard.biz

I look forward to working with you soon.
Rachel.

How My Regenerative Voice Programme Came To Be

I always sang and sang strongly from a very early age. I had no hint of vocal problems and then, following a particularly long stretch of vocal practice; I was learning some big opera arias at the time; I noticed some tightness in the throat. The sound was unaffected and I didn’t set any store by it. A little after that I noticed that I started to lose some volume in my singing voice and that I was mostly singing in falsetto. Not that I really knew what that meant at the time. Still, I didn’t really worry about it. Never having any vocal problems I had no concept of troubles in that area. I certainly didn’t stop singing either. On I went. It first became plain that there were serious problems when I sang one day and a wobble had crept into my voice; a wide vibrato which appeared in the sound, coupled with a sore throat. This was the swan song of my voice and soon after that my speaking voice went sharply downhill within days. I was singing strongly (and badly) for 2-3 hours each evening and speaking all day for work. It was no wonder that I developed voice problems.

I went to see my doctor and described the symptoms; he signed me off work for 2 weeks and told me to be silent. So what happened to my ‘indestructible’ voice? Not only was I struck dumb physically, but emotionally I was crushed too.

I was a natural singer and started to sing in earnest from age 11. I had bought a Barbra Streisand album with my pocket money and fell in love with it. I quickly picked up on the words from repeated plays and learned the tunes too. I absorbed it effortlessly because I loved it so much. I loved Barbra’s graceful musicality and beautiful tone; they went straight to the heart. Very soon I started to sing the songs each day and my parents were struck at my vocal development at such a young age. These are my earliest memories of singing. My true communication and expression started here at age 11. Before then I sang Chrissie Hind songs in the playground on request. I did a fair impression of Chrissie for a little kid! But it was with Streisand’s album that I started to express ‘myself’ through music. There was no imitation; it was me coming through the medium of music.

Through a long period of searching for vocal exercises that would repair, regenerate and strengthen the voice; following lots of work and patience I rebuilt my voice pretty much from scratch. And from those exercises I took the fundamentals, stripped them down to the basics and developed this easy to follow system that can be used by speakers to bring their voices back to life.

It can help you increase volume without straining; relieve soreness; dryness and hoarseness. It will allow you to be able to speak for long periods without discomfort. The benefits and knock on effects are that it will help you convey a clear message and make a better impression on your listeners.

My vocal issues and subsequent rehabilitation and restoration is the reason why this audio programme has come into being, but it is the expression of the self that comes through the voice that gives the work validity. I have designed it for the spoken voice, but it can easily be adapted for singers alike. I always say, voice is voice. Producing sound through the vocal cords is an extension of you and keeping your voice for your lifetime is of prime importance. Because throughout those 2 weeks when I was signed off work, wondering whether my voice would ever return, I realised how precious this instrument is. As Earl Nightingale articulated, we place little value on things that we are given free. We only attach value to the things we pay money for. The truth is that you can always replace the things you buy. You can’t replace the things you get free. Your voice is precious and the only one you’ve got. It makes sense to look after it, nurture it and allow it to grow allowing the true potential of the voice to shine through.

Please contact me to receive this training product, please visit my site. I look forward to working with you soon.

Here is my lesson on good breathing for singing and speaking

Click Here

Delivering Your Message With Authority

Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message comprises of:

• 55% body language/non-verbal
• 38% vocal (tone etc)
• 7% verbal (words)

So we could conclude it’s the way that you look and how you say what you say. Not what you actually say.


What to do with your body - the 55%
1. Lean as if you are alert and interested in whomever you’re communicating with.
2. Feel powerful, grounded and relaxed in the body - how you feel will affect how you are coming across.

Voice – 38% of the impact of your message:
You don’t have to boom to command authority, a quiet delivery can often convey the same amount of influence. If it’s a good, measured delivery and not a shy or timid approach then that’s fine.


For a full copy of this article or to work with me on perfecting your authoritative approach please contact me via the website, leaving a contact email/number. Skype lessons freely available.
www.be-heard.biz