The Monotone Presenter

If your voice sounds like Ben Stein, is it possible for you to become a great presenter?

In case his name doesn’t ring a bell, Ben was in the movie “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off”. He played the high school economics teacher who so connected with his students there wasn’t a dry eye open eye in the class.

If his vocal range was measured by a heart monitor, you would think the patient had flat-lined. If he started singing in that voice, everyone would be screaming for more cowbell. The word “boring” would be too generous of a description.

Ben was perfectly cast in that role. His voice is naturally nasally and monotone and he exploited that fantastically.

But that was a movie. The bigger question is what do you do when your natural voice leans monotone, when you don’t have great vocal range? Do you just give up on giving presentations?

No, not just yet. Although your voice is an important part of giving a great presentation, and you should shoot for variety in pitch, volume and rate, it’s not the only thing that makes a great presentation.

Here are three things you can do immediately to deliver better presentations when your voice is monotone:

1. Focus on providing a great message. When you connect to the audience’s wants & needs, using their language, with information that is novel and helpful, you’ll grab their attention.
   
   
2. Think shorter. Trim the length. Most presentations are too long, so this is a good tip even if your voice is operatic. Use shorter sentences, too, including when you answer questions. Longer sentences and presentations in general call attention to the monotone making your audience sleepier.
   
   
3. Use punchy slides. More graphics, fewer bullets. Rich pictures and charts instead of standard clip art. Let your slides carry more of the load than your voice.

Long term, work on the three voice variables of pitch, volume and rate. You’ll see improvement over time.

Good luck!