Preparing Your Voice for Podcasting Success with Hannah Sanderson

Rachael: 00:00:09

Hi and welcome to Podcasting 101 with Rachael. This podcast is for busy female entrepreneurs who run their own businesses and want to start a podcast or who may already have a podcast.

I want to share practical information and tips on how you can get your podcast started and managing it along the way. I'll also be interviewing other female podcast hosts to give you real insight into what it's like having your own podcast.

Welcome to this week's episode. Before we get started, I just wanted to shout out to Beverley Densham for leaving me such a fantastic review for the podcast. I'm so grateful for this.

She found the episode with Elaine Walsh McGrath really helpful and has transformed her LinkedIn headline because of it. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I'll link it in the show notes. It's how to make an impact with LinkedIn. So, on to today's topic.

We're going to be talking about how to prepare for solo episodes, warm ups, and nervous guests. So let me introduce you to Hannah, a singing teacher, voice coach, vocal health first aider, choir leader, and workshop facilitator.

Working with both the spoken and the sunglasses voice, as well as helping singers, Hannah helps her clients to elevate their natural voice, enabling them to engage with their audience with confidence and conviction. So welcome, Hannah.

Hannah: 00:01:38

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited.

Rachael: 00:01:41

Yes, it is lovely to have you here. So first, I'd love for you to give us just a bit of a backstory into how you came about doing what you're doing.

Hannah: 00:01:49

So I'd like to joke that I made my stage debut as an Orange Fairy Light at the age of three, and I've had a passion for performance ever since. Have always loved being on a stage and performing.

I think it's in my blood because both of my parents are singers and musicians, all four of my grandparents are performers in one way or another, and all four of my grandparents and both my parents and both of my siblings are teachers as well. So the combination of both is just in my blood. But I actually started working.

I did a degree in music and theater and really struggled to find a job when I left university. And so I went into managing music shop.

I started off at the bottom, worked my way up the rungs to being the manager, and through that came a lot of training and training my staff and helping them be effective salespeople. And so I think a lot of that also plays into what I do now as well. And when I left that, I was sadly made redundant.

And when I left, I thought, what did I enjoy most about what I was doing here? And what have I enjoyed most in my life? And that was singing, teaching and training. So I thought, what's the best way to combine all of that?

And here we are.

Rachael: 00:03:09

Fantastic. That's such a positive way to look at something that is very difficult to happen. I've been made redundant myself and it is not a great feeling.

And it does leave you with that sense of, oh, what am I going to do with my life now? What am I going to do? So I that's so great that you're able to draw on your passions.

And I think it just as a business owner and doing podcasting myself as well, it's just something that brings me great joy. And I think that when you have that passion and joy with what you're doing, it really helps bring it out when you're working with people.

Lots of lovely teaching and background in there for your family as well with being on the stage and everything. Your name is Ms. Hannah sings, isn't it? That's your. That's like your business name, Ms. Hannah.

Hannah: 00:03:51

Yeah, that's my business name. And I'm performing or teaching.

Rachael: 00:03:55

I love that. And when me when we first met, we were at a WIBN networking event, wasn't it was Christmas last year and we all had to do our 60 seconds.

There was a Christmas themed but Hannah sung hers and I just loved that. It was so unique and so very memorable. So I thought that was really fantastic.

Hannah: 00:04:14

I'm glad it went so well.

Rachael: 00:04:16

Yeah, it did for me. It was fantastic. As I mentioned, we're going to talk about how to prepare your voice for solo episodes or for guest episodes.

When you're recording, look into some warmups you can do and also helping to alleviate possible nervous guests that you might have to deal with. Let's talk about preparing for solo episodes. What are your because I know you have been working with some podcasters.

Actually Beverley, who I mentioned at the beginning you were working with her as well. So tell us a little bit how you can help podcasters prepare for their episodes.

Hannah: 00:04:48

If we start from a non directly vocal approach, I one of my top top tips is hydration.

Making sure you have drunk enough water or eaten lots of apples, celery, that sort of thing, drunk soup, anything that has a high water content to help you hydrate your vocal folds. Vocal folds are one of the last bits of our body to get hydrated when we drink. So it takes several hours.

So if you think, oh, I'll quickly have a glass of water before I start. That's not going to be enough to reach the vocal folds in time, so make sure you're hydrating all the way through the day.

There's a little factoid that I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's something like a 3% reduction in hydration is a 30% reduction in power in your voice, so it makes a huge difference to what you can do. And also just remember that thirst is like the warning light coming on your car saying that you need fuel. It is the emergency. I'm really thirsty now.

I really need to be hydrated. Not the. Oh, yeah, I'm a little bit low. Let's just top that up. That is, if it's. Come on. It means that you're not hydrating enough.

So you need to keep drinking consistently throughout the day as well. And that's. I'm going to take a quick sip now.

Rachael: 00:06:05

That is a great tip. I have been. I think I always carry a water bottle with me and I always have it with me at all times. I don't.

I have stopped, abandoned a glass because my cats seem to be attracted to instinct, their faces in it. So I much prefer a water bottle. But, yeah, it's. It doesn't make the back of your throat itch and things like that.

So I can see hydration anyway is important, but I didn't realize that about. About your vocal cords being the last ones to be hydrated.

Hannah: 00:06:30

It goes to all the important things first, your heart, your liver, everything else. That's like vital function. And our voice is one of the last things on the list.

Rachael: 00:06:40

Yeah, not great for us podcasters and speakers.

Hannah: 00:06:43

It's a pretty vital part of my life.

The next thing is to avoid anything that's going to irritate your voice, and that's going to be different for everybody because I've got one singer who was coming up to lessons every week and saying, oh. As we were warming up, she was saying, my voice just isn't feeling right. It's not working for me how it normally works.

And then there was the next week she came in and everything was working beautifully. Her top notes were pinging. And I said, what's different? What's happened today? Have you got through a cold or something?

And she said, no, I didn't have pineapple as a snack after. After work before I came here. And that was as simple as that. The pineapple was irritating her throat in some way.

That meant that it just wasn't working for her. So for some people, it Might be pineapple, for some people, it might be dairy, for some people it might be spicy food or drinking too much coffee.

And some people say, oh, you must cut out coffee, you must cut out dairy. But that's only if you are susceptible, if you have a light intolerance, if you have a predisposition to having an adverse effect to it.

But if you have no issue with dairy, you have no issue with caffeine, manage it with drinking enough water as well and you'll be absolutely fine. But know what works for you and your voice.

Rachael: 00:08:00

That's really interesting how funny how something like you wouldn't even think about it, would you?

I guess like you say, being very mindful if you felt that you'd struggled with your voice that day or you listen back and you think, oh, okay, that didn't really quite sound right. Think thinking back to what you might have done prior to that to maybe make some adjustments. Oh, that's very interesting. Not forget about that.

Hannah: 00:08:23

Voices are very temperamental. So it can be affected by the weather, the humidity, whether there's leaf mulch in the air, anything affects it. Yeah.

And finally, most importantly, warm up your voice beforehand.

Don't just launch into your podcast, launch into your intro without having done anything with your voice beforehand, especially if you're like me today. My partner left for work before I got out of bed this morning and so I've been at home on my own.

If I hadn't been conscious about it then I could have not opened my mouth once before I came on today at 2:00 in the afternoon. So I had to be very mindful of the fact that was a possibility.

So I made sure I was narrating myself as I was walking around the house and talking to myself. If anybody had overheard, I'd have sounded like a complete nutcase.

It's really important to get your voice used to moving and used to that range of pitch and yeah, just used to using it before you get to the point of recording, even if you're not doing a warm up beforehand, which you should do.

Rachael: 00:09:29

Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's a good idea. That's. I've got my kids around, so I would generally be speaking maybe first thing in the morning if my husband wasn't here.

But usually I could go potentially from that time, say 8:30 in the morning till the afternoon without speaking.

I had a webinar and a call with a client today earlier, so I know I did some warmups first thing this morning and then I know I've been Speaking throughout the day. But it's something that when I have a podcast interview, I'm very conscious, like you say, of using my voice and warming up and doing some.

I also read through like the introduction, I would read through that to get my mouth around the words and things just to make sure that because sometimes you very easily, if you haven't spoken them, you slip up on the words quite a lot. I found if I don't do that, practice.

So I would love to know some little tips that you have easy things that listeners could do to help warm their voice up.

Hannah: 00:10:27

I know you had Nic Redman on was it last season season before she had some fantastic tips for warming up. So if you haven't listened to that episode, then do go back and listen to that as well.

But my top tips, there are four areas to focus body, breath, pitch and articulation. If you've covered something in all of those areas, then you should be okay.

So for body having awareness of your posture, which I know Bev talked about on her episode as well. So making sure you're staying nice and tall.

And I like to imagine there's a puppet string pulling me up from the top of my head and that just lets everything else fall down from there.

So we're not sitting like tight like a soldier, where there's still a lot of movement in there, but you've got that upright lifted feeling in the front of your chest and in the top of your head. And from there doing a couple of shoulder rolls just to loosen that off.

Neck stretches, because all of it is connected, all of it helps affects our body and the use of our voice because all of those support muscles in our core, the intercostal muscles, all the muscles around our ribs, even our pelvic floor help us with our speech and with our voice. So making sure all of that is really nice and relaxed and ready to ready for use. Then making sure we do a few tongue stretches.

I like to do a few circles around the inside of my mouth. Here's a little snapshot if you're going to do a video.

Rachael: 00:11:59

Oh, okay.

Hannah: 00:12:01

Really exciting on podcast here. But just on the inside of your lips running your tongue round in a circle.

So your tongue is between your teeth and your lips in a circle in one direction. Do it two or three times and then back the other way two or three times. And that just wakes up your tongue a little bit.

And then flicking your tongue under so you're biting the underside between your teeth and then go the other way.

Rachael: 00:12:31

Yeah. So switching between the two.

Hannah: 00:12:33

Fascinating radio. And just switch between the two so we get that really stretched. And again, ready and working. My other favorite is lion face. Lemon face.

This is you squeeze your face up really tight like you have just bitten into the bitterest lemon of your life. So squeeze everything tight and then stretch it out like you're about to roar like a lion.

It's even better if you stick out your tongue as well, because then you get that additional stretch.

Rachael: 00:13:04

Oh, like lion breath. Is there a. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hannah: 00:13:09

Beautiful view of my tongue there. That's focusing on the body. And I'm just going to do another shoulder roll because I've managed to bend over forwards through that.

So then we're thinking about the breath. Taking a nice, deep, low breath into our body, trying to make sure the shoulders don't rise and fall with our breath. But it's all in the lower torso.

So breathe in and out. In, three, two, one. Out, three, two, one. And just go around that a few times, maybe including the shoulder rolls in that.

Breathing in for a circle and out for a circle. Just to help wake all of those muscles up. And then turn the exhale into a hiss after a few times. See how long you can hold that hiss for again.

After a couple of those, bring it into a vocalized sound. So instead of a his on the breath, a Z. And see how long you can hold the Z for instead.

Just little buzzy sounds that can help wake up those muscles gently.

Rachael: 00:14:23

Those are really good tips. I do. I love the shoulder rolls one. I'm always doing the shoulder rolls. And we start the bevs. Pilates with those.

Because I do feel sometimes, especially when I'm editing, I'm hunching over a lot.

Hannah: 00:14:37

Elongate.

Rachael: 00:14:38

Yeah. Stretches prior to coming on to today. So I do like to feel like you say, open it all up.

I've not seen the ones with the tongues moving your tongue around. I think, like you say, warming up the tongue. They're the help. So you don't trip over the words.

Hannah: 00:14:55

Exactly. And then for help, not tripping over words. Tongue twisters. I love a good tongue twister. My. I think my favorite at the moment is any noise. A noise.

An oyster. But a noisy noise annoys an oyster most.

Rachael: 00:15:10

I'm not even going to attempt.

Hannah: 00:15:13

But if you say it fast. My annoy. No bit in the middle. Any noise and oyster. But a noisy noise and oyster most.

Rachael: 00:15:21

That is a good, good one. Yeah. Because you. Yeah. I remember watching Anchorman and he's. Even though he's obviously some of them are a bit of a. Being funny. But he's.

You hear the people say unique New York. Like unique New York.

Hannah: 00:15:35

I really struggle with that one.

Rachael: 00:15:36

Yeah.

Hannah: 00:15:37

Really Practice.

Rachael: 00:15:39

Yeah, I do. That's a good way to. To loosen up, not trip over the words. Those are really super helpful tips and they don't even take too long either.

And they can help you get into the right headspace as well, I think for. Especially if you've been working and doing things right up until when you're doing. I always block out the half an hour before I do go.

Either I'm giving a talk or coming on to a podcast just so that I know I can stop and get in the frame of mind ready for what I'm doing and prepare. Because when I first started, I. I would rush straight into them and it's really difficult to settle in to the interview I found.

So, yeah, giving yourself a little bit of time to do those exercises and get in the right headspace.

Hannah: 00:16:21

Exactly, exactly. Because it's not just about the vocal side of it. It is getting into that mind frame, getting your brain ready as well as your voice and your body.

Rachael: 00:16:30

If I've had. Or if I'm, you know, having a bad day and I know that I've got an interview later, it's so tempting to maybe go, I can't do it today because I'm.

My mind's too fuzzy. But I think that's when you need to take that extra time to do that, get in the right headspace.

And often once you get started, you find you get into the rhythm of it and it turns out okay. But yeah, they're really good tips. So how could we help our nervous guests?

Would you suggest maybe pre sending warm ups to them or what's your kind of recommendations?

Hannah: 00:17:04

Absolutely.

Sending a few warm ups over or just I have a spider diagram of warm ups for the spoken voice with that those four areas, body, breath, pitch, and articulation. With little ideas on there so that you don't have to think about it too much. You don't have to do everything that's on there.

You just pick a couple and work with what works for you today. Yeah. And also letting them know things like whether it's a video or just audio, whether it's giving them all the information about the way you work.

Because every podcast is different.

So even if they've been on podcasts before, just knowing the format can really help both with mindset and if you're someone like me who is a little bit neuro sparkly and needs to know exactly how everything's going to happen, then it really helps be a little bit more calm when you're coming into the room. If you know how it's. How everything's going to play out.

Rachael: 00:18:05

Yeah, I think that's important, isn't it?

It's part of the kind of guest experience and making sure that you're looking after them and making sure they know what we're talking about, how everything's going to go. Yeah, that's a good shout. I would. I often do as part of my booking form for people to apply as guests. I do put some little tips and things on there.

But interesting about the warmups. That could be a nice little addition to when guests are coming on.

I had Jenny French come on and talk about how to make an impact on Instagram with your podcast and she confessed to being a little bit nervous. She was absolutely brilliant. I. She didn't come across as nervous at all. But. So we went into explaining exactly how the podcast works and things.

And you're right, it does differ from podcast host. The format might be slightly different. So, yeah, alleviating those fears can help with nervous guests as well.

Hannah: 00:19:01

Exactly.

Because preparation, being more prepared really does help that mindset and help that confidence, which means you're even less likely to trip over your words and stumble for what to say.

Rachael: 00:19:13

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Preparation that.

I do like to be organized and I do feel today, because I have done a lot of speaking, that everything's coming a lot easier than if, for example, I haven't done a lot of speaking and I've just got a podcast into in the afternoon.

So, yeah, being more, more mindful of those and then conveying that to your guests as well about those little tips, perhaps about if they haven't spoken a lot in leading up to when they're coming on with you.

Hannah: 00:19:42

Yeah. And the other thing is to reassure them when you're actually on.

On the podcast recording that things like ums and ers aren't the enemy of natural flowing conversation. Because we do that when we are just chatting with our friends. We have interjections like, like.

And, you know, and while you're thinking of the next thing to don't try and eliminate those from your speech because then it sounds even more alien than if you have them thrown in there occasionally. Obviously, if every sentence is. Yeah, then it's going to interfere with it, but otherwise it's not a problem at all.

Rachael: 00:20:22

Yeah. Because it is a natural flow of your speech as well. So I just, I say it a lot. And you.

I can tell when a guest is more nervous or when I'm working with clients and I'm editing their episode, you can tell that they are quite nervous about coming on because there are slightly more of those types of words, more like, you know, words because they're a little bit nervous about what they're saying or they haven't really been on. On podcasts before. But a. It's not a lot to clean up in the edit. And also, I don't want someone to feel uncomfortable in.

In speaking if that's how they're speaking, how they're coming across. I think that it all flows as part of the conversation as well. So you don't really need to adjust that in any way.

And I sometimes feel as the interview goes on a little bit, they get less. They've more comfortable, settled into the situation really, so they then film.

They can express themselves a little bit better because it can be quite daunting, especially if you're not used to doing this type of thing, being a guest or hosting your own podcast when you're first starting as well.

Hannah: 00:21:32

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And also, don't think too much about your voice. I'm going on about all of this. Do this, do that, don't do this.

And we're about to go on and talk about it even more. But embrace your natural voice.

It's your voice, it's your story, it's your history of where you've been, who you've socialised with, who, what you enjoy to watch, what you enjoy listening to. And that all comes across in your voice.

Don't try and change anything about your natural, your accent or your inflection, because it's part of who you are.

Rachael: 00:22:06

I was literally just going to say that, actually, because when I first started my first podcast, which was the virtually inspiring podcast, I had this real big thing about. Firstly, I was treating like some big interview. And I mentioned this when I chatted with Bev as well on her episode.

And I had this thing about, like, feeling like I had to have a reporter voice on, like a news voice. And I was like, no, that's actually then as I got into the episodes, I relaxed more and was able to really talk how I talk, like I am now.

And a lot of people do say they can't stand to listen to their voice back as well. And I think that now, three years in, I definitely got completely used to my voice.

And my voice now to me sounds the same as when I listen to it back. And I know That a lot of people. I find it very jarring, which I did to start with.

But don't be tempted to change because of it, because that's how everyone else already sees you. As you see.

Hannah: 00:23:04

Yeah.

We hear our voices very differently on our heads because we're hearing the vibration through our bones, through all of that skeletal matter, as well as coming out and back into our ears again.

So we have an added layer on our voice, even aside from having an idea of what our voice sounds like inside our head compared to what other people are hearing. Yeah. We don't be embarrassed about it. That's what your voice already sounds like.

Rachael: 00:23:32

Yeah. I would recommend just listening. The more you listen to your voice and speaking back, the more normalised it becomes.

It's the same as when people show up on a video, feel like it doesn't look like me because we've got the mirror version of ourselves. But once you start listening more and seeing yourself more, I think that becomes more normalized and some of those fears become allayed.

Because whatever you're thinking about your voice, no one else is thinking it. You've survived this long with your voice being the way that it is.

And I think that you sound like you, and that's all people hear, is just you coming across.

Hannah: 00:24:12

Yeah. And your personality coming through that as well.

Rachael: 00:24:15

Yeah. And that's important, isn't it, as. As keeping in part of being authentically you.

I know we all wear different hats in our businesses, and we have times where I suppose you quote, unquote, be more, sound more professional. And you might speak a little bit differently if you were talking to your best friend having a glass of wine than you would someone else.

But I think the essence of your voice and how it sounds is, you know, don't. Like you said, don't try and change that. And I do that much less now than I did that a lot when I first started.

It was hard to strike that balance, I found, between what I thought people wanted to hear compared to what I actually sounded like. Yeah.

Hannah: 00:24:55

I've got one client who North American. And when we first started working together, one of the things she said she wanted was to minimize her North American twang. And I was like, why?

It's part of you. And people buy from people. If you're trying to change that side of you, then you're not being authentic to yourself.

You're not being authentic to your audience. So embrace that. That side. And I think these days, people are a lot more used to hearing lots of different accents, and it's not quite.

Oh, where are you from? It's more curiosity than accusatory.

Rachael: 00:25:32

Yeah. I think, as I say, back in the day, lots of people wanted to have that posh English accent that everyone had lessons. Yeah. And that's.

They wanted to beat the accent out of people so everyone spoke the same. And I. That would be very boring. And I love hearing other accents other than my own.

I'm fascinated by different accents and I would love to imitate them, but I can't very well. But I think, like you say, it's coming back to that authenticity. I don't feel that you should have to change that part of you to. To appease.

If that is the reason why someone might not listen to you or might not like you because you've got an accent, it's just ridiculous.

Hannah: 00:26:13

Yeah. They're not your target audience. If they don't want to hear you, then it's not your responsibility to change.

Rachael: 00:26:20

Yeah, absolutely. You're totally right there. Thanks so much, Hannah, for coming on and talking to us here today.

You have given us so many valuable tips and advice there. There's lots there for our listeners to prepare for the next podcast episode or for the next guest episodes.

Have you got any final thoughts you'd like to leave us with after all.

Hannah: 00:26:41

Of that talk about preparation, don't over prepare. Don't come up with a spiel. Don't plan every answer, because then it doesn't feel like an authentic conversation.

And we need that flow of conversation for it to feel natural, for it to be more engaging for the audience. If it sounds like you're just reading off a piece of paper, your audience will hear that as well. By all means, plan ideas.

Think about what you might answer to certain things, but don't have it scripted. Don't plan too much because they will hear that.

Rachael: 00:27:13

Yes, that's great advice. I don't try to script everything out myself. I do like to have our talking points and things like that. But, yeah, you're right. I think it's nice.

It's also nice to know as well that you can take a little different avenue in the conversation as well if you're actively listening and being involved in that conversation. So that is great tip to leave us with, Hannah. Thank you so much. Hannah, would you like to just let us know where you hang out the most?

I will pop all your information in the show notes, but if people would like to get in touch with you, where's the best place to do it?

Hannah: 00:27:45

Usually either through Instagram or through my email. My Instagram is Ms Hannah Sings, that's mshannasings and my email is HannahSings.com so you can find me there.

And I also have quite a few tongue twisters on my Instagram on my Tongue Twister Tuesdays theme.

Rachael: 00:28:03

Oh fantastic. Oh I'm gonna have to look out for those. So everybody, if you'd like to hear more from Hannah, go ahead and connect with her on Instagram.

As I said, I will leave her links so you can do that super duper easily and email her if you have any further questions. Thanks again Hannah for coming on and take care everyone.

Hannah: 00:28:23

Thank you so much for having me. Take care.

Rachael: 00:28:27

Thanks for listening to the show. If you'd like to connect with me or get in touch then head on over to my website.

If you like the episode then I'd love it if you could leave me a review in your chosen podcast app. Your feedback is much appreciated. See you next time.