Do you hate the sound of your voice? Most people do, but as a live streamer, you need to listen to yourself speak almost every day! Get over the awkwardness with these tips.
Why Your Voice Sounds Weird to You
Have you ever watched a replay of your broadcast and found it awkward listening to yourself talk? Most people immediately close their videos, cringing at themselves. Unfortunately, as a live streamer, you need to continuously playback and listen to your videos to understand where you need to improve on as a host.
If you also regularly repurpose videos, you’ll have to replay your videos several times to edit it into clips for other platforms.
If you’ve only listened to yourself a handful of times, you may find it uncomfortable because your voice is too high pitched than what you’re used to. It may sound normal to other people but to you, listening to yourself in a video is cringe-worthy.
The Science of Sound
You’re not alone in this feeling. Most people hate listening to the sound of their voice. And it’s all because of science.
When external sounds enter your ear, the waves reach your eardrum, which also moves the malleus, incus, and stapes – the tiniest bones in your body. The vibrations then reach the cochlea which is filled with fluid and “hair cells.” As the fluid moves, the “hairs” send electrical signals to your brain which then recognizes these synapses as sounds.
But the process differs when you speak. As you talk, the vibrations that your vocal cords produce reverberate within your skull, which mimics the effects of a bass inside your head. Because of that, you hear your own voice in a lower timber than it actually is.
The Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt and Imperial College London conducted a study and found that your temporal bones do not touch your eardrums when you speak. It goes straight to the cochlea instead, intensifying its bass effect. This results in the difference in hearing your voice in your head and through another medium like a live stream.
Hating the sound of your own voice isn’t an abnormality. It’s actually a pretty common phenomenon. But since you’re a live streamer, what do you have to do to get over the cringe-fest?
How to Overcome the Awkwardness as a Live Streamer
As a live streamer, you have to watch and listen to yourself all of the time. This means you need to get over the awkwardness of listening to your own voice. Much more so if you regularly repurpose your videos to post on other platforms.
Here are a few tips to cope with this issue as a content creator.
Get Used to the Sound of Your Voice
This first tip is pretty self-explanatory. You will need to listen to yourself speak over and over again to get used to the sound of your voice.
Try to record yourself speaking and playback the recording to listen to it. You can use BeLive’s Offline Recording feature to take a video of yourself talking to the camera. After doing this several times, your ears will eventually get used to hearing your own voice.
It will definitely sound weird to you the first few times, but you’ll eventually become desensitized to it over time.
Doing this exercise will also help you analyze yourself and improve how you host your show. You may notice distracting habits that you should stop doing during the broadcast. Or change how you say certain words. It’s a great way to correct your broadcasting mistakes.
Ditch the Script
When you read a script word for word, you’ll end up sounding robotic, especially if you don’t have it memorized. Ditching a fleshed-out script may help you become more confident in your speaking skills.
But let me clarify, you shouldn’t ditch your entire script. Of course, you still have to keep an outline of how your show should go. Having one will help you stay on topic, but you still have the freedom for spontaneous talk during the show. And thanks to BeLive’s agenda feature, you can have your outline right in front of you when you go live.
Think of a live stream as a conversation with your audience, it should be fluid and natural like you’re chatting with friends. Once you’ve relaxed and started speaking more comfortably, it will be easier to get used to listening to yourself when you play the video back.
Build Your Camera Confidence
You need confidence to be spontaneous on camera, but impromptu speaking would not be as appealing if you don’t have enough of it. Build your confidence in public speaking to be able to face the camera (and your voice!) without cringing.
Luckily, confidence can be built, and speaking eloquently can be learned. Camera confidence coach Molly Mahoney has some useful tips that you can apply before, during, and after your broadcast.
Watch her talk about confidence in this live stream replay.
Amp Up the Value of Your Message
Another way to get over the awkwardness of your own voice is to inject more value into what you’re talking about. Come up with a topic that answers your viewers’ pain points. Then, practice delivering that message to your audience.
If your viewers can clearly understand your intent, then you’re doing your work correctly as a live streamer. A message with a powerful impact is definitely worth listening to, even if the sound you hear is your own voice.
Do you find the sound of your voice awkward or even irritating at times? Share your own coping strategy as a live streamer here!
Go live on BeLive now and start building your confidence with your own voice!
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