With the prominent media trainer Markus Sturm sprach ich bei einem “virtuellen Kaffee” über die Macht der Stimme in Videos und Online Meetings, über erweiterte Schamgrenzen und sprechtechnische Tücken bei ZoomCalls. Ein virtueller Kaffee – mit einem kleinen Schuss Mehrwert.
Markus Sturm: Arno Fischbacher is with us today for a virtual coffee. He is a speaker, business voice coach. Then he was on the road for two decades at the Schauspielhaus in Salzburg, and rocked it too. The Salzburg Festival , film and television recordings, so you know him from the face, but of course you also know him from the voice. Arno, first of all, kiss your hand!
You talk a lot – that's our topic today! When it comes to media appearances, video recordings and Zoom calls, everyone always talks about facial expressions, gestures. Why is the voice so important? What can I do with my voice? Why should I control it at all? What can be achieved with it?
Arno Fischbacher: Today, neurology shows us exactly why sound makes the proverbial music. She says that a quarter of a second before your brain understands the words of the "brain Siri", the sound of your Voice in the emotional brain has the greatest effect . So: The sound, the melody determines how what you say is perceived and understood.
I like to explain it like a traffic light system. If the Limbic brain if this traffic light jumps to orange or red and sounds the alarm, in the part of the brain that is responsible for emotional reactions, for sympathy or antipathy and for all buying impulses, then you are out of luck.
And only when the Voice in a pleasant If the traffic light turns green there, then we have a chance to be perceived in the right way with our valuable content.
Markus Sturm: You notice that yourself when you give speech training, when you work with the simple, but not easy Elevator Pitch Starts. People talk through. They concentrate on the outside – and then you do the analysis and then you notice that they talk without pauses. Don't work on the tonality.
Why is it so underestimated? Are you completely an eye person, or why is that?
Arno Fischbacher: Yes, humans are biologically very visually oriented. The visual has priority in the processing of our perceptual impulses.
At the same time, however, this makes the voice the most unkempt channel of expression in humans. I'll say it so unabashedly. At the same time, however, the greatest resources are now hidden there in communication. So there is an incredible treasure hidden there, be it for managers in appearance, be it in media appearances.
Markus Sturm: Well, you can see it. To be honest, I wouldn't have believed years ago that podcasts would come so strongly. Or I saw you last Sunday at Klubhaus. Audio is indeed king again.
Arno Fischbacher: Yes, that's not entirely surprising. Even in the time when television came along, people said "TV kills the Radio Star!" But the opposite has happened. Although, of course, television is omnipresent today and, in addition to television, all other video channels are coming to the fore today.
I always say: Turn off the sound on Netflix. Yes, watch an exciting movie without sound. And then you will notice the importance of acoustics in communication. This is what unconsciously controls all our emotions.
Markus Sturm: And that is an absolute plea for the voice. Now show yourself a little bit how you work, you can tell us something about it right away. This is your world. How do you work? What do you do exactly?
Arno Fischbacher: The speaking, the lectures, that's part of my work. In recent years, my work has shifted very much towards coaching. I work with a lot of managers, i.e. with customers who are already professionals in communication. They are already doing a lot of things right, they are successful.
But they notice that there is still room for improvement in their oral communication, i.e. exactly when they want to convince someone. If they want to motivate employees to help shape change processes. When it comes to larger projects, when it comes to speaking the decisive words. Or in the media appearance, when the image and the outfit are right, but they suspect that their voice and manner of expression still leave something to be desired.
If you look, you know. The jacket fits badly. I always raise my left shoulder, the gesture is not round. You can see that. And you become aware of it relatively quickly, as long as it is about the visible.
As soon as it comes to voice and speech, to the acoustic, the criteria are suddenly missing. And this is where the coach enters the scene.
Markus Sturm: When you watch people talking, either the very quiet speakers come who don't really have the presence, or there are the people who really put a lot of pressure on the larynx because they think they have to rock the thing loudly now, even though they actually have a microphone.
How do you deal with something like that, that you really develop tonality, modulation of the voice? How do you train something like that? Quite practically now, for example in a seminar.
Arno Fischbacher: Yes that is. That's an interesting question. And of course, this cannot be answered in one sentence, because it always depends on the person I have in front of me. The reason why my clients and my clients appreciate me is that they spend very little time with me as a coach. That's the bottleneck for most of my customers. So I can't go over them with a predetermined program, but it is highly necessary to look at where is the biggest lever? According to the Pareto principle: Where are those small switches that have the largest possible output?
Markus Sturm: Maybe a tip at the end. One of my last lectures in Bolzano, you stand behind the scenes, and you notice that the nervousness is rising. Yes and some people have a frog in their throat etc. How do you deal with it? What is your tip?
Arno Fischbacher: Two practical approaches. One thing is always to be done for at least 5 seconds before each power use: Warm up! Always start with a lightning warm-up. There is also an e-book from me: LINK
First step: Shake yourself up. Simply release the adrenaline physically and make a few faces. Retreat somewhere where no one sees you, where you are alone for yourself and then do some strange things, grimaces, contortions.
Jump over your mental shadow, expand your shame boundaries. This is my practical tip, takes 5 to 10 seconds and is maximally effective. It radically reduces nervousness at the beginning and expands the gestural radius of expression because the boundaries of shame are stretched.
But if it happens to you now during the lecture? You're on stage, everything is fine and suddenly through some irritation you realize: Ooops, what's going on? Then I recommend a radical change from thinking to body perception.
In practice, this is how it works, as I have learned in my many years at the theatre: You stand upright during a lecture, so step from one foot to the other. Feel the soles of your feet, experience yourself physically.
Many want to overcome these blockages with their minds. That will never work. This tends to increase nervousness. But if you give your organism the command: Take a step! Stop! Shift your attention to the soles of your feet! Take a step from one foot to the other! And now stand anew! – then you will be surprised to notice that at the exact moment you switch to body awareness, your thinking is switched off and the stressors that affect you from the outside are blown away for a short moment.
The body regenerates in a very short time. You will experience this immediately. You are master of things again, woman of yourself, master of yourself and can start anew.
Markus Sturm: And a certain basic nervousness, even the professionals have that. Frank Elstner, the great presenter, gave an interview a year ago, and at the end admitted how nervous he was before every live broadcast. He had fabric triangles sewn into his jacket, which took away his sweat. So the professionals just know how to deal with it. But you can train and experience that in your seminars, for example, and try it out.
Thank you for the great conversation.
Arno Fischbacher: And thank you for this fine invitation to join us for an espresso!
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