Speaking in Your Own Voice With these qualities of voice in mind, let's now turn to your voice specifically. Are you pleased with the way it sounds and complements your overall delivery? No matter how you answer this question, it is just as important for you to find your own voice as a speaker as it is for authors find their own voice when they write We to mention this need to find your own voice with good reason. When public speak ing students are advised to make better use of their voice in their delivery, all too often the take this to mean they must change their voice to some ideal. The ideal moreover, is usually thought to be the voice of a television or radio p We don't encourage you to imitate the vocal delivery of someone who hosts a game show, reads the news, or introduces music videos. Instead, we encourage you to experiment with your voice, for example, record your attempts to convey varying emotions in your voice, listen to yourself, and then repeat the process. This kind of exercise will let you hear what your vocal strengths and weaknesses are In the process, be realistic but not unfairly harsh about how you think you sound. Chances are, what you think you hear is much different from what others hear Finally, recognize that important as it is, your voice is but a single component of your overall delivery. Not all good speakers have tremendous "pipes." For exam ple, the Today Show's Katie Couric and Matt Lauer are both engaging, but their voices would hardly be described as rich in timbre. Further, you were to listen to a number of paid speakers, you would see that this is the case with them as well. A of us tend to underutilize the full potential of our voices. What ultimately counts, then, is whether we're willing to do the hard work necessary to rectify this fact.