So what is it? It has many names, but ‘vocal fry’ or ‘vocal creak’ are common names … and listening to one of my radio interviews, I can hear myself doing it without realising it.

It’s produced when the vocal cords are made to flutter together, usually at the end of a sentence, producing a creaky, croaky, guttural, rasping Dalek-like sound.

It’s common in the US, and is becoming increasingly common in the UK, and as with so many speaking fashions, it seems to have developed and is most used among women.

It’s been noted that the sound is prevalent among high level female executives and well-known stars, perhaps in an attempt to make a naturally light voice sound lower and more authoritative, and young girls are mimicking it to sound more like their idols.

If you’re not familiar with the sound yet, listen to the girls on ‘Made in Chelsea’, most of the actresses in ‘Suburgatory,’ Zooey Deschanel from ‘New Girl’ and Jolene Blalock from ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ [all film and TV actresses who don’t need to project their voices] for exaggerated examples of the sound.

Speaking fashions come and go, and like fashions in dress are mainly an attempt to fit in and get on, so there will be another one along soon.

But for any public speaker, vocal fry can only be a problem – deliberately limiting and suppressing the power of the voice will inhibit your ability to project across a distance, affect personal impact and impair the message.

And beware the effect on your audience – it can sound grating, sarcastic and extremely off-putting.

We’re all a work in progress, and I’ll be listening out for vocal fry in my own speaking from now on!

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right.” Henry Ford

The way you think about a situation, as in the words you use to talk about it either out loud or in your head, will directly affect how you feel about it. This will then govern how you behave, and will affect how the world sees you and responds to you.

If you go into a presentation thinking ‘I’m useless at public speaking’, or into a job interview thinking ‘I’m about to be rejected yet again’, you’ll drag yourself down into a depressed mood, and your voice, expression and body language will sink with it, so the audience or the recruiter will think … no.

Then you’ll have the self-satisfaction of thinking ‘see? I was right.’ It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes we’d rather be right than pleasantly surprised, because to change the way we think can be tough. Old habits, and the attitudes of those we mix with, can be a powerful barrier to getting what we want.

You can’t control everything, but you can control how you think, feel and behave in any given situation. And that’s a great step towards controlling what then happens to you as a result.

Think …

Before a presentation or an interview do you habitually think “I’d be perfect, I’m worth it, I can and I will, I have the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need”? Or do you go down the same old route of “I always fail, I’m a disappointment, I regret, I make mistakes, what’s the point, I’m always being rejected”?

Feel …

Then do you feel optimistic, focussed and energetic? Or depressed, sad, frightened, sluggish, panicky and sick?

Your physical and emotional response can be directly triggered by the conscious thoughts and language you use around a situation, which are entirely within your control.

Behave …

Then once you’ve created your mood, your physical and emotional state governs your behaviour. So, when speaking in public, or going in to a job interview – which one is you?

Not making the effort, a gloomy expression, looking a bit down at heel, slumping in your seat, defensive body language, speaking too softly, not engaging, giving brief, dull answers …

Or looking well groomed, listening, smiling, making eye contact, using positive language and an attractive tone of voice?

Result …

Your audience or your interviewer can only react and respond to the information you give them. Your impact is within your control.

So next time you catch yourself reciting the same old list of negatively-charged criticism, remember that if you carry on down that route you’ll feel bad and your behaviour won’t do you justice or trigger the response you want.

Instead, get into the habit of listing your good things; your skills, successes and achievements, your compliments, thank yous and testimonials, and consciously go over them to get you into the positive frame of mind you need to do your best to achieve the result you want.

You can’t have missed it – the staccato sprinkling of the word ‘like’ in conversations overheard in cafes, trains and offices everywhere.

As usual, it’s a speaking fashion that seems to have emerged and is certainly most used among teenage girls.

“And I was like” has developed its own contraction already, to something more akin to “an’yse’lye’,” all run in together as one word with a glottal stop at the end of it.

One briefly-seen advert trying to seem spontaneous, colloquial and natural featured the excruciating spectacle of an actress carefully over-enunciating the phrase “and I was like” as if it were a line of Shakespeare. It didn’t last long.

So what does ‘like’ mean? It seems to have several main functions at the moment:

To replace “and I said” “and she said – “And I was like ‘no way’ and she was like ‘way’ and I was like ‘whatever’ …”

To replace “and my attitude was” “and her attitude was” – “And I was like totally in her face and she was like giving it that … ”

Just before a verb or a concept, as though the speaker needs a bit of a leg up before they can articulate the next phrase – “he never like had any intention” and “my friend’s like best friends with her sister … ”

As a meaningless interjection, a linguistic tic that the speaker does not even realise they are doing, to fill a gap until the next word comes along – a 21st Century ‘um.’

So, here’s the recipe:

Talk very quickly about nothing in particular as though it’s the end of the world or the most exciting thing that will ever happen [either will do] …

Sprinkle in a liberal helping of ‘like’ …

For real authenticity, add the upwardly mobile moo of Australian Question intonation …

Now grate in some Dalek vocal fry …

and this is what you get …

“And like I went out last night? with like Kelly and Shanaaaaaae and like totally got like waaaaasted and omigod her mother was like you are like grounded for evaaaaah?

Like any other language fashion, ‘like’ is an acquired and displayed badge of belonging, and just like vocal fry and AQI … there’ll be another one along in a minute.

The question is … do you do it? Have they started counting your ‘likes’ – or worse, doing a surreptitious five-bar gate on a napkin?

If you do it at work, it will damage your professional image. If you do it in a job interview, it may mean the difference between getting the job and putting the recruiter off. And if you do it as a public speaker, you must expect the five-bar gate to be the main source of hilarity at the coffee break.

Are you doing it? Record yourself speaking. If the answer is yes … it’s time to strike the like.

Three tips for dealing with public speaking nerves:

Prepare …

The presentation: rehearse, record yourself and get some feedback from someone you can trust. The more familiar you are with it all, the more confident you’ll feel on the day.

Your body: relax your shoulders, stand straight and easy, control your breathing – focus on breathing from your diaphragm, not from your chest.

Your mind: remember they want you to succeed – so smile and make eye contact. They’ll like you for it.

Most public speakers need to do one or more of three things:

• to inspire – formal announcements, sermons, keynote speeches, political speeches, rallying calls to action …
• to inform – training sessions, team briefings, press announcements, presenting academic papers …
• to entertain – after dinner, best man, thank you and prize-giving speeches, performances, reading poetry or fiction aloud …

Of course, the Ancient Greeks had a word for everything and they knew a lot about public speaking. Their term ‘glossophobia,’ or ‘tongue terror,’ is the perfect description for the fear of speaking in public.

They also made it clear that to be a successful speaker you need to establish three points from the start for the audience to accept you and your message, and these still hold true today – Ethos, Logos and Pathos:

Ethos – where we derive our term Ethics. An audience needs to trust and believe you, to feel that your values and beliefs chime in with their own.

Logos – where we derive our term Logic. They need to fully understand your language and your message before they can buy into it.

Pathos – where we derive our term Empathy. They need to feel that they like you.

Your words, voice and body language all need to be working in harmony to fulfil all these needs from the moment they first see you stand up to speak.

If they believe you, you’ll find it easier to encourage them, help them take heart and change their attitude.

If they understand you, they’ll be able to follow, learn and take the message away with them.

And if they like you, they’ll feel relaxed, engaged and attentive.

So whatever form your public speaking takes, you’ll want your contribution to be inspiring, informative and entertaining – the public speaking hat trick!