Why You Should Listen to Your Own Voice

Your recorded voice sounds wrong because you have never actually heard it before. When you speak, the sound reaches you two ways at once — through the air, and through the bones of your skull. Bone conduction adds warmth and depth and lowers the pitch. A recording strips all of that away and leaves only what everyone else has always heard. The voice you dislike is not a distortion. It is the real one.

When was the last time you listened to a recording of your own voice after giving a presentation?

Presenting aside, have you ever listened to a recording of your own voice at all?

If you have, how did it make you feel?

If you were your audience, could you listen to you?

Here at Mindful Presenter, I’ve never met anyone who likes the idea of listening to their own voice. Many people say they’ve never really done it or even thought about it. The vast majority say, quite emphatically, “I hate listening to my own voice.”  I don’t mind telling you that, despite being a public speaking coach and trainer, I also don’t like the sound of my own voice on a recording.

Isn’t it interesting that many of us don’t give too much thought to imposing our voice on colleagues or clients, yet have no real idea of how we sound to them?

How Do You Sound?

Do you speak too fast?

Is there any flexibility in your pitch, pace, tone or volume?

If  you want our audience to feel excited or inspired, do you sound it vocally?

Do you say “err,” “uhm,” “obviously,” “like,” or “so” a lot?

Are you being yourself, or have you adopted the corporate spokesperson voice?

Is the way you speak congruent with the words you use and the way you feel?

Could you listen to your own voice?

In my experience, it’s not something most of us have given too much thought to. After all, surely our audience hears exactly what we hear in our own minds, so what’s the point of listening to a recording?

We assume we know exactly how we sound, so why would an audio recording be any different?

I Thought I Sounded Like Michael Bublé

I like to sing at home, in the shower, while cooking, and listening to the radio. In my head, I’ve long been convinced that I sound just like Michael Bublé. My wife and son assure me that I’m mistaken. In fact, they share the same view as an old primary school teacher who caused me a little trauma some 50 years ago when she told me that my singing voice sounded like a bullfrog.

It seems I never quite got over that.

We Don’t Hear What Others Hear

I remember reading about this in a BBC article where the author explained:

“When you speak, you hear your own voice in two different ways… The first is through vibrating sound waves hitting your eardrum, the way other people hear your voice. The second way is through vibrations inside your skull… As they travel through the bone, they spread out and lower in pitch, giving you a false sense of bass. Then, when you hear a recording of your voice, it sounds distinctly higher.”

Dr Silke Paulmann, a psychologist at the University of Essex, put it beautifully in The Guardian:

“Our voice plays a massive role in forming our identity, and I guess no one likes to realise that you’re not really who you think you are.”

There are countless articles explaining the physiological and psychological reasons our recorded voice sounds different. They’re worth understanding, but from a public speaking perspective, there’s something even more important.

What About Your Listeners?

Understanding how we sound and the impact our voice has on others is essential, especially when presenting. This isn’t something only actors or singers should concern themselves with.

In the absence of knowing exactly how we sound to others, we could be doing them a disservice. In this case, ignorance is not bliss.

When we’re speaking in a work context, presenting data, facts or insights, it’s very easy to slip into a monotone, less engaging style than we realise.

At Mindful Presenter, we encourage people to invest a little time in understanding their own voice before sharing it with others. If we don’t, how will we ever know whether we:

– speak too fast

– have vocal energy and contrast

– sound the way we want our audience to feel

– rely on filler words

– are speaking authentically

Take Some Time to Listen to a Recording of Your Own Voice

When you do, please don’t try to change your voice.

Your voice is a gift; it is an extremely important and precious part of you. Just be mindful of its impact.

Please don’t try to sound like Michael Bublé, the late Steve Jobs, Michelle Obama or whoever your favourite speaker is.

Authenticity is critical, especially in public speaking and presenting.

This isn’t an article about changing your voice; it’s one about understanding it. A key part of mindfulness in the way we work is having a high level of awareness about what’s helping us and what’s hindering us.

That includes our voice

“The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.”
— Richard Strauss

If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your public speaking voice, take a moment to read, Unlocking a Clearer, More Compelling Speaking Voice. You may also want to explore our powerful public speaking course, which helps you develop vocal awareness, confidence and presence.

Your voice is one of the most influential tools you possess. It shapes how people feel, how they understand you and how they remember you. When you take the time to truly hear yourself, not to judge, but to understand, you give yourself the opportunity to communicate with greater clarity, authenticity and presence. Authenticity is critical, especially in public speaking and presenting. If you’d like more personalised support, our one‑to‑one public speaking coaching can help you understand and strengthen your natural voice.

That awareness is the beginning of real transformation, not just in how you speak, but in how others experience you.

If this article sparked something in you, feel free to share it with a colleague or friend who wants to communicate with more confidence and authenticity. Sometimes a single moment of awareness is all it takes to change the way we speak, and the way we’re heard.

You may also want to explore the BBC’s short explainer on why your recorded voice sounds different — a simple, accessible breakdown of the science behind the discomfort.

Common Questions

Why does my voice sound different in a recording?

Because you normally hear yourself through your skull as well as through the air. Bone conduction lowers the pitch and adds richness. A recording captures only the airborne version — the one everybody else hears.

Why do I hate the sound of my own voice?

Mostly because it is unfamiliar. You are hearing a version of yourself you have never encountered, and the mismatch feels like a flaw. It usually isn’t. Most people’s recorded voices are perfectly pleasant to everyone except themselves.

Should I record myself presenting?

Yes, and it is the single most useful thing most presenters never do. You cannot change what you cannot hear, and nobody else will tell you about the pace, the fillers or the flat delivery.

Recording is one of two ways to find the habits you cannot see. The other is asking someone you trust, specifically rather than generally. Both are covered in the Voice layer of The Presenter’s Operating System.

Can I change how my voice sounds?

You can change a great deal — pace, pitch variation, breath, warmth, how much you swallow the ends of sentences. What you should not try to change is who you sound like. The aim is your voice used well, not somebody else’s imitated badly.

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