[MUSIC PLAYING] - You'll often hear presentation skills coaches talk about the importance of variety in tone. And I'm a big believer in that. However, I think that that variation has to come from the inside out. The minute you force it, the minute you are thinking about varying your tone, you're going to sound inauthentic. 

So a great place to make sure that that happens from is being organically connected to your material. Because when you're organically connected to your material, your body, your voice will change naturally. And if you have constructed your presentation so that there is a variety in the types of experiences you're communicating, whether it's a peaceful moment or a moment of excitement, your body and your voice will change. 

A friend of mine who's a film director talks about the misconception that people have that directors on the set always yell, action! But the truth of the matter is a good director will know that if it's an intimate scene-- maybe it's a mother putting her child to bed, and it's a peaceful moment-- if the director is right there by the cradle with the mother, the director is going to yell-- not yell, sorry, speak quietly, action. 

If they're on a set, and it's a war scene, maybe they're going to yell it out, action or action! But they're not going to yell that in front of the cradle. And the same is true for you. If you are truly in the moment, your voice and your body and your gestures will change organically. 

Years ago I took a yoga class. And here's the yoga teacher with a room full of us all lying down on the floor. She's asking us to relax. And yet because she's got the music cranked up, she's walking around all these mats like this. All right, everyone. I want you to relax. Everyone relax! Breathe in deeply. You think that's going to work? So the same is true for you. Put yourself back in the moment. Think, what is appropriate? And if you are truly there, that shift will happen as it should. 

I'll leave you with this final image. In my own one-woman-show Icebergs in Africa, I tell a story of being out in Alaska where the tide had drawn itself out in this bay of icebergs. And as the tide drew itself out, all the icebergs settled into the mud. 

Now, in real life, I was there walking among those icebergs. And it was just so quiet. So as I tell that story, I'm in the moment. I see the icebergs. I feel that air. And my voice naturally changes. And as I go through that experience, I say, I walked among these icebergs. It was so quiet. 

And for me, I'm in that moment. And then for you as the audience, you're in that moment. I don't have to think about varying my voice. It just happens. So the best technique for that variation is to put yourself in that moment. Identify with the material. And make sure that you've structured your presentation so that that natural variation is embedded in the structure. 

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