From On-Air to Off the Charts: Mastering the Art of Voice with Voice Coach, Susan Murphy

Debra Coleman [00:00:11]:
Hello. Hello. Hello. And welcome back to another episode of have a seat conversations with women in the workplace podcast. I am your host, Deborah Coleman. Friends, get ready to tune into an episode like no other. Honestly, like no other as I sit down with miss Susan Murphy, broadcast voice coach extraordinaire, whose has shaped the voices you've heard on television commercials, programs, websites, and even artificial intelligence environments. Can you see why I'm excited? As a podcaster, I was just running around the room screaming to be able to have time with miss Susan Murphy.

Debra Coleman [00:00:49]:
With 40 years of on air experience under her belt, Susan brings a wealth, and I mean a wealth of knowledge and passion to the table. But you know, Susan's journey doesn't just stop there. Driven by her love for teaching and her desire to empower others, she founded Vosat, where she hones the on air sound of anchors and reporters nationwide. Drawing from her extensive background in high level TV performance at Hofstra University, Susan's mission is clear, to unlock the hidden potential within each aspiring broadcaster. So buckle up and get ready to discover the secrets behind captivating broadcast voices with Susan Murphy. Well, welcome back to another episode of Have a Seat, conversations with women in the workplace. Joining me this week, I am a little bit of a fan girl because I get to talk to Susan Murphy, who is a broadcast voice coach. What? Oh, so amazing.

Debra Coleman [00:01:58]:
As a podcaster, I'm just it's all I can do to not run around the room screaming. Like, I got a coach in my pocket.

Susan [00:02:04]:
Away. I am so delighted to be here, Deborah. I love the premise of this show. It's just women sharing what it's like to juggle the things we juggle and the plates we drop as well as the ones that we succeed with. So I cannot wait to get started and become part of the community here.

Debra Coleman [00:02:25]:
Thank you. We're excited to have you a part of the community. This is going to be a great conversation, without a doubt. So to kick us off, miss Susan, as a broadcast voice coach, teaching others, I assume, is is a significant part of your passion in terms of their voice and how to use it. What inspired you to transition to becoming a broadcast voice coach?

Susan [00:02:58]:
Watching TV news and not hearing voices that were inspired or appropriate or where they should be to match the talent that I would see in young reporters and anchors who could write. Okay. A lot of them would put together terrific stories that ask the right questions. The video was beautiful, and then they'd talk. And I'm thinking there's a disconnect here. So about 3 years ago, I decided to hang out my shingle and I thought I tried on LinkedIn and I had first contacted a news director friend of mine. I'd been in the business for more than 40 years, TV, radio producing, on camera, off camera, whatever. And I said, you know, this is what I want to do.

Susan [00:03:46]:
And he said, are you kidding? This is great. I can think of a lot of folks who would really love to have a voice coach for some of their people. So he gave me 2 of his reporters. He I did not charge him. He wrote me a very nice recommendation. And from there, it grew. And I've really gained the street cred among news directors and young broadcasters that when you want to really elevate the sound of your voice, when you really want to become a stronger, better, more connected, authentic reporter or anchor or meteorologist or sports caster, you go to Susan. And I've you know, you said it it was my passion, and you are so right.

Susan [00:04:27]:
This is my life's work. This is the culmination of everything that has come before it for me to be able to turn around and give back, there is yes. These the news directors or the talent, they do pay me, but the psychological income of watching them grow, of watching their confidence blossom, that's priceless.

Debra Coleman [00:04:50]:
I can't imagine. And because so much of especially in broadcast, I would assume, using your voice is your tool, is where I would assume a large percentage of your talent lies. So I can appreciate the importance of getting that on lock.

Susan [00:05:11]:
Yes. And it used to happen back in the day when I was coming up. When you graduated from school, you didn't go straight to television, which is what kids do now. You went to radio. Because all radio stations had news departments. I was lucky enough to work in all news radio in in Philadelphia. And so you either learned on the job or you had mentors at the radio station so that your voice was developed because you're on the radio. Now it's all about teaching technology.

Susan [00:05:45]:
It's all about, can you shoot? Can you edit? Can you do the sound? Can you do this? We didn't all have I didn't have to do that back in my day, and now reporters do. So they graduate from school. They go straight to television, and somewhere along the way, they lost a chunk, a big chunk of what's important about being on the air, and that is the sound of your voice. You could have a great story. You could be doing a wonderful job in presenting whatever. But if your voice is not appropriate or it's squeaky or it's soft or it's I'm not gonna stay, and I think that's true of a lot of people. And it you lose your credibility when your voice doesn't match the, sometimes, you know, how severe the story is or even how happy a story is. Sometimes reporters can't manage that either because they're so monotone or they're sing song or what have what have you.

Susan [00:06:44]:
So if I can kind of blend everything together, and I can't work on their voice unless I work on their writing as well. When we blend that all together, it their work really does become much, much better. So that is why I choose to exist in the in the world I've created. And I don't know anybody else really who does this. There are TV coaches, and but they do it more and they are usually associated with bigger companies, and and they charge a lot more than I do, to be honest. I know these young people don't make a lot of money, so I I charge accordingly. And, again, it's my joy to be able to do it. And it makes a difference in their lives, particularly for some of the young women I've worked with whose voices have been challenging for them.

Susan [00:07:35]:
And so when we can really work through the whole authentic pitch that comes from the bottom of your diaphragm, that's that's when the that's when the beauty of this starts to pop up. And they become so much more authentic and they they look more of the expert. They look like an educator telling me about this story. And that's all I hope to do, and then my job is done. Live and be well, my daughter. And, actually, I will occasionally work with a college kid who has no money at all. And, I mean, I might give them a scaled down version, but I don't say no to anybody.

Debra Coleman [00:08:16]:
I love that. And you're right. Thank you for pointing that out. Some of the younger, gosh, reporters, like, on the street reporters I I see in the morning or on the news broadcast. I I can see that they're doing all the things. They have their phone in front of them. They're trying to read facts from while looking at the camera while I'm assuming trying to sound comprehensive and and clear. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Debra Coleman [00:08:44]:
And as a viewer, when it doesn't land, it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I feel bad for them. Like, oh, golly.

Susan [00:08:53]:
Mhmm. It's its own worst punishment. It's like, you know, it's like telling it's telling a a batter that, you know, or it's telling an outfielder that he dropped the fly ball. No. Did really? You can't make it any worse for them than it already is. So so I can give them tools to handle things like that or, strategies about voice or where to look or what how to tell that story, that's, that can often help too. Because when they're live, nothing prepares you for that except doing it over and over again, and it it takes a while. Nobody's good at it the first time or the 1st year or the 1st 18 months or it takes a while.

Debra Coleman [00:09:36]:
I can imagine. And I would love to circle back on when you mentioned authentic pitch. Can you expand on that a little bit? What is our authentic pitch?

Susan [00:09:47]:
Our authentic pitch is the natural range of pitch that we should be speaking in. And it's usually not a problem for gentlemen because at puberty, when boys and girls have vocal cords that look exactly the same, about the size of a dime, except for young men in puberty, Hormones stretch the vocal cords so that their vocal cords are about the size of a quarter. Hormones affect their Adam's apple. We have Adam's apples too. You just have to look for them. Theirs grow and also contribute to the pitch and tone of their voices. But women, when we go through puberty, nothing happens to us like that. Our vocal cords stay the size of a dime.

Susan [00:10:37]:
And our voices, unless we are conscious of it, can remain very girlish or breathy or soft or, you know, like the Kardashian sisters, like, you know, like up speak and vocal fry, which is just unsupported breath. And that is also from what I've understand and going through the psychology of some of this, when girls get together, anybody who has a group of girls that get together, preteen, teen, college age, they are effervescent, they squeal, they have a good time, they are talking in very high pitches because that's what girls do and gentlemen just don't do that. So they girls sometimes don't even know they have a pitch that sits at the bottom of their diaphragm, which is that cylindrical muscle that is attached to your lower rib cage, and it is responsible for pushing air into your lungs. And your diaphragm is like a balloon. When you take air into it, it blows up, and when you exhale it, it flattens. Every baby is born breathing into their belly because they don't know how not to. If you've ever changed a baby on a changing table who really doesn't wanna be undressed, she will wail and she will suck air in, and you'll see her belly just blow up like a blowfish, and then she'll let loose with that wail. Yeah.

Susan [00:12:13]:
Because they don't know how to do it otherwise. When we learn to walk and talk and follow directions from somebody else, our breathing shifts and we do what is called clavicular or, conversational breath. It's shorter. It's shallower. Air does get into your diaphragm. It has to or you would die. And it it also because it's not really revving up, back up from the diaphragm area, it's not at its best pitch. And in fact, because most of us, as we go through life, we're tense, we're too busy, we're this, we're that.

Susan [00:12:56]:
For women, our pitch just tends to stay higher. Like, you hear me now, I've kind of tightened the muscles in my chest, and the pitch of our voices rises when really all one of the things we need to do is drop our shoulders, breathe into our belly. So I'm going to drop my shoulders, take a breath into my belly, and speak boldly. And automatically, your pitch comes down, and it's like you settle into you. There's there's the pitch. It's down there at the bottom of your diaphragm, and it is now rising like air and energy, comes up past your trachea, through the vocal cords, makes a sharp right angle and out the mask of your face. We forget that that is the most efficient kind of breathing. When we are sleeping, by the way, we all revert to that.

Susan [00:13:49]:
We do breathe into our bellies, but when we're awake, we do not. So what I do is I teach broadcasters how to breathe back into the belly, and it helps to find their what is usually a lower, warmer pitch. It's maybe gosh. Of of the 100 of girls, young women that I've coached, I'm trying to think if there was anybody whose voice I couldn't help modulate, and I could think of maybe 1 or 2. Everybody's pitch does sit deeper, lower into their diaphragm and then from there, it has to rise. So once you get it, you get it. And then you can use it. I have had some young women who have chosen to completely use that.

Susan [00:14:44]:
It's it is your authentic pitch, but they tend to use it in all aspects of their life. People take them more seriously. They are less likely to be deemed girlish. They command attention in a room. They you know, it's unfortunate, but we are judged by the sound of our voices. So if I can help you find your best voice, why would you not take advantage of that so that whether you're dealing with a boss, a viewer, a listener, your children, a significant other, why would you not try to use your best pitch? And that's so I do often I won't say often I sometimes work with ministers, nurses, CFOs, mostly women who just want to develop a bolder presence in a boardroom or a classroom or, in front of other nurses or in a congregation for some of the ministers So that's that's what I help to do, and your your natural pitch is in there. You just may never have used

Debra Coleman [00:15:51]:
it. Fascinating. As you were just talking about the breathing exercises, I started to try to do that on my end. This is really helpful though because when I started this podcast, I had no knowledge of voice control, of how to harness that, how to tap into my authentic voice. I've always been made fun of that I'm a loud talker, that I don't know how to be quiet or, like, talk quietly. And so I find myself often prefacing shows, not interview shows, but the solo shows I do by saying, folks, I do tend to get a little loud or, you know, when I get sassy, my voice tends to get louder. But I would really love to find a way to control that a little bit. But I do find when, because I think other people wanna hear a different tone, I don't feel like myself.

Susan [00:17:02]:
Okay. I could understand that, and I completely get that. Okay. On air, in in the role of a reporter or an anchor, there is an expectation of how that person should sound. And in fact, as I coach all my clients, the researchers who sit down with focus groups every couple of years of people who watch local TV news, which, by the way, is less and fewer and fewer and fewer. And I don't even know where TV news will be in 2025, but that's a whole another show. So when they ask viewers what they like about their anchors, they'll say, okay. Your anchors, what qualities do you look for in the person who delivers the news to you? And the answer always comes back with the same top 2, qualities.

Susan [00:17:52]:
1, I want them to be friendly and accessible, you know, kind of like I could sit at the bar and have a drink with them. That's number 1. But number 2 is I want that person to be strong because Particularly in the last 20 years, how much more bad news are we delivering? Severe weather, etcetera, etcetera, school shootings. Come on. So they want the anchor to be strong. So they walk a fine line between accessible and friendly and strong, and that is what is expected of an on air person. You, Deborah, are a podcaster. Mhmm.

Susan [00:18:30]:
And part of the joy and beauty of podcasting is it's not supposed to be perfect. It's not supposed to be broadcasty. It's not supposed to be scripted so much. It's supposed to be real. Like, you're listening in on a eavesdropping on a conversation. And that's the beauty of this. So, honestly, Deb, I would tell you, if you're not feeling like you, abandoned it. It's you need to be you to your guests.

Susan [00:19:01]:
Now, if you really find yourself too loud or too fast, the easiest thing to do is when you come to the end of a sentence, you drop your shoulders, take a breath, it'll immediately lower your pitch. And in that tiny little space where you have dropped your shoulders, taken a breath to your belly, 2 things happen. 1, you're breathing. Yay, you. Your head can also go toward your next sentence or idea. And that's great. But, you know, when you take that pause, it's wonderful for me because I can catch up with what you said. And when we're in conversation like this, where neither of us nor our listeners can see our lips, You think about those 3 years we all spent masked up Not only was our sound muffled, we couldn't read each other's lips and that's key to completing a communication cycle.

Susan [00:20:06]:
So I think sometimes when we're on the air, if we can be, I call it, deliberate and intentional, and this would go for a presentation in a boardroom, having that difficult conversation with your spouse, having a conversation about, getting a raise, sitting down and talking with your children about any variety of subjects. When you take those pauses, it allows everybody to hear, hopefully, and listen to everything you're saying. If you go a mile a minute, if you're yelling, if you're not taking any pauses, if you're just foaming at the mouth with whatever emotion, that is hard for me to follow, And I would give up. So I sometimes think if we all were more, 1, better listeners and 2, more thoughtful speakers in terms of taking a pause, in terms of taking a breath. I think we all could prevent saying things we wish we hadn't or saying things in such a way that we do get our point across and we don't confuse the other person. And so speaking and listening and conversations, I have a friend, Ivan Farber, who might be a well, he's not a woman. You can't have him on the show. He's, he works in the finance industry, but he's written a book about conversations.

Susan [00:21:51]:
And because when you work in the finance industry and you have clients, conversation is totally important. And he's he's got it down to literally a science as to how to listen and how to speak and and how to form or address a question. And if we all learned more about speaking, say, in high school, and I don't mean public speaking. I mean learning to converse conversate converse with our friends and our parents, I think we'd all be in better shape. So that's also a kind of a side benefit of what I do in terms of I never say slow down. I will say be deliberate and be intentional in your conversation and in your speech. If you're presenting a story that is, you know, you're following up a murder or something like that, there there has to be a proper tone. There has to be a proper connection to the story as you tell it so that I, at home, can feel the story same way as if you're sitting with a spouse and you need to have a conversation about something and you need to get a point across.

Susan [00:23:13]:
Well, you need to be connected to your words. And when you're deliberate and intentional, you're less likely to say words that you don't mean.

Debra Coleman [00:23:24]:
What you said is so true, and I never thought of that. It is all wrapped up in being an empathetic listener to contributing in a way that gives you credibility. And I love what you said about the example you provided of the test audience when accessible and friendly. It's I think as women in the workplace, many of us struggle, I think, with with our voice. And what you and I are discussing today is more of our our tool, our voice. We hear those sayings out on the interwebs about, you know, find your voice in the corporate office, and that's all well and good. But this is somewhat, like, relates to that. But I've been in meetings where I will have had a conversation with a woman offline.

Debra Coleman [00:24:16]:
And then we get into a meeting, and they just sound different. And, less confident. Or as you pointed out, maybe I notice, an inflection, maybe a sing song, or just it may it makes me think, wait. Where was that? Where was that fantastic woman I was just speaking to half an hour ago at the water cooler? Where is she? So is it is that all tied?

Susan [00:24:46]:
Absolutely all tied together. What I didn't get into was the girlish voice sometimes goes back to, some kind of dysfunction in the family, some kind of bullying at school, somewhere, someone, some place where that young girl was not valued, Nobody cared what she said. She was less than in terms of maybe a bigger older brother who got x y z, and, you know, little Amy got, like, nothing. So your position in the family, how you were treated by those people. I was working with an African American minister, and we're talking about this in terms of, how it can come up from childhood, this reticence to use bolder, authentic, natural pitch. And her eyes started to fill with tears and she said, oh my god. This is generational in my family. And I have a 6 year old daughter, and I am hell bent on making sure none of this is transmitted to her.

Susan [00:25:56]:
She will learn how to be confident and how to nobody will put her down. Nobody will not listen to her. Her voice will be heard. And I went, there you go. So for some women, they get in front of an audience, and it triggers something where they were not valued, they were not listened to, and they suddenly lose their voice, so to speak. So I'm here to help you with your literal voice. Mhmm. Not just, you know, find your voice, which means can mean something else.

Susan [00:26:31]:
But this is your literal voice that I'm here to help you with. And we'll work through that. And it it it has to be some gentle compassion from me and encouragement from me, and, eventually, that transfers to you, compassion for yourself, encouragement for yourself, knowing that, no, your the real vocal part of you is still in there. And when you start to use that voice, people are gonna listen. People are not gonna put you down. People are gonna turn around and look at you Mhmm. Because you have you're standing in your agency as a valuable member of a family, a broadcast team, a company, whatever. So it can, for women, hearken to childhood that it's just easier to be that quiet, soft, breathy little girl.

Debra Coleman [00:27:30]:
Fascinating that it it absolutely can be tied to our past experiences. Though, is it true that that could also be someone's authentic voice though? That could be their tone.

Susan [00:27:44]:
Not that I've ever found. Oh, yeah. I've kinda heard it all. So I'm honored to have created my own little system of of how I pass it along to others. It's, you know, you've learned 40 plus years of my experience gets transmitted to you in about 4 hours.

Debra Coleman [00:28:00]:
That's a beautiful segue actually. Tell us where we can find you and to learn more about your broadcast coaching broadcast voice coaching services.

Susan [00:28:11]:
My company is called, and I didn't kinda realize I would be reaching out past the television community. So my company is called Vosot, v o s o t, VOSOT Better Broadcast Voices. And VOSOT is television shorthand for voice over sound on tape. So that's a little broadcasty thing. So now you know what it is. And so you can, susan murphyvosat.com is my website. You can come to me through there. You can find me on LinkedIn.

Susan [00:28:48]:
Susan Murphy. There are a million of us. So try Susan Murphy voice coach. There's only one. I'm happy to, you know, meet you there. And that's pretty much the two ways that you can get a hold of me. I mean, I'm on Instagram too, but do either through my website, susamurphyvosot dotcom. I think I said that right.

Susan [00:29:06]:
Susamurphyvosot.com. Yes. Vosot dot yeah. Susamurphyvosot. I never say my website, so I get confused. Or LinkedIn. Find me on LinkedIn.

Debra Coleman [00:29:16]:
Fantastic, Susan. I love that you offer this, and it is so important. I think especially in this day and age, when, as you said, social media, things are done quickly, fast, attention spans are short. And I think the art of listening, speaking with intent as you've outlined, it gets lost in the shuffle. So that was another beautiful reason why I wanted I couldn't wait actually to have this conversation.

Susan [00:29:43]:
Yes. And you know what? We really could do a part 2. There's a lot more we could do with this. Maybe we could get, you know, some people who would like to have a little voice coaching from me right away. We could we could do that, and there is so much more to discuss about women in the workplace and using their voices. It's You know, I became a broadcaster in about 19 70 something, and I stood on the shoulders of a Jane Pauley, of a Barbara Walters.

Debra Coleman [00:30:16]:
Yes.

Susan [00:30:17]:
The the original OGs of Yeah. TV broadcasters, women. So when I graduated from college, TV stations could not hire women fast enough because we're suddenly in vogue. And, okay. So I'm thinking, alright. Great. You know? And I'm going along and I'm going along, and I get 40 years in. And so little has changed.

Susan [00:30:40]:
And I don't know what happened, really. The sexism, the ageism, the racism, in the workplace, sexual assault. I mean, it's nothing's changed, and so we should do that someday too. Talk about that.

Debra Coleman [00:30:57]:
I would absolutely love to. Well, before I let you hop off the mic, miss Susan, do you have time for one quick bonus question?

Susan [00:31:04]:
Miss Deb, I'd be delighted.

Debra Coleman [00:31:06]:
Alrighty. Here we go. You are a busy lady as we've just found out here, and rightly so, pursuing your passion and lifting others up, kind of paying it forward, which is so lovely. When life gets busy though, what do you do to help find some rebalancing and and how do you reset? Bring yourself back to center.

Susan [00:31:31]:
Great question. Yeah. Because at this stage of my life, you know, I'm older than probably a lot of your listeners. There's there's so many different things to rebalance and which kind of you some of them kind of catch you off guard. I sing in my church choir. We rehearse Wednesday nights. We sing Sunday morning. And I have found that to be on many levels, spiritual, vocally, musically, psychologically.

Susan [00:32:02]:
I have found that to be truly something that speaks to me and it it it it helps rebalance my life. I'm glad you asked. That's my answer.

Debra Coleman [00:32:14]:
I have adored this conversation. I ran out of paper. My pen, I actually had to throw it away. I had to grab a new one. This has been tremendous, and I really would love to take you up on the opportunity to do a part 2.

Susan [00:32:26]:
You know where to find me.

Debra Coleman [00:32:28]:
And that wraps up this enlightening and truly inspiring episode with Susan Murphy. Friends, I'm reminded of the transformative power of voice and the incredible journey Susan has taken to share her expertise with the world. From her illustrious career in on air broadcasting to her passion for teaching and mentoring, Susan's impact truly resonates. You can see how it resonates just far and wide. If you've been inspired by Susan's insights and are eager to explore the world of broadcast voice and coaching further, please be sure to check out the show notes for more information on how to connect with Susan and to take your voice to new heights. And remember, the journey to mastering your voice is just the beginning. Keep practicing, keep striving, and most importantly, keep believing in the power of your voice. I know I do every day and not just on my podcast, but at work as well because I absolutely see how this can translate into the workplace for us as women.

Debra Coleman [00:33:30]:
It just brings a whole another dimension and another outlook into the phrase, find your voice. So thank you for joining us on this incredible ride. This this with this episode with Susan, and as always, stay safe, be well, and remember, keep having those conversations.