We have had some feedback about our on-air posts and that people are liking the small bite sized chunks of advice – so we are continuing this in todays post where I will be talking about confidence.
Confidence is THE key to any announcers personal on-air attitude, personality and performance.
Every announcer must feel confident in what you are saying. If not then a barrier is immediately raised between you and the listener. You lose the immediacy of radio and the impact of what it is you are saying is lost forever.
I found that if I ignored or eliminated the timed approach (each talk break must be no more than 10 seconds) then my style changed from being brash and overbearing to become more friendly and welcoming, much more natural and personable.
Did it change the content of what I was saying?
No – just the way that I said, and the confidence in what I had to say.
You stop sounding artificial and forced, and become a voice that people like to hear.
This lead to more of a natural confidence in front of the microphone. It allowed more of my personality to emerge and become more confident.
Another way to do this is to know what you are talking about – by knowing your material (and that’s not just practicing it over and over again) you will be able to share your passion and interest in it.
Know your script – your pronunciations, your music (your artist and band names correctly) – and you will know what you are talking about, and be confident in what you say.
This especially helps in an ad-lib situation when you may have to think on your feet when something goes wrong – but having the confidence in your show, your knowledge of what you are about to cover – will come through (every time) as a confident, competent voice that listeners can trust.
If you speak with assurance, and if what you are saying is worth saying at all – then there will be no doubts at all in your abilities.
Build your confidence and perform better on-air in your show, by practice, by learning and by sharing.
