Do you believe a Better Accent = Better Income?  BBC Radio 5, asked me to do a 30 minutes live discussion on how people are changing their accents to improve their career path to make more money.  

I was joined by two academics from Manchester & Glasgow universities, to discuss this very common practice, that is actually in my opinion – a best kept secret!

I mean this is certainly true in my experience. How many people do you know who have told you they have worked with a voice coach?

I have frequently taught husbands or wives who do not want their spouses (!) to know they are working on their accent! But despite their partners’ fears and misgivings, the students have known: Better Accent = Better Income.

My international students see this as an essential and advanced part of learning the language, but no British person, wants their friends, relatives or colleagues, to know..

This is because it brings up their friends’ and relatives’ or colleagues’ suppressed concerns, about the way they themselves speak.

If my student has a partner, the partner is genuinely worried that my student will advance their career so much, that the partner will be left behind and the relationship abandoned. This isn’t true.

The partner (and friends) can become scared and try to dissuade my student from continuing.  I promise you in my experience – and I’ve taught for 30 years – friends, loved ones or partners, are not abandoned.

The training is an investment for a better future for both the student and their partner and often, once that fact has been understood, the partner wants to come for lessons too!

The partner or friends can hear the improvement, are enjoying my student’s new found confidence and so want to learn, themselves.

This is great, because all of us, talk like those around us; yes we really do,  so this makes learning for partners or friends, much quicker and it creates a fun activity that you can do together.

And as we all know – what’s fun, gets done!

Confidentiality

I have often commented, it is rather like being a sexual health doctor. My clients come to me in the strictest of confidence and I feel privileged to be in such a position of trust and I take this very seriously.

Your voice is so personal, indeed when someone dies, isn’t it the sound of their voice we miss so much? When we come across a scrap of paper with their handwriting on – that too is so precious BUT nothing like as precious as your loved one’s voice – it is unique and tells the story of their life..

This is why changing your voice can feel like heresy and those around you may feel you are rejecting your life so far and so something about them too: this couldn’t be further from the truth.

You are improving your chances in the work place and social settings and so helping your loved ones.

The language that is mostly used around the world, is English and there is no doubt about it, there are optimum ways of speaking this language, so that everybody, in this global and international market place, understands you.

A student I have been working with for two years,  has just taken up her dream job at the top table of the headquarters, of a global pharmacy. The only thing they were worried about was her accent, so we got to work and made her dream come true.

Better accent = Better income.

Facts

Better accent = better income, is a truism.  If you look into the backgrounds of many a captain or mistress of industry, if they began life, with a hard to understand, strong regional or foreign accent, when speaking English, they had to work hard to change their accent.

Some eradicate it, I can teach you to do that; some have softened it greatly, I can teach you how to do that; but they had to make changes so that they could achieve what they wanted.

Success feels great and so does all the material wealth that can make you and your loved ones lives more comfortable.

Whatever business you are in, you have to communicate with people from all around the world, because that is the nature of globalisation and that is where we are.

The BBC Radio 5 Live Interview & Discussion

 For me, working at the coal face so to speak, it was fascinating talking to academics who think about this in a rather scholarly and abstract way, one of them mourning the loss of, strong, hard to understand, regional accents.

Being patronised and commented upon isn’t as valuable, as being genuinely helped, in a constructive way, to increase your economic independence and increase your wealth building.

Needless to say we had a lively discussion, but all concluding – a clear, easily understood enunciation of English, whether you are already speaking some form of English, earns you more money, than if your speech is only really, only well understood, by your family and close friends.

Whether your first language is American English; Australian English; Scottish English; Irish English; Welsh English or Regional English English, if you want to earn high amounts of money you must be able to converse clearly and effectively to those people from completely different geographical areas in the world.

A Well Known Example

My favourite example of this is Barack Obama: he speaks in a very different way when he is talking to a local audience, from when he speaking to the rest of us, around the world.

Great leaders know this: clear speech is their bread and butter. Better accent = better income.

Give Yourself the Best Chances

The bottom line is, history shows and proves better accent = better income, so why cut off your nose to spite your face? (An English saying for don’t sell yourself short or don’t damage your opportunities because you are cross with the way of the world..)

People don’t want to communicate with people they don’t understand easily – it’s too much like hard work and not a pleasant experience. Conversation doesn’t flow so easily, so unless either of you fancy each other, you naturally start avoiding talking to each other which is of course terrible for you career.

…. If you know you have clarity / diction / mumbling / confidence problems with your speech – why wouldn’t you ask me to help you?  (If money is a problem please do take full advantage of my blog posts that offer free advice and free sources of information and help)

I am an unashamed geek about this, because I love helping to make people happier and have more fulfilling lives: it is extremely rewarding.

As Jim Rohn said, “If you don’t like where you are, change it. You’re not a tree.”

I love that!

I love learning everyday and hope to end up with an improved mindset than with which I began the day. Did you know scientists have now proved our brains are elastic! Well it’s true 🙂

Let me help you get into the job you would love.

Have a listen to the link below (and do use the free stuff on the earlier blogs too) to hear how learning clarity and excellent diction, is your passport to a wealthier you..