The Power of Soft

It constantly amazes me the little lessons I pick up from working around many in the real estate world. Recently over a period of time I have encountered buyers searching for homes and speakers of continuing education classes who taught  me about speech patterns. Also a family member starting out the journey with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) illustrated to me the importance of voice.

With the buyer there was a dyslexic pattern where the syllables were interchanged. You had to keenly listen to figure out what was meant.

With the speaker the pace of his talk would quicken, and then all of a sudden slow down, and then go soft to emphasize a point. You would have to fine tune your listening to make sure you "heard" what they were saying. This was when they were conveying the golden nugget.

With ALS, speech can progress to being slightly slurry to very slurry and the power in the voice with less lung power can decrease. Hearing the meaning of what someone is trying to say becomes difficult. There is a struggle to communicate. You work ever so hard to understand.

In the 1970's there was a Speak and Spell toy where you typed in a word and it would synthetically produce the word but sometimes with a robotic voice you had to "listen carefully" to see what was projected. Oftentime you would laugh, and say "What??" I guess we don't like robots.

What I learned from all these instances was that in a world filled with so much noise, a soft voice can be the important one. Try to be the quiet voice of reason and calm in your dealings with other people. When all the shouting and nonsense is over with, waiting your turn, say softly your profound words. Because of the soft voice everyone will listen. Be someone of less words, less harshness, and more importance to those around you. Words are important, but so is tone.

I saw it so much with the ALS. Struggling so hard to be of importance as a speaker and the listeners so hard wanted to connect. There is much power in a soft voice. Don't underestimate it.