
07/19/2025
I spent my summer staring at water. Seriously.😎
Sitting on a cruise balcony watching the ocean (celebrating my boyfriend's stepfather's 90th birthday - he seems 60, by the way). Walking by the Hudson River outside my apartment in Fort Tryon Park. Hanging out by the Housatonic River in the Berkshires where we have a house.
🛥Something about water forces you to slow down and actually see what's in front of you. Every day the light is different. The air shifts. Even the same view never looks exactly the same.
Here's what hit me during all this water-staring: We settle into versions of ourselves without realizing it. Your voice does this too.
🕰 I just worked with a CFO whose voice was stuck in time. He'd borrowed this overly formal, cautious tone early in his career to sound 'executive-ready.' But 15 years later, as an actual executive leading a team, it made him sound like he was reading from a script.
We didn't change everything - just small shifts: → Dropped the jargon that kept people at arm's length → Let his natural rhythm come through instead of that forced 'professional' cadence → Most importantly: let his personality show (turns out he's actually pretty funny)
The result? His team started actually engaging in meetings instead of just nodding along. 👏
Sometimes the voice that got you here won't take you there. Just like looking at something familiar with fresh eyes, sometimes you need to listen to yourself with fresh ears.👂👂
Want the full story (plus more summer revelations that somehow relate to professional growth)? I share it all in this week's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e346AUbu
Accent On Speech with Judith Weinman
hashtag
hashtag
hashtag
hashtag
When You Start Noticing Again