Blog

Talent Coaching at Cal State Los Angeles

These CSULA students were eager to improve their storytelling with better voice quality.

I developed my talent coaching techniques during 11 years of teaching at the USC/Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.  I jump at the chance to get back into the classroom whenever I can between coaching visits.

Robin Guess, who teaches TV/video reporting at CSULA, invited me to work with her students on voice quality. We had some fun with breathing exercises and other techniques to bring more vocal variety to their delivery. But the discussion of presentation skills quickly zeroed in on one of the basics of good journalism: knowing WHY you are telling the story and sharing that commitment with the audience. There is so much more to delivering a voice track than reading words on a page!

Of course, the students had a lot of questions about how they can transport these skills from the classroom to a real job. They’re off to a good start by finding their voices.

Posing with the professor, Robin Guess.