Why I still invest in a vocal coach after decades on television

After more than twenty years broadcasting live from British television studios, people often assume the voice simply looks after itself. They picture someone who has hosted morning shows, signed bestselling books and spoken at conferences from Sydney to the Shard, and they assume the voice is somehow finished. It is not. A voice is a living instrument, and like any instrument it can drift, tire or fall out of tune without anyone noticing until the morning your throat feels lined with sand.

The truth is that the longer you rely on your voice, the more it asks of you. I chair panels, run my This Girl Is On Fire events, host conferences in Melbourne and Sydney, and record podcasts late into the evening. Each of those settings puts a different demand on the throat, the breath and the nervous system. A vocal coach is the person who quietly checks the engine while the show is still on the road.

I started coaching not because anything was wrong, but because I wanted to protect what I had built. It is one of the smartest professional investments I have made, and one I recommend to anyone whose livelihood depends on being heard clearly, kindly and without strain.

Each of these specialists has something to offer, but their goals are not the same. If your work is mostly spoken, as mine is, a coach who understands the spoken voice will serve you better than a singing teacher whose instincts lean toward opera.

The voice is a muscle, not a talent

Most people speak about a "good voice" as though it is something you are born with. After decades of red-eye shows, book tours and difficult live panels, I can tell you it is closer to a muscle group. You would not expect an athlete to compete at fifty without a strength coach, and you should not expect a broadcaster to host a panel at sixty without one either. The voice tires, the breath shortens, and the small muscles around the larynx forget their posture under pressure. A vocal coach is, in many ways, a personal trainer for the throat.

I noticed the shift most clearly when I began taking on bigger corporate events in Australia. The rooms in Sydney's International Convention Centre or Melbourne's Convention and Exhibition Centre hold well over a thousand people, and the air conditioning alone can dry a throat out within minutes. Combine that with a long-haul flight from London and a panel of five guests, and the voice has to be in proper working order before you step on stage. I learned the hard way that what carries in a small television studio will not always carry a vast hall.

A coach spots the habits you have stopped noticing. By the time you feel the strain, the pattern has usually been running for months. Regular sessions act like a service on a car: small adjustments that prevent the major repair.

What a vocal coach quietly fixes

People imagine scales and projection when they hear the phrase "vocal coach", and some of the work does involve resonance and pitch. But the deeper work is about breath, posture and pacing. A good coach will listen for the places where you hold tension in your jaw, where your breath stops short before an important sentence, and where your pitch drops under nerves so the audience has to strain to hear you. None of this is dramatic. It is painstaking, almost invisible work.

In my own sessions, we look at how I breathe between questions on a panel, how I open a keynote so the first sentence lands in the back row, and how I protect my voice on long-haul flights between Australia and the United Kingdom. The Australian climate adds its own twist. The dry heat of Perth in summer and the humid weight of Brisbane in February both affect the vocal folds, and a coach familiar with the local conditions can plan around them. The Australian accent itself has its own music, with its rising intonations and clipped vowels, and a coach who understands the local cadence will protect the warmth of your speech rather than flatten it into something generic.

It is also about energy management. The session is as much about effort as it is about sound: how much it costs you to produce each sentence, and how little tension you carry out of the room afterwards. When the effort drops, your stamina rises, and your audience senses it even when they cannot name it.

Why Australia changed how I think about my voice

Working the Australian speaking circuit has reshaped my approach in ways I did not expect. The country's corporate events scene is enormous, from the resources conferences in Perth to the women's leadership summits in Sydney and the technology gatherings in Melbourne. Each city pulls a different rhythm from a speaker, and Australian audiences are refreshingly direct. They will tell you, often over a flat white, whether you moved them or lost them, which is its own form of coaching.

I have also been struck by how seriously Australian workplaces now take vocal health. Occupational health and safety frameworks here treat sustained voice use as a workplace concern in industries such as teaching, call centres and emergency dispatch. The Australian Voice Association and the broader speech pathology community have done excellent work making voice care part of professional development rather than a luxury. That cultural shift has made it far easier for people like me to speak openly about investing in a coach without sounding indulgent.

There is also something particular about the Australian ear. Local audiences are used to a wide range of accents, from the broad vowels of the bush to the polished broadcast tone of Sydney newsreaders. A coach who knows this landscape can help you sound authoritative without sounding foreign, and warm without sounding apologetic.

The payoff beyond the microphone

The benefits of vocal coaching leak into every part of professional life. A clearer voice carries more authority in a boardroom, sounds calmer on a difficult phone call, and helps you hold a room when the conversation gets tense. People often tell me that I sound different on a podcast recorded after a coaching block, and they are right: the sentences sit more comfortably, the pauses are deliberate, and the energy is sustainable across a long interview.

This matters more than ever for women in particular. Research has repeatedly shown that women are interrupted more often, judged more harshly for the same vocal patterns, and asked to "sound more confident" in ways that usually mean sounding less like themselves. A vocal coach worth their fee will not push you into a different voice. They will help you find more of your own. That shift shows up in how you chair a panel, how you deliver a difficult piece of news, and how you hold your ground in a room full of louder voices. If you want a closer look at how I approach panel hosting with energy to spare, I have written a piece on hosting high-energy panel discussions that pairs well with this article.

Choosing a coach who fits your voice

Finding the right coach is its own art. The market is wide, from classical singing teachers to corporate elocution specialists to speech pathologists who double as performance coaches. Some are brilliant, some are expensive, and some are simply not the right match for your instrument. A good coach should listen more than they speak in the first session, ask what you want your voice to do for you, and give you a clear plan rather than a vague promise. They should be comfortable working across accents if you travel, and willing to be honest when something is not working.

Practical guidance for a first booking

• Look for a coach who specialises in spoken voice rather than singing if your work is mainly presenting, podcasting or hosting panels.
• Ask for a trial session before committing to a block of lessons.
• Choose someone familiar with your accent and the rooms you usually speak in.
• Check whether they have experience with travel fatigue and long event days if you tour.
• Prioritise coaches who work with breath, posture and pace, not only tone.
• Be wary of anyone who suggests you should sound less like yourself to sound more "professional".
• Treat vocal coaching as ongoing maintenance rather than a one-off fix.

The voice is the most generous tool I own, and it gives back what I put into it. A vocal coach has been one of the smartest investments of my career, and one I intend to keep making long after the cameras have switched off. If you would like to know more about my work, the projects I lead and the speaking engagements I take on, you can read more on the Andrea McLean page.