TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

7 Sept 2016 · 3 min

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2:50

Short live-stream segment in which TJ Walker answers a viewer question about whether Hillary Clinton’s coughing could be caused by vocal strain from speaking too loudly. Walker treats vocal-cord damage as a legitimate, nonpartisan concern, gives examples of other politicians who strain their voices, explains how excessive loudness (pushing more air, banging vocal cords) can cause wear and coughing, and advises politicians to use a conversational tone and rely on microphones to avoid vocal damage.

Chapters

Buddy writes in with the following question regarding Hillary Clinton. He says, could Hillary's cough be a result of her screaming while she publicly speaks? In other words, is she damaging her vocal cords because of the way she is speaking? Just wondering. Now, there has been a lot of speculation, most of it idle and off base, about Hillary Clinton's health. As far as I know, she's 10 times healthier than I am. I'm not going to speculate on that. But the question of damage to vocal cords is an absolute legitimate question. And it's a non partisan, non ideological question. Many politicians, including Bill Clinton, who uses his voice well when he speaks, and campaigns he tends to lose his voice by the end of the campaign season. By election Day, Hillary Clinton does seem to be causing a lot of strain on her vocal cords. We've addressed this before, a lot of people, myself included. I'm not now using the royal we. She does, in fact use too much volume. And I've criticized Bernie Sanders of this and Donald Trump and Al Gore. So I'm not making a sexist attack that she somehow allowed screechy woman and it's okay for men. Donald Trump does this poorly as well. Hillary Clinton tends to speak too loudly even though she is holding a microphone. And when you do that, when you speak loudly, you're pushing a lot more air over your vocal cords. You're banging your vocal cords together, you wear them out. And that does cause strain. It certainly could exacerbate any other problems you have and may increase the rate of coughing or the frequency of coughing, but it is causing strain to vocal cords. My advice to Hillary and male politicians as well, don't yell. If you occasionally want to be louder, that's okay. But then soften it. Contrast with a whisper. Most of the time when you're giving a speech, Even if there's 10,000 people there, use a conversational tone of voice. Because you have a microphone. You have speakers. It's not 1856. You don't have to be up on a stump. You're not Abraham Lincoln trying to reach 10,000 people without microphones. You don't have to project. If you do, you're going to cause vocal strain. Whether that causes coughing or other problems, you're opening yourself up to pain. And as a politician going out of business because you can't speak anymore. So stop yelling. Use a conversational tone of voice.