What do I sound like?

I spend half my working life on conference calls, speaking into gadgets like the one above.

Unusually, we recorded one on Friday morning, as some of our folks could not make it at the time. I don't think anyone will actually listen to the recording, but I decided to listen to some of it, just to hear what I sounded like. We do so much business on conference calls, that my theory was, how I come over is important. So why not hear for myself?

It was a really weird experience. On the bigger conference calls, it's quite normal for me to sit and listen for a while and not say anything. So I'm sitting listening to all these familiar voices like it's any other conference call, then suddenly, I hear this unfamiliar voice. It's kinda quiet, with a strange accent that sounds a bit Welsh / Irish / Scottish, with, a bit of English, and a smaller bit of transatlantic, thrown in.

So, we can't see ourselves, like others see us, or hear ourselves, like others hear us, so what did I learn? I'm always being told that I sound calm, and I sometimes find this difficult to believe, but I did sound rather calm and controlled. The accent thing was really strange, that is not how I sound like to myself! The biggest shock was just suddenly hearing this new person on our call, then realising it was me.

Well, at least one of us listened to the replay.

San Jose California - April 14 2007