ElevenLabs gave me a voice back
ME/CFS took my speaking voice. An AI voice gave me a way to make videos again, and I chose one that isn’t mine.
Before I got ill, my voice was everything.
I was in client meetings every day. I ran the office. Sometimes I gave presentations. YouTube was only ever a hobby, but everything I did that really added value, I did with my voice.
My real skill was taking technical things and making them simple for people to understand.
Then it went
ME/CFS took a lot from me. My voice was one of the biggest losses, and one of the hardest to explain.
On a bad day, I just can’t. Sometimes I stutter. Sometimes I can’t speak at all. Sometimes I can’t think, and the words won’t go together.
On camera it’s worse. It feels like being back in a client meeting. The pressure builds, it triggers a stress response, and that sets off my ME symptoms.
Losing my voice stopped me doing almost everything. I haven’t been able to work. I stopped posting on YouTube. I can’t talk to friends and family the way I used to.
My life is a lot smaller than it was. And it’s been really frustrating not being able to make videos any more.
Finding a way back
I’d come across ElevenLabs a while ago. It’s a company that makes AI voices. But I only found their Impact Program by accident. It gives free access to people with accessibility needs, including people who’ve lost their voice.
Applying felt strange. Ironically, it felt like I had a voice again: like someone might actually listen and understand.
Getting a yes was a whole different level. I was genuinely excited. For the first time in a long while, it felt like there were more opportunities in my life, not fewer.
Hearing myself again
The first thing I tried was cloning my own voice from my old YouTube videos.
It was weird. For a start, I sound a lot posher than I thought I did.
But the bigger thing was the energy. Those recordings were made when I had energy. And even then, I was projecting more than I really had. The clone had my tone, but not my life now. It sounded like me performing. Like me masking.
Choosing a different voice
So I chose a voice that isn’t mine.
It’s the voice I’d want to hear now. If I could make these videos myself, I’d do them in my own voice, but different. Calmer. Slower. More honest about how I actually feel.
It feels more freeing than strange.
It doesn’t really matter that it isn’t my voice. It’s still my voice in the way that matters: it’s what I’m able to put out into the world.
What’s changed
A month ago, I couldn’t make a video without it costing me.
Now I can make one without any stress. I write, or talk it through, and the voice does the part my body won’t.
Watching the first Short come together was almost emotional. It felt like the start of opportunities I thought might never come back.
If you’ve lost your voice too
Look into it, and give it a go.
Being able to write and speak, even if it’s not the way you’d like or the way you’re used to, is really powerful. It opens up things that weren’t there before.
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