Voice quality sounds poor - Advice for wave link settings?

I'm unhappy with how I sound on streams. I've poured countless of hours into adjusting my wave link settings, my microphone positioning, OBS settings, etc, and no matter what, I still feel like I sound unprofessional.

Maybe there's something in my elgato wave link sound effects that I'm missing and need to adjust?

Here is an audio clip of me reading something on stream. This is a good example of my variation in speaking on stream. (YES I AM CRINGING).

I am using an XLR Fifine mic. I have cgate, EQ, de-esser, and a compressor, in that order.

EQ is:

• High-pass filter at 80 Hz
• 500 Hz: -2.5 dB
• 5 kHz: +2 dB