Voice exercises that activate confident presentations

When it comes to teaching public speaking, and many of the courses out there will offer guidelines (or rules) about how to use a voice in speaking (and I use the word “speaking” not “expressing oneself – confidently”)

guidelines like

“Vary the pace of your speaking.

Speaking at the same pace will soon leave your audience uncomfortable and disconnected.

You can speak at a normal rate to explain something.

You can speak quickly to excite.

You can speak slowly to add power, impact.”

And it’s true, a guideline worth implementing.

And as an educator and coach in public speaking I could leave it at that.

But I’ve discovered there’s way more to it than that.

because it’s only talking about the Process – what to do when you are on the stage, at the meeting, online.

And that means going onto stage, into the meeting, online and having to think to oneself, “Stand this way, speak that way, move the other way” –

and we dissolve into fear, overwhelm and avoidance.

And yet …

The guideline is true …

Speaking quickly conveys that you are excited.  (or nervous and I’ll come to that in  a minute.)  excited, passionate, and it motivates;

speaking normally indicates that you are comfortable explaining something;

and speaking slowly indicates how incredibly serious and committed you are about your topic

all of those building trust, credibility and building your brand.

And all of those assume you really are,

excited, passionate

comfortable

serious and committed

freely expressing yourself

when in fact what you may be feeling is

not excited but nervous

not comfortable but uncomfortable

not serious or committed but hesitant and unsure.

So when, in the past, I was teaching this guideline of changing the pace of one’s speaking,

I created exercises for my students or clients to use to practise.

I tried them out for myself

and found myself FEELING

excited, passionate

comfortable

serious and committed.

when all I was saying and experimenting with, were phrases that had nothing to with anything except this exercise

nothing to do with my beliefs, my passion, my commitment.

Speak quickly in a safe, non-pressured environment, and, I discovered, you FEEL excited (not nervous)

speak normally and FEEL comfortable

speak slowly and FEEL the power of communicating something of huge value.

The very process actually activates the feeling and the body language

and confident faith in yourself

that go with it.

Try it now

Quickly say “I am so excited to bring this to you.”

Say moderately “I can explain this in 3 different ways.”

Say incredibly slowly  “You CAN be a confident speaker.”

The feeling of power in that last one is huge.  I feel grounded, connected and very aware of the flow of power to an audience even if I am just experimenting in my own room, alone.

When you use words that way, they can give you the power of that feeling.

You pass on that feeling to an audience and yes, build trust, credibility and build your brand.

But most importantly you give it to yourself – trust in yourself, your credibility, your brand, and the feeling of completeness at having truly connected with an audience.

And you begin that gift to yourself in the Preparation and Practice that must come before the Process.

In a safe space.

Building muscle memory.

Building intuitive responses to your public speaking needs as they arise.

So then, at a time in your presentation when you understand that you need to communicate excitement or information or power, that intuition, that muscle memory kicks in

and there you have a feedback loop that all successful speakers use, even if unconsciously – a strength developed into muscle memory and applicable every time –

reverse engineering those voice guidelines, that will govern the process.

Right now I am opening up the Pivotal Public Speaking – Foundations of Public Speaking group to you – a safe space where you can learn how to prepare, where you can practice in a safe space with helpful, constructive feedback, and develop public speaking skills that will allow you to break down your blocks to speaking and become skilled.

I firmly believe that there are two basic foundations to public speaking success and they are faith in yourself and faith in a formula that you can learn and then adapt to your personality and needs.

We meet locally in Brisbane, and if you live here, you are very welcome, but it’s also time I made the group available online as well so that more of you can learn and grow.

Feel free to schedule a 15-minute Zoom orientation chat (no fee) to check your Zoom connection and/or to talk a bit about what is possible.