Say Something

Objective

Learn how to effectively communicate with an audience

Goals

• Feel calm, focused and in control of your body, mind and senses when speaking for an audience
• Use your voice and body language to enhance your words
• Build a genuine connection with your audience
• Deliver a message that your audience won’t forget

Whenever you feel anxiety rising, you can use this technique to help you to feel calm, focused and in control of your body, mind and senses.

Look around you and make a mental note of…

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can feel
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

Following this practice can help you to break the downward spiral of negative thoughts and anxiety by reconnecting with the present moment.

Now, you’re ready to begin.

• Mastering good body language
  
  Whether you’re speaking to one person or a whole crowd, here are four easy ways to improve your performance:

  • Upright, open posture
  • Make eye contact with everyone in the room
  • Show the palms of your hands
  • Compliment your words with natural gestures

Vocalises - Vocal Exercises

Here is a reminder of the vocalises we did in the session, plus some new ones for you to try at home.

• Inhale, exhale
• Big yawn
• Boh, boh, boh, boh…
• La, la, la, la…
• Weee ahhh, weee ahhh…
• The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue…
• Pa ta ka, pa ta ka, pa ta ka, pa ta ka…
• Ka ta pa, ka ta pa, ka ta pa, ka ta pa…
• Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather
• A big black bug bit a big black bear and the big black bear bled blue black blood

Why is speaking pace important?

If you want people to listen when you speak… if you want to have the power of persuasion, pace is important. But what is the ideal speed for maximum effect?

Well, that depends…

Your rate of speech is a highly individual thing and influenced by many factors. For example, some cultures naturally speak faster than others. If you grew up in a large family where you had to compete for attention, you might have learned to speak fast in order to get your words in.

Even your personality influences how fast you speak. Extroverts often speak more quickly because they think as they speak, while introverts are more likely to think before they speak and hence, speak more slowly.

But which is best?

Well… Some studies show that speaking more rapidly makes you seem more intelligent because speed implies certainty. While others show that speaking at a more measured pace makes you sound smarter because you seem more confident and thoughtful.

If you’re thinking a mile-a-minute, you might find you need to speak fast just to keep up with your own thoughts. But fast talking is often interpreted as a sign of nervousness - hurrying your words in order to ‘get it over with’ as quickly as possible.

Speaking more slowly gives more weight and power to your words and it can help your audience by giving them more time to process what you are saying. But if you speak too slowly, their attention could waver. More rapid speech conveys energy and passion.

So what to do - speak fast or speak slow? The answer, of course, is to mix it up!

Key public speaking skills

• Compose yourself - You’ll perform best when you’re calm, focused and in control of your body, mind and senses
  
  
• Remember your non-verbal basics:
  • Upright, open posture
  • Expansive, friendly, functional gestures
  • Eye contact
    
    
• Shape your…
• Volume
• Intonation
• Speaking pace