Use Your Inside Voice

The DNC and RNC took place over the past few weeks, and there were a lot of speeches. Some good, some not so good, and some really loud.

When you’re giving a speech, you do NOT need to scream to be powerful. You do not need to gesture aggressively or pound the podium to drive a point home. In fact, if you scream your way through a speech, there’s no place for you to go emotionally. If you start at a 10, and you jump to a 15, that’s not going to help you land your point. It will merely leave your audience reaching for their ear plugs!

Instead, you can be incredibly compelling without raising your voice at all. A whisper can often resonate louder than a scream. There’s something very powerful about speaking in hushed, measured tones. It’s an indication that you’re very confident and you own the room. Of course, in those cases you must speak loudly enough where people can actually hear you :).

Whatever volume you choose, the trick is vocal variety. When you’re building toward an important point, and you’re ready to drive that point home, it needs to sound differently than the rest of the sentence. If your voice is low in your build up, then raise it when you make your point. But if you’re speaking loudly as you’re nearing your point, bring your voice down, speak slower and inject passion into your words.

Practice vocal variety for maximum impact. It will make a huge difference in your storytelling!

If you’d like to work on your public speaking skills and learn how to give an impassioned speech, schedule a free consultation here.

Have a great day!

Dave