Welcome to day #2 of the public speaking challenge. We focused on confronting your fears and visualizing your success yesterday. Did you do your homework?

Today we’re going to be thinking through adding flavor to your delivery.

SUCCESS FACTOR:

One of the BIGGEST struggles people have in public speaking is mixing up their TONE and SPEED.

You know what I’m talking about. They sound like Ferris Bueller’s teacher: boring, monotone, and endlessly repetitive.

On the flip side, the most successful speakers constantly mix up their tone and speed. They speak loud and soft, fast and slow. They race through some sentences and SLOW down to emphasize other points.

If you only use a single tone and speed, you will quickly BORE people and they will tune you out. After a while, the only person listening will be you!

That’s why it’s absolutely critical to change things up. Keep people on their toes so they listen and pay attention.

This is one of the public speaking foundational success factors.

ACTION:

Open up the Gettysburg Address.

Now, read through it once normally. Don’t worry about implementing anything yet. When you read through it, time yourself to see how long it takes.

Now, read through it a second time, PAUSING on certain sentences, speeding up through others. Speak LOUDLY at some points and softly at others.

Time yourself the second time as well, and then compare times. Your second time should be slower.

Now read it a third time, and this time go even slower. Most people speak far too fast out of NERVOUSNESS.

Practicing slowness is essential for public speaking.

Before we dive in tomorrow, share your experience in the comments. Was it difficult? Easy? How did you feel when you added some flair to your delivery?

Tomorrow we’re going to be diving into the amazingly helpful topic of going off script from your speech.