Moment 85 - How To Speak So EVERYONE Listens To You: Julian Treasure
This episode emphasizes that speaking and listening are critical, underdeveloped skills. It outlines practical techniques to enhance vocal delivery, including specific breathing exercises, mastering prosody, leveraging silence, and self-coaching through recording.
Deep Dive Analysis
7 Topic Outline
The Importance of the Vocal Toolbox
Voice as an Untaught but Crucial Skill
Developing a Breathing Practice for Voice
Benefits of Deep Breathing and Lung Capacity
The Role of Variety and Intonation in Speaking
Understanding and Applying Prosody
Self-Coaching for Vocal Improvement
5 Key Concepts
Vocal Toolbox
This refers to the various elements and techniques, such as breathing, intonation, and rhythm, that individuals can consciously employ to enhance their voice. It highlights that these tools are often overlooked despite their critical role in effective communication, leadership, and relationship building.
Voice as a Skill
The concept that effective speaking is not merely an inherent talent but a learnable and trainable skill, much like listening. Mastering this skill is presented as fundamental to improving one's happiness, effectiveness, and overall well-being in life.
Resonant Breathing
A specific breathing technique involving inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth with a blowing sound, while focusing on diaphragmatic (stomach) breathing. This practice is recommended to deepen breath, improve vocal performance, and help calm nerves.
Prosody
This encompasses both the intonation (the up and down pitch variation) and the rhythm (the timing, pauses, and emphasis on words) in speech. It is described as crucial for conveying emotion, personality, and making spoken communication engaging and impactful.
Monotonic Speaking
A style of speech characterized by a lack of variation in pitch or tone, often resulting in a boring delivery that fails to convey emotional resonance. This can hinder a speaker's ability to engage an audience and effectively communicate their message.
5 Questions Answered
Many professionals, such as CEOs, constantly speak in public, lead teams, inspire people, and build relationships, all of which rely heavily on their voice. Neglecting formal vocal training for such a crucial instrument is considered a tragic oversight.
The human voice is essentially just breath moving across the vocal cords, emphasizing that proper and deep breathing is foundational to speaking well.
Deep, diaphragmatic breathing helps to settle the voice, establishes a habit of better and deeper breathing for sustained speaking, and can effectively calm nerves before public speaking engagements.
Different cultures have varying norms for prosody or intonation; for instance, Scandinavian cultures tend to have more restricted intonation compared to Latin countries, necessitating that speakers adjust their delivery to suit their audience.
By regularly recording oneself, listening back critically, and identifying areas for improvement such as avoiding verbal tics or increasing vocal variety, individuals can effectively become their own vocal coach and master their speaking skills.
8 Actionable Insights
1. Treat Voice as a Skill
Recognize that speaking is a skill, not just a natural capability, and commit to developing it to improve life outcomes, happiness, effectiveness, and overall well-being.
2. Develop Deep Breathing Practice
Engage in a regular breathing practice, such as resonant breathing (inhaling through the nose, exhaling audibly through the mouth, lengthening both breaths), and focus on breathing from the diaphragm to improve vocal quality and reduce nerves.
3. Practice Vocal Prosody
Actively practice prosody, which involves varying the intonation (up and down delivery) and rhythm of your speech, including the gaps you leave and the emphasis you place on words, to make your communication more engaging and emotionally resonant.
4. Utilize Strategic Silence
Become comfortable with silence in your speech by consciously avoiding filling every gap with verbal tics like “ums” or “you knows,” which allows for clearer communication and greater impact.
5. Record and Self-Coach
Regularly record yourself speaking and listen back critically to identify areas for improvement, effectively becoming your own coach to master your vocal delivery.
6. Improve Physical Posture
Consciously improve your posture, as it directly impacts your breathing and vocal delivery, contributing to a more effective and powerful voice.
7. Consider a Vocal Coach
If you have a “boring voice” or want to significantly enhance your speaking abilities, consider hiring a formal vocal coach to receive expert guidance and training.
8. Adjust to Cultural Prosody
Be sensitive to cultural differences in prosody and intonation, adjusting your speaking style to match the expectations and communication norms of your audience to ensure your message is well-received.
5 Key Quotes
It is a shame if somebody's saying something incredibly important and they're not using what I call the vocal toolbox.
Julian Treasure
We teach reading and writing in schools, we don't teach speaking or listening, which is absolutely nuts.
Julian Treasure
Treating your voice as a skill is the first thing, so becoming conscious that this is a skill, it's not a natural capability.
Julian Treasure
Excellence is not an act, it's habit.
Julian Treasure
Variety just in general is a very important aspect of speaking.
Julian Treasure
2 Protocols
Resonant Breathing Practice
Julian Treasure- Breathe in through your nose.
- Breathe out through your mouth as if you're blowing, making a sound.
- Practice lengthening both the in-breath and the out-breath by counting.
- Focus on breathing from your diaphragm, ensuring your stomach moves up and down rather than just your chest.
Self-Coaching for Vocal Improvement
Julian Treasure- Record yourself speaking.
- Listen back to the recording critically.
- Identify specific areas for improvement, such as avoiding verbal tics (e.g., 'ums', 'ahs', 'you knows') or enhancing vocal variety.
- Continuously learn and adjust your speaking habits to become your own master of communication.