In this interview, Simon Pritchard, representing the Portfolio Strategy and Development Academy, speaks with David Julian Price, an executive speaking coach and Hall of Fame public speaker, about the essential skills for effective public speaking. Price emphasizes the need to translate technical material into layman's terms so diverse professional audiences can understand and apply the information. He identifies fear and anxiety as the primary sources of reluctance to speak publicly, noting that speakers often worry about appearing incompetent. Citing recent brain research, Price explains that audiences form judgments about a speaker within the first three seconds, basing those judgments on speaking ability rather than subject‑matter expertise. Consequently, strong speaking skills can enhance perceived competence across any field. The conversation sets the stage for practical strategies—such as mastering the opening moments, using silence, and crafting engaging openings—to help professionals own the room and communicate with impact.
Chapters
If there was one thing that you could focus on that would greatly progress your career, what would that one thing be? Let me suggest it's the ability to confidently speak with effect. My name's Simon Pritchard from the Portfolio Strategy and Development Academy, and today I'm delighted to be talking to David Price, who's a member of the Australian Public Speakers Hall of Fame. He's an executive speaking coach and referred to some clients simply as Yoda. Welcome, David.
Thank you, Simon. It's good to be here.
I work with a lot of colleagues who are very competent at what they do, but sometimes they get frustrated with trying to deliver a message that sticks with the audience. Could you help me with that?
Absolutely. I work with a lot of technical people, helping them say in layman's language something that's really technical, so that the audience understands. In the average audience, not everyone is going to be technical. There'll be some— even if you have an audience of engineers, you might have some accountants in the audience. The accountants are very good accountants, but they're not very good engineers. And vice versa, probably. So sometimes we need to work with people to help them get their message across so that other professions can understand exactly what they mean, and more important, to apply the knowledge that's important.
When given the opportunity to public speak, not everybody jumps on that. So what's the biggest sources of reluctance that you come across?
Biggest source of reluctance, I think, is fear. For some people it is fear. For other people it's just anxiety. It doesn't matter. It's all about making a fool of themselves. They just want to look confident and they want to look competent. And the reality is that the audience judges people. We all judge people. But there's some recent brain research that used to say audiences will judge a speaker in the first 20 seconds. Then that changed back to 10 seconds and then 6 seconds. The latest research is showing that an audience judges a speaker within 3 seconds. And the interesting thing is they don't judge them on their ability, they judge them by their speaking ability. So if a person is not a good speaker, they think they're not a good engineer or not a good lawyer or not a good accountant, which you and I know is not true. But the reality is if someone is a really good speaker, the audience thinks they're really good in their field of work as well. Speaking is a crucial skill.
So what must people do in that first 3 seconds?
In that first 3 seconds, they have to grab the room. They have to own the room. And it comes from what I call presence. It's that ability to own the room instantly. And the surprising thing, Simon, is the great speakers establish that with silence. A really confident person is comfortable with silence. A nervous person is very uncomfortable with silence. So if you look at the really competent, really effective, really engaging speakers, they're very confident with silence. And so to answer your question, in that first 3 seconds, one of the best things is to stand, be grounded, be centered, and just pause and just look at the audience. And then start. And always start with an opening that grabs people. Most people start with the obvious opening. For instance, most people would start by saying, good afternoon. Well, my view is that's a waste of speaking real estate because it's not going to get the audience in at all. And if you monitor the body language of an audience when someone's saying that, You haven't got them. They're not in the palm of your hand. But if you come out with something that's really interesting— did you know that 43% of— and whatever it is— say some really interesting fact, hopefully that people don't know, but absolutely grabs them. That's how you get engagement, and through engagement, you own the room.
