Ep 155 How Fast Should You Talk - Public Speaking June 3, 2016

How fast should you speak when you're giving a presentation?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

So how fast should you talk when you're giving a presentation, a speech, a media interview? That's a question posed. It's the topic of a recent podcast on one of my favorite podcasts, a great competitor of mine, the Public Speaker Lisa B. Marshall's podcast. She is the pioneer of the industry. She's been doing this for, oh, about 10 years, has a huge, huge audience and really does a high quality show. So if you were going to listen to just one other podcast about public speaking and communication, I would recommend the public speaker podcast. Lisa B. Marshall's so she asked this question, how fast should you talk? She goes over some research showing that it shouldn't necessarily be slower. There's contradictory evidence. I want to share with you my views because it is a question I get asked quite frequently from my clients. Should I speak faster? Should I speak slower? Here's the thing. In general, I find most of the time for most people, speaking a little bit slower than normal is better for several reasons. Number one, if you're speaking in a large room, it physically takes time for sound to get through to move across the room, whether it's going through speakers. Number two, you're creating some space so that when you say something, your audience can reflect on it and think about it because it's not quite like a normal conversation where two friends are engaging in banter and sometimes talking over each other. Number three, we are increasingly in a multicultural society, especially in most workplaces. You may have all sorts of colleagues who grew up in other countries. The language, their native language is not the same language you're speaking in. So when they're hearing you speak in your language, they're having to translate it in their brain. Speaking a little bit slower makes it a whole lot easier for them to process it, translate it in their brain. I have even more reasons why to speak a little bit slower than normal in a moment. But we'll talk about the pluses of speaking quickly as well.

Do you have a speaking related question for number one? USA Today best selling author TJ Walker. For more than 30 years, Walker has been a public speaking coach and media trainer to presidents of Countries, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize winners, professional athletes and Ms. Universes. Send your questions to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter J. Walker.

And folks, I will give equal time. There is a case to be Made for speaking quickly. There are certain things the audience might perceive about fast talkers that can be even better. So I don't want to suggest that it's completely, completely one sided, but I want to continue the conversation on speaking a little bit slower than normal. The next big plus is so many speakers, Presenters in business and civic life are nervous. And when they're nervous, they speak quickly and that makes them seem nervous. Not only are they nervous, but they come across as nervous to the audience. Well, that doesn't enhance your credibility if you're speaking quickly. Another big problem of speaking quickly is it tends to flatten out our voice. You don't have the full range of your voice, you don't have the highs, you don't have the lows, and it just makes all of your speech a little more consistent. Consistency is a big danger as a speaker because it's boring and it just doesn't stand out. It comes out as sort of a big mushy goo, bland. So that's another big reason I am very wary of speaking quickly. The other problem with it is it almost gives the suggestion to the audience that you think their time is more valuable than your time. Almost like you're not quite good enough for them. Almost like you are sort of the little meek, mild mannered assistant begging for time from the big boss. Excuse me, sir. I don't want to interrupt. I realize your time is important. Can I please. It seems it can come across as almost insecure. Not always, but it can. So that's my problem with speaking quickly. I see the negatives of far outweigh the positives. And to me, the positives of speaking a little bit slower, it's just easier to understand. You can come across more comfortable, more confident, relaxed. It's easier to move around. If you're speaking in front of an audience, a larger audience, and you're on a stage or just in the front of a room. It's easier to walk and talk if you're putting more pauses in. Now there's two separate issues. There's the general rate of words that come out on a consistent basis, but there's also the length of pauses. It's okay to occasionally speak quickly if you balance it out with pauses. So one of the problems people have when it comes to slow talking is that if you are consistently slow and you talk at the same speed, that is annoying to people. Now they feel like you are talking down to them. That's not what I'm recommending. I certainly don't recommend that. But the Average number of words per minute is what's important. You occasionally race, but then you balance it by going a little slower or even a pause. Then overall, you're not putting out too many words per minute and you're putting out a lot of variety. That's really what I'm more interested in, frankly. And what I think your audience is interested in is variety in your speech. It is possible to be a slow talker and have no variety because everything is coming out as I just did annoyingly, a moment ago, and I won't do it again. So in that case, speaking slower doesn't help you because it's homogenous. You're speaking at the same speed, but all things being equal, it's much harder to have variety in your voice. If you're speaking quickly. You can't put the pauses in as easily. You can't have the highs as high. The lows aren't as low because it forces you into a type of monotone. Now let's talk about the positives of speaking. There is some research that says you can come across more intelligent. Certainly. Think of all the Aaron Sorkin movies and TV shows where the Harvard lawyer marching through the White House is just rattling off statistic and fact and analysis one after another. There are certain speakers who just appear so smart, so intelligent, it's almost like their brain can't contain everything and it's got to come out. It's just spilling out. Certain people can speak in a way where even though they're speaking quickly, it's coming across as they can't contain their passion and their excitement for the subject. And for them, it works. They still have range in their voice. They're still. If they're speaking at one rate, that's fast by any other standards, occasionally they'll speak even louder and faster. There's still a range in their voice, so I'm not discounting people like that. It could work. But here's the bigger issue. For all of my clients that I work with, it's really hard to change your rate of speech. My biggest piece of advice is let's figure out how you talk when you're completely comfortable, confident and relaxed, and you're talking to one person. Let's figure out what your rate of speed is and then do that, whether you're talking to 10 people, 100, 1,000, 10,000, or a million on TV. Because here's what I've observed after 32 years of presentation training and media training, is most people are not professional actors. I'm not A professional actor. So when you try to change your accent or try to change the speed of your voice or the tone of your voice, it's really hard. Chances are you're going to come across a little phony, a little contrived, and if you're focusing on that, well now you've forgotten what to say. You left out that key point or that key story, and it's just too much to focus on. What I have found is that most people, when they stand up to speak and they're a little bit nervous, they automatically speak about 20% faster than when they're just sitting down and comfortable. So in my own presentation training practice, so much of what I do is try to slow people down, not to be a slower speaker, but to simply speak the way they do when they are relaxed and natural and normal. Because for most people that's going to be the easiest thing to do because they're not artificially changing their speech, they're just speaking the way they normally do and they sound better, they sound authentic. That is what I find is most useful as a speaker and frankly the easiest because you're not artificially going faster or slower, you're speaking at your normal tone. Now the problem of course is when you're nervous, the natural thing to do is to do things. You're nervous that you feel like you're nervous, which is speaking faster and twitching and fidgeting and pacing. So the key is not to simply be natural. The key is to come across natural the way you are when you are in a relaxed state. The way to do that, of course, is to practice on video until it matches up and you like it. Now the way I do it in training is I secretly record people when they're just talking to me and then we match that with the speed of their speech. And they can see just from looking at the two videos that they're racing. They're speaking faster than normal when they're giving their so called formal presentation. So for me, it's not about telling them an arbitrary speak 20% slower, it's just speak the way you did in the first video when you weren't giving your presentation. For most people, most of the time, that solves the problem. There are occasions when I have a client who naturally speaks so quickly and softly that it's just really difficult for audiences to understand. In that case, I do intentionally get them to slow down some, but that is a much rarer situation. Thanks for joining me, I'm TJ Walker. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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