How to TRAIN Yourself to Be MORE Articulate and Well Spoken

Forget being in the top 1%. You can be more articulate than the top 1% if you follow the 11 secrets I'm about to share with you. And number six is going to blow your mind. Whatever you do. Stay till the end. For the bonus tip on how to be more articulate, let's get ready. You don't go out on a football field or a soccer field and just start playing. No, you stretch, you get limber. We're going to do that right now with our mouth. Now, this is going to look silly. It's going to look stupid. Don't do it in front of other people. But this is what I do. Before, I made your speech or presentation to be more articulate. I want to loosen everything up so that my mouth feels relaxed. Because when you get a little bit nervous, it's natural to tighten up one more time. So much of what makes people seem inarticulate is they speak too quickly. Don't rush. Slow down. Nervous people speak too quickly. And when you speak quickly, you compress your words. You flatten them out. You remove all the inflection, and you just look pathetic. You look scared, stiff, uncomfortable. And worst of all, people can't understand you. So their impression is, this person is inarticulate. So you've got to fight these nerves. And specifically, slow and down. Now, I don't mean speak slowly the whole time, like you're talking to kindergarteners. No, but in general, slow down. A little. Pause in between big ideas, sentences, thoughts. You need to vary your speed. There's gotta be variety. But in general, avoid the big pitfall of speaking too quickly, because that's what makes most beginners seem inarticulate. Speak louder. Guess what? It's not for you. You already know what you're saying. But a huge problem so many speakers have is they stand up or they're in a board meeting or a conference room, and all of a sudden they're a little bit nervous. So they tighten up, and before you know it, it's barely coming out. People can't hear you. If you seem like you're whispering, a couple of things happen right away. People write you off as this person is not articulate. The second big problem, they can't understand you. They're not getting any value from you. So they are just tuning out. Now, it's not that you want to yell and scream the whole time. That would become annoying. But you do want to speak a little louder than normal. You do want to boost your energy to offset the fact that you might be a little bit nervous, and you're likely to tighten up your body, your vocal cords, your energy level. So without even realizing it, you may be lowering your your volume when you're in a meeting, when you're giving a presentation, when you're giving a talk. And that's going to lead people to the impression that you are inarticulate. So boost the volume about 20% and you will be more understood and you will be perceived as much more articulate. Have you ever seen a colleague in your organization stand up to speak and all of a sudden, huh, you couldn't hear that? It's so leave a comment below. You don't have to name names, but I just want to know, is this something you've experienced? Because if you're seeing it with other people, they may be seeing it with you. So it's good to reflect. So please leave a comment now if you've ever seen this. Read more serious nonfiction. Read more serious fiction. Get more ideas into your head. Part of what will make you seem inarticulate is if you stand up and nothing original comes out of your mouth. If everything you say is conventional wisdom or a cliche, people are going to perceive you as inarticulate. Now, you may be articulating fine, but if everything you say is uninteresting, boring, they're going to tune out. If people are consistently tuning out from what you say, you will not have the reputation of being articulate. So you need to constantly expand your mind. Go outside of your comfort zone. Read new books, read periodicals that are important. Get away from games and silly, trivial entertainment. Videos consuming your brain every second of the day. Better ideas in your head will result in better ideas out of your mouth that will make you be perceived as being much more articulate. Okay, I'm going to warn you right now, you're not going to like this next tip. It's easy to do, requires no special equipment, cost you nothing, but it is going to take you out of your comfort zone. But it's extraordinarily powerful if your goal is to become more articulate. Here's what I want you to do. Pick up your cell phone, open it up, and hit the video record button. Record yourself speaking for 30 seconds a day. I don't care what you're talking about. It could be something business related, academic related, but you need to record yourself. And here's the thing. You need to watch and listen. Do that every single day for the next month. I guarantee you, you will be more articulate. Because if you're Watching this and you say, well, that person's sort of mumbling. I can't understand that person. Guess what? That person is you. If you get to the point where you're looking at the video and you think, wow, they are highly articulate, guess what? That is you, too. You need to really listen. Figure out, is your voice so low that you're perceived as mumbling. I talked about that in an earlier tip. You've got to boost your volume. So much of what makes someone seem inarticulate is that they are mumbling. And what makes people perceive that you're mumbling is they can't hear you. You can do a quick test with your cell phone. Now, most people don't like that, tj. I don't like looking at my own face. I don't like the sound of my own voice. Top. Get over it. Everyone else has to look at you and listen to you, so you might as well know exactly how you're coming across. You can disregard a lot of these tips today, but if you do this one tip every day, just 30 seconds for the next month, I guarantee you will be more articulate. Another tip for becoming more articulate in the next 30 days. Smash the subscribe button right now and I'll send you daily videos that will help you become more articulate. Okay? I'll warn you, this next tip will not put you into the top 0.1% of people in terms of how articulate you are. It's going to put you into the top 0.01%. It's that good. Now, there's a catch. This tip is not free. Now, I know what you're thinking. I'm not trying to sell you anything. This tip, if you follow it, won't cost you anything. It will actually give you money. You will make money if you follow this tip. Here it is. Teach an online course, a video course where you're actually speaking. Now, time out. I know what you're thinking, tj. My English isn't that good. I am intimidated by speaking. Get over it. There are a thousand platforms online that cost you nothing. If you simply upload videos that you make with your cell phone, you can teach a course. Many of them only require a handful of videos, a half an hour of content. I don't care if you teach people about basket weaving, how to play badminton, or how to do Excel spreadsheets. It doesn't matter. What matters is you. You are speaking on camera, on video, and you're looking at it, and you're then uploading it. For other people to see. Now, you might not make any money. That's okay. You're going to learn a lot by putting out your ideas, your spoken ideas to the world. It will force you to really scrutinize everything you're doing and how you're coming across. Maybe you make five bucks. Better than nothing. You might make a lot of money. Now, I'm on a lot of different platforms. Skillshare is one. Udemy is another one. I've made millions of dollars on Udemy. I'm not guaranteeing you will make millions of dollars on that platform or any other platform, but you might make some. But I guarantee you will learn a lot about how to be more articulate. If you record your ideas, your spoken word, and you put it out there, the rest of the world, to see if some people criticize you. If in a certain lecture they say, I don't understand you, that's valuable feedback. And it cost a lot less than hiring me or some other guru to give you feedback. You can get feedback from people who don't know you, who aren't your friends, who will give you honest feedback. So don't wait, don't say once. I'm a true expert. Once I've worked another 20 years, you know at least 30 minutes of stuff to say about some subject. It could be about how to butter toast more effectively or how to make tea. Create an online course. Really look at each video. Don't worry about fancy editing. My first 50 courses, I didn't do any editing. Just record the video, upload it to the platform and start building your confidence in being even more articulate. By the way, if you want even more tips on how to preserve more effectively online, check out my free online training the High Stakes Presenter. You'll see a link here and it's in the description. Ignore conventional wisdom on having a bigger vocabulary, bigger words, fancier words, more complex words, technical jargon. No. You will be seen as more articulate if you can create an interesting idea in the audience's mind and use the simple, simplest words for them to truly understand it and remember it. Don't worry about memorizing bigger words or trying to impress people or dazzle them with your vocabulary. Use the simplest words you can to make an interesting, valuable idea come alive for your audience. I want to teach you how to become more articulate. You see the problem with that? There was no facial expression. So being articulate isn't just your volume. It's not just the tongue placement in your mouth. It is your facial expressions. I want to teach you how to be even more articulate. My eyebrows moved, my head moved, my face moved. When people are comfortable and confident and relaxed, their face moves. When you see yourself practicing every day, as I know you're going to on video, look at how your face moves. Moves. It is critical that your face move and it be in sync with your words. Because if there's nothing moving but your lips, people will perceive you as nervous, as uncomfortable, as lacking in confidence. So even if you sound okay, they will perceive that you are inarticulate. A subsection of the facial expressions. Your eye contact. You can have a great voice, great ideas, great hand movement, good volume. But if you're looking at the floor or looking at notes the whole time, or you're speaking to people through zoom and your eyes are darting over here, people will perceive you as inarticulate. I know it's not fair, but that is reality. If you are in the same room with someone, a meeting, a conference, you need to look people in the eye. If you're speaking to a group of 20 or 30 people, you need to lock in eye contact one person at a time for a sentence or two, and then go to the next person and lock eyes. You want to give everyone eye contact. You don't want to be staring at the floor, staring at your PowerPoint slides, staring up at the ceiling, or eyes darting around or looking at, oh, what was I going to say? No, you need to have purposeful eye contact. Look at human beings. And if there are no humans present and you're speaking online, you need to be looking at the camera about 90% of the time. And no, you can't have your notes taped to the side of the computer and you're doing this, you will be perceived as literally shifty eyed, therefore lacking in confidence, therefore inarticulate. So your eyes, extraordinarily important, You've got to be looking at people. Especially if you're in a meeting and someone's asking you a question, look at them when they're talking to you and when you're answering. Because if they ask you a question and all of a sudden you're, well, I'm not sure. You're going to develop a reputation of being inarticulate. Be prepared to answer questions anywhere, anytime. If you're in a meeting with your boss or other colleagues and a question comes to you, don't be afraid to speak up. Now, you can take a moment to pause, but here's the thing, don't look nervous. If your boss asks you A question. That moment is what will become memorable. You'll look scared. You'll look stiff. You'll look uncomfortable. You'll look inarticulate. Take a breath, take a moment. But look at your boss, look at the colleague, look at the client or the prospect with a slight smile on your face. Take a moment, take a breath, and then say something with confidence. Now you may be asked a question you don't know the answer. What a lot of people do is I don't know. And that becomes the most memorable moment of you speaking, thus cementing your reputation of a person who's inarticulate. If someone asks you a question you don't know, don't be afraid to say, I I don't know. James in accounting does know. I can find out and email you the answer in half an hour. Now you'll come across as articulate. You may be asked a question about the future and nobody knows. Again, don't seem flustered or bothered. Don't flutter your eyes. Instead, say I don't know. What I do know is. And then bridge to something that is relevant. You have to convey confidence when you are asked questions, and that way you will be perceived as much more articulate. The final big tip. You need to speak more frequently. Don't stare at your phone all day long texting. Actually pick up the phone and call a friend. Look for opportunities to speak out. Raise your hand in a meeting or a conference or classroom. Ask questions. Participate in discussions. Attend a Toastmasters meeting and speak out. Look for opportunities where you can talk more. Join a debate club if you want to stop being a potted plant. People who are good writers write daily. People who are great musicians perform daily. If you want to be seen as articulate, you need to speak daily. More so than I'll take the coffee black. Look for opportunities to speak. They're in every single day meeting. Don't be afraid to ask a question. Be the person who can summarize what everyone else said at the meeting and you will be perceived as not just a leader, but as an articulate leader. So be on the lookout every day to talk more and to convey important ideas. I don't mean jibber jabber and bore people constantly, but look for ways of having meaningful conversations at work, at the office, in the classroom, with family, and in social situations. Quick bonus tip. If you really want to come across as more articulate, all you have to do is exude the sense that you are completely confident that you are articulate. You could do that by having a little smile on your face by pausing a second before you start speaking anytime you're introduced or you stand up to talk or you have the floor. Speaking articulately is one of the few things in life where simply acting like you know you're a good speaker and you're articulate will help you. There is a crowd psychology if every time you have an opportunity to speak, you actually look like you're enjoying it, people will perceive you as someone who's a good person. Comfortable, confident, speaking. We don't have time to go through all the details of how you can use body language and other tips and tricks to convey this confidence. That's why I want you to watch this video right now on effective body Language for speaking and coming across more articulately. 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