Transform the Way People Listen to You – Part II

The crowd goes wild.

The DJ has everyone captivated, fully immersed in the music. It’s equally captivating to watch. In a world of distractions, the room has their full attention on the person in control of the music.

Imagine: your audience looks up from their screens and hangs on your every word. This reality is increasingly rare for people speaking in meetings, giving presentations or even talking to family and friends.

The points we make count for a lot (part I in this series explains how to structure them) but the real catalyst that turns doom-scrollers into captivated listeners is how we make our points.

We have 2 weapons at our disposal: body language and voice.

No, a powerpoint deck is not a weapon. When we present, we often cling to the slide like a life raft. The result? Our audience sees the slides as the authority on the subject, not us.

Wait, who made the slides? Who will win us the next project? Not slide 22 with the fancy icons. We need to use voice and body language to turn the listener’s attention to us.

Imagine a terrible DJ playing the crowd’s favourite tunes. If the beats are all out of sync, the song is sped up and the pitch is wrong, it won’t sound good and no one will listen.

DJs listen back to their music and learn what they can do better. If someone records us speaking, we rarely adopt this mindset.

“Oh wow is that my voice? I hate the sound of my voice. Stop it!” We refuse to listen, let alone address how we might improve.

If we don’t want to hear our own voice, how do we expect others to listen?

The problem? We think of our voice as fixed. We’re born with it and we’re stuck with it. Carol Dweck’s growth mindset is the belief that we can change who we are, none of our qualities (intelligence, ambition) are fixed. What about voice? Voice coach Julian Treasure believes we can change it.

He talks about 6 areas he works on with clients to train their voice. These areas are also key (pun intended) to music — it turns out public speaking and DJing have lots in common.

Like what you’re reading?

Train your voice so the crowd goes wild

Register

This is the range of our voice. We change the range of our voice by shifting where in our body our voice comes from.

Say the word “hello” out loud (you might need to revisit this if you’re reading on public transport 👀 ) and channel the word as much through your nose as possible. Sounds nasal and a bit squeaky, right?

Now channel your “hello” through your throat — it goes a bit less squeaky and for me, sounds a bit more… throaty?

Then bring it to your chest — does it sound deeper for you? And finally, feel it in your diaphragm. It’s located at the base of your chest, the bit that rises and falls as you breathe. Does it sound deep and weighty?

In DJ terms, this is your bass speaker. Without it, the music sounds tinny and isn’t very captivating. Listening to a speaker who speaks from their diaphragm is like a micro-dose of being in a club where you feel the bass in your body and it helps you stay connected to the music.

Julian Treasure reminds us that we vote for politicians with deeper voices because we associate depth with power and authority. If you seek credibility in speaking and want people to look up from their phones, this is a powerful tool.

Before a meeting, take a moment to breathe deeply, adjust your posture and consciously start speaking from your diaphragm, not your throat or nose.

Pace

Many of us speak too fast. After years of being told and telling myself to “slow down” when public speaking, I hadn’t progressed very much.

When I asked why sticking an aggressive “SLOW” post-it beside me during virtual presentations hadn’t delivered the goods, I realised I’d been treating the symptom, not the cause.

The cause? External pressures. A speaker’s fast pace is a sign that they’re letting those external pressures control the room, and not the other way around.

Ever had your 20-minute presentation slot squeezed to 10 minutes due to time delays?

If you’re told to present faster, you speak faster. Now, I make radical cuts to the content and voice one point per slide, or skip slides altogether.

Ever sensed the room is bored or tummies are rumbling and attention is running low? There’s a tendency to sprint to the finish line because “no one really wants to listen to what I have to say”.

The best presentations I give are when I’m clear on my why. Why do people want to listen to this content? Once I know it’s useful for them, I take my time and treat the points I make with the respect they deserve.

Forget about pace and it’s a pile up. We lose our ability to control register and we start to speak breathlessly from our mouths and noses. Listeners stop listening. Solve for your triggers that lead you to gallop out of the gate at every public speaking opportunity.

Ever listened to a club DJ speed up a good song so it doesn’t sound right or play banger after banger, leaving no chance for the audience to take a deep breath and revel in the moment?

Think of the moment of silence before the drop. If the DJ takes courage in that moment to build suspense a little longer, the crowd goes crazy.

That’s the power of silence. And it’s just as important when we speak: a pause before an important point, or after landing the most critical message is very impactful.

It gives people time to absorb and reflect.

Pitch

When we hear music, it awakens different states within us — the urge to dance, the urge to smile, the urge to cry, relaxation, excitement and anticipation.

We have the power to do the same with our voices. By controlling our pitch, we control the message we want to send. Do we want people to feel a sense of urgency? Or to feel calm?

In order to use pitch successfully, we need power over our minds. One reason why you might dislike hearing a recording of you speaking at a presentation is because you don’t sound like you.

Nerves have kicked in and your pitch is higher than normal. Use breathing exercises before your speaking to ensure you speak with your whole voice and lungs, not just your mouth.

When is a higher pitch useful? Save it for storytelling. Sometimes it can be used to build suspense or pace in an action-packed anecdote.

Volume

Ever been to a party where the music was too loud? (I’m aware that for some readers the answer to this will be “yes, most parties”).

Too high and the volume hurts people’s ears, too low and you can’t hear the different components of the music.

Just like a good party, a good presentation needs to use volume appropriately. Loud enough to be heard clearly and raising only a degree to land a sense of urgency as appropriate.

Timbre

Timbre is the way your voice feels to listen to. Julian Treasure explains that people like voices they describe as “rich, smooth, warm, like hot chocolate”.

Think about audiobook readers — they’re often chosen for the timbre of their voice — its richness is comforting and relaxing. The music equivalent could be smooth jazz or a singer with a distinctively husky voice.

You may be thinking “I get it, but I sound nothing like Tom Jones”. We’re all starting from a different place, but working consistently with breathing and posture exercises can improve the timbre of your voice.

Prosody

Without prosody, what do you get? Monotony.

Prosody is about varying the tone of your voice. If you’re speaking in monotone, you are… monotonous to listen to. Imagine a song all in the same key — not really a song, is it?

The other prosody trap is use of repetition. Recently a lot of criticism has been dealt to people who “go up” at the end of every sentence. That pattern, once the listener identifies it, is annoying. It undermines credibility and the listener disengages.

Vary your prosody and keep it natural.

Voice coach Anthony Sanni says “your voice is a very important indicator of your energy, enthusiasm, confidence, credibility and personality.” Why not project your best side?

Want more? Let’s take a quick look at body language.

Body Language

Have you ever seen a DJ playing amazing tunes but standing emotionless, bored or awkward on-stage? When you learn to DJ, learning to have presence and passion even when something goes wrong is critical to the performance.

For inspiration, check out Fred Again’s Boiler Room set. The music you make only gets you part-way there. It’s the body language that reveals how you’re feeling and seals the deal.

Imagine the engagement if you channeled half as much passion into your next presentation as Fred gives to that Boiler Room set…

For big presentations where you have time to prepare, it pays to rehearse the gestures as well as the words.

When will you make large, emphatic hand gestures to bring a big point home? How will you rest your hands in-between points? Coming back to one resting position (e.g. hands clasped) removes temptation to fiddle with a pen or a watch.

For everyday meetings, start to notice your behaviour. Are you distracting people from your key point by nervously tapping your fingers on the table or touching your hair?

If you want to signal openness, lean forward with your arms wide, gesture with your palms facing up. Are you mirroring the meaning you want to convey with your body language?

Studies show body language speaks the truth — if someone’s nodding their head and saying no, chances are they’re willing to concede.

Be in control of your body language as much as your voice and your words.

Work on your voice and your body language like working on any other skill.

Warm up with simple breathing and posture exercises before a big presentation. We work so hard on the content, we forget that voice and body language are the most powerful tools at our disposal.

Use them well, and watch the crowd go wild.

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