How to Stand When Speaking in Public

In May 2011, the 44th American President came home.

To Ireland.

The great, great, great grandson of Falmouth Kearney, an immigrant who left Moneygall in Co. Offaly for US shores, like so many other Irish during the perilous times of The Famine, Barack Obama took centre stage in Dublin and did not disappoint.

"Twenty-two of the [then] 45 US presidents have Irish ancestry," EPIC informs us. It's not any wonder so many of them have been such impactful speakers . Barack Obama stands amongst them. His opening to the Irish crowd is one that will be remembered for many years.

[Churchill Pause] "My name is Barack Obama [pause] of the Moneygall Obamas, [pause] and I′ve come home [pause] to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way. [pause] Now, [pause] some wise [suspensive pause] Irish man or woman once said that broken Irish [pause] is better than clever English, [pause] so here goes. [longer pause] Ta áthas orm a bheith in éirinn. I am happy to be in Ireland. [pause] I′m happy to be with so many [pause] á chairde [pause]."

This is not the only speech Barack Obama will be remembered for. He is what you may call a "master modulator."

What do you mean, a "Modulator?"

Those of you in the UK and Ireland might remember Mr. Motivator, the GMTV movement machine who exerted influence over viewers, getting them to vary the strength and tone of their bodies with his live fitness sessions.

A "Vocal Modulator" does similar, except they exert influence over an audience by varying the strength and tone of their voices.

Different coaches will have different terms for this. I am trained in the vocal traditions of Ireland - by birth, through speech and song. More formally, through the Irish Board of Speech and Drama, The Royal Irish Academy of Music and the London College of Music through my mother's training.

Vocal Modulation:

Vocal modulation in our tradition has 6 facets:

Pitch. Pace. Pause. Power. Inflection. Tone.

They are independently intertwined. Each facet has its own aspects. No one aspect can operate independently, but they can be learned so. To attempt to explain them all here would be foolish, thus I'll give you a snapshot over time. You may if you wish, of course, start 'schooling' yourself - either free by listening to my podcast or for a small monthly fee that helps keep my content accessible to all budgets. For teams, you'll have to get in touch. I'm exploring a way to take this to the organisational masses, so if you invest in people development, you'll get in touch to explore I'm sure.

Snapshot:

What does a photographer do before taking a shot?

Exactly.

Prepares the people and sets up the scene. It would be wrong therefore not to do so when speaking, wouldn't it? Leaving the technicalities aside (event logistics, topic, objectives, deck etc.), let's focus solely on performative presentation for now.

Setting Up The Shot:

Before learning to modulate your voice, you must first learn:

Breathing. Posture. Resonance. Relaxation. Articulation.

Exhale, reader. Don't worry. I'm not going to go into all that now. I couldn't anyway. Today, we'll have a quick wee look at standing posture and pause.

Standing Posture:

Tony Robbins would have you believe that running around the room waving your arms in the air is public speaking mastery. And look, each to their own, but what he does is a dance of diversion. He uses energy, movement and misdirection to take the focus off his words and put it onto emotions. That's grand, and it works for many, but it's neither for me nor for the many who prefer a more refined, reserved performance. We want to hear your words.

A master (or mistress in the female 'master' sense - let's see if we can change that connotation, shall we?) modulator doesn't need to move much to exert influence over an audience. The voice and slight shifts supported by beat gestures is enough.

It would be better to see this, wouldn't it? Rather than write the steps, allow me to demonstrate using a video from my online resource platform.

Application:

Next time you speak, before opening, find your stance. It's just like in martial arts - set solid foundations so you can adapt easily without losing presence. If you do need to move because your stage is large:

1. Stop speaking (finish your point or pause appropriately, maybe having asked a question and left the audience to think).
2. Move, body half turned out, so you don't break the connection.
3. Stop. Turn, opening your body out again.
4. Speak.

Watch how Obama did it. He didn't move from the plinth, but every person there felt his presence.

Then, try it. The stage presence you command when doing this is powerful.

Pause

You might be wondering why I added [pause] throughout Obama's introduction. It was to force your brain to stop while reading. Unless you read with speaking in mind, you most likely just gloss your eyes across words.

Before his mouth opened, Mr. Obama had set the tone, commanding presence on the plinth using what is known by many in my field as the 'Winston Churchill' or the 'Loaded Pause.'

1

2

3

almost 4

Absolute silence, observing the crowd.

Avoid going over 4 seconds unless you're intentionally trying to create a sense of awkwardness (also a technique). Matt Abrahams , Stanford lecturer and host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart Podcast even teaches this to his students. In speech, we learn to follow the title of the poem with a 3-count, the poet's name with a 2-count and then start recital. It works equally as well in public speaking.

Pause is just stopping, right?

Yes and no. In a literary sense, there are many pauses. Applied when speaking in public, they pack a punch. It's fun to learn them through poetry and prose, especially for professionals who get tired of the mundane everyday reporting. They can be applied to professional presentation later.

In a nutshell, pause is:

• A cessation of speech.
• A suspension of word flow.
• Complete, where there is silence.
• Partial, where a speaker dwells on a syllable.
• 'Sensible': the sense ends, either partially or completely.
• Cutting: where the sense is cut to draw in the ear.
• Dramatic: where the sense is emphasised to excite the emotions.
• Suspenseful: where the sense (idea) of one line does not flow to the next.

Punctuation usually indicates where the sense in a phrase, sentence or paragraph is complete, but not always. You need to know your content, maintain awareness of your audience and pause appropriately.

I don't know your topic!

Many speakers hit the stage excited at being the expert. They stand up, ready to show off all their knowledge and skills, then bat a fast ball* at the audience and hit them so hard with information they knock the wind right out of them. You need to remember that your audience is there to learn from your expertise and may know very little about your subject. Pitch your script accordingly.

Pause.

Allow your listeners time to absorb what you've said, connect it with their own mental maps, engage and show interest. If you don't, you'll lose them.

In today's globalised world....

**

**

**

To prime an audience or encourage reflection, use the following two pauses:

1. Rhetorical – pause before a word to make the audience ask a mental question about what is to follow.
2. Oratorical – pause after a word to make the audience reflect on what was said.

....we are less connected than we have ever been.

**

**

**

Wait. What? That's not what I expected you to write, Christine.

I guessed as much. That's why I wrote it. I primed you with the 'globalised world' bit, paused so your brain threw a few ideas at you, then landed you with the opposite of what most people think when they hear that opening.

Interested in where I might go with it? Agree with me? Disagree with me?

*

Good. I've got you. And I'm not even speaking.

Now, go do that with your next presentation then come back and tell me how you got on.

**********************

Thank you to those of you who message with comments about my articles. Please comment on the article if you've taken something from it and make sure you're subscribed so you know when I publish. Commenting helps others see the articles and my readership grow. Feel free to tag me in yours if you want me to reciprocate.