At the time, I thought I sounded slick and excited. Turns out, people had a hard time understanding what I was trying to say because the words spewed out of my mouth at 100mph!
It took a lot of training and self-control to slow down. But...like every learned behaviour or habit, it can come back when you aren't watching.
I gave a TEDx talk in Dublin and, on stage, running through the content with my speech coach, she stopped me and said: "Very good...but you have nine minutes, it's coming in at six and a half. Slow down""!
* Pacing yourself is an important part of being on air. Pacing your show, your content and your delivery.
* You don't need to slow down unnaturally...just be conscious of the words.
* One way to do this is prep. When you prep well, you invest in the link. When you invest in it properly you will pay better attention to the words and want the listener to hear them well.
* Fast Talking can come across as 'salesy'. The classic fast-talking car sales-person. You don't want your listener to feel you are selling them something.
* Your listener is not really fully listening most of the time. Those speedy words require proper attention in order to be heard. You are diminishing your chances with a speed-link.
The Number One way to slow down? Pauses.
There's also a system that we came up with and use in our training, called 'Blocking'.
Listen to your audio. If you feel the links are on a bullet-train to the outcue... make a first, simple step to slowing them down a little. It's a start.
We teach Blocking and all other Speech skills in our 'Breakthrough Course'.
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