Five Techniques to Find Your Speaking Voice

Finding your public speaking voice comes down to five practical techniques that any speaker can adapt: slowing down, pausing, doing voice exercises, recording yourself, and eating and drinking well. If you want to deliver a message that your audience actually absorbs, these tools are where you start.

Everything in public speaking should feel personalized. Your style, the sound of your voice, the words you choose, they all belong to you. These five techniques work the same way: everyone applies them in their own particular manner, but every single one of them is useful.

Why does slowing down help your audience understand?

When you slow down, you invite your audience to do two important things: absorb and reflect on what you are saying [00:39]. Give them time to analyze and understand, and you achieve your real goal, which is delivering a message.

There is a pattern worth noticing here. Powerful people across the world, politicians, musicians, artists, health professionals, technology leaders, all speak slowly [01:20]. Why? Because slowing down lets them enunciate clearly, and clear enunciation hands your words to the audience in a way they can grasp.

There is also a physical reason. When you speak fast and increase your speed, your pitch goes high, and a high pitch makes you even harder to understand [01:53]. So slow down, enjoy the moment, and let the audience enjoy it too.

Why should I slow down when speaking in public? Slowing down gives your audience time to absorb and reflect on your message, keeps your enunciation clear, and prevents your pitch from rising, which makes you harder to understand.

What are the four types of pauses in public speaking?

The pause is your second technique, and there are four distinct kinds you can use on purpose [02:26].

1. The sense pause, a moment that asks the audience to reflect on something specific you just said.
2. The dramatic pause, which creates emotion and builds connection with your listeners.
3. The emphatic pause, which puts focus on a single idea, word, or message inside your speech.
4. The sentence completion, where you make a statement, pause, then continue with the next idea to keep the sequence clear.

Each pause serves a different purpose, so choose the one that matches the moment you want to create.

How do voice exercises train you to speak better?

Breathing is the perfect exercise, as covered in the previous class, and it is how you empower the way you speak [03:22]. But speakers also borrow voice exercises that singers have used traditionally for years.

Here are a few worth practicing:

• Read and memorize poetry, then recite it. Poetry carries figures of speech, emotions, characters to modulate your voice, and natural ups and downs [03:41].
• Read out loud to practice your tempo while keeping pronunciation and intonation clear, even when you speed up [04:12].
• Practice voice warm-ups with pure sound. Humming works very well and is also used in meditation [04:37].

Humming deserves special attention. If you expect to talk for two hours, plus water breaks and a question-and-answer session, you might be speaking for close to three hours [05:00]. Humming prepares your voice and throat for that long stretch. You can even hum a song, going up and down, or fire-phrase playful words like bana-mana-mana to warm up. Get creative and invent your own.

What is a good voice warm-up before a speech? Humming is one of the best. It prepares your throat for long speaking sessions, works like a meditation sound, and can be done by humming songs or moving your pitch up and down.

How does recording yourself improve your delivery?

Your fourth technique is to use technology in your favor by recording yourself [05:41]. This does more than help you feel comfortable with the sound of your own voice.

Recording gives you a resource to go back to, watch, and analyze. You can check whether you addressed the audience correctly, whether your words were pronounced right, and where your pacing or clarity slipped [06:12]. Those specific moments are exactly what you want to catch and fix as you review your own footage.

Why do eating and drinking well affect your voice?

At first the connection sounds strange. Your voice and what you eat and drink? But eating and drinking create energy, and energy is essential for good speaking and voice projection [06:44]. You need to be energetic and in a good state of mind to provoke emotion and understanding in your audience.

Here is what the technique recommends:

• Follow a high-protein diet before your presentation, with plenty of meat, chicken, and beans [07:21].
• Avoid very hot or very cold beverages, since extreme temperatures can jeopardize your vocal cords [07:34].
• Drink room temperature liquids so your body does not generate physical problems while you talk.

This kind of food also balances the elements of a good diet and supports the energy production you need when you address an audience.

What should I eat and drink before a presentation? Choose a high-protein meal with meat, chicken, or beans for energy, and drink room temperature liquids. Avoid very hot or very cold drinks that can harm your vocal cords.

Which of these five techniques will you try first in your next talk? Share it in the comments.