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Due to many, many requests I am running a seminar on Public Speaking. Apparently there are a lot of people out there who hate it!

During the mornig you will learn how to control your nerves, use your voice for persuasion, credibility and authority. There are also tips and tricks to make any public speaking situation a breeze!

email miriam@sayitclearly.co.nz to register.

Hate Public Speaking? If you have to speak in public using a microphone, make sure you speak really slowly. If you speak at a normal pace the words get lost in the echo of the microphone. To help you speak slower, open your mouth up wider than usual, this will ensure what you say is a lot slower than your usual pace. To measure how much wider, place two fingers, as if you were measuring a whiskey, between your teeth - that is how wide your mouth should be. This is actually essential for any public speaking but especially with a microphone.

Miriam Erikson introducing Air New Zealand CEO, Christopher Luxon at a recent Chamber of Commerce Southland event.

Andrew Linn, a linguist at Sheffield University along with sound engineer Shannon Harris created a formula based on tone, intonation (emphasis and inflection), pace, pause (words per minute). They concluded “the ideal voice should utter no more than 164 words per minute and pause for 0.48 seconds between sentences. Sentences should fall rather than rise in intonation (inflection). 

Your voice adds to your authority and credibility but also can do the opposite. It’s not hard to learn how to create your best voice, it just takes consistent practise of very simple exercises.