How to get your speech clearer (plus FREE download)

Get your tongue in a twist when you speak? Sound a little limp and lacking in conviction? If you know you need to sharpen up your speech and annunciate clearer, this video’s for you.

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….to help you articulate with greater clarity: exercises straight from the actor’s playbook.

Video and Transcript

Have you ever been in a meeting where you come out with a very  valid comment or an interesting proposal and it falls on deaf ears and then a couple of minutes later somebody says exactly the same thing and everyone’s like, “Oh, that’s awesome,” “What a valid comment!” “Yah, interesting.” And you’re like, “Was I…was I actually not here?  Did I not say that a couple of minutes earlier?” Well if that ever happens to you, I’ve got a technique to help.

This technique focuses on elevating your gravitas.  Now when I say ‘gravitas’, all I mean here is a sense of authority.  I don’t mean being dour and straight-laced and unsmiling.  I simply mean being taken more seriously and anyone can do that.

Even me.

Sounds good.

And this technique focuses on speech.  Speech is a very important element of gravitas and when I talk about speech, I’m talking about your consonants and your vowels.

Now, consonants carry conviction.  I want you to listen to me saying one phrase in two different ways and you will hear which one has the most conviction behind it.  Here we go:

“We’ve made lots of impactful changes to our department.” That’s the first one.  “We’ve made lots of impactful changes to our department.” So that’s the second one.   The first one was a little bit lazier and the consonants?  I didn’t really use them all that clearly.  And the second one, I just annunciated.  It doesn’t really matter about your accent.  You can still annunciate clearly.  So that is consonant.  Consonants will give you the conviction.

The next is vowels.  Vowels allow you to convey emotion so you don’t sound bland or monotonous.  Now, I’m going to say a phrase and you’re going to listen to the one…watch out for the one which has the most emotional sincerity behind it.  So, here we go:

“You’re doing really well, Beth.”

“You’re doing really well, Beth.”

In the second one, I did that whole Anglo-Saxon thing of hanging on to my jaw.  It’s as if I had lockjaw.  That’s what alot of people do when they present, partly because tension tends to go into two places in the face: the eyes, hence ‘rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights’ look and the mouth, hence lockjaw or just tripping over your words.

So what you need to do is open your mouth.  If you’re not used to doing this it feels like you are speaking like this until you record yourself with the camera on on your mobile phone and then you’ll realise your old normal is abnormal and your new normal is actually on the spot.

What we need to do is articulate our consonants and annunciate by opening our mouths to let the vowels breathe and to make your sound like you’re more sincere and emotionally invested in what you’re saying.

Now, I’ve got some exercises to help you do just that.  This will help you to draw people’s attention to what you’re saying so you don’t get passed over and you do get that acknowedgement that you deserve.

And I think you also deserve my weekly Tips ‘n’ Tools to make you into a Communication Ninja.  Click the link below.