Pressure situations have a nasty habit of befuddling our brains.
I see and hear it all the time.
In a radio or TV interview, even experienced guests sometimes litter their answers with ums and errs.
Apart from being annoying, and undermining their authority and credibility, it also wastes their precious time.
You normally get about three minutes for a radio interview, like in the picture, from my BBC days.
If you’ve got a message to get across, why waste perhaps a quarter of it with stumbling redundancies?
Likewise with a presentation.
If you’ve got five minutes, and you keep muttering ums and errs, you might only be speaking sense for around 4 1/2 minutes.
That’s 10% of your valuable time lost.
So, the question is, how do you eliminate those redundancies?
Happily, the answer is very simple.
Even better, it makes for a greatly improved audience experience, helps you project your voice better, and even eases your nerves.
What is this miracle solution I can sense you asking?
I would love to tease you further…
Because you know me…
I’m like that…
But okay, before you scream, here’s the answer…
- Slow down
Yes, it really is as simple as that.
Just - slow - down.
Not a great deal.
About 10% is absolutely fine.
And although it might feel unnaturally slow to you, I promise it won’t to your audience.
Don’t just take my word for that.
Try it.
Prop your phone up in a corner and practice giving a spiel at your usual pace.
Now do it again, but deliberately slow down a tad.
Then think about how it helped to go at the slower pace.
It should’ve given you a little more room to think about what you were going to say next.
Which in turn helps to remove the redundancies.
It also means you're breathing more effectively, which aids with voice projection and managing nerves.
If you’ve got something particularly important to say in a presentation, it doesn’t hurt in the slightest to not just slow it down...
But leave a pause after your profound words as well.
That gives the audience more time to think about and digest them…
Rather than your critical point getting lost in a stream of babble.
All those benefits stem from simply slowing down a little when you're presenting.
Once you’ve tried it, seen how well the trick works, and mastered it, you’ll never go back.
I promise.
By the way, if you’ve got an important presentation or talk to give, and you’re struggling, feel free to get in touch.
It’s one of my favourite areas of teaching, where I often feel I make the most difference, and I would be happy to help you.