Beginnings of a speaking journey

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nt

[pacelli]

Wisdom says do things you are passionate about. Here is the beginning of my speaking journey. If you watch this series I want your feedback. I desire to be better at speaking than I presently am. I have some obstacles to overcome such as a bad habit of uh's and um's. At times I misspeak or mispronounce words. At times the pace seems fairly slow. Tips on how to improve greatly appreciated. Harsh criticism welcome. Yes, my camera does not produce a high quality picture and I do not have a studio.


You're doing something, and that's really all that matters. Kudos!

As far as the requested feedback, you've already identified things you could improve upon. For instance, you mentioned "uh's and um's" which are very common public speaking factors. Another one that I noticed in the videos are the "you know"'s. "Um, ah, uh, you know" are all little things that everybody does to give us a little split second of time to articulate our next concept. But in actuality, "um ah uh you know" don't convey anything.

In any type of public speaking, it is much better to pause, rather than say "um ah uh or you know".

Also, I noticed the slow pacing. Your tendency in the videos is to pause mid-sentence for 1-2 seconds, on average every couple sentences. I noticed that sometimes it is to get some more air to continue the sentence-- these kinds of pauses to breathe are great because they are natural pauses. Other types of mid-sentence pauses can be used for dramatic effect. The trick is combining the two.

Pausing mid-sentence to breathe after a minor word such as "and" (or pausing to collect your thoughts) can make your point difficult to follow for the casual listener, and a harsh critic might erroneously conclude that you are not confident with your points, or, you are talking to hear yourself speak.

Remember the teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (not Ben Stein) who was talking about the prison system-- "In...[pause pause]....what..[pause] wayyyyyyy..........[pause pause]". This is definitely a good model of the types of mid-sentence pauses to be avoided. You definitiely weren't anything close to that guy, but sometimes we need a funny and extreme example to keep in mind.

I couldn't tell whether you were reading off of notes or bullet points during these times when you paused mid-sentence. If you were, then speaking & reading at the same time will become easier as you practice it more. Make your notes more concise or better organized (or with larger font).

If you weren't reading from notes or bullet points, it might be a good idea to jot down some talking points to help improve your pacing. Sometimes you can improve your verbal pacing by jotting down 3-4 word bullet points, rather than whole sentences. The luxury you have is that you can do numerous re-takes since you aren't broadcasting live.

You have a great voice that is easy to listen to. As you continue to get practice speaking, you'll fall into a niche. Don't worry so much about mis-speaking or mispronouncing things. If you mispronounce something (which is common for even the most experienced public speaker), don't distract from the mispronunciation with more um's and ah's, just pronounce the word again and keep going with your point.

Public speaking is very difficult, but practice makes it a lot easier. It is hard work, but hell at least you are trying to do something. Keep it up!~

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nt