The Public Speaking Drill

Speak with empathy and make their hearts sing.

Most speaking advice tells you to be more confident, which is not a thing anybody can practise on a Thursday morning. What actually changed it for me is all learnable, and most of it happens before you open your mouth. Ninety per cent of a good speech is in the preparation.

The mechanism is empathy, and in public speaking it runs both ways. You are designing a relationship with the room, and you do that by speaking to one human in it rather than broadcasting at a crowd.

It also helps to know where the work actually is. Of what an audience takes from you, your body does most of it, your voice does most of the rest, and the words themselves carry a surprisingly small share. Most people spend all of their preparation on the words.

Anyone who has to stand up and be believed.

Founders pitching, leaders briefing, coaches and facilitators, teachers, and anyone who speaks to rooms often enough to suspect they are getting away with it rather than doing it well. You do not need the method to be familiar.

Bring ninety seconds of something real that you have to say soon. A pitch, a board update, a lesson, a eulogy. Bring something real. Made-up material is easy to deliver because nothing is riding on it, and then you have spent the morning practising the wrong thing.

One thing to know before you book. You will speak, you will sing, and you will be scored by two other people. Everybody does all three, and nobody sits and watches.

Fifteen minutes of theory, then you are up.

1. First 15 minutes The theory, and only the parts you will use in the next hour. Why empathy is the mechanism, the seven things to settle before you speak, the five things to do while you are speaking, and where an audience is actually reading you.
2. Then everybody sings Yes, everybody. It is a Disney singing warm-up, and it is the fastest way I know to open up tone, range and breath. It has the side effect of making the speaking afterwards feel straightforward by comparison. Nobody is judged on the singing.
3. Then we talk about what just happened Short, and worth doing, because most people learn something about their own voice in those two minutes that they did not know that morning.
4. Then the video mirror drill Breakout rooms of three. You deliver your ninety seconds, the other two watch and score you against the sheet, and then you swap until everyone has gone. Scoring is part of the session and not optional, because a read from two people who just watched you is the whole reason to be in a room rather than reading a book.
5. Questions and close Everyone back together, what came up, and what the numbers meant.

Seven things before you speak, five while you are speaking.

• Before you open your mouth Know why you are speaking, and speak to serve rather than to impress. Talk to one human, not to a crowd. Choose clarity over cleverness and say one thing well. Tell a story, because emotion is what memory attaches to. Be present rather than polished. Give them a structure, which is what makes an audience feel safe. Rehearse it enough that you are free of it.
• While you are speaking Pause, which gives a moment its weight and lets people breathe. Pace, which is how attention is held. Volume, for emphasis. Emotion, because the resonance in your voice opens feelings in other people. Tonality, the ups and downs, playful through to dead serious.

The scoring sheet for this is being built for the session and everyone who attends keeps theirs.

Four things you can use the next time you stand up.

• Your sheet, scored by two people who watched you deliver, and the one thing to change first.
• Event, If, Therefore, But. The structure I use to turn anything into a story that holds, including data.
• Three practices that keep working after the session: sing everything, record and review, make good friends who will tell you the truth.
• The anonymised before and after from the whole group, sent to everyone who attends.

Send me a video of you speaking and I will tell you what I see.

The drill gives you a read from two people in a breakout room, which is a real start and it is still ninety minutes. If you have something coming up that matters, a keynote, an investor meeting, a conference slot, private sessions go further. You record yourself speaking, I review it properly, and you get direct feedback on what to change and in what order.

How private sessions work →