Drill step 3
Film the first 30 seconds on your phone. Watch muted: feet, hands, where you looked. Then listen: pauses before points? Deliver the first 30 seconds again.
Glossary
Pauses
Silences of a second or more while you talk. Deliberate pauses sound composed; very long ones can sound like you have lost your place.
From the lesson
Where it comes up
- Day 1 · The 100-Millisecond Verdict: How to make a good first impression at work
- Day 5 · The Voice People Lean Into: How to sound more confident when you speak: pace, pauses, and landing sentences
- Day 7 · Week 1 Review: Week 1 review: measure your speaking pace and fillers
- Day 11 · The Authority Effect: How to speak with authority: conclusion first, one reason, no hedging
- Day 12 · Carry Yourself Like a Leader: Executive presence: how to carry yourself like a leader
- Day 24 · Presenting to a Room: How to give a presentation: hook, one message, three supports, call to action
- Day 26 · Your Practice Plan: How to keep improving your speaking: a ten-minute weekly loop
- Day 28 · Compare the Tape: Day 28: compare your Day 1 and Day 28 recordings
In practice
Examples from the course that use it.
The safety briefing
Two managers read the same briefing. The first races through at 190 words a minute, flat. The second reads at 150, lifts her voice on “if you hear the alarm”, and pauses one second before “do not use the lifts”. Only the second team remembers to take the stairs.
The voice memo at lunch
You record the same answer as a voice memo in the kitchen. Listening back, you count seven fillers, all “so” and “like”. Second take, pausing before each point, you count two. The pauses did the deleting.
The two runs side by side
You play Day 5 and then Day 7 back to back at the kitchen table. The words are nearly the same. The second one has pauses in it. You did not notice putting them there.
Related terms
- PaceHow fast you speak, in words per minute. Around 140 to 160 is easy to follow; slow down for the key points.
- HedgesSoftening words like “just”, “maybe”, “sort of”, “I think”. A few are fine; lots make you sound unsure of your own point.
- Follow-up questionA question about what the person just told you. It proves you listened and keeps them talking.
- FillersSounds that fill a gap while you think: um, uh, like, you know. Try a short pause instead. Speak shows them as ums.
- Two sighsTwo physiological sighs: a big breath in through the nose, a short top-up sniff, then a long, slow breath out through the mouth. Do it twice. It can help you settle.