…and if you were listening to me on an audiobook, that would be the right thing to do. When you are listening to a recorded book (usually in the car) you don’t have the benefit of seeing facial expressions or lips moving. And hopefully, at least, your mind is also somewhat engaged in driving! I like listening to recorded audiobooks while driving, but sometimes I find my mind has totally wandered and I’ve lost what’s going on. I know people who can’t even listen to them because their distraction is so disconcerting to them.
So if you speak slower to record a book, do you speak faster in front of an audience? An auctioneer speaks at about 250 words/minute. Tony Robbins – the high-powered motivational speaker – speaks about 240 words/minute. But the ideal rate of speech for face-to-face is reportedly 190 words/minute. According to Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, the most effective presentations are the ones that sound like conversations, not presentations. In other words, their advice is to pretend you are having a conversation with a friend (without the colorful swear words). It’s natural and it’s authentic. There you are, in front of 300 people, just shooting the breeze.
That takes a little practice! That’s why those TED talks we love are soooooo rehearsed. And it’s no mistake that TED talks hover consistently around 18 minutes. It must have something to do with our attention span.
So if you speak slower to record a book, do you speak faster in front of an audience? An auctioneer speaks at about 250 words/minute. Tony Robbins – the high-powered motivational speaker – speaks about 240 words/minute. But the ideal rate of speech for face-to-face is reportedly 190 words/minute. According to Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, the most effective presentations are the ones that sound like conversations, not presentations. In other words, their advice is to pretend you are having a conversation with a friend (without the colorful swear words). It’s natural and it’s authentic. There you are, in front of 300 people, just shooting the breeze.
That takes a little practice! That’s why those TED talks we love are soooooo rehearsed. And it’s no mistake that TED talks hover consistently around 18 minutes. It must have something to do with our attention span.