***Hearing Only Half the Sentence Is Not Quite As Good As Hearing the Whole Thing!

For those of you refuse to interrupt your sentences to breathe, you have a mass of listeners who are frustrated because they do not catch the 2nd half of your sentences. Do you know why this is? I’ll give you a clue. It’s got something to do with oxygen. Without air, there is no voice. What is happening when you do not supplement your air supply in speaking (especially on the podium) is that you are unable to finish your thoughts with enough volume to be heard comfortably. For your listeners who are unable to hear all that you are saying, they will eventually take over the conversation, or, if they are part of your audience, they will be more than tempted to begin checking their email or their Facebook account. When this happens, your ever-so-important message is non-existent because you have lost your listeners. The reason for public speaking, for a sales presentation, or even just for conversation is to communicate. Communication, however, depends on being heard. If you are not being heard, then you are not communicating. It is truly that simple. The best means of correcting this problem is to interrupt your sentence and take a quick breath. Most people do this in conversation without thought. Unfortunately, at the lectern, we are under the mistaken belief that we are not allowed to pause unless we have some form of punctuation. This is incorrect. You have a speaker’s license which means that you can breathe almost anywhere in sentence if you speak with expression. (Admittedly, if you speak in a monotone, you will be pushing the limits with this one.) Read the sentence below out loud and take a quick breath where you see the karat.

I think it would be a good idea ^ to go to the beach.

Taking a quick breath after the word idea is not the only place you can breathe in that statement. Essentially, you can breathe after any word and it will sound normal and natural if you express yourself with some emotion. You might nod your head as you say it. You could look up, look down, use your hands, or change your weight from one foot to the other. The list goes on and on. Again, in normal conversation, most of us do this without thinking. Next time you are speaking, briefly pause in the middle of your sentence to take a quick breath before you run out of air and voice. Your listeners will then be able to keep their attention on you and not on their email!