Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

"You want to make sure you have the energy at the end of your communication as well as at the beginning."
Why do some people command a room without raising their voice? Being heard isn't about speaking louder—it's about using your voice with intention. Breath, posture, and preparation all play a role in helping your message reach the people who need to hear it. In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams shares practical techniques for projecting your voice with confidence, building vocal stamina, and using microphones effectively. From breathing with more control to making the most of your physical presence, you'll learn simple strategies to ensure your message is heard when it matters most

Key Takeaways:
  • Strong voices start with strong breathing. Your breath is the foundation of vocal projection, helping you speak with greater volume, clarity, and confidence without straining your voice.
  • Preparation helps your voice go the distance. Building vocal stamina, improving your posture, and using microphones effectively ensures your message stays strong from your first word to your last.

Activity:
  • Build a vocal warm-up. Before your next presentation or important meeting, spend five minutes reading aloud while focusing on slow, deep breathing. Then identify one physical reminder—such as standing taller or relaxing your shoulders—to help support your voice before you begin.

Episode Reference Links:

Connect:

 Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:58) - Breathing for Better Projection
  • (02:29) - Place Your Voice
  • (04:05) - Building Vocal Stamina
  • (05:41) - Using a Lavalier Mic
  • (07:07) - Using a Handheld Mic
  • (08:29) - Conclusion

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Creators and Guests

Host
Matt Abrahams
Lecturer Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Think Fast Talk Smart podcast host

What is Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques?

One of the most essential ingredients to success in business and life is effective communication.

Join Matt Abrahams, best-selling author and Strategic Communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he interviews experts to provide actionable insights that help you communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact. From handling impromptu questions to crafting compelling messages, Matt explores practical strategies for real-world communication challenges.

Whether you’re navigating a high-stakes presentation, perfecting your email tone, or speaking off the cuff, Think Fast, Talk Smart equips you with the tools, techniques, and best practices to express yourself effectively in any situation. Enhance your communication skills to elevate your career and build stronger professional relationships.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Subscribe now to unlock your potential as a thoughtful, impactful communicator. Learn more and sign up for our eNewsletter at fastersmarter.io.

Matt Abrahams: Fundamental to
effective communication is being heard.

I'm Matt Abrahams, and I teach
Strategic Communication at Stanford

Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to this Quick Thinks episode
of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

I'm often asked, "How can I make sure my
voice is heard?" People aren't wondering

how do they insert it into a conversation.

They literally want to understand,
how can my volume go up?

So today, I'd like to have a
conversation about volume, and you

can't have a conversation about
volume without talking about breath.

Then we'll talk about how to expand
your volume, build vocal stamina,

and finally, we'll conclude to
talk about how microphones can

help you communicate better.

Your voice is a wind instrument.

The more you do with it, the more your
volume and voice can be affected by it.

We need to think about how we
breathe to help us project our voice.

Many of us, when we get nervous or
are uncertain, we breathe shallow

and tight in the upper chest.

We also breathe very quickly.

This changes our ability
to project our voice.

You have to be able to fill your lower
abdomen to support your voice fully.

Something you can do in the privacy of
your own space to figure out where you're

breathing from is to put one palm on your
upper chest and one on your lower abdomen.

If I'm speaking from my upper
chest as I'm doing now, I feel

vibration and a little movement here
and nothing in my lower abdomen.

But when I take a deeper breath and
speak lower and sometimes slower, I

actually feel a lot of movement here and
a little vibration in my upper chest.

So to help build that awareness of
where your breath is coming from, give

yourself a sensory experience of it.

Another way to help you learn about
your breathing is to read out loud.

Reading out loud is a proxy
for speaking out loud.

And the benefit of reading out loud is you
can focus on your breathing because the

words are presented right in front of you.

I don't care what you read.

It can be something
for work, for pleasure.

It can be email, a magazine.

Does not matter.

By reading out loud and really paying
attention to where the breath is coming

from, you can gain more control of it.

And the more control you have over it,
the better able you are to project.

So lower, slower breathing
gives you more vocal support,

so you can project your voice.

Now, there's a really interesting
technique that I learned

from a acting professional.

While I'm not an actor myself,
I really like this technique.

Rather than just thinking about projecting
your voice forward, actually pick a

place where you want to put your voice.

So imagine you're in a conference
room sitting around a large table.

You're at one end, and there
are people far away from you.

Instead of just broadcasting out,
focus your voice in front of the

person who's sitting farthest from you.

In doing so, it changes
the structure of your body.

You'll tend to open up more, you'll
breathe more deeply, and you'll be able

to position your voice so it'll be louder.

So it's not about broadcasting it out.

It's about focusing on placing
your voice in a certain space.

I alluded to body posture just a moment
ago, and this is really important.

You want to open your
body as much as possible.

Many of us, especially when
we're on virtual calls, we hunch

over and close our body off.

That reduces the oxygen.

In fact, many actors and actresses or
professional speakers, before they go

out on stage and project, they'll work on
stretching their body and opening it up.

That's a great place for us to start.

Once we have the mechanics and the
breath, we have to work on stamina.

Very few of you would wake up one
morning and say, "I'm gonna go run

a marathon," and just start running.

If you wanted to run a
marathon, you'd train first.

And the same thing is true with
your voice and vocal projection.

If you're going to speak for 5, 10, 30, 60
minutes, you should build vocal stamina.

Because most of us can start out
strong, but can we sustain it so we

can continue to project our voice?

Best way to do this,
again, is reading out loud.

Reading out loud to build vocal stamina
is like running on a treadmill to build

your stamina for running a road race.

So if you know you have a 30 minute
presentation that you have to give

in a week or two, you should start
reading out loud for 5 or 10 minutes a

day to build that stamina, so you can
project your voice all the way through.

And you wanna make sure that you
have the energy at the end of your

communication as well as at the beginning.

Many of us start energetic and
excited, and because we're speaking

for so long, we lose our wind.

We lose that energy.

By building vocal stamina, you'll
continue to have the energy and

be able to project your voice.

Now, fortunately, we live in a
world where there's technology

that can help us project our voice.

Microphones are very useful for helping
you not just record what you're saying,

but to make sure your voice is projected.

Now, we have to use
microphones appropriately.

The first type of mic I wanna talk
about is a lavalier mic, a lav.

This is a little microphone that usually
gets clipped right under your chin.

Now, it tends to have a
cord and a battery pack.

You have to be careful and make sure that
you're prepared for that, 'cause often

you'll drop the cord through your shirt,
and you need to have a place to clip the

battery pack or a pocket to put it in.

I've worked with some speakers who
came dressed in a way that did not

allow for those to easily be done.

When it comes to a lavalier,
you want to make sure it's about

6 inches away from your mouth.

And because it is fixed, you
wanna make sure that your head

stays in the same position.

So if the lavalier is here and I turn over
here, notice I've increased the distance.

And unless you have somebody working
the soundboard that is controlling the

volume, your voice will get quieter.

So if you have a lavalier mic, you
simply turn your whole body, so

you keep the orientation the same.

So make sure you have something to clip it
to, both the mic and the pack, and try to

keep your head in relationship to the mic
the same, so your volume stays the same.

Now, sometimes when you're speaking,
you actually have a microphone.

Handheld mic needs to be kept
at the same distance from your

mouth so that the volume stays the
same and you make the life of the

soundboard operator much easier.

So lightly hold the mic.

Some people clutch it
because they're so nervous.

Lightly hold the mic.

Put your elbow against your body.

This is the only time I ever encourage
people to connect the elbow to the body.

Usually when gesturing, we want it away.

And I gesture with the other hand.

Notice I'm keeping the distance
about 6 inches the same.

Now, if I wanna switch hands, which
is a good thing 'cause this arm

might get tired, I come to the mic,
keep the mic in the same place,

and gesture with the other hand.

Some mics have cables, and you need
to be careful with where the cable is.

I saw a speaker once trip over the cable,
embarrassing for them and dangerous.

So if you're using a handheld mic,
hold it in place, gesture with the

other hand, and again, come back to it.

These are all techniques that will
help you project your voice and

make sure your point is heard.

We want to think about
body posture and breathing.

We wanna think about placing our voice.

We wanna make sure we build that
vocal stamina to support our energy

and volume throughout what we say.

And finally, we wanna leverage
microphones appropriately to

help us make sure we're heard.

Thank you for joining me for this
Quick Thinks episode of Think

Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

To learn more about voice, please listen
to episode 262 with Patsy Rodenburg.

This episode was produced by
Katherine Reed, Alex McCarthy,

Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrahams.

Our music is from Floyd
Wonder, with special thanks to

the Stanford GSB video crew.

Thanks also to Podium Podcast Company.

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