Improving Your Capacity as a Public Speaker

In this episode of the Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, outlines eight key areas for improving vocal delivery for public speakers, particularly in ministry contexts.

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Jeff Iorg

President, SBC Executive Committee

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Jeff Iorg: 00:54

Welcome to the lead on podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Today on the podcast, I wanna talk about improving vocal delivery. I wanna talk about improving your capacity to be a public speaker. Now, whether you're a preacher, or a teacher or anyone else who stands up in front of others, this podcast will apply to you.

Jeff Iorg: 01:27

I wanna talk about 7 or 8 different areas that you can work on that will improve your capacity to stand up and speak up. The first thing I wanna talk about is improving your enunciation and your pronunciation. Enunciation is the clarity with which you speak. It's taking the marbles out of your mouth, if I could put it that way. It's being clear in the words that you speak so that people can understand every syllable

Jeff Iorg: 02:01

that comes out of your mouth. Now, here are some practical things you can do to improve enunciation

Jeff Iorg: 02:11

and, as a part of that, pronunciation of the words you're using. First of all, there's nothing wrong with consulting a dictionary or an audio source online to learn how to say certain words. And how to pronounce words correctly so that people understand them clearly is a part of good vocal delivery. And when you're doing this, especially in English, and I know some of you preach

Jeff Iorg: 02:38

in other languages that listen to this podcast, but in English, learn to avoid common errors of pronunciation like the word is athlete, not athlete, and the word is flustered or frustrated, not flustrated. Learning to pronounce words correctly,

Jeff Iorg: 03:02

to enunciate syllables appropriately, and to be sure that you're speaking clearly and distinctly is a good part of vocal delivery. Now another part of this, especially for those of us who preach and teach from the Bible, is learning how to read scripture with clear pronunciation and enunciation so that people grasp its meaning most directly. You should read your text aloud more than once before you stand up to preach and teach from that text. When you do this, you can resolve pronunciation difficulties. You can work on the enunciation of different words and particularly different names that may be difficult for you, and you can decide if there's any part of a text, especially a longer narrative text that you want to summarize and which parts you need to specifically read.

Jeff Iorg: 03:58

All of this helps with the enunciation, the clear articulation of the words, even the syllables of the words, and the pronunciation, meaning sure making sure that you say the words correctly, that you say names appropriately, and especially that you get place names right, which are sometimes very tricky, especially those that are in the Bible. So the first step in improving vocal delivery is to improve enunciation and pronunciation

Jeff Iorg: 04:26

of the words we're using. A second thing

Jeff Iorg: 04:29

that you can work on is what I call vocal variables. Now, there are several of these. Let's talk about 3. The first vocal variable is pitch, and that's the range of tonal qualities used in vocalization. The range of tonal qualities.

Jeff Iorg: 04:48

Now, the biggest issue with pitch is avoiding predictable patterns, like going up at

Jeff Iorg: 04:55

the end of every sentence. No matter what

Jeff Iorg: 04:57

you say, it ends like this. And when I'm preaching, I wanna end on high note. It's like every sentence has that kind of predictable pattern. You wanna avoid that. Also, things that might be called a ministerial twang or a ministerial word or a ministerial tone, you wanna avoid that so that we preach and teach like we speak in other contexts.

Jeff Iorg: 05:20

Now another part of problem with pitch is incongruity with your message, meaning that you're preaching on one theme, but the pitch at which you're preaching is different and doesn't line up with the message. So working on pitch means that you work on the range of the tonal qualities that you're using and that you avoid these predictable patterns, you avoid unnecessary, ministerial, phrasing, and that you focus instead on speaking more like you do in normal conversation. Another vocal variable to work on is volume. That's easy. It's how loud or how soft you are.

Jeff Iorg: 06:04

Now the issues with this one are usually one of 3 things. Number 1, too much shouting. Now I I get excited when I'm preaching especially, and there is a time to raise your voice and to speak louder. Maybe even to shout just

Jeff Iorg: 06:22

a bit. That's what I

Jeff Iorg: 06:23

was talking about when I said varying your pitch is important and making your pitch support your message so that there's congruity instead of incongruity. Shouting is not inappropriate, but if you're yelling all the time while you're preaching, you are stuck on 1 decibel level and it becomes monotonous and frankly annoying to people. Another problem, though, with volume is speaking too softly. It's not uncommon for people to be frustrated when the speaker just talks so softly. You need to speak up so that people can hear you and that you enunciate and pronounce the words clearly and that you do that with an appropriate pitch to your voice that goes up and down at the appropriate times, but also has the right volume so that you're not speaking too loudly, not speaking too softly.

Jeff Iorg: 07:11

And then the other part of volume that you wanna avoid is the monotone. Having only one volume, everything comes out exactly the same. You never vary your voice much. It just stays right on the same note. That's monotone.

Jeff Iorg: 07:24

And we wanna avoid that as a part of adjusting our volume as well. So vocal variables. The first one is pitch. The second one is volume. And the third one is rate.

Jeff Iorg: 07:34

Now rate is a is how slow or how fast you're speaking. And you can vary the rate to emphasize different aspects of your message or to communicate things by your message and to communicate even with the words you're using and the rate that you say them, something of the power of those words. So, for example, if you were saying a sentence like, the boy ran to the lake, you wouldn't say, the boy ran to the lake. Instead, rate would support meaning by saying the boy ran to the lake. And so now you're controlling pitch and volume and rate, and you're communicating something even by the way you say the words.

Jeff Iorg: 08:15

Now when you're talking about rate, I wanna be clear about one thing, though. It is true that people can listen faster than the average person can speak, but this does not mean that you should increase your rate just to say more words more quickly. That's not wise. Instead, when I talk about increasing your rate, what I want you to do is learn how to move more quickly from idea to idea so that the rate of the ideas you're communicating is communicated more rapidly, not the words said more quickly. I made this mistake recently in speaking.

Jeff Iorg: 08:55

I found myself just speaking way too fast trying to cram way too much information into way too little time. That's not what I'm talking about here, and I made that mistake recently. Instead, what I'm advocating is that you increase your rate, meaning that you move more quickly from idea to idea, that you stop belaboring the point, so to speak, and you get on with it. Because people can listen faster than you can talk, process information faster than you can hand it out, and, typically, most audiences are ready to move on long before the speaker moves on. So I'm gonna practice that here on the podcast, and I'm gonna move on.

Jeff Iorg: 09:30

So improving vocal delivery. Pronunciation, enunciation. That's the first step. 2nd, work on your vocal variables. 3rd.

Jeff Iorg: 09:41

A third important way to improve vocal delivery is through diaphragmatic breathing. Learning how to breathe appropriately while you are speaking. Now, I wish this was a a video podcast in some sense because I might could model some of these things for you, but that's not possible today. So instead, I just want you to Google diaphragmatic breathing. I did that recently, and it popped up immediately.

Jeff Iorg: 10:12

Exercises that you can do to enhance your capacity to breathe from your diaphragm. Your diaphragm is that domed shaped muscle that's in your lower abdomen that powers up your vocal apparatus, your lungs, and your voice, and all that's involved in communicating. Now if you have any background in a musical training or any background in theater or any place where public speaking is taught, not so much about preaching and teaching, but any place, you've likely run into this concept and had some instruction about diaphragmatic breathing. And so these principles that are taught to singers and to actors, they're applicable to us as well in ministry who are constantly using our voices. And so I would encourage you to Google diaphragmatic breathing and look at the exercises.

Jeff Iorg: 11:04

And it's going to have you doing some things like, laying flat on your back and putting a book on your abdomen and practicing raising it and other kinds of exercises to teach you how to really use your diaphragm to power up your voice. Now one of the most obvious signs that you're not doing this well is if your voice is often weak or reedy or thready after you finish speaking. If you're exhausting your voice, you're leaving hoarse when you're finished, or you're leaving with, preaching or speaking until you lose your voice, or you're doing some damage to your voice or your vocal cords by your public speaking, you are doing it incorrectly, and it starts by breathing

Jeff Iorg: 11:46

correctly while you're speaking. Now when you learn

Jeff Iorg: 11:50

the practices of diaphragmatic breathing and you let them power up these two things I've already talked about, enunciation, pronunciation, and vocal variables, when you do this well, you can speak day after day after day without losing your voice, without your voice being strained, without your voice becoming reedy or thready, without your voice being weakened or even damaged. I know this because I do it almost every week. As I'm making this podcast in the last 48 hours, I've delivered 3, lengthy messages. Excuse me. Four lengthy messages.

Jeff Iorg: 12:26

3 of them were 45 minutes each. 1 of them was about 25 minutes. And on top of doing those, preaching opportunities in the last 48 hours, I've also recorded 3 podcasts this week that will be broadcast over the next few weeks and carried on my normal ministry, activities, and my voice is just fine. Why? Because I've worked on learning how to breathe from my diaphragm while I'm speaking until it's become natural to me, and I can speak day after day after day without hoarseness, without pain, without losing my voice or doing damage to my voice.

Jeff Iorg: 13:01

So a third way to improve vocal delivery is by working on diaphragmatic breathing. Now number 4. Another way to improve vocal delivery is mastering the use of pauses and silence to build interest in what you're saying. Pauses allow an audience to time to assimilate what you're saying, and pauses can make a statement of their own, and pauses can either underscore or draw attention to either what has been said or is about to be said. I'm talking about using pauses and silence as a strategy in enhancing vocal delivery.

Jeff Iorg: 13:44

Now, one of the ways I do this in a message that I've been preaching recently is in the story of the leper.

Jeff Iorg: 13:50

Now you may remember the story from Mark chapter 1. The leper came to Jesus, knelt down before Him, and asked for cleansing, and the Bible says, Jesus reached out His hand and touched him. Now in the preaching

Jeff Iorg: 14:07

of this message, I build the drama of what was about to occur by describing the leper and the horrific disease that he was suffering from, and then I describe the old testament law about not touching a leper and about how lepers had to stay socially distanced from any other human being. And when I've set this up properly, I preach it something like this, and then

Jeff Iorg: 14:30

I say, And so the leper,

Jeff Iorg: 14:34

coming through the crowd to Jesus, falls on

Jeff Iorg: 14:37

his knees. And begging Jesus said, lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. And then Jesus did

Jeff Iorg: 14:55

the unthinkable.

Jeff Iorg: 14:58

Jesus. And when I say that, I hold out my hand,

Jeff Iorg: 15:04

but I don't finish the sentence. I say, Jesus did the unthinkable.

Jeff Iorg: 15:10

Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. And when I'm pausing there, I've preached this message several times. When I'm pausing there and I say, Jesus reached out his hand, and

Jeff Iorg: 15:33

I will almost always have people in the audience just blurt out, touched him. They're so caught up in the moment. Why is that so powerful? Because it's an intentional use of a pause and silence to underscore what is has either been said or is about to be said and to draw incredible attention to the moment and to the point that you are about to make or that you are making. Pauses and silence can be very powerful in enhancing vocal delivery.

Jeff Iorg: 16:11

Learning to use them and the drama they create is a significant asset in vocal delivery. Now on the other side,

Jeff Iorg: 16:22

pauses and silence can also be a distraction. I call these the artificial pauses.

Jeff Iorg: 16:32

Well, you know, obviously, those are a distraction.

Jeff Iorg: 16:40

In fact, and and you know, those are old common ones. I've been watching lately television reporters and others, especially on sports channels that I watch. A new one is the

Jeff Iorg: 16:53

word obviously. Someone will ask

Jeff Iorg: 16:56

a question and the response will be, well, obviously, and then they give the answer. That obviously is a distracting pause at the beginning that doesn't add to what's about to be said. In fact, it takes away from because if it's obvious, why are you saying it? Okay? And so these artificial pauses or these artificial checks, if you will, are actually distractions to good vocal delivery.

Jeff Iorg: 17:22

So we wanna work to use silences and pauses effectively, but eliminate those that are not helpful in communicating our message. Well, let's go to number 5. Now this one may surprise you and you're gonna get sidetracked here if you get off on the wrong thought. The 5th thing you can do to improve vocal delivery is pay attention to

Jeff Iorg: 17:44

what you're wearing. Now hold on a minute.

Jeff Iorg: 17:48

I'm not saying you have to dress up to speak in public. I I'm not saying that. This is not a podcast about dress codes. I've done those before. That's not what this is about.

Jeff Iorg: 17:57

This is about improving vocal delivery, And the dress, as it relates to that, is not if you're dressed nicely or if you're dressed in a suit or a dress or anything like that. No. That that's not

Jeff Iorg: 18:10

the point. Vocal delivery is enhanced by making sure that you dress comfortably so that when you speak, you're not distracted by what you're wearing. So for example, if you're going to practice diaphragmatic breathing

Jeff Iorg: 18:29

while you're speaking, you have to be sure that whatever you're wearing around your diaphragm, and for a fellow like me, it would be his pants and his belt. For women, it would be other garments and other kinds of underclothes. Whatever you're wearing in that moment has to support your body's being able to do diaphragmatic breathing while you're speaking without restriction or distraction. And so that means I wanna make sure, just in my case, that my pants are tailored appropriately and my belt fits right. So that when I stand up to speak, I can breathe diaphragmatically, speak freely from the diaphragm without any restriction, and also without having to keep pulling up my pants or something like that.

Jeff Iorg: 19:10

That's a distraction to the to the message I'm trying to deliver. So when I talk about dressing comfortably for for speaking, I'm not talking about dressing up or dressing a certain way or anything like that. I'm talking about thinking about what you're wearing so that it supports your apparatus, which is your body, which is where the speaking's going to come from, and it does it appropriately. Now there is something to be said for what you're wearing because it does help set the tone for the vocal delivery that you're about to provide. So for example, if I'm going to speak at a memorial service, I wanna perhaps dress more formally and in a more somber fashion because I wanna communicate the the seriousness or the gravity of the moment where I'm speaking.

Jeff Iorg: 19:59

If I'm going to speak at a academic gathering, I wanna know, are we wearing academic regalia? Because I want to communicate the respect for and the the formality of the of the academy by what I'm wearing when I stand up to speak. If I'm at a Christmas Eve service, I don't wanna wear a suit or a robe. I wanna wear a Christmas sweater and fit the mood of the moment where I'm celebrating in this more family style service this Christmas holiday season. I could go on and on with these.

Jeff Iorg: 20:32

What I'm saying is your vocal delivery can be enhanced by what you're wearing and can contribute to the message you're communicating vocally by what you're wearing physically. And as I was saying earlier, it's not just the diaphragmatic breathing, but for me, it's also making sure that my shirt is tailored appropriately, that I'm wearing a tie, that it's knotted where it's not restricting me. These are simple things that do enhance vocal delivery. And so when you're thinking about what you're going to wear when you speak, I think we do spend some time, inappropriately so, thinking about dressing for the occasion, and I certainly get that. But I'm challenging you now if you're the primary communicator to think about dressing for the delivery, dressing to support the vocal delivery that you're about to make, and being sure that what you're wearing contributes to your effectiveness

Jeff Iorg: 21:21

in vocal delivery. Well, we're up to

Jeff Iorg: 21:24

number 6, and that is the 6th thing you can do to enhance vocal delivery is improve eye contact with your audience. Now, if you preach or speak from a manuscript, that's fine. You can still work on eye contact by doing a few things. 1st, establish eye contact at the very beginning of your message and establish it very strongly. Now this should be relatively easy because the first things you should say really don't have

Jeff Iorg: 21:51

to be scripted, or manuscripted.

Jeff Iorg: 21:54

So for example, when I step up to speak, I generally say, open your Bibles, and I call out the place of Scripture where I'm going to be preaching. And I say, open your Bibles to this place of Scripture where in just a few moments, I'll be reading a text, from the Bible that will be the foundation for what I will say this today. And when I say all that, I'm looking right at the audience. I don't need to look down at my notes to say that. And then when they look down to start finding their place in their Bible, that's when I look down to find my place in my bible and organize my notes in front of me.

Jeff Iorg: 22:24

And by the time they've all looked up, I've looked up again. And then there are certain aspects of your message, even if it's manuscript that you should either memorize or have almost memorized or frankly would have practically memorized because of the nature of

Jeff Iorg: 22:38

the message. The first part

Jeff Iorg: 22:39

of this is, of course, the introduction, the first three to five sentences. You should know those so well that you can deliver them without having to look at anyone but the audience in front of you. The same thing could be said for illustrations throughout this the message or throughout the teaching talk. You may need help to look down to read notes about the Bible or some quotes you want to give or some commentary information that you wanna, incorporate into the message. No problem there.

Jeff Iorg: 23:03

But when you're introducing the message or you're giving illustrations throughout the message or when you're concluding the message, these are aspects of the message that you really shouldn't need heavy notes to deliver and you can do that with maximum eye contact. So establishing eye contact doesn't mean that you rivet your eyes on your audience and you never look down or you never look away or you never consult a note. That's not what it means. It also doesn't mean you can't use a manuscript. Of course, you can.

Jeff Iorg: 23:28

It means that you strategically think about what are the aspects of this message that I can deliver essentially from memory, if not completely from memory. And those would be the introduction of the scripture at the beginning, the introduction of the message as you start preaching, the illustrations that are gonna unfold throughout the message, which would be more personal and and maybe less formal in how they might be delivered, and of course, the conclusion, that moment when you're asking people to respond when you're looking right into their eyes and asking them to make a a response to your message. These are ways you can enhance eye contact and by doing so, improve your vocal

Jeff Iorg: 24:05

variables. Well, number 7. I want you

Jeff Iorg: 24:09

to work on your posture. When you're preaching or teaching in front of people, stand up straight. It improves diaphragmatic breathing. It improves your vocal tone. It improves your, your vocal rate.

Jeff Iorg: 24:25

It your volume. It establishes, a presence that is helpful in communicating to people that you are ready, that you have authority, and that you're going to deliver a message or a word that they need to hear. Stand up straight while preaching or teaching, and stand up straight comfortably so that you can use your entire body, meaning gestures, facial expressions, etcetera. What you don't want to do is lean on a pulpit or a lectern, be slumped over, onto some other furniture or something like that. I don't even like to preach while I'm sitting on a stool because I find that when I do that, I lose some diaphragmatic breathing.

Jeff Iorg: 25:12

But if I do have to be seated while I'm speaking, I wanna be sure that I sit up on the edge of that stool and I sit up as straight as possible so I can capture that diaphragmatic breathing that I need and still have the power to communicate the authority and readiness that I have for speaking and get my hands free so that I can use those in gestures as well. So stand up straight or if you're in a stool and that's required for the context where you are, sit up as straight as possible so that you can do all of these things that good posture helps with while you're preaching. And nothing communicates a lack of readiness or a lack of intensity or a lack of interest like slumping over onto a pulpit or leaning over on something. Now, again, I'm not talking about doing it in a moment where you're making an illustration or trying to make a point. You know, you're making the illustration how tired you were and suddenly you just gonna slump down and, slump onto the pulpit and people kind of get a picture of, wow, he really was tired that day when he gave that as he's telling that story.

Jeff Iorg: 26:06

I'm talking about for the 95% of your message where you're trying to deliver without that kind of, illustration or that kind of symbolism, stand up straight, sit up straight, and engage your whole body in the process. Well, number 8 and last. Learn to make gestures that are natural and spontaneous and support the message you're delivering. And this may sound contradictory, but practice them until they become spontaneous and natural. Meaning, it's okay to practice your gestures and to learn to use them in a way that supports your message.

Jeff Iorg: 26:43

Usually, your gestures need to stay within the frame of the your body, not outlandish wide ranging, but staying pretty close to your hands moving where you are and in front of you. Occasionally, there may need to be something larger than that, but when it's larger than that, it's because you wanna make a large point or an inclusive point or draw everyone into the point, and so you make your gesture much larger. You know, when I went to umpiring school, a number of years ago, they taught us something called stadium mechanics. And when they were teaching this, I thought, man, that has application in preaching. They said, when you're umpiring a game and there's a very small crowd and it's a very routine game on a Tuesday night, you know, that kind of a thing, and and and the game is rolling along pretty simply.

Jeff Iorg: 27:30

When someone makes an out, all you have to say is out or safe. Just safe. And they and you can't see me doing this, but my out and my safe, they're just within a little one foot box here in front of me. No need for a big grand, scene on a Tuesday night game with 30 people in the stands. But stadium mechanics are when there's a 1000 people in the stands.

Jeff Iorg: 27:52

I once unpowered, in front of 14,000 people, and they said, now, when you walk on that field tonight, remember stadium mechanics. And what they meant was the mechanics had to be bigger, so that when you said safe, you said safe with your whole arms extended both directions so that people could see clearly all over the stadium, that you not only saw it, but you were definitive in your call and you made it cleanly and clearly so that everyone in the ballpark could tell, and the same thing on out. So, I learned something that day in Empire in School. When I'm preaching, I wanna make normal gestures, small gestures, reasonable gestures, unless I wanna make a big point. And if my voice goes up, guess what?

Jeff Iorg: 28:32

My gestures also get bigger because I want people to see not only in my voice, but in my gestures the largeness or the grandness or the force with which I'm speaking in the moment. So gestures, they improve vocal delivery when they are congruence with what's coming out of your mouth and when they are used to both point out but then amplify the verbal message you're trying to communicate.

Jeff Iorg: 28:55

Well, let me close out with this. You wanna work on vocal on improving vocal delivery. I've given you 8 things to think about today on the podcast. Now, let me tell you the single most important thing you can do to improve vocal delivery. Video yourself speaking and watch it all the way through, as painful as it will be.

Jeff Iorg: 29:20

I taught preaching for many years at Gateway Seminary, and I had every student watch themselves on video twice every semester. I consistently had students tell me this. It was the most painful, difficult assignment they received while they were in seminary. Several people told me, after about 90 seconds, I thought, I can't watch this and no one will ever hear me speak again because I am this bad. I don't ever wanna do this to anybody ever again.

Jeff Iorg: 29:49

Well, that's not the goal here. You may be overly critical of yourself

Jeff Iorg: 29:54

and I want you to be careful about that, but when you watch yourself speak, you will see what other people see

Jeff Iorg: 30:03

and you can clearly see the things that need to be improved. Just make a few notes and go to work on them the next time. Now listen carefully. Do not watch yourself on video more than once or twice in a year. You do not need to do this every week.

Jeff Iorg: 30:23

That is way too much. But if you'll watch yourself every few months and learn what you're doing and how to do it better, and then compare what you want to do with what you're actually seeing, and then purposely determine to keep working on your craft. You will improve your vocal delivery. Again, video, wonderful tool. Don't overuse it.

Jeff Iorg: 30:50

Do not analyze yourself every week. That is way too much, way too much. Instead, every 6 months or so. Every 4 months maybe, watch yourself on video and say, how can I get better? I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, and then start putting those things into practice.

Jeff Iorg: 31:07

And what you'll see over time is remarkable improvement from this kind of self evaluation. I want every one of you who preaches and teaches, who lectures, who stands up in any kind of capacity and delivers information to other Christians in a ministry context, I want you to improve your vocal delivery. As you do, you will improve as a communicator, and people will appreciate the effort you're making to improve your craft. Work on vocal delivery skills as you lead on.