Comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s character on the iconic TV series, Seinfeld, coined expressions for people who had styles of talking that annoyed him: Close Talkers, High talkers, Low Talkers and Fast Talkers. In one episode, he mentions his friend, Elaine’s, Fast Talker boyfriend, a voice-over actor who holds the record for saying the most words in a TV commercial—300 words in 30 seconds.
Frankly, that’s how fast many of my public speaking coaching clients seem to be talking when they deliver their presentations. Like racehorses at the Kentucky Derby, they leap out of the starting gates and run their mouths as fast as they can, eager to reach the finish line.
I can’t tell you how many times a client (especially one struggling with presentation anxiety) has sheepishly admitted “the faster I talk, the quicker I’ll finish.” Most of my clients, however, are not really conscious of how fast they’re talking. Swept away by a mixture of fear and excitement, they don’t even realize their galloping words have hijacked their presentation. The increased adrenaline pumping through their body, generated by the “Fight or Flight” response, causes them to breathe (and, therefore, to speak) more rapidly. This leaves their audience members working overtime to play catch up with the barrage words speeding by. And when an audience works too hard to understand a speaker, they stop listening.
Optimum communication occurs when a message sent from point A to point B is received with as little interference as possible. Speaking too quickly can act as a colossal interference, robbing your audience of the breathing room they need to let an essential word or point sink in.
Consider how you're coming across when you communicate, whether you're delivering a pitch to one person, or a presentation to one hundred. Do you leave room for both you and your audience to breathe and take in what you're saying? Or do you rat-a-tat your words like machine gun fire?
If you suspect that you’re a fast talker, consider implementing the following technique: Imagine that the members of your audience (or the potential client you’re pitching to) are hard of hearing. If you’re really committed to helping them hear and understand you, you’ll automatically adjust your delivery by enunciating more clearly, speaking with appropriate volume, emphasizing important words or phrases and, yes, speaking more slowly. In so doing, you’ll go from “Fast Talker” to “Effective Speaker”-which greatly increases your ability to influence and impact others—on and off the speaking platform.