How to improve public speaking, a skill required in business settings [Former NHK announcer Kazuya Matsumoto]

For many business people, including marketers, giving speeches in public, such as at conferences and meetings with business partners, is a daily occurrence. In such public situations, it is important to hone your “public speaking” skills in order to accurately convey information to your audience.

This time, we will be featuring Kazuya Matsumoto, a former NHK announcer who has written books based on his own experiences, including “65 Rules for How to Speak that Touches the Heart” and “30% of How to Speak: A Former NHK Announcer Teach You”, which have been well-received. Mr. will appear. What kind of content does Mr. Matsumoto talk about “How to improve public speaking”?

Even if we talk about “how to speak”…

What I’m going to tell you now is how to do “public speaking.” speech? Did you think so? Yes, that is included as well. Think of “public speaking” as the opposite of “private speaking = chatting among friends.” For example, conversations with family, friends, or at a bar are examples of private speaking. You can say what you want to say almost freely without having to be particularly careful.This is how to speak in such situations.

Public speaking is the opposite, and is basically a way of speaking in situations where you “speak with care.” Think of presentations at conferences, speeches at meetings, business negotiations, etc. as situations where you basically “convey information while taking the other person’s time.” In short,

most speaking situations in business situations are “public speaking.”

In that case, it is of course necessary

to speak concisely and in as short a time as possible

. It’s not good to have a story that you can’t understand unless you listen carefully, but the content and structure should be easy to understand even if you listen to it normally. Be able to hear without difficulty. That what I hear is not painful. I think these are the minimum requirements.

Books on how to speak to make yourself look good, such as “Improve your impression by improving your tongue and voice” and “How to speak to be seen as a great leader” seem to be popular at bookstores. I can understand the feelings of people who choose such books. However, from the perspective of those listening to what you say in a business setting,

the most important thing is to have a way of speaking that is simple, easy to understand, easy to hear, and painless to listen to

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From now on, I will divide the key points of public speaking into two parts: vocal expressions and what to say, and explain them as specifically as possible.

[Part 1] Thinking about “branding = how to communicate your brand” – The first step in “communicating” is to interpret the situation in your own way

Key points for “voice expression” – “slowly” and “clearly”

The first thing I would like to tell you is that for now, forget about “sliding tongue” and “voicing.” These skills are necessary for stage actors, announcers, comedians, singers, etc., but they are not particularly necessary if you just speak and convey information in your daily life.

What is required in business settings is to speak in a way that allows the listener to easily understand what you are saying. That’s enough. Are people who have a good tongue and vocal ability valued in business? If you think about it calmly, you will realize that this is not the case, but if you are concerned about it, you may be worrying about your own voice more than necessary.

If you still think you have a slippery tongue or poor pronunciation, I tell you

that you should be fine as long as you speak “slowly” and “clearly.”

Many people who have difficulty listening tend to speak faster than they would like due to impatience or nervousness. When the speed of speaking exceeds the speed at which the person can speak, it often becomes difficult to hear. Therefore,

I voluntarily set a low speed limit for myself and speak without exceeding it

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So, what speed is good? If you speak unnecessarily late, it will be difficult to convey your message. The way a battlefield cameraman who once appeared on a variety show speaks is interesting from a variety show perspective, but the slowness of his speech is annoying and hinders the transmission of information.

My recommendation is to speak at a speed that makes you think, “Maybe I should slow down a bit.”

Some books recommend a pace of 300 characters per minute, but that data is based on the pace at which NHK announcers read the news in the 1960s and 1970s. As you can see from the way YouTubers speak, I think it’s a bit unreasonable to use this as a standard today, as there are more people who talk faster than in the past. Moreover, the speed at which it is easy to speak may differ from person to person. That’s why I recommend a pace that feels a little slow so that you can speak clearly and comfortably.

Also, being conscious of trying to speak “clearly” will help you avoid speaking too quickly.

“Clearly” does not mean fluently, but rather “not speaking each word haphazardly.”

For example, if you want to say, “I think…” but you get impatient and want to say the next sentence quickly, you might say, “I think…, but I think…”. Have you ever seen someone like that?

Something like this happened. I’m pretty much an amateur when it comes to marketing, but once I was listening to someone give a lecture for amateurs, and I was confused because the word “soft analysis” came up over and over again. I was wondering, “Why do I have to do a secret analysis?” But when I saw the text on the slide, I finally realized that it was a “SWOT analysis.” Of course, it’s not good that I didn’t know the word, but I think the misunderstanding could have been avoided if he had pronounced it properly as “swot.” I think this is not a problem of smooth tongue, but rather a problem of consideration on the part of the speaker, who must pronounce important words carefully and convey them clearly to the listeners.

Even if you know something that you take for granted,

the most important things in public speaking are to pronounce it clearly and speak slowly,

especially in situations where there may be other people who don’t know. I think

that’s true

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If you still get impatient and end up talking too quickly, the only thing you can do is eliminate the cause of your impatience. The way to do this is to accumulate preparation and practice.

The anxiety of thinking, “What if it doesn’t work out?” can be suppressed to some extent by revising what you want to say, writing the manuscript, and then repeating it over and over again.

If you try all that and it doesn’t work, there’s nothing you can do about it. I prepare and practice so much that I can open up again

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Some of you may be thinking, “I don’t even have to write the manuscript.” It is certainly possible to speak without writing a manuscript. However, was what you said clear and easy for the listener to understand? Did you confirm this by listening carefully to your own recordings?

The biggest key to improvement: “Recording and reviewing”

There are some things I would like you to do. It means

“recording yourself speaking.”

Of course, you can also record it. What you need to be careful about is what happens next. Simply listening to the recorded data again is not enough. I would like the recording

to be transcribed word for word

, including filler words such as “um, um”. I know it’s a hassle, but please give it a try.

If you try this “word-by-word transcription” process, you will be able to see at a glance why your story was not getting across.

The first thing you notice is that there are more “useless words” than you might imagine. You probably say things like “um, um” many times more often than you imagine. Not only do we often unconsciously say things like, “I’ve been thinking this way, but I’ve been thinking about it like this. You are sure to find a variety of things, such as “I wasn’t saying the words,” “There was a leap in logic that I didn’t notice,” “The conversation went off track while I was talking, and I was saying things that even I didn’t understand.” .

How do you know that? Actually, that’s because I was like that when I was a new announcer.

When I was a university student, I had a part-time job as a lecturer at a cram school, and from my first year as an announcer, I had a lot of confidence in being able to speak what I had memorized in a timely manner. The day before the live broadcast, I made a memo listing the contents of the report and memorized it before the next day’s live broadcast. What was the result? I finished my report on time and was able to speak without any hesitation. I remember being very proud of myself and being praised by the seniors around me, saying things like, “It’s hard to believe that I’m a newcomer.”

However, he was only praised until his first year. After that, even though I was doing the same thing, senior announcers started telling me, “Your reports aren’t getting across properly.” The cause was that I was not very careful with the details of what I was going to say and the sentences I was going to say. At my senior’s request, I tried to transcribe what I had said. What I realized was that

there were more unnecessary words and crude expressions than I had imagined, such as “speak the same thing over and over again,” as I

mentioned earlier. Ever since my first year, I’ve been watching my live broadcasts on VTR, and I must have been reflecting on them every time. Still, I didn’t realize that what I was saying wasn’t good enough until I transcribed it word for word.

Be sure to write a “manuscript” of what you will be talking about, not “memos.”

Since then, I have always tried to write down what I say in a manuscript. When you write it down, you can look back at what you are saying from a distance. It will also be easier to spot leaps in logic, parts that lack explanation, and parts that are confusing. Also, if you try reading the manuscript aloud, you will find that although it reads normally in writing, it is extremely difficult to speak or sounds sluggish when spoken.

If you continue to write the manuscript once and make revisions while speaking it over and over again, you will end up rehearsing it many times, rather than just writing notes and suddenly going into the actual production. It also means that you are practicing speaking a lot. Although it may be tedious at first, in the end you will be able to fine-tune your expressions down to the smallest detail in a way that is easy to convey to the listener. I realized that it was indeed full of good things.

Another advantage of writing a manuscript is that you can reduce unnecessary filler words such as “um, um”.

Think of a situation where you would say, “Um, um.” Perhaps you are searching for the words or trying to formulate what you want to say. If you try to speak using bulleted notes, even if you have written a summary of what you want to say, you will have to compose sentences on the spot in order to say it. It can’t be helped that you end up saying, “Um, um” in such a situation, and it’s also natural that the conversation goes off track while you’re putting together a sentence, or that your expressions become difficult to understand.

This is fine in normal conversation, but I think it’s not so desirable in public speaking, where you are taking up people’s time. At the very least, you want to be prepared to convey what you want to convey in easy-to-understand terms.

For those who say, “When I write a manuscript, it ends up being a boring read.”

Write your manuscript before speaking. Some people say, “When I have a manuscript, I end up just reading it,” and “I want to speak in my own way, so I purposely take notes.”

Actually, I was like that when I was a new announcer. My senior said this to me. “The way you speak doesn’t matter to the listeners.Wouldn’t the viewers be happier if you conveyed information without waste in expressions without waste?” I had no words to respond.

Even if it’s an extreme story or a casual reading, it’s enough as long as you can clearly convey what you’re talking about.

The way you speak in your own way doesn’t matter to the people listening. What a self-centered way of thinking. I felt really embarrassed.

If you don’t like reading the words in a simple way, practice saying them out loud many times so that you don’t read the words in a simple manner. If you say it over and over again, you’ll find that it’s difficult to talk about. All you have to do is modify it one by one to make it easier to talk about it.

“That’s a pain. Isn’t there an easier way?” I understand what you’re saying.

Unfortunately, other than a few geniuses, I think they have no choice but to work steadily like I did.

However,

there are keywords that can help you write a manuscript that won’t make you read too much. It is called “the best short sentence”.

Short sentences are easier to say out loud and easier for listeners to understand. I think you can understand this intuitively.

So, how long should a sentence be? When I was an announcer, I was told that “ideally you should read each sentence within 5 seconds.” This 5 seconds is a rough guideline for how long you can speak in one breath. Of course, a well-trained person will be able to speak in one breath for more than 10 seconds. However, when you’re nervous, it’s normal to not be able to hold your breath for long, so I used 5 seconds as a guideline. In terms of characters, it’s about 25 to 30 characters. In other words,

if you keep each sentence between 25 and 30 characters, you can read it in one breath.

Sentences that can be read quickly are less likely to become boring reads.

In fact, in the manuscripts I have written so far, I have tried to keep each sentence to that number of characters as much as possible. Try reading it out loud. I think it’s probably easier to talk about.

Preparation and practice starts with making a schedule

It’s a lot to create materials such as PowerPoint. Face the presentation as if it were a real event. I often see people like this among the clients I consult with. I understand that you are busy. Still, there are many times when I think that the way I plan my schedule is not good.

I hope you understand that if you want to convey your message in a way that will be clearly understood by the other person, it is better to write a manuscript.

Until you get used to it, I think it’s best to set aside at least one day for writing, revising, and practicing speaking

.

Actually, before creating materials such as slides, it is better to first write a manuscript for your talk and then create slides to match it. If you create the slides first, you may end up including things you don’t want to talk about, resulting in slides that are overloaded with information. Also, effects such as animation cannot be used at the right time if there is no script to speak of.

My recommendation is to first create the manuscript.

Once the manuscript is more than 80% complete, slide production begins. Once the slides are roughly completed, practice speaking along with the slides. Fine-tune the manuscript and slides while practicing. Once completed, rehearse at least once as planned. If you can do this, at least you won’t have to worry about the actual performance. You will also be able to significantly reduce your ability to speak too quickly and use words like “um”. Please start by creating a schedule like this.

There are so many tips for public speaking, and although I couldn’t share them all, I think I was able to share the most important parts.

If you would like to learn more about techniques, there are books and courses on Udemy, so please check them out. However, the most effective way is to meet them in person and actually revise the manuscript and audio expression one by one. I look forward to having such an opportunity.