Pause while speaking
Summary
- Pausing while speaking shows confidence - no need to fill the space with fluff
Details
- Breathing pause: allows you to draw a breath, which allows your voice to remain deep and prevents vocal fry.
- Allows you to increase volume
- Makes you sound confident
References
Quotes
Pausing shows both competence and confidence. People confident in their delivery don’t need to fill with fluff. And they know listeners will wait for them to finish their points.
The best kind of pause is a cue I call the breathing pause. This is when you pause and take in a breath. This is important because it gives you something to do in the pause.
Taking a deep breath has many benefits:
- It helps keep your vocal pitch nice and low.
- It prevents vocal fry.
- It allows you to increase your volume if you want.
- It gives you a moment to think if you need it.
- It makes you sound and feel more confident.
- And, of course, it prevents you from using verbal fillers.
- Every time you feel yourself wanting to use a filler, simly take a breath.
If you do accidentally use a verbal filler, don’t worry! Don’t react. Definitely don’t apologize. Just take the breath after the filler. This is a slow way to retrain your brain that it should pause instead of filling.
There’s one more great way to use the power pause—as a way to highlight bad behavior. When someone snaps at you or says something inappropriate, don’t snap back or react reflexively. Take a breathing pause. Let it hang in the air. I’ve found this makes the snapper reflect for a moment. They will often take it back, apologize, or think twice before doing it again.