Monika Lutz
How to Speak When You Want to be Heard
BIG IDEA: People don’t care what you say, they care how you say it.
Sound-writing applies scientific research on sound and cognition into a method for being heard and remembered.
People don’t care WHAT you say. They care HOW you say-it.
I learned this lesson the hard way, at fourteen when I signed up for the state talent competition.
The only problem was, I had no talent.
I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t dance.
But there wasss, one thing, I could do [faster, higher].
I remember peeking through the curtain from backstage. Hundreds of people were crammed into the ballroom.
In front, is a massive table, with six evaluators.
I feel a tap on my shoulder. And I knew.
That was my cue.
I stepped out–vulnerable and alone in the spotlight. Just waiting to be judged.
The other girls, had sequins and glitter and flaming batons!
I had, the only thing I needed, a microphone.
So, what did a girl, from Boulder, Colorado, say, to take home the trophy?
Turns out, it wasn’t WHAT I said.
It was HOW I said it.
All the tap dancing in the world, can’t compete against how it feels to emotionally connect through communication.
The secret isn’t great information. It’s great delivery.
This explains why, it’s not the most informed experts getting TV gigs. The most entertaining one, does.
The teacher with the greatest theory, doesn’t fill classrooms. The most engaging one, does.
And the start-up with the best idea doesn’t get funded. The one with the most compelling pitch, does.
This is our reality.
But it doesn’t have to be our future.
We can give the brightest spotlight back to our brightest minds, as soon as we answer this question:
How do you speak, when you want to be heard?
Answering this question has become my life’s work.
For the past 2,000 years, leaders depended on their voices to spread information around the world. For them, oration was a critical, lifelong craft.
Today, our society centers around the written word. We have text, email, blogs, messenger. We depend so heavily on written communication, that we’ve conned ourselves into believing that a speech is just words on paper.
It’s not. A speech is sound on eardrums.
I watched Diana, a brilliant author, do a book talk, recently. About three minutes in, I scan the packed auditorium and see hundreds of faces, looking down at their cell phones.
Andy’s sitting next to me, and he leans over, saying, “Hearing Diana talk, just ruined her books for me.”
The fact is, Diana is not alone. And it’s not even her fault. We’ve been well-trained to write for reading…but no one teaches us how to write for speaking.
If you want to make people listen and remember what you say, then stop writing your presentations the way you write your papers.
Stop writing for how a speech reads. And start writing for how a speech sounds.
It’s called sound-writing. This method stems from scientific research, and aligns with how our minds intake, process, and recall information so we that can maximize attention and retention.
Making our audience FEEL something is at the heart of all of this. When you listen to me talk, my words are sound waves and your brain processes them, first, for emotion and second, for logic. That means, if you don’t emotionally engage your listener, your information isn’t going to reach them.
And, they’re also not likely to remember what you said, because emotion plays a major role in how your brain stores and recalls memories, says research from psychologist Donald MacKay.
So how do we make people FEEL something when we speak?
According to multiple studies from Yale University by Michael Kraus, when it comes to expressing and judging emotion, the sound of your voice matters more than your body language, and more than your words.
You can find proof of this, basically any Saturday night, when dates get prematurely cancelled, because he said, “You look fine.”
When he SHOULD have said: “You look finnnnnne.”
Same information. But when your delivery sounds like THAT, you communicate everything she wants to FEEL.
When we combine all of those insights, content is not king, delivery is king.
However, you can’t just deliver nonsense. You have to use words. The words you choose, and they way you put all of those words together, impacts HOW you deliver and what emotions you’re able to make the audience feel.
Sound-writing is how good ideas become great speeches because it takes your information and writes it in a way that enables your compelling delivery. This is how, when you sound-write your speeches, what you deliver motivates action.
Sound-writers looks at speeches the way songwriters look at music. You can’t just cram in any word you want. It has to have the right sound. The letters, syllables, register—all that and more—is considered.
I wanted to know, how do we make our speeches as emotionally engaging and memorable as our favorite songs, WITHOUT turning every boardroom into a Broadway musical?
The answer is, you focus on three simple steps, that form the foundation of Sound-Writing:
Emotion, Information, and Coordination.
Let’s dig in.
Step 1: emotion. From the very start, choose how you want people to feel at the end of your talk. Maybe that emotion is fired up or comforted. Just pick one, and we’ll make everything else align with that emotional outcome.
Step 2: information. Decide what you’re going to say. I recommend that you bullet out your key points, then record yourself talking through all of them. We’ll use that transcript to form the foundation of your speech, which saves us from the number one cause of awkward public speaking, which is, trying to say words you never use. Embrace all your contractions like “can’t” and “won’t.” If it makes YOU comfortable, it’ll make your LISTENERS comfortable, and that’s half the battle.
All that’s left is step 3, Coordination. This is where you combine the desired emotions with your information so you can speak in a way that pleases the ear, and engages your listeners’ brain.
Think of sound-smithing like ninja-level word-smithing. You fine-tune the words not just for meaning, but also for how they sound, and the way they combine to form the music of your overall message.
By the way, you don’t have to sound-write your entire talk, writing even just a thesis or key point this way, will pack a serious punch for you.
Inside coordination, there are so many language tools you can play with. Try these two tricks first: letter sound and pacing.
Letter Sound is how I describe the way a word sounds in your ear, based on its letters and pronunciation. Remember that certain sounds make your listeners feel certain ways, so we want to match how your words sound with how you want people to feel.
For example, if you’re trying to soothe or endear an audience, add words that are pleasing to the ear, like “luscious.” And when you want to get people going, choose words with harsh delivery, like “jolting” and “chastise.”
Next, I want to give you the power of pacing. Just like in music, the drumline dictates your heartrate. So, when you pick up the pace, you’re influencing your audience’s pulse.
If you want to keep your audience on edge, you need short syllables, short sentences, and strategic clauses.
If you’re trying to get people to calm down, or think more, write in extra “rest” notes, because silence, can say as much, as sound. Extenddddd your sentences. Then land your thesis in 9 words or less. That’s how we make their brain go, “Wait a second! One of these sentences is not like the rest!” And that’s where their attention is going to, right on top of your takeaway.
It’s that simple. The 3-step sequence for sound-writing is emotion, information, and coordination.
Now, YOU have a choice. Use sound-writing, or have it used against you. Because people don’t care WHAT you say.
They care, HOW, you say it. And today, your great idea isn’t enough. In fact, no idea in here [points to head], has ever changed the world.
It’s only when you can get what’s in here [head], out here [motions to audience], that anyone will ever HEAR you. Join me, and sound-writers around the world, to make sure that when YOU speak, you WILL be heard.
