Read this if you struggle to speak louder

I have a confession; I was a mumbler.

No matter how ‘loud’ I tried to speak,

People kept asking me to repeat myself.

It was SO annoying.

I kept saying “BUT I AM SPEAKING LOUDER!!!”

and they’d say “I’m sorry, what was that?”

….

You see,


Speaking louder isn’t just about confidence, it’s also about freedom of expression. How comfortable do you look in expressing yourself and your voice to the world.

Loud volume can be an indication of confidence.

Whereas low volume can be an indication of being timid.

If you are trying to speak louder, here's an exercise that will really train you to do that. Most people who speak very softly, they don't know they speak softly. Or they think they speak loud enough but other people just can't hear them.

This is because our body and mind are used to a certain volume. Because you've been speaking that way your whole life, for you, it's normal, but for other people, it is not.

The Challenge of Speaking Louder The issue with volume is most of the time when you try to speak a little bit louder, it sounds negligibly louder, a very small improvement that most people can't tell. So, what we need to do is drastically become louder, significantly louder than your normal. Now, this is going to feel very uncomfortable.

Most people think they are screaming, but I promise you, it only feels like that in your head. Because of that, we are looking for discomfort, meaning when you are practicing this exercise, you want to feel uncomfortable, feel like you are screaming. If you don't feel that, then you most likely do not speak loud enough.

The 1 to 10 Ladder Exercise Now we are going to do an exercise called the 1 to 10 ladder. This is how it works: you are going to say the words 1 to 10, and every single time you are going to go louder.

Now, for a lot of people, what will happen is their transition from 1 to 10 sounds like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... there's no difference at all.

What you need to do is you need to record yourself doing this, watch it back, and see, can I tell a big difference between 10 and 1?

If you can tell, post the video on the group and ask the members, can you tell a difference between my 10 and 1? If they can't, then there's not a big enough difference. What you really want to do is exaggerate.

You want to go much louder than you need to. You need to train yourself that you're able to go much louder, and then you can tone it down later, but first, we must really exaggerate.

Implementing the Exercise So, pretend like you're doing this exercise, and you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

You're at 10, and now what you're going to do is you're going to go into a simple topic to speak about. Talk about your day, talk about the weather, anything.

You're at the 10 level of volume. "The one thing that I love about my country is XYZ." You're going to be starting up where you speak loudly because you've done this exercise already.

Breathing Techniques for Better Volume Another thing to note, a lot of people don't know where to go to breathe from. They breathe from their chest as opposed to their belly.

Breathe into your belly until you will feel your belly protruding outward because there's so much air.

Now when you speak, speak when you exhale. EJECT all the words out of your belly with the air.

You will immediately notice the POWER in your voice.

Practicing

You'll say 1, 2, 3, 4, and then it's going to go louder and louder.

Remember to speak from your belly, do not speak from your chest or your throat.

The more you do this, the more uncomfortable you feel.

Eventually, your baseline volume will become much louder.

Go try this out.

Before You Go

Help me create the world’s best communication skills membership group.

Fill out this short survey, and be a part of the waitlist who gets first access when it launches in early February!