How to Speak So That People Want to Listen

Overview

A nine-episode course by Julian Treasure on mastering the power of personal communication. Developed from his popular TED Talks, we’re all ears. The human voice is a powerful instrument. When it comes to speaking effectively, just as in music, targeted training and regular practice are key. In the modern technological era, a greater number of obstacles exist to overcome for listening and speaking successfully. From conversing with friends to addressing large audiences, a robust communication toolkit equipped to handle these challenges will benefit anyone hoping to convey an important message. A strong and prepared communicator is better received and more accurately understood.

So what can you do to beef up your communication skills? How can you kick hardened habits and make lasting changes to your mindset, body, and environment in order to speak and listen more effectively? And is it possible to transform yourself from a nervous babbler to a confident and powerful public speaker?

The nine invaluable episodes of How to Speak So That People Want to Listen can train you to become a strong and effective communicator for the modern era through a multilayered approach. With TED Talks speaker Julian Treasure as your expert guide, explore how the failure to communicate effectively can negatively impact everything from your physical health to your well-being. Discover how listening and speaking are intimately connected and how a good listener makes for a powerful and cool-headed speaker. Move to the mechanics of speaking and listening from the ear down to the diaphragm. Spend time practicing how to breathe and stretch before important speaking engagements. Understand the difference between content and delivery when it comes to conveying a message, and see how you can improve your skills in each of these two areas. Conclude by examining how you can address large audiences with authority and conviction by changing how you practice, prepare, and deliver your content.

Course Lessons

01: The Pain and the Prize

Sound is incredibly important when it comes to speaking and listening. (After all, that’s what your voice is: just sound.) After a brief introduction to the series and a look at the vital importance of speaking and listening, spend some time exploring the power of sound. The world is quite a noisy place, and you’ll consider the four effects of sound on all human beings, including changing our physiology and our behavior.
Duration: 41 min

02: Listening and Speaking

Why do you have to consider listening in a series that’s really about speaking? Because the two are intimately connected. Learn why speaking and listening matter so much in our lives, and how they can even shape our happiness and well-being. One of the many transformational realizations you’ll discover is the helpful practice of “speaking into a listening,” which can make your speaking infinitely more powerful—immediately.
Duration: 36 min

03: How You Speak and Listen

It’s time to take speaking and listening from the unconscious level to the conscious one, where they can be honed. Focus here on the mechanics of your voice: how it works, how we hear it, and how we listen to it (hearing and listening being two different things). Along the way, you’ll explore in detail your listening filters, which shape your appreciation and perception of reality, and the way your senses affect one another.
Duration: 48 min

04: The Dark Side

Venture into the darker side of speaking and listening: namely, all the things that get in the way of effective communication. Ponder the four leeches (habits we have that suck the power from our communication), the seven deadly sins (an expansion of Julian Treasure’s popular TED Talk), six agents of miscommunication (which you can actually use as tools), and danger words to eliminate from your speaking.
Duration: 64 min

05: How to Listen Consciously

Listening is crucial to speaking because the way you listen affects the way everyone listens to you. Take a closer look at your relationship with silence, then learn effective listening exercises (such as “the mixer” and “savoring”) that can help you listen more consciously. End with insights into common listening issues that arise in an organizational context—and whether the problem is you, or your organization.
Duration: 50 min

06: How to Create Great Content

Content, as the saying goes, is king. A brilliant speaker delivering nonsense is not worth any listener’s time. But that’s not a problem you’ll have with help from this episode, which offers tools and techniques that aid you for the rest of your life. Learn how to master the four powerful foundations of listening, how to develop a succinct personal introduction, and how to make your content relevant—the infamous “So what?”
Duration: 60 min

07: Your Vocal Toolbox and How to Use It

Let’s crack open that vocal toolbox of yours! This episode on delivery (or how you say what you want to say) covers breathing practices, voice registers (including three you’ll want to avoid as much as possible), pitch (pro tip: we pay more attention to lower voices), and pace (which should be varied to fit with your listener’s listening). Also, make fascinating connections between your delivery and your facial expressions and posture.
Duration: 38 min

08: Fit to Speak

Spend this episode in the company of Jane Majendie, a fitness and wellbeing expert who steps in to show you how to speak in your full power, physically. You’ll cover vital tips for nutrition, hydration, breathing, and posture. Plus, this episode is chock-full of easy exercises you can perform—both on a daily basis and right before an upcoming speaking engagement—to get the best out of your voice and presence.
Duration: 27 min

09: Public Speaking

Few things are more terrifying than getting up in front of an audience to speak. But fear not—help is at hand. In this last episode, Julian Treasure offers a range of tips and tricks from what he’s learned over the years about public speaking: the crucible of speaking so that people want to listen. Strengthen your ability to practice, prepare, and deliver wonderful public talks, whether to 10 people or 10,000.
Duration: 54 min