Quick Tip – Record Your Voice

🚀 It’s a great way to rehearse for interviews and talks – Issue #142

A few months ago, a company in Silicon Valley invited me to give a talk. I moved away from the Bay Area about four years ago, and I now live about a three-hour drive away.

I decided to use the trip to rehearse my talk. But, I obviously didn’t want to have the distraction of printed speaker notes. It’s not a good idea to read and drive, even if you own a Tesla (which I do not).

So, I recorded audio of myself rehearsing while I had the notes handy as a reference. I practiced the way I would present standing on stage, emphasizing some statements, adding a dramatic pause, etc.

While I was driving, I played the audio on my iPhone through my car stereo. It worked like a charm! I played a segment, paused the recording, and practiced my delivery over and over again. Then, I would move on to the next section.

As you know, people have different types of preferred learning styles (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic). There is significant controversy in the research on this topic and competing theories, but the benefits of multimodal learning are apparent (i.e., the more ways you learn something, the better you’ll remember it).

“Students engaged in learning that incorporates multimodal designs, on average, outperform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes.” — Metiri Group, Commissioned by Cisco.

When you have a job interview, you should rehearse your introduction (i.e., the “elevator pitch” of who you are), describing your past work experience, answering expected questions (especially the tough ones), and answering behavioral questions.

If you only read your written notes, you won’t remember this information as well you could. Practicing the interview out loud is an excellent way to improve your retention and delivery.

Recording yourself to hear how you speak adds another layer of value. You’ll notice areas where you sound less confident, use filler words (e.g., umm, ah, like, right), and other issues you’d like to correct to polish your delivery.

When you have these audio recordings, you can make great use of your commute time to review them. They will also come in handy the morning of your big interview (or talk).

I know that it’s not always pleasant to listen to your own voice (I don’t enjoy it). But, I’ve found that the recordings are a fantastic way to review your audio notes at the last minute to refresh your memory and be even better prepared.

Try it the next time you have an interview or when you’ll be giving a talk or presentation. Let me know how it goes!

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