Public Speaking Tips from Acting Classes: Slow Down, Find Your Breaking Point, and Own Your Voice

How a Yandex E-com Workshop Reminded Me of Three Public Speaking Tips

What’s the best way to spend a vacation? Simple — keep working so your stress levels don’t drop. Recently, Andrey Badin and I ran a Growth Hacking workshop at Yandex’s E-com conference. Nearly 160 attendees, nothing but positive feedback. The format clearly landed — we dissected a Lamoda case study (special thanks to Oleg Khomyuk, Ex CDS at Lamoda, for the excellent case).

What made it work? Three public speaking rules I took away from acting classes I took last year. Here they are.

Public Speaking Tip #1: Don’t Rush

We often feel the urge to dump everything in our heads as fast as possible — fire it all off and be done with it. The very first thing they taught us in acting class was: slow down. It turns out, the slower you deliver a thought, the more of its substance actually lands with the audience.

Public Speaking Tip #2: Find Your Breaking Point

One exercise that personally helped me enormously was designed to push you to an emotional breaking point. Once you’ve been there, you develop an internal dial — something that lets you consciously regulate the intensity of your emotions and energy on stage. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s one of the most effective public speaking skills you can build.

Bring Your Voice Back Into Your Throat

This one is purely physiological. Push your voice deeper into your throat. The lower and deeper it sits, the more convincing and authoritative you sound.

Why Entrepreneurs Should Try Acting Classes

Those are the rules — simple, but effective. I genuinely recommend taking an acting course. First, it puts you in states you’ve never experienced before. Second — who knows, maybe you have real acting talent and it’s time to reconsider your life choices.

And keep working on your vacations.