Warm Up Before You Speak Up | Captivate the Mic

Grab Your Free 5-Minute Warm-Up Handout Now: https://speakers.captivatethecrowd.com/speaker-warm-up-opt-in

You wouldn't sprint without stretching. So why do we walk into the meeting, the stage, the pitch — cold? A quick solo episode on why so many women can't find their lower register when it matters, plus the two-minute warm-up I've been teaching leaders for twenty years.

Here's what I've watched happen for twenty years.

A woman who is brilliant in the hallway walks into the conference room and her voice goes up. Gets faster. Gets smaller. She apologizes before she makes her point. And afterward she says some version of the same sentence to me: I don't know why I do that.

So let's talk about why.

Your lower register isn't missing. It's not a skill you failed to acquire. It's a place you learned not to go — because at some point, taking up space cost you something. A comment. A room that went quiet the wrong way. A review that used the word "abrasive." Socialization does part of it. Past visibility trauma does the rest. Your body remembers. Your throat remembers.

A cold voice is a compliant voice. It stays high and thin and quick because that's where it's been safe.

I'm going to come back to all of that in another episode. It deserves its own room. But today I want to hand you something you can use this week.

So we warm up. Not because your voice is broken — because your body needs the reminder that it's allowed to be here.

Two minutes. Speaking to two people or two thousand, same warm-up.
In this episode, we'll tackle:

• Why your voice climbs when the stakes rise — and why that's history, not nerves
• What vocal authority actually is (it isn't volume, and it isn't doing a Serious Voice)
• Why nobody taught you this, even if you've had presentation training
• The full warm-up — doable in a stairwell, a parked car, or the bathroom before you walk in
• Why you go over the top in the warm-up so you don't have to in the room

Connect with your Host, Elaine Williams:
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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:11

Hi, this is Elaine with Captivate the Mic and I am sending you this episode. This is my gift for you. It is a super fast warm-up for any time you're about to speak, whether it's before an important phone call or an important webinar or a meeting in person or over Zoom when you can wake up your face, wake up your breath, and wake up your body. You can do it in two minutes. You will be oxygenated. You will have more energy flowing, you're gonna have deeper breaths, you're gonna feel better, you're going to be embodied and confident. So this is a super quick episode that's really just my super quick warm-up, but I know it helps a lot of people, including myself. I still do it. So enjoy. I can't wait to hear what you think about it. Let me know. Okay, you've just been asked to speak. Maybe you're doing an introduction at a networking meeting. Maybe you have been given the opportunity to speak about your business for two minutes at a community event. Maybe you're getting to present. You have to speak and you feel under pressure. This is a super simple warm-up to help you get ready and be an embodied, confident, badass woman. So here we go. Take a deep breath with your belly, deep belly breathing. Put your hand on your lower belly and breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out one more time. Next, I want you to stretch. Take your arms. I want you to stretch up and over to the left, up and over to the right. This is waking up your body laterally, which we don't usually do. And while you're doing shoulder rolls, I want you to go. This is a bubble. It's okay if your lips hardly move. You can work up to it. Okay, now we're going to warm up our face and the articulators. Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat. Now we're gonna do red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather. You know New York, you need New York. You know New York, you need New York. You know New York, you need New York. And while you're doing your vocal exercises, I want you to stand with your feet hip width apart, and I want you to feel like there is a rope pulling you down through the bottoms of your feet into the ground. That's called being planted. That means somebody could come push you and you wouldn't fall over. You are standing there, your knees are slightly bent, but you are planted. Now I want you to take your arms way out, and I want you to take up space. Say it with me. Take up space. Give yourself permission to be larger than life because you have the opportunity to speak in front of five or 50 or 500 people. I want you to be warmed up and ready to go. So you get to practice taking up space. Your feet are planted, your arms are way out. Now I want you to put your arms on your hips and stand in the Wonder Woman posture. This is a great way for building confidence and reminding you of the badass that you are that sometimes we forget. And the last vocal exercise I'm going to show you is the tip of the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the lips, the tongue, and the teeth. The tip of the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the lips, the tongue, and the teeth. The tip of the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the lips, the tongue, and the teeth. And finally, one more time, singing it to the rafters, tip of the tongue, roof of the mouth, the lips, the tongue, and the teeth. I want you to go over the top so that you are warmed up and stretched vocally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and then when you go to actually do the thing, you're not gonna be that dramatic, but you will have stretched and woken up your body and your instrument. So that is your super fast, quick warm-up anytime before you get to speak on camera or in person. Okay, so you just did the super fast warm-up for speakers. And now make sure you grab the handout. Just click the button below, put your name and email, and we will we will send you this fabulous handout that you can print out and use and keep it in your car, keep it in your bathroom, keep your by your mirror, and it will help you anytime you have some kind of speaking under pressure. It takes two minutes. Do the quick little things, toy boat the articulators, and you will be ready to rock every time. It's gonna help you get in that state, get your body focused, and it only takes two minutes of time. And having that printout is a great reminder because when you're busy, slash excited, slash nervous, it's easy for things to go out of existence. So just click the button below, grab your handout, and please share this with somebody who wants to be a better speaker, who needs to be more charismatic in their speaking and their presentations. Please share this with them because that's how the podcast grows and that's how we help more people. Thanks so much. Bye for now.