Episode 56: The Three Gears of Pace

You've spent hours on your slides, your talking points, your messaging — but have you ever examined how fast you speak? That one blind spot is silently destroying your credibility as a communicator.

In this episode, Sam breaks down one of the most overlooked elements of executive communication: pacing. Using a hilarious Vitamix blender mishap as a launching point, he introduces the Three Gears of Pace — Cruise, Ignite, and Land — a simple framework for varying your delivery so you sound more confident, command attention, and keep your audience locked in.

Key Takeaways:

• One speed is the kiss of death — variance is what keeps an audience engaged
• The "Land" gear (slowing way down) is the most underused and most powerful tool in executive communication
• Speaking fast signals nervousness, not passion — deliberate pacing shows confidence and control

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I have a Vitamix. Now, I don't want you to get intimidated by that, and I don't want you to feel like it's too much of a flex. I didn't buy it new. I bought it years ago on Groupon. If you didn't already know this, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know one of my greatest weaknesses, there are so few, but one of them, one of them that is a weakness is I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets. Now you would think that because I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets, I must be cooking all the time or I must be a cooking enthusiast. That's not the case at all. I am not a guru when it comes to kitchen appliances. In fact, it's it's quite the opposite. When I buy them, I usually don't know what to do with them. But the Vitamix, I knew was going to be a workhorse. And I bought it when I was on a fad with smoothies, and then it now became a part of the fad that I'm in with milkshakes. Two totally different ends of the spectrum. So I bought the Vitamix a while ago, and it's interesting because the Vitamix is not like a ninja device, if you know anything about ninja. There's not a whole lot that you can do on the base of the Vitamix that I have. It has really three dials. It has this dial that says on or off, which is self-explanatory. It's got that center dial that you can crank up. And then it has a dial that I only ever used once by accident. And that's really what I'm going to talk to you about. This dial has two settings, high or low. Those are the two settings. And I one time had uh all of my stuff in for my milkshake or my smoothie, depending on what end of my health I was attempting to feed. I had put the cream in, I'd put the ice cream in, I had everything all in there and it was filled. And I went to turn it on and it didn't turn on. Then I kind of moved the knobs, it didn't move, and I turned that high-low knob up and down, nothing happened. And then I realized that the plug was unplugged. Again, I said I'm I am a sucker for wanting kitchen gadgets, but I'm also terrible about knowing how to operate them. So I went and I plugged the Vitamix in, not realizing that the high button was on. And as soon as I did it, I I was I never knew how to make one of those volcanoes when I was a kid that you'd see that the science nerds would make that had the volcanoes where the things would erupt and you'd see how awesome it was and they'd get A's. Mine was like, it looked like it was made out of play-doh. It had a little hole in it that a little bit of water came out of. Well, this was volcanic. It shot straight up in the air, uh, got stuffed all over the counter. I got all over me. Uh, and I don't remember where I was. Depending on where I was, if it was a smoothie, I was probably happy because I had less of the smoothie to eat. If it was a milkshake, I was probably depressed because I wanted to eat more of the milkshake. I digress. My point is, it was a disaster because of the speed. And the case comes to you about your messaging is so often a disaster because of the speed. It's the speed that does it. I know that we spend so much time working on our messaging, our slide deck, our points, our videos. We even do the best we can when it comes to the audio, but we never really examine how fast we speak. Well, today we're gonna bring that to an end because we are in a series that I call the elevated communicator. And we touched on this last week, and I did a really poor job bridging these two things together because there was something that we introduced you to called the command triangle for executive presence. It wasn't the framework that was bad. No, it was because I conflated two things using a word as kind of a pun almost. And that word is pacing. Pacing. Pacing is when you hear it, it could mean two things. It could be meaning you pacing back and forth, or you're pacing because you're worried something's gonna happen. And I talked last week about pacing in terms of deliberate movement, but I also said pacing could refer to the speed that you use to speak. Well, today I am going to devote the whole time to pacing. And it's so important, it deserves its own time because it is next to nervousness and body language, it is one of those things that will absolutely destroy your credibility as a communicator, is how fast you talk. And how you do it, whether it's intentional, that you're speaking fast because you want to get this thing done, or you're speaking fast because by nature, you're a fast talker, or you speak so slow that it seems like you're almost uninterested in being there, which that's not the case. You're not uninterested in being there. You didn't get into that meeting, leading that meeting by not caring that you're there. That doesn't make any sense. It's more about how you feel when you're presenting. Because a lot of times when we are examining this from the standpoint of after-action review, like what am I doing? How is this working? We will inadvertently tend to default to the type of speaking that makes us most comfortable. I feel comfortable, therefore they must feel comfortable. I feel comfortable, therefore it must matter to them. That's not the case. It often is a big difference in how you feel if you feel comfortable versus how they feel comfortable in watching you. And it's our job to figure out what we can do to bridge that gap. And that's really what I do as a coach. I try to get you to communicate at the level of your competency. So every time I meet with a client, my goal is to get them to look and to sound and to speak in the way that reflects the competence of their role. And that's my job. If I can get you closer to that, I'm doing a great job. And if I can't, then I'm not doing a very good job because you're already competent at your job, because they don't ask people to speak who aren't very good at their jobs mostly. I know, don't email me with someone, well, Karen, she was sucked at her job. She had three bad performance reviews and she had to speak at the I know. There's always an exception. But if you're leading a meeting, if you're running an organization, if you have to give a keynote, if you have to give an all hands or a board update, you're there because you're kind of important. It's like the um Will Farrell character. I don't know the movie, but I it gets quote all the time. I'm kind of a big deal. You are kind of a big deal. And I'm not trying to puff you up, but in your organization, you matter. It didn't happen overnight. So it's my job with some of these things and the elevated communicators. I want to elevate your level of communication to match the level that you are firing at when it comes to your role. So that's why we're looking at pacing, because pacing is one of the quickest ways to appear more confident. It's one of the quickest ways to appear like you have more charge, to appear that you have more enthusiasm for being there. But if you don't get it right, it's going to be one of the fastest indicators that you hate all manner of speaking. If you don't get it right, it's going to throw you off. So to come back to my Vitamix analogy, which I thought was a very, very appropriate analogy for this, because if you don't get your pacing right and you start off too fast, which most of us do, you're going to end up with a mess on your hands, just like I did. I'm going to give you the three gears of pace, the three gears of pace. So just like there were three buttons on that Vitamix, I'm going to get you to the place where you can look at pacing from a standpoint of never going with one speed again. First of all, you're not going to have one speed. You should never have one speed. You should always avoid saying always and never. But as a communicator, as an executive leader, you should not have one speed. I want you to look at your speed if you're consistently speaking at the same level. It's the smooch of death if it's always the same. Even if it's at a comfortable conversational pace. There has to be some variance. Remember, your job, if you're communicating, is a little bit of pattern disruption. And I talk about pattern disruption to my clients, and I'll tell you how that works. And I'll give you an example. And I'm sorry it's an inappropriate example, but uh, you've seen over the last couple of years, and it's it's kind of dying down, but the nonfiction business books that are most popular feature cusses, swear words, right? Some of the most best-selling nonfiction books over the last five to seven years have had cuss words in them, starting with the subtle art of not giving a French door. All right, obviously it's not French door, but uh the book, and you look at the book, it's got this in your face orange cover, you see it in the self-help section, even in the leadership section of the bookstore, and you're like, golly, what's going on? I uh that's that book shouldn't be here. But it causes you to what pick it up, you look at it, you start to examine it, you see that there's a lot of coherent research in that book, not to put too fine a point on it. I'm not trying to tell you to read the book, but it's not just some dude swearing at you and being nasty. They're swearing at it, but it's it's written from a standpoint of a person trying to get you to start to think a different way. And the way that he got you in the door was through something called pattern disruption, where it caused you to kind of get thrown off your axis when you saw the way that book was titled. Now, in speaking, there's a similar thing that we can do, and we can modify our pacing. We can modify our pacing using the three different gears. So you want to modify your pacing, you want to disrupt your audience, you want them to not be able to ignore you, check LinkedIn, look at Facebook, try to see what's going on in the game. You want them to be pretty locked into what you're saying when you're saying it. So I'm gonna give you the three gears of pace and how you want to use them. So the first one, I'm gonna call this the cruise. The cruise, cruise pace. This is your even. We're gonna call this your baseline. This is where you're going to live. It starts with probably how your messaging is going to start. It's going to be you talking, and I always recommend a more conversational pace like this, as opposed to a very formal and buttoned-up approach, like you're reading something. I'd prefer this. I have been going to different networking events, different meetings. I was at a meeting where out of almost every presenter, they read. Almost every presenter they read. And I've coached people that read when they're speaking. And one of the questions they ask me is, how did I do as a presenter? And I say, you are a phenomenal reader. And I that's a compliment. Not everyone can do, not everyone can read in a conscious way that sounds clear. Like there are some people, I was a Sunday school teacher for years. I'm a pastor and I'm a leader in that way. And you'd ask people to take turns reading. Some people flat can't read on the spot like that. That's a gift. So I'm not dismissing the gift of reading. And that's not presenting. It's not presenting. I'm sorry, it's not. So you don't want to start off by saying, good morning, everyone. My name is Sam Linton. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is known for having 0.2 inches more rain than Seattle. That's a fun fact you didn't think you were gonna get. I was I met with somebody from Seattle this past week, and I said, I'm not trying to, not trying to throw shade on what you guys are known for, but Pittsburgh is actually a little rainier than you. So I put them down really hard, 0.2 inches right at you, Seattle. So I um I don't get up and read that though. I have a conversation because that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to make a connection with that audience. So if you're reading, that's fine. If you're if you're reading an excerpt from a book that you wrote, I mean, sure, but you're not there to read. So you don't want to make that your default. So my default would be cruise. That is a conversation where you are connecting, you're more deliberate about taking your time, you're having this type of tone, natural conversation, home base. This is home base. You're gonna be here, your speed is gonna be around here. You're this is not too fast, this is not too slow. You're using pauses here and there. All right, you're not going to want to go from home base. And what my recommendation to you is as you're listening to this, try to modify your own home base. Try to see what that looks like for you and maybe slow it down. Because invariably, where most people spend their talk time is in the fast zone, or what I call the second gear, which is ignite. Now, I don't want to say you should never talk fast, but I'm gonna tell you that the majority of everyone that I've coached, they fly. And I mean like supersonic. It's a problem because number one, it's a sign of nervousness. Nothing shows more confidence than when you're willing to stop talking and be in the silence. But when you are speaking and you're flying, the second thing is you're not keeping people with you. They don't know your material, they don't know what it is that you're there to tell them. That's why you're there to tell them. So when you're flying, you're doing a big disservice to them because they aren't gonna understand you and aren't gonna keep with you. Another thing, and I want to make sure I say this in the proper context, I've coached a lot of executives who have come from different countries and different cultures and different backgrounds. And sometimes they come from a different language. So that presents itself with its own set of challenges because just like Americans do, a lot of people from other cultures, when they're nervous, they talk even faster. I've coached people from other cultures and their fast is our light speed. They are really, really fast talkers. And it's a just like us, it becomes more deliberate and more exemplified when they're nervous that they talk even faster. But if you already have an accent or you have a uh some people may have a speech impediment, even, it's going to make it harder to connect if that's something you're dealing with. Speed is not on your side. So, but there's a time for it. I'm gonna say it shouldn't be your default, but there's a time for it. And the time for it is when you want to shift into that second gear, which is the ignite gear. This is when you want your audience's emotional tone to be kind of up, up tempo. This is when you tell a story that has excitement, momentum. So I was walking up the hill and I went to the rope swing, and the guy handed it to me. And it was my first time being on a rope swing. I'm not athletic. And I wrapped my hands around the rope swing and I pushed myself off of the cliff. And then all of a sudden, my foot caught and I started to tumble one after the other, and rocks are hitting me in the face, and I'm getting punched in the eye by different branches, and I'm rolling and rolling until I finally splat into the water, making a big whale-sized sploosh. And then I realized there was no other thing for me to do except for to try to climb back up on top of the hill and do it again. All right, now that had kind of everything, my conversational tone. Then we get into the ignite tone, and then I'm down when you see me tumbling down the hill. This actually did happen, by the way, first and last time I ever tried a rope swing. I uh really, really bad. Uh, but I don't recommend if you're not into that. And the ignite part is perfect there because you're describing something and I'm following at such a rapid pace, you're trying to bring them. Everybody knows what that's like, and they're probably laughing and they're giggling. And you know, I didn't really spend time preparing this, but you could probably add more detail how it smelled when the dirt hit your nose. And, you know, you felt the sharpness of the branches cutting your arm, whatever it is, whatever it is. Igniting gets your audience to focus more on the emotional up. And it's helpful. It really does, especially with storytelling, especially with trying to get them to raise their heart rate. So that's the speed to increase the energy. Now, again, don't make this your default. That's not home base. Remember, every type of pacing can come across as monotone if that's the only pacing you know. It's not gonna work for you. So the next and final gear, the third gear of pacing, is land. Landing. That's the landing gear. This is the gear where you are going to get slow to the point where you are going to feel like you are dying. When people that I coach have to do this, they feel like I am putting them into some sort of a medieval torturing device. But I promise you, if you master this tool, almost nobody is doing it. Almost nobody is doing this. And it is so unbelievably helpful when you're leading a meeting, when you're doing a keynote, when you are presenting to a group of investors and you're trying to get their money. If you can figure out how to be comfortable in your own skin long enough to slow down, a lot of people will think that you are the most confident communicator on the planet. So why is this powerful? Because this is the time when people are going to lean in. So I tend to do this on a very dramatic part of the story. I told a story last week in church about uh a cataclysmic event that happened on a bridge in West Virginia, the Silver Bridge, I believe. I'm saying this off the top of my head. Bear in mind, I don't remember what I preached last week. I'm not going to remember what I preached two weeks ago. So this was a couple weeks ago now. And, or it was last week. It still doesn't, my memory is bad. Just know that my memory is bad. And I started talking about the bridge, and it was around winter time, and people were coming in, finishing their Christmas shopping, and I explained all these cars, and all of a sudden, within a minute, the bridge collapsed. And I said it was all because of IBAR 330. It was an imperfection in the engineering of the bridge that didn't have redundancy connected to it. And that's what made the bridge collapse. It kind of rotted from the inside of IBAR 330 out, and it caused the bridge to collapse within a minute. Now, when I said that last little bit, I was saying it so slow.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Most bridges have redundancy. But the silver bridge did not. And it was all because of IBAR 330. Again, nothing's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

None of this is perfect. This there's this stuff that we're teaching here. This is more of an art than it is a science. But what it did is it caused people to pay attention. So this was a very dramatic, this was a very dramatic part of the message. And bringing them into this dramatic moment caused that pattern disruption. And it's useful. It's especially useful if you're giving people their marching orders at the end of a meeting. Donna, you're gonna kill it with the quarter numbers coming up. You have everything you need to shape up this meeting, and you are going to bring home the money, right? So again, I'm just spitballing this. You have to think about how you want to use it in your context. But the context should be that you use it. You don't want to just speak in one pace. You want to be very, very intentional about what that looks like. And then don't be afraid to write out on a note. Card, or if you're using notes, I recommend using as minimal notes as possible. Try to give yourself some pacing cues. Try to tell yourself, okay, this is ignite time. This is me moving where I'm going to get their energy up a little bit. I want to get their heart rate raised a little bit. Or I need them to land here. I want them to have a take-home. So remember the three gears. You have cruise, which is going to be your gear. That's your home base. That's you coming out, introducing yourself, starting the meeting off. You're not going too fast. You're not going too slow. You're right in the middle. Ignite. I want the energy up. I want to move my audience. I want them to move the way I'm moving. I want them to feel as passionate about this as they are feeling, as I'm feeling passionate about this. And then the last one is the landing gear. Land. I want them to stay here. I want them to rest in this. They need to rest in this. They need to know how important this is. They need to feel the gravity. They need to understand which direction this whole thing is going.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

And it's important for them, just like it's important for you.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

My goal is to make you the most competent version of a communicator as you have ever been before. So, because of that, I have a brand new product that I have that I really want you to check out. Of course, I would love to talk to you. Could go online and schedule a strategy session, an executive strategy session, but I got something better for you. For the first time ever in the time that I've been doing this, I'm going to start a cohort that will get you to close the gap in your communication in six weeks. 90 minutes each week. Probably going to be, I'm not sure which day we're going to pick yet. I would imagine it's going to be like a Tuesday morning or afternoon or a Monday morning or afternoon, probably Tuesday. And in that cohort, I'm going to go through my entire elevated communicator framework, piece by piece. Now, I'm offering it at the lowest price it will ever be. I already have two people on the waiting list. I expect that this is going to sell out quickly. And there are only eight slots available for this. So I'm not trying to shove this on you, but I'm trying to tell you if you're trying to work on a way to communicate better this spring, this is what you got to do. So Samuellinton.com slash cohort, SamuelLinton.com slash cohort. Go there, check it out, see if it's for you. If it's not, schedule a strategy session. I have a bunch of products that might be able to help you, but we want to get you to close that communication gap for good. So remember, thank you for tuning into the show. Next week we're going to pick up on the Elevated Communicator Framework and we're going to talk about momentum and how to use volume and tone, which we haven't really got to, and how to really pick that up in terms of engaging your audience. So in the meantime, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Find your voice. Change your world. We'll see you next time.