The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
The Public Speaking Expert: This Speaking Mistake Makes People Ignore You! These Small Mistakes Make You Unlikeable!
Mon, 10 Mar 2025
Speaking with confidence isn’t a gift, it’s a skill - Vinh Giang reveals the blueprint to mastering the art of communication Vinh Giang is an award-winning entrepreneur, part-magician, and full time communication coach. He runs masterclasses and has helped thousands of people improve their communication and vocal skills. In this conversation, Vinh and Steven discuss topics such as, the top speaking mistake that makes people ignore you, small mistakes that make you unlikeable, how to effortlessly speak with power and confidence, and the number one word to avoid to be taken seriously. 00:00 Intro 02:15 Why Do You Do What You Do? 04:12 How Much Will This Information Change Your Life? 06:28 The Importance of Communication in Your Life and Career 09:17 How Easy Is It to Make a Radical Change in Your Communication Skills? 10:57 What's the Biggest Change People Experience? 11:56 How Cracking Your Communication Will Change Your Life 12:59 Why Should People Listen to You? 18:47 Three Ways to Change How You're Perceived by Others 20:28 What Is Vocal Image and How Does It Help Us? 23:00 How Melody Evokes Emotions 27:31 How to Know If You're Overdoing It 30:55 The Importance of Pauses in Your Speech 35:03 What Volume of Voice Signals Confidence? 36:46 Create Emotion With Your Voice 37:25 Gesticulating With Your Face 41:31 The Storytelling Formula 43:56 VAKS: Relive a Story, Don't Report It! 47:22 Run These Techniques in the Real World 50:30 Is There a Voice Tone That Makes People Dislike You? 52:59 Practical Steps to Know If You're Good at Speaking 57:34 Remove the Clutter Words From Your Speaking 1:02:37 Ads 1:03:33 What to Do Before You Go on Stage 1:05:20 Warm Up Your Mouth and Tongue 1:06:20 The Power of Body Language 1:13:34 If You Want to Be Influential, You Need to Do This 1:14:32 How to Interact Online 1:19:45 Our Identity Stops Us From Growing 1:21:37 Accents and How to Correct Them 1:25:06 There Are No Limits to What You Can Do 1:29:21 How to Deal With Bullies 1:33:27 How to Start a Powerful Conversation With Someone 1:37:53 Ads 1:39:57 Small Talk 1:42:18 What to Do If People Interrupt You at Work? 1:44:58 Why You Should Mimic People's Body Language 1:46:20 What Is F-O-R-D? Holding Conversations for Longer 1:52:15 Are There Real Introverts and Extroverts? 1:53:13 Social Anxiety 1:55:19 Contextual Confidence 2:01:39 I Do It All for My Son 2:04:57 My Parents Gave Up Their Money to Become Monks 2:11:37 The Endless Pursuit of More 2:20:23 What Is One Thing You Know Is True Even If You Can't Prove It? Follow Vinh: Instagram - https://g2ul0.app.link/gTz0zXL4xRb YouTube - https://g2ul0.app.link/gTL4XuN4xRb Website - https://g2ul0.app.link/owpA9uP4xRb Vinh’s Free Communication Resources - https://gifts.vinhgiang.com/doac Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook Get your hands on the Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards here: https://bit.ly/conversationcards-mp Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett PerfectTed - https://www.perfectted.com with code DIARY40 for 40% off WHOOP - https://JOIN.WHOOP.COM/CEO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What inspired Vinh Giang to become a communication coach?
Fantastic. That's fantastic. You did a great job, right? Okay. And then this next one is volume. So critical. Because if I just increase my volume and I talk like this, I sound a little bit aggressive, don't I? But with volume to highlight something, you could go very quiet. So it's about waking people up to the power of their voice.
And we all have access to these tools. Let's go through all five. Vin Jiang is the award-winning speaker and communication expert who helps people harness the power of their voice and body language in all areas of their life.
Just so overwhelming of how many people are suffering with not being able to communicate. They're asking, I'm introverted. Does that mean that I'm doomed? How do I become more confident? How do I speak on the spot? And we think there's no way for me to ever change this. It's super sad because I lived a massive part of my life like that. I was the awkward kid. I couldn't communicate with anyone.
I moved schools so many times because I was bullied. But then I broke the mold. And then I just learned all these new behaviors. It just completely changed me. And anyone can do this in three to six months. And I'm going to teach you. So the first thing that really matters is a three-step process. I call it recording review.
Chapter 2: How can improving communication skills transform your life?
It's going to dramatically change the way you talk and the way you show up. But how do we start a conversation with another human being? I've got a simple game called Highlight Buffalo. And it gives you three opportunities for a conversation to spark. And we'll play it in a second. And then there's hand gestures to level up your physical presence.
And then a simple framework that helps build connection. There's so many other things we could talk about.
And we're going to go through them. But some people do have severe social anxiety. What do you say to those people? The first thing I would do is...
I find it incredibly fascinating that when we look at the back end of Spotify and Apple and our audio channels, the majority of people that watch this podcast haven't yet hit the follow button or the subscribe button, wherever you're listening to this. I would like to make a deal with you.
If you could do me a huge favor and hit that subscribe button, I will work tirelessly from now until forever to make the show better and better and better and better. I can't tell you how much it helps when you hit that subscribe button. The show gets bigger, which means we can expand the production, bring in all the guests you want to see and continue to do in this thing we love.
If you could do me that small favor and hit the follow button, wherever you're listening to this, that would mean the world to me. That is the only favor I will ever ask you. Thank you so much for your time. Back to this episode. If you had to summarize what it is you do fundamentally and why you do it, how would you summarize it?
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Chapter 3: What are the key elements to enhance vocal communication?
I help people learn that they have access to one of the most beautiful instruments in the world that can help them negotiate whatever reality they desire. And I learned this through my first-ever vocal teacher, Miss Stanley. And I'll never forget this experience. There's a dingy music corner in South Australia, and I would go there for lessons.
And the first time I met her, I walked into the room. She's an old lady. And she says nothing to me except the words, sit down, young man. So I sit. It feels super awkward. It feels super weird. And then she plays one key nonstop on the piano for two minutes. Literally I was like, oh, shit, this is like something out of a horror movie. And then she turns around and she goes, how do you feel?
I said, nothing, weird, awkward, what? And then she goes, good, turns around, plays this beautiful song called Mariage d'Amour. Goes over for two minutes. And then she turns around and she goes, how do you feel? And I said, ah, weirded out from before still. But I feel, wow, that song had love. There was lust. There was romance. There was excitement. And she goes, good.
Honey, most people go through life speaking like this. I'm going to teach you how to speak like this. And that's, to me at the time, I remember thinking to myself, that is the greatest sales pitch I've ever heard in my life. Because I'm now going to sign up for 12 classes with you because you've just helped me realize something I've been struggling with my entire life.
I haven't been thinking about my voice as an instrument. I thought it was a tool. What do you do with a hammer? You use a hammer. What do you do with a screwdriver? You use a screwdriver. What do you do with a piano? You play with it. What do you do with a violin? You play with it.
And she started to teach me that I have this instrument that depending on how I play it, it changes and shifts how others feel.
How much do you think that will change the trajectory of someone's life? Like, what is the impact? If I get really good at communication, why does it matter? I was invisible my...
entire childhood. I was invisible. I wasn't the cool kid. I wasn't the good looking kid. I wasn't the charismatic kid. I wasn't the funny kid. I wasn't the anything kid. And by learning this skill, I've been able to negotiate an incredible reality. And that's why I love Tim Ferriss's quote so much, reality is negotiable. Cool. Well, what skill do we use to negotiate the reality we desire?
It's our ability to communicate. Teaching that to others has been one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done. And I genuinely believe that makes the world a better place. And I almost sometimes feel like I'm just here to tune pianos. I'm here to help people tune and fix and learn how to play. And I get so much fulfillment from that. My parents have this fundamental belief.
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Chapter 4: How does storytelling enhance communication?
And then they keep using the same rhythm over and over and over and over again, the same melody sequence over and over and over and over again.
And am I right in thinking if I wanted to be really boring, I should just kill all variety? Kill all the foundations.
Nothing. Give me nothing. And it's what happens when people, again, the people that I serve, it's what happens is because they go, I'll let my work speak for itself. And I say, that's great. That means you do great work, but why not speak for your work too? Why can't we do both?
Why does it have to be one or the other?
Yeah.
It's a shame not to do your work justice, you know, because you can do it a disservice just by delivering it without the foundations, as you've said.
Yeah.
And then other people, as you said, they can have half the idea, but double the... Double the showmanship.
Yeah. And that happens too. That happens too, right? So to me, it's about helping those who... They've got something amazing. You've got a story you need to share. You've got an idea you need to pitch. You've got incredible technical skills that you've worked on for the last 15 years. And you're thinking, why am I still stuck in this position?
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Chapter 5: What practical steps can improve your public speaking skills?
That's why when people look at me now, very easy to assume, oh, he's born with the gift of the gab. And the reality, I was born quite gabless. Yeah. And I share that because it is a skill that anybody can learn. When you say to me, you can't do this, you can't do that, to me, I hear, oh, Vin, I speak with my hands in my pockets and I'm stuck that way for the rest of my life. Take them out.
Take it out. It's just a behaviour.
Yeah, I mean, when you told me that your English was your third language, I couldn't believe that. Because there's no remnants. There's usually a remnants of the language you spoke before. There's like no evidence of it. Because this has become the primary language that I speak the majority of the time now.
But even so, my mother, she spoke in, I guess she's Nigerian, so she spoke Nigerian for her childhood, moved to the UK when she was, I think, late teen years, so maybe early 20s. But there's always been the remnants of Nigerian and she's almost 60 now. So that's 40 years. Is that just because she hasn't tried to? Well, I think it's linked to identity.
I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose that connection. I want to lose that sound. It's why, again, most people don't change the way they sound throughout the entire course of their life.
I'm not saying she should because there is something about your origin that gives you a little bit more... That's right. Something a little bit more interesting.
But when I look at some of the research, it shows that in terms of employment opportunities... I would love that study to be done in a way where the people who are speaking with accents have incredible articulation and pronunciation. as opposed to them speaking with poor articulation and pronunciation.
There's a big difference. Research indicates that individuals who use non-standard speech patterns such as African-American vernacular English often face negative perceptions regarding their intelligence, competence, they have worse housing opportunities, and they have worse legal outcomes. Right. It's a profound adverse reaction just from how you speak.
It's a real unfairness, like an injustice, isn't it? It is. It is.
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