#948 - Matt Abrahams - The Secret To Becoming A Confident Speaker

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt Abrahams is a communication expert, Stanford lecturer, and podcaster. Ever been put on the spot to give a quick speech, only to freeze up with nothing to say? Speaking with confidence and clarity is a skill, and the good news is, it can be learned. Today Matt Abrahams shares practical tips and tools to help you think faster, speak smarter, and become a more effective communicator. Expect to learn how to speak more confidently, why people choke when they are put on the spot and how to overcome anxiety while speaking, how having structure can actually liberate spontaneous speaking, how to avoid rambling and get to the point faster, he biggest errors people make during conversations, how to give a compelling toast with zero prep, the key ingredients of a meaningful apology, and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get 60% off an annual plan of Incogni at https://incogni.com/modernwisdom Get the best bloodwork analysis in America at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	How do you describe what you do?
0:02.2	I'm somebody who helps people develop and hone their communication skills.
0:06.7	Communication is critical for our success in business and in life.
0:11.2	And that's what I help people do through my teaching, my podcasting, my writing.
0:15.0	Is that a problem people are having more of in the modern world?
0:19.5	I think that's true.
0:20.5	I think that's true. As we become bombarded with more information,
0:24.4	the ability to communicate clearly is critical for us to succeed. So yes, there's just a lot more
0:30.9	information. It's important to be clear and concise and to really understand what's relevant
0:34.9	for those you speak to. What are the biggest problems that the people that you work with come to you complaining about?
0:41.3	Well, first and foremost, people are really anxious, especially in high-stakes speaking situation.
0:46.8	So anxiety and learning to feel more confident is number one.
0:49.8	And then number two, people, the big mistake people make is they just don't focus their messages,
0:54.9	focus on their audience, make it concise, make it clear, interesting, and engaging. So when I work
0:59.3	with people in the classes I teach at Stanford or in the coaching I do, it's really around those
1:04.0	elements. Okay. So speaking anxiety, I keep hearing data or studies around. It's the scariest thing that anybody
1:13.5	ever has to do. If this was you in a tribal time, you would have been put on the spot and you
1:17.6	had to defend yourself and maybe you'd have lost status or whatever, whatever. Why is it that
1:23.2	people feel that way in your understanding of the literature, what's going on inside of the mouth
1:30.0	and the brain and the tongue? Give me a breakdown. Yeah, so you hit it on the head. It's part of
1:37.7	being human to be concerned about being up in front of other people. We see it in every culture
1:42.3	that's been studied. It tends to start around the same time, right? As kids are entering their early teens is where we really see spikes
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Chris Williamson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Chris Williamson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.