Lesson 1 Criteria for Success

The Focus on Vocal Mechanics Can Be an Enemy of Effective Public Speaking
You’ve just learned two important lessons through that experiment. First you’ve discovered a simple yet effective way to improve your vocal power without creating a harsher sound. And second, you’ve just practiced an essential aspect of successful public speaking: focusing on your audience’s response rather than the mechanics of your public speaking performance. 
We’re all exposed to prescriptions about what we need to think and do to be a good public speaker. But focusing on mechanics rather than the essence of communicating effectively with people sends you down the wrong road. In fact, here's why some of the popular "public speaking rules" may worsen your performance.
How to Be an Effective Public Speaker and Move Audiences
The foundation of influential public speaking doesn’t rest on prescriptive rules of behavior. It consists instead of the dynamic that plays out in all public performance: theater, dance, music, opera, poetry readings, and mimes exhibiting their magic on street corners. The ability to engage and entertain an audience—to change people's lives in ways large or small—is the essence of your public speaking performance.
Can you imagine achieving that result while focusing on the mechanics of your vocal production? By all means, use your practice and rehearsal time to improve the power or pleasantness of your voice. But in the real moment, give all of your attention to the needs and attentiveness of your audience, speaking to their needs as you perceive them.
What I’m really saying here is this: Don’t think of doing anything with your voice as you're trying to deliver your message as powerfully as possible. Intead, think of what you’re feeling, and how you can get that across. Your voice will immediately respond to that desire. If you’re really on this wavelength, you may not even be aware of what you’re doing vocally moment to moment.