Engage Your Audience

Great Speech by Oprah at Harvard

Watch Oprah’s commencement speech HERE

In my daily search for inspiration and improvement as a businesswoman, I came across this speech by Oprah. She is mesmerizing. Here are some thoughts on her speech. Do you agree? Disagree? Anything to add?

She sounds vocally tired (understandably, she IS Oprah), and I would like to hear a bit more life in her voice (mask resonance, less glottal phonation, less vocal fry)

Great pauses, eye contact, engagement, movements.

Unfortunately, she moves away from the mic regularly.

She doesn’t spend much time looking at her paper.

She adds personality through voice changes — accents, low pitch, singing.

I have seen other Harvard speech and commencement speeches, many done by megastars and uber successful people. Oprah is one of the more comfortable and successful speakers. She gets engagement from the audience immediately and continuously, and is very open with her successes and downfalls. Her personality shines through! A great example of how to speak in front of others.

Katrina @ VoiceHacker.com