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Everything you need to work on this yourself. Free.

I'd rather give away too much than too little. If you work through this library you will get better without paying a cent. Coaching is for when you want someone watching and correcting it on the spot.

What's here

19 tips with drills

Voice, structure and stage craft. Each with a video, a two-minute drill, a definition and references.

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Voice and speech exercises

25 drills from actors and voice coaches: breath, articulation, pitch, pace and projection, with routines, sources and videos.

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Practice room

Record yourself, see your pitch line, count your fillers and score your delivery. Nothing leaves your device.

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Weekly masterclass

Live, free and online. Launching soon: join the list to hear first.

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Communication styles

A short self-assessment: how you tend to communicate, and how to adapt to the person across the table.

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Leadership styles

Six styles, when each works on a project, and which ones you lean on.

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How I coach

The thinking behind it: fact patterns, mechanics and range, words, voice and body, and story.

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Articles

Longer reads on meetings, presenting, voice and the research behind them.

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Glossary

Every term on this site, defined in plain language.

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Learn on your own

A four-week plan, ten minutes a day

Do one tip a day and one recording a week. Save each attempt in the practice room so you can see the trend.

Week	Focus	Work through
Week 1	Voice	Tip 1: Breathe from below Tip 3: Land the last word Tip 4: The deliberate pause Practice room: record the "Land the last word" drill
Week 2	Structure	Tip 7: Say the point first Tip 8: The rule of three Tip 9: Explain it to a non-engineer Rewrite your next update point first, then record it
Week 3	Holding the room	Tip 6: Lose the fillers Tip 10: Answer a hard question Tip 11: When you're talked over Practice room: five impromptu topics, counting fillers
Week 4	Stage craft	Tip 16: Keep the ball in the air Tip 17: The operative word Tip 18: Give every line a verb Record your next real presentation and score it
Then	Keep going	Join a speaking club for prepared speeches Book a beginner improv class for thinking on your feet (Tip 19) Come to the weekly masterclass

Further learning

Learn from the people who train actors

Much of what I teach comes from theatre and voice training. These are the sources I trust. Each one is credited and linked to the original.

Source	What	Why watch it	Status
National Theatre (UK)	Vocal warm-up series	Short warm-ups from one of the world's leading theatres: breath, resonance, articulation.	Shortlisted
National Theatre (UK)	An actor's warm-up: voice	A complete professional voice warm-up. Ten minutes before a big meeting.	Shortlisted
Royal Shakespeare Company	Voice and verse resources	How actors keep energy to the end of the line.	To review
RADA	Voice short courses and talks	Breath, resonance and presence from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.	To review
Patsy Rodenburg	Talks on presence ("second circle")	A leading voice coach on being fully present with an audience.	To review
Chris Agos (voice-over coach)	Upward inflections	How professionals use the upward inflection on purpose.	Approved
YouTube	Upspeak vs upward inflection	The difference between a weak rise and a deliberate one.	Approved
Julian Treasure, TED	How to speak so that people want to listen	Pitch, prosody and why a monotone loses people.	Shortlisted
Vinh Giang	Pitch, melody and the siren exercise (The Diary of a CEO)	An Australian communication coach on vocal variety.	Shortlisted
Sally Prosser (podcast)	Do you do this? At the end of every sentence?	An Australian voice coach on uptalk, and why falling mid-sentence is a problem too.	Shortlisted

Placeholder: videos go live here (embedded with credit) once Fred has watched and approved each one.

Practise with others

Join a speaking club, and take an improv class

Nothing replaces standing up in front of real people every week. I'm a member and officer of three Toastmasters clubs, and I recommend finding one near you. It's low cost, friendly and full of people working on the same thing. What Toastmasters, improv, acting and voice coaching each taught me.

Improv is the other half. A speaking club trains prepared speeches; an improv class trains thinking on your feet, listening and staying calm when the plan changes. You don't need to be funny. Look for a beginner or taster class at a local improv theatre; most run short courses for complete beginners. Tip 19: Yes, and.

Toastmasters International is an independent non-profit. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.

Find a club near you

Commend, recommend, commend: A simple way to give feedback to a colleague after they present: one thing that worked, one thing to change, one thing to keep doing.