10/03/2025
29) Tempo.
This is the speed that your body and voice move at. As a general rule, you want to be slow enough to be understood but quick enough to keep people engaged. I like to think of it as a sliding scale, from 1 being "slow motion" to 10 being "as fast as you can execute this correctly."
Different tempos are more appropriate depending on the situation. Think of how an indie drama film is slow and moody, but a comedy is quick and quippy. A teacher or reporter may talk slowly to be understood or taken seriously, and an ad may go faster to keep your attention.
Also consider internal versus external tempo. Are you thinking quicklky, but speaking slowly and evenly to be understood? Or maybe you're brain is calm and you're happy, so you trust yourself to just say whatever pops out while cracking jokes with a friend.
If people tend to ask you to slow down so that they can understand you, you probably have a naturally fast tempo. Slowing things down may bring more people in to your audience. If people interrupt you, look away, or if your videos have low engagement after 3 seconds, speeding up your tempo may keep people engaged. If you are making videos exclusively for social media, many people prefer a faster tempo and will even watch videos at 2x speed, so experiment with making a few videos with faster tempos and you may be delighted with the results!
Overall, a tempo that is somewhere in the middle and has a little natural variety within it works well for most people and situations. And unless you are trying to reveal an internal conundrum or keep your frazzled mind hidden, allowing your internal and external tempos to match usually results in the most coherent and authentic feeling result.
Play with making your speech and movement a little faster, a little slower, or vary it up internally. Let me know how it goes!
