Kika Labs

The always delightful Jacob Smith and I chew on how to take your craft seriously and yourself silly-ly.

From Creator's Cafe episode 36, available on YouTube and all major podcasting platforms

My guest is Jacob Smith, an audio expert who lives in Las Vegas and hails from Louisiana. Jacob is a dear friend, but we'll get into that in a second. If you've been to Vegas, there's a very good chance that you've heard a space that Jacob has set up the audio for, or might even be running right now. Jacob is the head of audio for Absinthe, one of the biggest and best shows in Vegas for years.

It's at Caesars Palace. It's incredible. Check it out. He's also done the audio for the same company's production of Rose Rabbit Lie and the burlesque show by Holly Madison called Peep Show, along with the Vegas residency of Spamalot. Jacob's work has been on Broadway, on tours, and all over Vegas, and he's a voice on two major podcasts as well: Ice Cream Social and Pod Therapy.

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!