n October 2014, after a decade of media silence, Monica Lewinsky returned to the public stage at the Forbes “Under 30” Summit.

While the subject matter of the speech is eliciting a variety of responses, everyone seems to agree on one thing: as a public speaker, she came out of the gate with a bang. At the time, as she mentioned, this was only the 4th time she’d spoken in public – ever.  So what made her so successful?  How did she inspire so many people?  Using the Vocal Presence lens I’d like to highlight four reasons her speech and her speaking ability captivated us.

1) She Connected to a Sense of Purpose
After ten years of media silence she’s speaking out for a reason: She wants to create change – inspiring, comforting and educating those impacted by cyber bullying.  She says this at the end of the speech.  In terms of Vocal Presence, she is connected to and embodying this purpose for the entire speech. It is her compass and her north star, grounding her and influencing how she speaks throughout. For example, seven minutes and twenty seconds into the speech, while revealing threats to prosecute her mother, she gets emotional, pauses for a moment and then is driven to continue. It is her connection to her sense of purpose that enables her to reconnect and speak through the emotion effectively.

2) She Anchors Herself, Connecting with the Audience right from the Start
At the beginning of her talk, you can see that she’s nervous (and she even says that she is). This is an emotional topic and a moment that matters deeply to her. Her old neural pathways and habitual physical patterns are pulling her toward suppressing, shutting down, and pretending to be “fine” in the face of the fight or flight response. Thirty-five seconds into the video she takes a nice, juicy breath. She breathes in, she breathes out and she settles in – connecting with the audience.  Then she inhales again and begins speaking: “My name is Monica Lewinsky.”

That is what I call Anchoring. If she hadn’t Anchored at the beginning, it’s possible that she would never have completely arrived.  Many speakers do this and it leads to rushed, disconnected speaking. By Anchoring with the audience right at the beginning, Ms. Lewinsky grounds herself, goes through the flight or flight response, and is able to continue speaking from a connected place for the next twenty-six minutes.

3) She Breathes Deeply and Speaks on the Breath
She gave herself a huge gift with that breath, thirty-five seconds into the video, and that impacts her presence during the speech on many levels. By fueling her body with that delicious breath at the beginning she got herself off on the right foot. Throughout the speech she breathes much more deeply than about 90% of the population, and certainly more deeply than most people do when speaking publicly. I call this the nourishing breath. Because she breathes deeply, continuously replenishing the breath as she uses it throughout the speech, her passion and her life force come through on the breath as she speaks.

4) She Punctuates the Speech with Moments of Silence
Throughout the speech Ms. Lewinsky utilizes moments of silence. In part she’s giving herself the space to take those “nourishing” breaths. She’s also giving the audience a chance during the silences to mentally and emotionally process what she’s just said.  At ten minutes into the video she says, “The greater the distance between the ‘you’ people want you to be and the ‘you’ you actually are, the greater will be your anxiety, depression, sense of failure and shame….” After the word “shame,” she pauses for four seconds before uttering the next syllable. In that pause the audience is asked to be with shame.  Asking the audience to sit in the silent wake of images like “shame” takes them on a journey through the experience – which will go a long way toward creating the change that she wants to create in the world.

Monica Lewinsky has buckets of potential as a speaker.  If she continues to speak in public, particularly if she continues to do so in a mindful, present, authentic way, she might become incredibly dynamic and powerful.  Stay tuned for the next post to learn how she can take her Vocal Presence to the next level, expanding her range, charisma and impact.