Body Language in Speeches

00:00 How to use body language when giving a speech.

00:09 Everyone has body language, uses body language.

00:12 Your audience is always going to be making judgments about your body language, whether you like it or whether they're even aware of it.

00:19 So you have to come to grips with it.

00:21 Here's the real problem for most people.

00:24 They are nervous.

00:25 They're uncomfortable, so they freeze or they think, I'm supposed to be professional.

00:30 So let me stand here feet planted, grabbing the lectern.

00:34 That's not professional.

00:36 It just makes you look scared.

00:40 Now, this is not complicated, folks.

00:42 You don't have to somehow learn a whole new language.

00:45 The biggest problem for most people is that they're outside of their comfort zone.

00:50 So they completely change their normal body language.

00:54 They just stop moving.

00:56 Their feet become rigid, planted on the floor.

00:59 Their hands become rigid.

01:01 They grab a lectern.

01:02 They grab a pen.

01:03 Their face becomes flat, their head stay straight or hunched, and overall they just stop moving.

01:11 That's unnatural.

01:12 That's not what people do when they are comfortable, and they're talking.

01:17 So the real key to body language when you're giving a speech is you need to do the very same things you do when you're speaking to two or three friends at a noisy restaurant, and you're telling a story, you're moving, you lean forward.

01:31 Sometimes your head tilts, sometimes you go back.

01:35 Some there's a full range of movement.

01:37 Your body is constantly moving.

01:39 I don't mean in a distracting way or a nervous way, but your body is moving for the most part when you are talking, and you are comfortable.

01:48 So the way to figure this out is you've got to practice.

01:52 You've got to practice on video, because if all you do is talk it out or look in the mirror, you're not really going to see how you're coming across. So my advice is practice your speech on video and then look and don't overcorrect.

02:08 Some people videotape themselves.

02:10 They see their hands moving in a completely normal way and their reaction is, Oh my God, I'm moving my hands. I'm not supposed to move wrong.

02:17 You are supposed to move your hands.

02:21 Movement is good as long as you're not fidgeting, playing with a ring, pacing back and forth awkwardly.

02:29 Most people, their problem is not enough movement.

02:33 It's not that there's too much movement.

02:34 It's there's not enough movement that makes them look scared.