Body Language: Do's and Dont's

Do you struggle with fear, doubt, and worry in your public speaking? Do you find it difficult to connect with your audience and deliver presentations that leave a lasting, positive, unforgettable impact? If yes, then let's dive in the world of public speaking and presentation skills with your host, Eric Edmeads. Welcome to the unforgettable podcast Body Language.

Do's and Don'ts let's understand something very important about communication Words. The actual things you say only make up a very small percentage of the overall communication that you're having with an audience. In one study, the indication was 7% of the meaning derived from your communication came from the actual words you said, and then 38% of the communication came from your tone of voice. So consider, for example, the difference of saying to your husband, wife or boyfriend, girlfriend, or I love you versus I love you versus I love you. These are all the same words, but they're said with a different tone of voice. And of course, with that, the meaning gets changed. And then 54% of the communication is comprised of your body movements, your gestures. This is a very important thing to understand when you're giving a presentation. And so one of the things that I'd like you to take a look at is the way you move when you give a presentation. How do you use your hands? Are you a hand talker? Like, I can tell you, I know some pretty good hand talkers. Whenever they're talking, their hands are moving around. And, you know, the crazy thing is, is that when you're doing that, you're sending out a bunch of communication and you don't even really know what you're saying. It's distracting. And so one of the things we want to do to refine our body language is to gain control of our hands. One of the most intensive and interesting exercises we do at our speaking academy is the exercise of giving an entire presentation or without using your hands at all. Because once you've learned to disengage your hands from the whole communication, then you can be in a position where you get to put them back and use them the way you want to rather than having them randomly distract people. Here's another thing. Walking on stage, should you do it? Absolutely. It's okay to do it as long as you're doing it with intent. What's not so good to do on stage is to meander, to wander around, to sort of like meander your way along and look like you have no sense of purpose. If you're going to walk on stage, you walk to a point on the stage, stay at that point on the stage, connect with the audience at that section of the stage, and then after a time, walk to another part of the stage. But no meandering, no wandering, and definitely not any walking backwards. There are two good reasons for not walking backwards when you're on stage, but one of them is this, that it sends the wrong message. It makes it look like you're retreating. But the other one is a health and safety factor, and that is, I've heard far too many horror stories about people who are walking backwards away from the audience, tripped and fell or even fell off the back of the stage. So we don't want to do that. Now. One more thing to learn about hand signals and gestures, and that is to recognize that hands have a language of their own. I highly recommend learning about the work of Virginia Satir or coming out to one of our intensive workshops where I can show you this in more detail. But the one thing I want to show you right now is, I'll bet you you've often seen people do this in their presentations, and it's supposed to be like this opening, like it's an opening. What it really is is uncertainty. You want to avoid showing that kind of uncertainty for an audience. And so if you're asking them to take action or invest with you, you probably don't want to go. Doesn't that seem like a good idea? Also, one last thing. For a slight bit of bonus information, pay attention to your facial expressions. Make sure that if you want the audience to have fun, it's evident that you're having fun, too. Your body communicates in even more than your words.

So that's it for today's episode of Unforgettable. Head on over to itunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on itunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a private $25,000 VIP day with Eric Edneads himself. Be sure to head on over to Unforgettable show and pick up a free copy of Eric's gift and join us on the next episode.