Level Up Your Body Movement Skills like a Seasoned Television Star

Okay, we're making progress. Now. Let's put some of these things together. I'm going to lean forward about 15 degrees into the camera. My eyes are not darting. A little bit of a smile on my face. Tell me what's wrong with this. Hi, I'm TJ Walker. As president of Media Training Worldwide, I've coached senior executives all over the world on how to communicate effectively for their own YouTube channels, Facebook channels, and the news media. What was wrong with that? You probably noticed I looked and sounded like a robot. It sounded canned. Nothing was moving but my lips. And that makes me seem like I'm not a human being. It's a big problem. And a lot of times people spend so much time going through their messages and memorizing their messages that they forget to move because they're nervous. When you're nervous, they. The natural thing is to freeze up. So it's not enough to tell people, just act natural. It's natural to freeze up. So if you're acting natural and you're frozen and all you're doing is moving your lips, you're going to look like you are a hostage on tape and you have a gun to your head. It looks awful. So let's break it down. I'm going to add something this time. You tell me what's different. Hi, I'm TJ Walker at Media Training Worldwide. I help executives and leaders communicate effectively to the news media, especially for tough issues, controversial issues. What was different that time? Well, you may have noticed, I moved my head. That's all I did. The second I started moving my head, I sounded less robotic as my voice wasn't frozen. Let's add another element. So the big challenge for most people is figuring out, out of everything you could say on a subject, what are really the most important issues? The top three. And then how do you bridge back again and again and again? What was different that time? That time it wasn't just my face and my head and my eyebrows moving. My whole body moved from the waist up. I wasn't jerking around in some odd way. It was natural movement. Let's add another element. So the big challenge for most people is figuring out everything they could say on a subject. What are their top three messages? And then how do they bridge back to it again and again and again throughout the whole interview. What was different that time? Hands. One of the biggest myths out there is that somehow you're not supposed to move your hands or. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Huge mistake. Now, I work with people from every continent. I traveled and trained in 30 continents, I've worked with people or 30 countries. I've worked with people from dozens and dozens, if not more than a hundred countries in person, plus 191 countries online. And I can tell you in every country, the people who communicate effectively, who are seen as comfortable, as confident, they move their hands when they speak. The second you freeze your hands, you freeze your arms, you freeze your body, typically, it gets in your vocal cords. The next thing you know, you have this sort of homeroom teacher sound in your voice. It sounds awful, doesn't sound believable, doesn't sound real. So my recommendation, move your hands. When you speak, it's virtually impossible to look nervous and uncomfortable if your hands are moving. Sure. Is it possible to be moving in such a wildly distracting way? No one can focus on what you're saying. It's possible. All I can tell you is I've been training people in person since 1984. Far more than 10,000 people I've trained in person. I've never yet had anyone moving their hands in a wildly distracting way. Yet every week, sometimes every day in a week, I've had people freeze their hands or grab a lectern or hold a pen, and it made them look stiff, uncomfortable, nervous. Will you occasionally see somebody in pop culture moving their hands for comedic effect? Sure. Famously, there's Will Ferrell, and in one of his comedy movies where he's on a talk show and he's a race car driver, he's like, I don't know what to do with my hands here. But that's comedy. That's not the problem you're likely to face. The more common problem, freezing your hands, looking scared. So my recommendation, move your hands. Which, by the way, if your hands are moving, it's basically impossible not to move your body. It's basically impossible to keep your head frozen. So it triggers things in a positive and negative way. But the biggies. Move your hands, move your body, move your face, and you'll come across more comfortable, confident, and relaxed.