Secrets to Captivating Presentations Revealed

So how can you make sure that your verbal and your nonverbal cues are in sync when you're giving an important speech or presentation? Let's face it, we've all seen people standing and speaking and giving great information, great ideas, but they look like they are in a hostage video and they're reading and their hands are frozen. Horrible. They're not moving at all. They just seem scared, uncomfortable, nervous, and frankly, it's amateur hour. We've also seen people do things like this. Well, in my presentation today, I'm going to give you three very important points. And in that. And the hands are totally out of sync. They look ridiculous, they look weird. You don't want to do that. It is in fact important to have your message in sync with your body language because your body is profoundly visual. Now, it's not true that 93% of communication is your body language and your voice. That is a myth. That is not true. But what is true is if you're saying one thing and your body language is completely contradictory, your body language message will dominate. If I come out on stage and talk to a group and I start off with, I'm very happy to be here today, thank you so much for inviting me. You're going to interpret my hands crossed like this, my head down, looking down, not at you, and rocking as I'm uncomfortable, nervous and I don't really want to be here. That is the message the audience will receive. So in that case, my body language is so powerful, it's going to overwhelm the actual words, the intellectual content of what's coming out of my mouth. So it is important to have it in sync. Now, a lot of people, in my opinion, waste time thinking about, well, when it's a really important point, I'm going to bring this hand up this level and I'm going to only point with my left hand or I'm not going to point because that's rude. So I'm going to put my thumb down. They over complicate things. You don't have to learn some new form of hand language or sign language. Now let's over complicated things. All you have to do is to move your hands, your face and your body the way you do all day long when you're talking one on one to a friend, a family member, a colleague, a group of friends at a restaurant. All of us as human beings, when we talk, when we communicate, are doing things with this, with these, with this. We're constantly moving. So if you're standing up to give an important Presentation. And you tell yourself, well, I'm now giving a professional presentation. So I want to come across professional. Typically, what that means is, you stop moving. You therefore look scared. You therefore look nervous and uncomfortable. Therefore, you appear to be less confident. So you're sending a message to your audience, hey, folks, I'm not really confident. You shouldn't really believe what I'm saying. I might just be making this up. I might just be reading a bunch of stuff that someone else wrote for me. That's not the message you want. You want to convey confidence. You want your body language to not contradict your message, but to complement your message. You want everything to be in sync. The easiest way, not the funnest way, but the easiest way to get things in sync is you need to practice your presentation on video. And you need to look at it, and you need to figure out, what do you like? What do you not like? You need to get to the point where you can look at a video of your rehearsal for this important speech and say, wow, I like how that person's coming across. If I can come across half as well as that person, that'll be great. I'll be really happy. I would recommend doing this numerous times now. If you really want to make sure your body language is working for you. I recommend that some of the time after you've watched and listened to yourself in the practice, watch it again. This time, turn the volume down to zero. Now you can really look at your body language. Your hands, your face, your movement. Big problem for so many business people giving important business presentations is when you turn the volume off. Here's all you see. It's nothing moving but your lips. Because of that, it's boring. Nothing seems more important than anything else. And it becomes monotone. It's too consistent. And what happens to your audience? They fall asleep. You don't want that, because if that happens, no actual communication has taken place. So this is why it is essential that you get things in sync. You want movement. Now, am I suggesting you've got to be wild and crazy and running around like some talk show host running through the aisles to get. No, you don't have to run around. You don't have to do anything crazy. You don't even have to move your feet. Although, in general, if it's a larger audience and you're on a stage, that is a good thing. But you do need movement, even if you're behind a lectern. And I'm not a big fan of getting behind lecterns, but sometimes you Might have to. You can still move from the waist up. You still lean in to make an important point. Your hands can still move. That's why you don't want to put your hands in your pocket. If I do this the whole time, it's not going to have the same impression on you. If I do this, this looks really weird and artificial and contrived. If I do this, I might just be cold, but it also looks like I'm bored or annoyed or unhappy. And maybe someone is interpreting it the wrong way. But the problem is they are interpreting it whether they realize it or not. When people are talking and they're passionate about something and they're sincere and they're confident, typically their hands are moving. Think the last time you were at a noisy sports bar and you're with your friends and you're cheering for your favorite team and your team just scored a goal or a touchdown or some major score. How many people then say, wow, did you see that last play? They really scored. Well, no, that's not what people do. It's like, hey, did you see that? We did it. Hey, high five. There is movement. I'm not suggesting when you're in the middle of giving important financial data speech, you have to be high fiving. Please don't misconstrue. But I do want your hands free. I do want them moving. The second your hands freeze, guess what else freezes? Your body. You're no longer moving your body. Your. Your head is likely to freeze. Your eyebrows are likely to freeze. So nothing is moving but your mouth. That is the kiss of death. As far as keeping people awake, keeping people excited, you're not giving them any information on what is really important. You're not giving them a sense of what is significant. In order to do that, you have to use all of your power, powers of communication. And that is verbal, but it's also nonverbal. And that is how you get everything in sync.