Vishen Lakhiani breaks down five non-verbal signals that shape how an audience reads you before you speak: your entry pace, stance, stillness, a pause before your first words, and eye contact. Body language often outweighs what you actually say.
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You've already lost their attention and you haven't even said a word. Everybody obsesses about the first things they're going to say, the hook, how they're going to catch attention. But what they don't realize is the audience has already made up their minds about them before they even open their mouth. Here are the 5 things that communicate before you say a word. First is the entry. Most people rush up as if they're in some kind of a hurry. And I want you to know something. Your pace indicates your level of comfort with being there. And so, You wanna walk in with calm and confidence. Number 2 is how you stand and where you stand. If you slouch, if you look uncertain, then everything you say is devalued. If you are planted and if you are certain, if you choose your locations on the stage with purpose, you command confidence. 3, stillness. If you're all fidgeting and moving around with your hands and distracting everybody, that causes lack of calm. If you can create stillness, if you can give people peace, they will settle into your message. They'll be way more receptive. And of course, number 4 is the opening pause. So often speakers are eager to get those first words out. It's like silence is their enemy. Sometimes a really nice pause at the beginning is exactly how you connect with the audience. And of course, we have number 5, eye contact. Now, this is a really interesting moment you have with the audience. You walk out, you don't rush to say things, you make sure that you're planted, you do all the things we've discussed, but now what you do is you look around and you make eye contact with a couple of people in the room before you said anything. You send to them a feeling of confidence, a feeling that they're in the right place at the right time. That moment, that pause, and that eye contact can change everything before you've even said a single word. You can spend years perfecting what you say, you can spend hours rehearsing your speech, But the crazy thing is your body often says way more than your words do. If you want to learn more about this, comment "connect" and I'll send you the details.
