PLAY WITH THE STAGES A Guide To Public Speaking... The most - - PDF document

PLAY WITH THE STAGES

A Guide To Public Speaking...

“The most powerful speakers show up fully as their authentic selves. The more you return to who you are, the more impactful you’ll be.” Christine Kane When most speakers get on stage, they become someone entirely opposite to who they really are. They experience a feeling that they’re not enough, therefore they don’t utilise the stage and how they present their speech powerfully. The dilemma is they act. However, in public speaking, it necessarily isn’t about being someone else who you think would be great for a person to be in front of the audience. It’s more about being yourself and natural. After all, the audience have come to listen to none other than you! When you act or pretend to be someone else that you are not on stage, you instantly lose connection and the opportunity to build rapport with the audience. This chapter will cover building your confidence as a public speaker to be able to use the stage and your body language to deliver an authoritative speech so that your audience will get the most from seeing you and hearing you speak. Speaking on stage all starts with your body language. When delivering a speech or presentation, body language has the power to either help us deliver a successful speech or not. We can thrive if we pay attention to how we present ourselves in front of the audience, or fail if we allow our nerves and fear get the better of us. Motion creates emotion. Even if you’re experiencing nerves and fear, by standing more confidently, relaxed and comfortable, you will start to experience those feelings. The more you tense up, start to shake, and look around the room instead of at the front – you’ll continue to reinforce feelings of fear and doubts before you’ve even had the opportunity to deliver your speech to the audience. Here’s a tip: there are two sides when it comes to body language in presentations and events. The presenter’s body language (you) and the audience’s body language. It’s very important to under-stand how to read the body language of your audience, just as they’re able to read your body language. Otherwise, you may think you are delivering a powerful speech or presentation when the truth is, you’re making them uninterested, and boring them by the way you are delivering your speech! Perhaps you are missing an element of engaging the audience, empowering the audience, entertaining the audience, or educating the audience. Remember, you are the expert in the front of the room. People have come to learn from you; it is your responsibility to ensure you are able to understand exactly what your audience is feeling by their body language and change the method in which you are delivering your speech and

• presentation. You want people to listen to you, not walk out from you because they aren’t feeling

engaged enough at your event. You can send across a positive body language; however, you can also send across a signal of negative body language. When this happens, irrelevant of what you are sharing with the audience and how valuable the content may be, you’re literally giving your audience the vibe not to listen to you any longer because their time is being wasted. It takes less than seven seconds to leave a positive or negative impression on your audience as a

• speaker. Now that this has been established, here are a few types of body language to be aware of

when you are on stage. “If you want to find the truth, do not listen to the words coming to you. Rather see the body language of the speaker. It speaks the facts not audible.” Bhavesh Chhatbar

CONFIDENT BODY LANGUAGE

In 2011, US Social psychologists Amy Cuddy, Dana Carney, and Andy Yap said that holding a ‘powerful pose’ results in people experiencing a feeling of power. Their theory suggests that an

• pen pose can raise testosterone levels and lower your cortisol levels – meaning increase your

dominance and lower your stress. Therefore, through standing confidently in front of the stage, you’re more likely to feel confident. Wouldn’t you want to feel confident on stage, particularly at times when you’re nervous or afraid? When you come on stage, it’s important to stand right in the middle and front of the stage. Make sure you are standing straight with your shoulders back and feet shoulder width apart. Your shoulders should open from one another so they can rest centrally while you start to give confident and open non-verbal message to the audience. Place your hands either side of your body and make sure it’s level with your chest so that you can easily make confident hand gestures when you need to. None of this will matter though if you are not facing your audience as much as possible. Make your audience feel included in your speech by tilting your body towards different parts of the audience when you are in a large room. This will make them want to become more engaged and listen to what you are telling them.

EYE CONTACT

I’ve seen many speakers scan the room with their eyes but try to avoid eye contact with the

• audience. This makes them come across less credible, less confident, and inauthentic to the
• audience. The speakers start to feel they’re panicking themselves. You don’t need to look at

every single person in the room. Making eye contact with a few different individuals across the room is enough. Don’t forget to smile as you make eye contact to build a connection between them and you and they will begin to feel more valued by you. Increasing your credibility by doing this, your

audience will listen to you and trust you because you’ve made them feel important while establishing yourself as a confident and trustworthy speaker. When you are maintaining eye contact with people in a large group, you will want to maintain eye contact for about four seconds before scanning the room for another individual. Ensure that you’re making eye contact with as many members of the audience as possible. When a member from the audience asks questions, you will want to maintain eye contact with them for 9-10 seconds then break away otherwise you might intimidate or scare them off. Don’t make your audience feel uncomfortable so try your best to avoid appearing intense when making eye contact with the audience. Remember, if you can maintain eye contact with the audience and smile – they’ll also do the same to you which will make you both feel at ease with one another. Finally, eye contact will also help you assess how your audience are receiving your message or whether it’s time to get them involved in an activity or exercise to improve the learning environment.

HAND GESTURES

Hand gestures are the most crucial way to communicate to the audience whether a speaker is confident in their speeches, their deliverance, and have an excellent presence or if they’re uncomfortable in their speech, lack the ability to deliver their content, and have no presence on the stage. Of course, both speakers could have a great message and story to share, but the audience will respond differently depending on the hand gestures and body movements. When you understand how to use your hands as an extension of your message, it can enhance that message and make you appear more relaxed and confident as though you are in control of the room. Gestures also magnify your stories because it shows the audience in a non-verbal manner how we feel as we are speaking. There are few things to remember when you are using hand gestures as it has the potential to lose its impact if it isn’t being done correctly. The important thing to remember is not to overdo it. When you’re using hand gestures, use it intentionally, make it strong, defined, and relevant to the words you are using. Otherwise, it could cause distractions for the audience as they’re trying to pay attention to you. You can use:

• Symbolic gestures (if you were to give a takeaway to the audience, you can put up one

finger for the number one while getting your audience to also mirror you)

• Descriptive gestures (Using your hand to describe the shape, size, length of objects or

people)

• Emotional Gestures (Use your hand gestures to communicate how you felt or are feeling

when you are telling a story, so hands may be clasped together to show pleading, or you may create a clenched fist to show you’re angry…) The great thing about hand gestures and eye contact is that if you have a slide or presentation in the background, the moment you point slightly and look at your presentation, the audience will

immediately follow the direction of your hands and eyes. Your hand gesture is your tool when it comes to amplifying your message. If you know what it is you want to achieve in your presentation or speech so will your audience. NOTE: It’s important for hand gestures to be in line with your chest to shoulders to give off that confidence effect. Anything lower than that could make you appear being less confident. For example, if I had a book I was promoting to the audience that I held in line with the shoulder area, it would show that I’m confident about the book. If I held the book anywhere lower than that, it would have an opposite consequence and people will think I’m not confident about the book I am promoting. So, if you have any product you want to promote, it’s important to hold it shoulder level to increase sales conversions. Remember: “Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.” Dale Carnegie

STAGE CRAFT

Commanding the space on the stage shows strong leadership, and after all, remember you are speaking as an expert and leader in the topic you are delivering on stage. More importantly, moving around the stage is an effective way of including audiences seated in different areas of the room to your speech and message. Think about if you were sitting at the back left of the room and while the speaker was on the right side of the stage speaking. If he stood there throughout the event, would you feel you connected with the speaker? It’s imperative to move around the stage in order for the audience to feel your presence no matter where in the room they are seated. Some major errors speakers make when speaking on stage to avoid are:

• Moving around the stage too frequently. This distracts the audience.
• Turning their back to the stage. This creates a disconnection from the audience.
• Swaying or rocking on the spot. This distracts the audience from what you are saying.
• Speaking from a script which creates a lack of feeling and emotion from the speaker.

It’s important to know not all rooms you speak in will be the same. Some rooms that are much smaller and you may not have to move around as much. It’s important that you always return to the centre of the stage for most of your speech. Wait 3 – 5 minutes before you decide to move to another area of the stage.

It’s important to move around the stage every few minutes this is so you can anchor different feelings to different parts of the stage. For example, decide each time you want to tell a sad story, you’ll move to the left, and each time you want to tell a funny story, you will move to the right. Continuously doing this will create a pattern in the minds of your audience, so as soon as they notice you’ve moved to the left of the stage, they’ll think you’re about to share a sad story with them. The moment you move to the right, they’ll think you’re about to tell them a happy story which will emotionally prepare them and grab their attention. Let me be clear on another thing – I’ve seen many speakers go from one side to the other in a scattered manner. That doesn’t look controlled so you will want to avoid that. Be definitive in where you wish to stand each time you are ready to transition in the story and what you want your audience to experience and feel. While moving around on the stage, it’s important to continue tilting your body towards the audience while you are moving with control. “How many of you are learning something you’re excited to experiment from this book…?” When you are asking important questions on stage like the one I just asked, it’s important to move towards the audience and even more important to return the centre of the stage right at the

• front. This is what is known as power circle. When you move towards the audience anytime you

ask an important question or statement you’ve made which you want the audience to remember as it is an authoritative place to stand. However, if you stand there for too long during your speech, it can slowly lose its impact and power so make sure you are saving that space for important or main points of your speech that you want to deliver. When a member of the audience wants to ask a question or speak, it does not come across as intimidating, instead it makes them feel comfortable. Take a step back on the stage to make them feel safe and welcomed to ask questions or share their thoughts with you and the rest of the

• audience. Make sure that individual is receiving the acknowledgement and attention from the

audience and feels like he is being heard and respected. If you were speaking to your friends, wouldn’t it be rude, and wouldn’t you feel disrespected for your friends not to pay attention to you but someone else? The same can be said, when you’re on stage and you’re not letting your audience aware that someone has had the courage to stand and speak so let’s give that person the attention he deserves. You can use your eye and hand gesture for this too while taking a step back. Remember it is ultimately about your audience and what you can provide for them. Not the other way around.

A little bit about myself...

Creative entrepreneur Mark Stephen Pooler has overcome the kind of adversity that most people cannot even comprehend. He has taken the resilience from his past trauma and turned that into an inspirational determination to help others. After years of being severely bullied, Mark turned to drug addiction and started down a dark road of self-destruction that nearly ended his life. After having the strength to overcome his addictions, he rebuilt his life stronger than ever. Mark is now a professional speaker, a coach, author, and a radio host. His area of expertise is self-leadership and transformation. Mark helps struggling entrepreneurs create a mindset and belief system that makes their success a reality. Mark inspires entrepreneurs to find and use their courage and strength to empower and lead themselves to success. He helps speakers, coaches, and influencers to move forwards gain credibility and authority and get results. To work with Mark to monetize social media entrepreneurship and master the art of public speaking, contact him on www.MarkStephenPooler.com info@markstephenpooler.com To get a copy of my book Step Into Your Brilliance. UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1097898725 USA https://amazon.com/dp/1097898725 and on Amazon world wide. Keep being awesome Mark.