How to Use Nonverbal Skills in Public Speaking

I've dedicated over 2,000 hours in the past three years to coaching professionals, helping them become more authentic, engaging and persuasive communicators. The ability to command an audience’s attention to tell an effective narrative is crucial for influencing others. With Kaiser Permanente, I recently delivered a two-day intensive public speaking course advising clinicians and hospital leadership on becoming more confident speakers. Here are some best practices that separate good speakers from masterful ones. These tips will be beneficial for: (1) Preparing for your upcoming speaking engagement or presentation. (2) Leading critical internal meetings where persuasion is key. (3) Any situation where you need to effectively convey a story to your audience. Best practices:  (1) 🖼 Use words that evoke vivid imagery in the minds of your audience, no corporate buzzword bingo! (2) 🔬 Pay close attention to audience reactions (or lack thereof) in real-time. If you notice eyes glazing over and no “nodding along” where it should be obvious, you haven’t landed your message. Vary your tone, cadence, and volume or simply repeat your message to make it stick. (3) 👋 If using hand gestures, ensure they are deliberate, crisp and clearly visible to the camera to avoid distracting your audience (otherwise all they'll see is you shrugging your shoulders!) (4) 🎙 Adjust your distance from the microphone to ensure clear, undistorted audio at an appropriate volume (don't yell!) and so you can effectively play with vocal range  (5) 👀 Avoid looking at yourself on the screen; it will derail your delivery. Instead, rotate through the 'gallery view' to see all attendees and vibe off audience energy (6) 📒 Familiarize yourself with your material to speak naturally. But if using notes, place them at eye level so it’s not obvious you’re looking down to refer to them What advice from your virtual speaking experiences resonates with you? I'd love to hear your top tips! #publicspeakingtips #executivecoaching #communicationskills

One of my clients is brilliant but he’s also laid back. As a result sometimes he is perceived as being a “low energy” speaker. Recently he asked me how he could bring more energy to the stage. Since I don’t struggle with this I was stumped and gave him a half-baked answer about vocal variety. I was annoyed I didn’t have a better answer so have since given this a lot of thought. I now think bringing more energy to the stage gets down to 7 things: 1️⃣ Layer energy into your content. Share stories. Share humor. Add in audience participation. Make sure that you’ve run your content through my free resource: 12 Questions You Must Ask for a Killer Speech. 2️⃣ Layer energy into your visuals. I told my client he should have a designer redo his deck. It lacked energy. Make sure that your visuals are bringing the energy up, not down in your presentation. Add more color in the deck, break things up with a funny photo, etc. 3️⃣ Pregame physically and mentally While higher energy personalities might need to calm themselves down by taking slow breaths, you might need to pump yourself up with a quick walk, jumping jacks, or another physical energy booster like an upbeat playlist you listen to before you take the stage. Mentally: Focus on your passion for the topic and let that energy flow out. Talk to yourself in the third person–“(Your name) you’re going to rock this speech and have lots of energy!” 4️⃣ Demonstrate energetic and confident body language 55% of communication is nonverbal, so level up your body language. For you this might mean quickly walking or even running onto the stage to start. During your presentation it might look like making your gestures bigger to meet the size of the room, holding eye-contact longer, physically moving and working the stage more, smiling, and animating your facial expressions to match the words that you’re saying. 5️⃣ Add vocal variety. Speed up, slow down, get loud, or get quiet. One way to do this is to look for the big statements or ideas in your speech and ask yourself, “How can I add vocal variety around this part?” Need some examples on how to do this? Watch TED talks. Virtually every TED talk speaker begins with a slower rate of speech and then gradually speeds up, only to slow back down at the end. 6️⃣ Use confident language and end your phrases strong and loud. Many speakers who lack energy get quieter at the end of each sentence or end every sentence like it has a question mark. Right?! Instead use confident phrases like “I know you can do this.” “I believe in your ability.” 7️⃣ Wear color. I’m no fashionista but I told my client to avoid black, gray, or white (his go-to) and instead consider a brighter blue shirt. What other ideas do you have on how my client can bring more energy to the stage? If you’ve ever struggled with this, what have you done? ----- Hi, I'm Eva. I help professional speakers develop and deliver compelling speeches. Need help? Send me a DM. Back

I remember being scared to death to speak in front of my classmates.    For most people, fear of public speaking is greater than fear of death! Being able to speak effectively to groups is a key leadership skill, but fear can hold us back, cause us to doubt our abilities and shy away from opportunities that could propel us forward. I decided to follow my mother’s advice and take a public speaking class. Fast forward to today, over forty years later. I learned public speaking skills, taught university classes, and became a marketing and sales director.  I went on to become a paid speaker, life coach and the host of The Hero Within Podcast.  Learning public speaking was one of the most important career decisions I've ever made. Through the years, I've had the privilege of coaching others to become better entrepreneurs and leaders.   Whether it's delivering a sales pitch, leading a staff meeting, or engaging the audience, effective communication is critical to success. I continue to learn from my coaches who are helping me improve my presentation skills.  It isn't a one-time endeavor; it's an ongoing process that significantly enhances our effectiveness as a leader. Here are seven steps to becoming a better presenter and a more effective communicator: 1. Know your audience, their needs and interests.  Research and understand their problems and gear your message to solving a specific problem. 2. Become well versed in your content, allowing you to deliver it confidently.  Don’t memorize your material because then you’ll sound scripted.  Instead, be comfortable enough that you can talk about the main points from your heart. 3. Practice, practice, practice and practice some more!  It’s great to practice in front of a mirror, and it helps to become comfortable hearing your own voice. 4. Become an engaging storyteller to connect with your listeners.  Personal stories or hypothetical scenarios can make complex information more relatable to the audience. 5. Pay attention to your nonverbal body language, using posture, gestures and movement to enhance your impact.  Your posture conveys your level of confidence and your eye contact helps the audience build connection with you. 6. Manage nervousness by focusing on the excitement to share your message.  Instead of telling ourselves to “calm down,” reframing our anxiety as excitement is more effective because the feelings are nearly the same physiologically!    7. Actively seek feedback and continuously work to improve.  Be the first to give yourself feedback, assessing what you think went well and what you think you could improve.  You may also seek feedback from audience members, mentors, or your coach.  Take the feedback that you feel applies, disregard the rest and continue practicing.  See #3. By embracing these principles and dedicating yourself to ongoing growth, you’ll increase your speaking skills, empowering yourself to lead and inspire others with clarity and confidence.