Shine on stage with 3 non-verbal tips
The fear of public speaking (glossophobia) affects more than 75% of people in the world. It’s the world’s most common phobia, even before the fear of death.
If you’re part of that group, the good news is that you are not alone. And some even better news is that you can still rock your next pitch, especially if you use the following tips.
Why are these tips paramount?
90% of convincing a crowd comes not from you what you say, but how you say it — especially your body language and the inflection of your voice.
To give a powerful pitch every time, start working on your non-verbal communication, even before you worry about the content of your speech.
Keep in mind that everyone can be good at public speaking. Nobody is born a great public speaker. It is a question of training and believing you can do it.
Over the last year, I have trained many people with limiting beliefs such as “I will never be good at public speaking,” “I’m not meant to be on stage,” etc. In the end, they all improved a lot (and quite often quicker than people that were overconfident).
And remember, even after a lot of practice, it is normal to be nervous when you speak in public — I sometimes feel that my voice is shaking, or I notice that I’m feeling very hot on stage — but these tips will help a lot.
3 non-verbal keys for a powerful pitch
- Looking at your public = listening to your public
Today it seems like people are afraid to look each other in the eye.
But looking at your public the whole time is the most important thing to do. It shows that you love them, that you care about them.
That attention will also be a tremendous help in building your pitch with the audience, adjusting based upon how they react.
When first starting out, many people begin with an unfortunate verbal tic such as “Uhh… so…” It happens because they aren’t looking at their public, they aren’t really in the present — instead they’re thinking about what they’re going to say. In general, verbal tics always come out when you stop looking at your audience in the eyes.
My advice is to always look 2 or 3 different people in the eyes before speaking and be sure that everyone is looking at you. The silence you can get with the power of a look is thrilling.
As you pitch, maintain eye contact, shifting it in rhythm with your ideas. Don’t do overly fast visual scanning and don’t look at just one person in the crowd. Everyone needs to feel like they are being included.
If you have a blackout moment on stage, keep on looking at your public and trust your reptilian brain. Neuroscience tells us that it will help you find the most appropriate thing to say. Starting to look at your feet or the ground is the best way to make the situation worse.
There’s a good exercise to train this at home. With a friend, look each other in the eyes, without speaking, for 60 seconds. Personally, I also train myself by looking people in the eyes on the street or in the metro — just make sure to pay attention to the vibe and not make things awkward.
2. Stay vertical and have the right gestures
Except in some rare cases, you don’t want to be walking around the stage. The best position is to standing still and upright. Maintain your verticality.
To help with this, imagine you’re a puppet with 5 major supports: your feet, deeply rooted on the ground, your relaxed shoulders, and your head pointing up as if held up by an invisible wire. The right position is the same one you would have standing with your back against the wall. Make sure to practice this at home.
Be careful with your hands. A common habit when feeling nervous on stage is to touch your hands together, or to touch a part of your body with them, or even to protect your genitals, almost as if someone was about to run up and take a free-kick. Don’t do that!
The right position is not to do anything specific with your hands, but simply to have them alongside your upper thighs and keep your shoulders relaxed. While you are speaking, they will naturally move according to what you are saying.
3. Work on that catchy voice
Breathing plays a major role when speaking in public, and it also has a big impact on your voice.
Inhaling is passive — when you are silent — while exhaling is active — when you are talking.
Your breathing is like a pump: when talking, your belly goes inside; when you are silent, your belly expands as you take in air.
So during your pitch, this means moments of silence are key, especially if you don’t want to feel short of breath.
Singers know that a powerful voice comes from your thoracic cavity, not your throat.
For the air to be well distributed in your body and thus to have an attractive voice, that vertical position (including your head) I talked about before is crucial.
Keep in mind how you can use all the modulations of your voice — loud, soft, quick, slow, etc. — to offer a rhythmic pitch that doesn’t kill the vibe. One piece of advice is to be particularly careful with the beginning and end of sentences, and to use the right “tonic accents”- the relative phonetic emphasis of a spoken syllable or word.
And don’t neglect emotions, expressing them can go a long way to producing a catchy pitch.
Finally, remember that you are talking to a large audience so every word has to be intelligible. If you sometimes suffer from articulation problems, a great exercise is to read a text with a pen in your mouth for a few seconds every day.
A few last practical tips
Practice and practice again. It’s a great idea to record yourself with a camera. Looking at yourself is the best way to progress very quickly.
Try to be rested, having gotten a good night’s sleep.
Eat the right food — slow sugar products are recommended. Most importantly, drink plenty of still water — no soft, caffeinated or alcoholic drinks — and have a bottle of water with you.
Take the time to know the stage on which you’ll talk and the supporting materials you’ll use.
And one last thing, the audience is caring and you want to be up there in front of them, so smile, have fun, and bring people into your own magical world!
Contact me: If you or your organization is interested in public speaking training or have any questions, please write me at aubrymispolet@gmail.com or Linkedin.
I am a public speaking (and theater) lover, having spent 2 years at the Ecole de l’Art Oratoire (with highest distinctions awarded by final jury). I’ve trained more than 100 people in public speaking over the last year, while also working as a manager of the French Business Developers team at ManoMano. I’ve now decided to pursue my passion, starting a company aimed at teaching public speaking to organizations and individuals.
