Communicate with Enthusiasm, Part III

Say Cheese. Here’s another psychophysical circuit that can be a great boon to public speakers. As you read this, put a smile on your face. A happy, just-received-great-news kind of smile, twinkling eyes and all. If you keep this up for a few seconds, you’ll probably notice a related, warm and tingly emotional response start to form. Years of smiling in response to positive stimuli creates a channel between the physical action of smiling and the feelings associated with smile-worthy occasions. Seeing others smile can also produce this response (that’s why the whole world smiles with you, as the old song goes). What use is this to public speakers? Bright eyes, an open face, an upturned mouth, these are all things we associate with the enthusiastic communicator. They are the outward signs that invite us to share in the speaker’s positive experience. Unfortunately, out of nerves, the desire to look professional, or simply unconscious habit, many speakers put on a grim “game face” as they approach the podium, unwittingly shutting out the audience. To counteract this tendency, take a moment in rehearsal to run through the opening of your speech with a big grin on your face. You’ll probably feel foolish. Good. This might make you smile even more. The goofier the better. See what it does to your speech to begin from a grin. Now internalize that smile so you feel it but it’s not manifesting itself in an unnatural way, and keep going with your speech. Use your eyes to communicate the smile to your imaginary audience. This is a great way to achieve a warm connection with your crowd, one that looks and feels authentic. Even if you’re giving a serious speech, you’ll want to find moments to share either an outward or an inward smile, one that lets your listeners know you’re with them.

Communicate with Enthusiasm, Part II

Get Physically Involved. Here's a great rehearsal technique for those real-life acting moments. It's easy and works every time: Before you begin a run-through of any kind of presentation, do thirty (or more) jumping jacks, counting each one out loud as you go. As soon as you get to thirty, jump right in and start your speech. Don’t even pause to catch your breath. You may find yourself perspiring or breathing heavily as you speak, and that’s just fine. The point is to get your body into a state of excitement and start the speech from there. When your heart is thumping and your physical energy level is high, your vocal energy can’t help but follow. Even as your heart and breathing rates return to normal, you’ll probably find that your speech retains a quality of urgency that is non-habitual for you. Try to hang on to this heightened sense of physical involvement all the way through to the end. The great thing about an exercise like this is that it works with the principles of kinetic memory. With enough practice, your body will start to remember what it feels like to be physically committed while speaking and will automatically return to the heightened energy level it found through the jumping jacks, every time you start your speech.