The Importance of Posture for Public Speaking
Have a speech coming up?
Feeling nervous?
I get where you’re coming from.
Here are a few tips to tame the nerves…
Practice.
I recommend the 5x rule.
Practice 5 times to perfection.
Anytime you mess up, start over.
Another tip is to do pushups before you begin practicing your speech.
This trick allows you to coexist with the rapid heartbeat.
Another trick is to dress up.
When you dress up on speech day, you will mold the perception of the audience to your favor.
I’m giving you a lot of tips.
But I haven’t given you the simplest one of them all.
Fix your posture…
The Slow Walker
Toastmasters has a unique way of calling speakers on stage.
Once the Toastmaster announces the speaker’s name, the audience will continue to clap until the speaker gets on stage.
If the speaker takes 5 seconds to walk on stage, the audience will clap for 5 seconds.
If the speaker takes 5 minutes to walk on stage, the audience will clap for 5 minutes.
Why?
2 reasons:
- The 1st reason is to let the speaker know that the club is rooting for them.
- The 2nd reason is to alert the speaker if they are walking too slowly.
If the audience is clapping for long, that’s not a good thing.
Quit dragging your feet!
I was shocked to see how some people walked on stage.
- Slow.
- Frowning.
- Looking at the floor.
- Hunched shoulders.
- Droopy chin.
The body language of a loser.
I felt nervous looking at them!
How do you think they felt?
The Mind-Body Connection
The body influences the mind & the mind influences the body.
When you’re terrified, it becomes difficult to tame the mind.
The nerves are at a fever pitch when the host is about to call the speaker’s name.
This is when the speaker will recite affirmations.
The affirmations may work for an advanced speaker.
But for newbie speakers, their concentration is not yet sharpened.
So, the variety of affirmations cause their mind to hop from one thought to another.
Results?
They feel more nervous.
You can’t always control your mind, but you can always control your body.
Fix your posture, champ.
3 Mental Hacks to Fix Your Posture
Carry yourself like the CEO of a planet.
When I said that statement, did you feel a tingling sensation in your chest?
That tingling sensation shot energy to your entire body…
Right?
Here’s another mental hack:
Walk like you’re about to pick up a billion-dollar check.
This mental hack gives you alertness.
No one is going to be slouching & dragging their feet when a billion-dollar check is involved.
Here’s another hack.
This one will start off as a question.
How tall are you, dear reader?
‘I am 5 foot 4.’
Well, walk like you’re 6 foot 4.
Adding a foot to your height straightens you up.
Notice something.
After each of these mental hacks are applied, your posture is fixed.
After your posture is fixed, how do you feel?
‘I feel AMAZING.’
2 Exercises to Fix Your Posture
I’ll give you 2 exercises that I’ve used to fix my posture.
- Textbook technique and yoga.
The textbook technique is when you place a textbook on your head & walk.
Initially, the textbook will fall off your head.
But the more you practice, the more your body will adjust to keep the book balanced.
Once you master walking with 1 book, try another book.
Experiment with different book sizes.
The textbook technique is more about bringing awareness to the micro muscles that shape great body language.
When I was trying to balance a book on my head, I was becoming alert of dormant muscles in my neck and back.
‘I thought my neck was just my neck. But now I can FEEL muscles that connect my neck to the lower portion of my back.’
The next strategy is yoga.
For a lot of folks, their body is just a collection of different parts under 1 skin.
There is no connection.
Yoga changes that.
Yoga connects the disparate parts of your body into 1 unified system.
There are yoga programs all over the internet.
Best to find a program that plugs into your lifestyle.
I use the 30-minute p90x yoga routine.
Doing yoga looks silly at first.
You’re standing on 1 leg.
Bending in all sorts of strange ways.
Slowing your breathing down.
But the effects are undeniable.
Yoga has an immediate impact on your posture.
I do it at least once a week to remain flexible.
Practice Your Walk
Public speakers & fighters are cut from the same cloth.
I’m not telling you to beat up your audience.
I’m telling you to observe how a fighter gets ready.
They simulate how they will fight.
They study their opponent.
They visualize potential setbacks.
Plus, they practice their walk to the cage.
Why can’t a public speaker do the same?
They should!
Sit down.
Then imagine the host is calling your name.
Once you hear your name, get up and walk.
But don’t walk like a timid tityboy who doesn’t want to be there.
Walk like the CEO of a planet.
Big.
Strong.
Powerful strides.
Then practice giving your speech.
Practicing the walk may seem like busy work for average public speakers.
But great public speakers make the time to practice their walk.
Powerful Posture, Powerful Presenter
When you’re terrified, controlling the body is way easier than controlling the mind.
Your posture influences your internal states.
Your voice is a depiction of how you feel.
So, if you feel strong, then you speak strong.
Give the audience a speech that they will remember.
And don’t have them clapping for too long as you walk on stage.
For more public speaking tips, be sure to check out my eBook, Speaking Wizard.
This book will teach you more about:
- How to brainstorm a speech.
- Strategies to practice your speech.
- Ideas on how to dress for speech day.
- Methods to engage the audience.
- How to extract useful lessons from each speech.
And much more!
Get the Speaking Wizard Here
