How to Make Eye Contact in Public Speaking

Video Transcript

"DON VARNEY: Hi, I'm Don Varney, founder of Varney Speaks, and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. I'm sitting here today, I'm talking to you because you're in the camera. You're right in front of me. But, in reality, if I'm speaking, I'm going to be looking at this side of the room. I'm going to be looking in the back. I'm going to look at the person in the front. I'm going to look here. I'm going to look there. I'm going to be--and I'm going to be moving my eyes around the room. Now, do understand, you don't want to dart around the room just to make sure. But you want to spend time as you're moving on that stage to make contact with somebody in the audience and say something that they feel like "I'm speaking to you." And then as you move over, you just turn and you look to this side, you do the same thing, and try and find different people that are so interested that they're making eye contact with you. So go ahead and make eye contact back. That's a wonderful feeling. If you're in that environment, in speaking, sometimes, to where--they have bright lights in front of you and you can't see the people because it's dark. All you can see is the front row. What you have to do, in your mind, is you have to visualize those people and that they're looking at you. So go ahead and look back. Even though you may be looking into a vast darkness, look into that darkness as if you've got people sitting right there that you can see their faces. Eye contact is a wonderful thing from a speaking standpoint of view. Because when you're making eye contact, you're telling that audience, "You're important to me. And I want to make sure that I do a great job for you." So your fear of public speaking is preparation. Don't be the person in a box that moves around. Don't be the forced gesture. Don't be the nervous. Don't be the one hanging on to the podium. Don't be the one that has their notes and they're shaking. Don't do that. Stop and think and say, "What would make me happy if I came to hear a speaker?" Well, to me, if I go and listen to a speaker, I want to not be distracted by the speaker. I want to hear what the speaker has to say. Fear of public speaking? You're on the road to recovery. And you know what they say about power, when you have knowledge, you have power and your fears go away."