Public Speaking Tips: Eye Contact

Video Transcript

"Okay, we're going to talk about the face. Can't talk about the body and not talk about the face, because the face is a really important part of public speaking. Why? The eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul. And yes, there really is some truth to that. I can't build a relationship with you as the listener unless you make eye contact with me, so it's really, really important that you make eye contact. Now, there's a couple of rules here. Make eye contact, rather than delivering your entire speech like this, and never, ever, ever, ever, ever looking up. You don't want to do that. But I'll tell you what's even worse, and I find this as a public speaking professor, that the student will sit there and they will give the entire speech looking directly in my eyes, piercing wholes through my flesh. Yeah, no, that makes me uncomfortable. So you have to get to where you can kind of take a look around. Talk to your entire audience. Not avoid them, not focus on one, but talk to everybody. And it's a little tricky because what we tend to do is we tend to focus where we're getting the most positive feedback. And I'm going to talk about that later. But the person who is giving you a smile and a nod is the person that you're going to become the most comfortable looking at. But don't forget to deliver your speech to the whole group, making eye contact with everyone. And again, with the face, relax and smile. You don't want to deliver your speech with an oatmeal face, and you never smile, and is really expressionless, because, well, you know, it would be more exciting to lick cardboard. Use your face. Smile, make great eye contact."