Public Speaking: Communicate Confidence

Video Transcript

"We're filming this from a rather simple studio, so I don't have a podium or a Power Point presentation to show you. I'm using a chair to simulate using a podium to present. Think of the difference of how I look now, standing behind this "podium" vs. how I look before. I'm hidden. Instead of seeing the human being that's delivering the message, you're seeing this block of furniture and then a bit of the human being. I'm only to bet you that if I stayed here, especially if I played with the podium, gripped the podium, did the things that people do to podium, I would look a lot less confident to you than I do when I'm just standing without it. Similarly, when using visual aids, for example, a flip chart, which is what I've been using, grabbing it, holding on to it, reading it, not looking at the audience, if I were using a Power Point, reading the screen, looking at the screen as oppose to looking at the audience, all of those things communicate that I'm nervous. That I would really rather not have to look at the audience, none of that communicates confidence. In interacting with the audience and keeping them engage with you, no matter how confident you feel, you need to look to the audience as if you are in control of the presentation. Even if you don't want to look at the audience, you can and so you should, not stand behind the podium, not grip your flip chart, not read your Power Point presentation, but deliver your message to your audience, to the human beings who are there to listen to you in order to get the message that you were there to deliver to them."