I apologize to my three loyal readers that I haven’t blogged as frequently as I wanted.  But, on the bright side, that minimizes the probability that I am spouting rubbish for the world to read.  For this article, I will follow up with Part2 of the article, as promised.

Last time I talked about how to make connections with steady contact.  Rehearse with that in mind, by having inanimate objects as your audience.  Affix your eyes as you talk, and don’t let them wander.  As you have ‘mastered’ this technique—and I haven’t yet—then you can have more confidence in the more advanced methods.  I will talk about how to leverage Body/Stage Movement to your advantage.

You know of the basic body movements that ‘opens’ you up to the audience:  hands and arm open;  Don’t cross your arms. Don’t put your hands in your pocket.  Make sure you actually move.  Now, try some of the subtler gestures:  Look for ways to reach out to the audience and draw them in.  Literally.  And do so while you fix your eye contact on a specific person.  Try this out.  Speak this line, from Lyndon Johnson’s ‘We Shall Overcome’ speech.

And  so I say to all of you here, and to all in the nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future.

When I say, reach out to the audience, I mean literally gesture towards the audience with your hands, as you call them to action.  Create a ‘dialogue’ with them with your body, as well as your words.   Most importantly, as you say ‘you’ or ‘your’, look at them in the eye.   And gesture directly to that specific person, instead of the audience in general.  Examples of the ‘action’ words that you may try in your speech, in conjunction with a gesture to ‘draw them in’ are ‘come’, ‘gather’, ‘connect’, ‘unite’.   

Now, add your body language to play.  Specifically, use opportune moments in your speech to lean towards the audience.   Especially during key points when you really need their attention, or sympathy, or concern.  Lean into them, draw them in, and look at them.  As if you’re pleading for all their attention.  As if you are desperate to capture their mind and refuse to let it go.   The ‘leaning technique’, and lean as far as you can, may be quite useful in a visually stimulating manner when you’re on stage.  It would give an illusion of reaching out to the audience.  Do not stay upright during the entire speech.  Use the vertical plane to your advantage.  At times try to couch down a bit so you’re at the same eye-level with the audience.  Of course I’m referring to speaking in a small room setting that  is on one completely flat plane—i.e. most Toastmasters’ meeting place. 

Finally, we can add in the stage movement.  Now, this is all part of a kinesthetic speaking technique.  Because today’s audience is more comfortable, and more adapted to the ‘close quarter’ of the television, the creation of the ‘intimate space’ goes a long way to making the connection with them.   Intimate space, means that you get closer to the audience as if you’re contacting them.   In the context of speech delivery, you can imagine how important it is to synchronize your content to the movement.   Remember, that although the ‘intimate’ space is important, you do not want to violate that space too often.  Pace it out.  So, if possible, write the speech, so that you can back off, talk about something relatively ‘objective’, and as you’re move in, talk about something personal and impassioned.   There are 2 reasons for this:  One, the audience would begin feel uncomfortable if you’re too close for too long.  Second, you need the contrast between the personal and impersonal space. 

Now, for my 2 loyal readers (because one of you have already fallen asleep reading this article), you know that at my level, this knowledge is as theoretical as it’s going to get.  But I’ve been trying bits and pieces of it in my speech, and so far, I’ve felt better connected with it.  And once I have really mastered it, hopefully the audience would feel the same way. 

Note:  The ideas of the ‘intimate space’ is taken from the article “The Kinesthetic Speaker”, by Nick Morgan, Harvard Business Review, Apr 2001