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Move Your Hands When You Speak

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About this lesson

Learn how to use your hands naturally when you speak, and avoid bad practices.

  • 00:05 You heard me the previous lecture talk about how key movement is.
  • 00:09 Now, let's talk about one particular body part.
  • 00:13 This is a body part that gets people into trouble.
  • 00:16 There's huge debate.
  • 00:17 People are adamant on one side or
  • 00:20 the other about what to do with this body part.
  • 00:23 I'm talking about, of course, the hands.
  • 00:27 Of all the myths out there this is, perhaps, one of the most pernicious.
  • 00:32 The idea that a professional speaker isn't supposed to move their hands,
  • 00:35 they're supposed to have them down clasped, like this, or in your pocket.
  • 00:39 Complete, utter, nonsense.
  • 00:43 Now, there are people who claim to be body language experts who will tell you, well,
  • 00:47 just bring your hand up eight inches, keep one hand in the pocket.
  • 00:54 Complete nonsense.
  • 00:55 Be careful not to have your hands high.
  • 00:57 All of this is nonsense.
  • 01:00 You don't need to learn how to do anything new with your hands when you're speaking.
  • 01:06 You don't need to learn how to act with your hands.
  • 01:10 You just need to learn how to stop acting.
  • 01:13 The problem most people have is they freeze their hands.
  • 01:20 And I had people who were incredibly confident, authoritative, successful,
  • 01:24 wealthy people come to me and were sitting down talking, they're highly expressive.
  • 01:30 They get up to give a speech and all of a sudden, TJ,
  • 01:32 what do I do with these things that are stapled to my torso?
  • 01:36 I have no idea how to move my arms or hands during a speech.
  • 01:40 It's ridiculous.
  • 01:42 Do what you do all day long when you speak.
  • 01:47 You move your hands.
  • 01:51 Now, I know there's some debate about this.
  • 01:53 I even have people on the internet, Youtube, and say, TJ,
  • 01:56 you move your hands, a professional speaker isn't supposed to.
  • 02:01 It's nonsense.
  • 02:04 Here's the thing.
  • 02:06 The second you stop moving your hands, you're tensing your hands,
  • 02:09 you're doing something unnaturally.
  • 02:11 The tension goes up your hands, up your arms, in your shoulder,
  • 02:15 in your vocal chords.
  • 02:17 It tenses your body.
  • 02:18 Your hands move less, your body moves less.
  • 02:20 Next thing you know, you get this sort of substitute teacher telling your voice now
  • 02:25 class sit down, settle down, we're gonna take attendance.
  • 02:28 See how awful that is.
  • 02:31 It's tensing you up, it's freezing you.
  • 02:34 It makes you look nervous and uncomfortable.
  • 02:39 Oh, but teacher, I just wanna hold these notes, so
  • 02:42 I don't have my hands doing this.
  • 02:44 I wanna hold a pen, so I'll be more comfortable.
  • 02:47 I don't care about you being comfortable.
  • 02:49 Sorry, that sounds mean.
  • 02:52 I care about your audience being comfortable with you.
  • 02:55 Your audience is going to be much more comfortable with you if they see
  • 03:00 you doing the things that people do all day long when they're talking and
  • 03:05 they're comfortable.
  • 03:07 So, here's your next homework assignment.
  • 03:10 When you are with friends, family members, colleagues,
  • 03:14 you're at the water cooler talking about last nights game, you're with
  • 03:19 friends debating who was the most popular or least popular in highschool,
  • 03:24 you're with family debating over where you should go on your next vacation.
  • 03:29 I need you to really watch what people are doing with their hands.
  • 03:35 I guarantee you when you're with friends,
  • 03:38 family, colleagues, and you're talking about something you really care about,
  • 03:41 people are not holding their hands in a prim, proper way.
  • 03:44 They're not anchoring it with a pen.
  • 03:47 They are moving their hands.
  • 03:51 No, it's not about well, it's because we're Italian or it's because.
  • 03:54 No.
  • 03:56 I work with people from six continents.
  • 03:58 I don't care the culture.
  • 03:59 When people are comfortable and they're talking, they move their hands.
  • 04:06 If you're giving a speech, whether it's to two people,
  • 04:10 200 or 200,000, you wanna come across comfortable.
  • 04:14 But easiest way to do that is to move your hands.
  • 04:18 Because by moving your hands, It's a lot more likely that your body is moving,
  • 04:22 your vocal chords are moving, and you sound conversational.
  • 04:26 Freeze the hands, you set off a negative chain reaction.
  • 04:29 Everything becomes frozen stiff, canned, mechanical, and
  • 04:33 that's not what makes people in a business situation feel more comfortable about you.
  • 04:41 There are those who say, well, but TJ, it's a formal presentation.
  • 04:45 So of course, I have to have my hands on the lectern.
  • 04:48 Newsflash, folks.
  • 04:50 There's no such thing as a formal speech.
  • 04:55 There's also no such thing as a financial speech, or a technical speech, or
  • 04:58 a PowerPoint speech.
  • 05:01 There are only two types of speeches or presentations in the world.
  • 05:05 Do you know what they are?
  • 05:08 That's right. It's either good cuz it's interesting or
  • 05:11 it's bad cuz it's boring.
  • 05:13 If you're an audience member,
  • 05:14 that's the only thing you're thinking of when you're watching someone speak.
  • 05:19 You're not saying, boy I sure am glad TJ's being formal today.
  • 05:23 I'm glad he's standing up stiff and holding the.
  • 05:25 No one has ever said that in the history of the world.
  • 05:30 What people have said is, this TJ guy is pretty boring and I've heard this before.
  • 05:35 Let me check my email.
  • 05:36 Or they said, oh, Samantha is interesting.
  • 05:41 That's useful here.
  • 05:42 Let me pay close attention.
  • 05:43 I may even take a few notes.
  • 05:46 That's the only thing going on in the audience's mind.
  • 05:49 So, you need to be interesting and
  • 05:52 you need to come across like an interesting person.
  • 05:55 Interesting people move their hands when they speak, all the time,
  • 06:00 not just when they're comfortable.
  • 06:02 So, that's what you've gotta do in your speech.
  • 06:05 You gotta move your hands, and that will set off a positive chain reaction
  • 06:10 that will get most of your other body langauge in sync as well.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Movement is Key to Public Speaking Success
03m:44s
Advanced Body Language Tips for Public Speaking
09m:08s
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