The importance of putting
your body on display
is because your primitive brain
that judges your behaviour,
when insufficient data,
defaults to a negative.
So if it can't see body
language, your audience
will default to negative
judgments about you.
So as an example of this,
if we just take this lectern
out of the way, you'll be able to see
the difference in your
perception about me.
So notice now, you're feeling
more positive about me
just simply because
you can see more of me.
So the key is when you're
pitching your idea,
if you can, step away from the lectern.
The more they can see of you,
the more positive they'll be
about you and your message and your idea.
So there's a huge importance
when you want to stand out,
win trust, and gain
credibility pitching your idea
to speak from this belly
area with open hands.
It's the area that I call the truth plane.
When you give open-hand gestures
from exactly navel height,
people feel that you're
friendly and you're calm
and assertive, and actually
they project that on your idea,
they feel your idea is more
assertive or more positive.
So as far as possible, keep your hands
at exactly navel height and do
plenty of open palm gestures
to win that trust and credibility.
So it's really important that you try not
to allow your gestures to hang down
by their side as I'm doing for you now.
That pose tends to bring down your energy
and give a more negative
feel to the audience,
and so therefore, they'll
feel more negative
about you and your ideas as well.
So try to avoid the natural compulsion
to hang your hands down by
your sides whenever you pitch.
Of course, bring them up
to this truth plane area
and do open-palm gestures
as much as you can.
So you need to keep your
gestures really clear,
especially because you're
probably gonna have
really complex ideas that
you're getting across.
Just notice, if I make my
gestures really complex,
I make them asymmetrical or
move the horizontal plane
that they're asymmetrical in,
isn't it much more difficult
to work out what it is that I'm
trying to get across to you?
When I move my gestures into
symmetrical and keep them
at one gesture plane,
notice how much easier it is
for you to get ahold of my language
and therefore any complex
ideas that I might have.
Keep your gestures
symmetrical as far as you can.
(ambient music)
