How Far Does your Energy Reach as a Speaker?
Does your energy reach your audience? If you’re nervous, or a low-key or particularly introverted speaker, you’ll probably find that you’re not expanding your energy (or voice) towards your audience in a big enough way.
Of course I’m talking about being live in a room with an audience – a meeting or presentation for example. However this can also apply when you’re sitting in front of a Teams or Zoom meeting.
If you’re nervous, or a quieter personality, it’s likely that what you’re signalling isn’t strong enough for your audience to pick up and respond to. I’ll often see speakers who are basically talking to themselves, or maybe a little way in front of them. It’s often because they don’t want to be there!
Have you ever seen this? Or maybe you recognise it as part of your pattern – you retreat into yourself.
Either through lack of confidence or lack of conviction, what you’re signalling is something like: “I don’t want to be here. Don’t look at me and don’t listen to me.”
That was totally me when I started speaking to groups. If I could have put a bag over my head, I would have done!
Two awareness questions can be helpful here:
- Energy. Am I actually deliberately reaching my audience? Is my energy going far enough out?
- Voice. Is my voice loud enough to make it easy for them to hear me?
Both of these can be challenging for a nervous speaker. So this is important to know: if you raise your energy and voice projection, you’ll actually look and feel less nervous. You may not believe me, but try it, you may be surprised.
Lifting your energy levels and voice projection are a bridge to the whole event going better. It’s just one piece of a bigger puzzle, but it helps.
Best wishes with your presentations or public speaking!
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