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When you address an audience, are your more concerned with speaking from your head or your heart. While knowledge of your material is undeniably important, if it doesn't come from your heart, then you are missing a fundamental of dynamic public speaking. Those who speak from their head often sound memorized and are unable to react to their audience because they are performing. Those who are able to speak to their audience, however, are communicating. It is important to recognize that public speaking is the art of oral communication with an audience - it is not a performance. In that sense, your heart needs to be involved because only when that happens will your emotions be perceived. If you listen to the greats in the public speaking circuit, like Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins, you cannot help but notice that they sound like they are having a conversation. And, they are aware of how their audience reacts to them. Were they just spitting out a pile of memorized words, they would not be able to tailor their presentations specifically around the responses of their listeners. When you are communicating with your audience, you will find that they are reacting to your words in some fashion. They may nod their heads in agreement, laugh, smile, or possibly shake their heads negatively. Even the furrowing of their brow is a reaction because they may be in disbelief or questioning your words. Whatever their response, they are in communication with you. Your ability to recognize their reaction to you and respond to it is a basic fundamental of good public speaking which is not possible if your delivery is rote or memorized. I was once speaking to a group of teachers and when I told them that, "we all have a diaphragm, we just don't use it," they thought it was hysterical. That is the first and only time I have had an audience react to those words in that fashion. And I remember saying back to them, "Well, that was a first!" Why that statement affected them in that manner, I do not know. Had I been giving a memorized delivery, I would have been unable to respond to their laughter because I would have probably lost my train of thought. Public speaking is not a performance; it is a conversation. And part of good conversation is the ability to react to your listeners and remark on their responses to you. This is only possible if your heart is involved in the process. Use your head but speak from your heart. The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels provides private, group and corporate training throughout the United States and Canada as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement and presentation skills. Visit Voice Dynamic and voice your opinion in her new blog.
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