There is something about presenting; it’s kind of like dancing. Dance and presenting both require something. They require a push outward with a little bit more expressiveness and, at the same time, a relaxing and a release so that you can just be yourself.
Think back to high school. I don’t know if your high school was like mine, but I saw dancing, and I was scared by it. I didn’t know how they knew what to do, and I started dancing, and I was really sort of awkward. What I was doing was dancing with my brain. I was using my mind to try to make my movements, and I was very awkward and clunky.
I see speakers, and they remind me of that because what they’re doing is trying to control themselves. They’re not letting themselves go. They’re not going with their personality and listening to their impulses. That’s more what it is, but sometimes the impulse you have is to hold back, and so suddenly, you get speakers who aren’t expressing anything.
And I want you to imagine two things at once; they sound at cross purposes. One is to push. Push a little something through, that thing; it’s like stepping up. It’s a conviction to bring more. And secondly, it’s a relaxing into it so that you’re not calculated. You’re not puppeteering yourself. You’re not controlling your body with your mind. You’re controlling it with your heart, kind of like when someone says, “Just feel the music and move.” You know, it’s free; it’s impulsive; it’s natural; it’s not mechanical.
I saw some coaches working with some kids in the sporting, uh, it was baseball, and the coach was trying to get the kids to throw the ball, and these little kids would be like, they weren’t putting themselves into it. They weren’t putting that extra energy, you know, wind up and throw the ball. They were just doing that motion.
I thought of ice skating. You go ice skating, you know, some people are gliding around, and then you’ve got these new skaters who are kind of walking on the ice. They’re not gliding with it. They’re not going with it.
So, these are the two concepts: singing, presenting, all of this stuff is a higher expressive skill zone. It’s a place where you got to push a little bit more through so that your personality shows, but it’s not about getting the words right or saying things perfectly or moving in some certain way. It’s about feeling it and going with it and relaxing into it so that higher energy flows through you naturally and normally and amplifies your personality the way you really are. It’s an authentic expression.
So give those two things a try and see if you can get to a place where presenting is a little bit like dancing. You’re pushing a little more expressive energy through, but you’re relaxing into it so you’re just being yourself.
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