Hi!
I’m Topher Morrison.
Thanks so much for watching this quick video.
Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever noticed that some speakers when they get up on stage can almost magically
invoke emotion into their audience?
Well, a lot of it’s their words.
But even more so, it’s their physical gestures.
It’s what they do with their body.
Today I’m going to share with you 5 quick simple physical positions that you can use
which when used with purpose and intention will invoke specific emotions into your audience.
This information comes to you from Virginia Satir’s: The New Peoplemaking.
It should be said that in the book, she never says that this is professional speaking.
She’s discovered these 5 physical positions in the area of interpersonal communication
and relationships.
However, I can tell you though, that with over 20 years of experience as a professional
speaker, both using and not using these techniques, they absolutely make a difference.
When I discovered these things, it lit up my presentations and I can’t wait to share
it with you.
So let’s get started.
First one’s what we call the leveler position.
The leveler position is used to convey honesty.
It’s to convey believability.
When you want to be congruent with your message, the leveler’s the way to go.
The way the leveler position works is your hands are in a downward facing position and
it’s almost like they’re levelling out on a table and your shoulders are even, your
hips are even, your legs aren’t too far apart, you don’t want that gunfighter stance,
you don’t want them too narrow either, you want them about hips width apart, hands coming
down, toes facing forward, everything facing forward, eyebrows even and the hands like
this, this motion, this movement, excuse me, will convey an emotion, if you will, of believability
about congruence and honesty.
That’s the first one.
Now for the second one!
Alright!
The second position is what we call the placater.
Now, the placater, the hands are up, your shoulders are still even, your hips are still
even, the only difference is that your hands are up and this is kind of in this placating
mode like, please believe me.
This is a great position to use if you’ve said something wrong and you need to apologize
to the audience.
Listen, we’re only human and as speakers, sometimes, we say the wrong things.
If you say the wrong thing, go into a placater mode, step back maybe just one step and that’s
going to create a sensation of wanting forgiveness about permission.
I use this to plea to my audience.
How many here are willing to do this?
Would you be willing to do this?
That type of a thing and I put the hands up, I plea with my face and it creates sort of
a permissive emotion if you will where you’re wanting to get them to participate with you,
get them to forgive you or to maybe even deliver some bad information, sometimes the placater
could work pretty good for that one.
Alright, let’s talk about the third position.
Alright, the next position is what we call the blamer.
Now, the blamer does exactly what it says.
I have a hard time keeping a sturdy face when I do it.
It’s not my favourite position.
Some speakers like it a lot.
And by the way, if you use blamer a lot, your audience might feel attacked.
So in my opinion, be a little bit careful with it and depending upon where you point,
it’s also going to create a different emotion as well.
If you point right at them, it’s going to create this tremendous sensation perhaps of
guilt and it could be an attack.
However, if you just want to make sure that they’re listening and they’re paying attention,
you can point above their head.
If you just want to make a point, you can simply point up in the air and that works
too.
These are all derivatives of the same thing but then the emotion, if you will, that it’s
conveying, there’s some aspect of blame.
And if it’s used too much, could create a feeling of being attacked or guilt.
Alright, now let’s talk about the fourth one.
Alright, the next position is what we call the computer.
Now the computer, the arms are usually crossed, either in this position or this type of a
position.
As you can see, it immediately creates sort of a block between you and the audience.
This can be used to create a sense of cerebral process.
Anytime you want somebody to think about something, think about like a computer, it’s logical.
So, this conveys a lot of logic as well.
Anytime you’re being attacked by the audience and you need to find a safe spot, usually
the first thing I do is I go into computer mode because it puts up a barrier of safety
if you will.
It’s where I don’t take things as personally.
Somebody’s attacking me from the audience, I don’t want to go into placater mode right
away, I’m going to evaluate the information in computer and then at that point in time
decide where I want to go with it.
Do I want to attack back with the blamer or do I want to stay non-emotional and go logical
or do I want to get into placater mode.
If I’ve done something wrong, I’m probably going to go for placater.
If they’ve misinterpreted me, I’m probably going to go more computer.
And if they’re being disrespectful, I’ll probably be more blamer.
But this emotion here is going to be creating an emotion of logic, an emotion of reason,
common sense, and it’s just a great one to kind of make it neutral if you will.
Alright, now on to the fifth and final posture!
Alright, the fifth and the final position is what we call the distracter and the distracter’s
used to convey humour.
I mean, think about it, if you tried to tell a joke and you level the playing field, nobody’s
going to laugh.
If you try telling a joke from the computer, it’s not going to seem that funny.
If you do it from blamer mode, they might not understand what’s going on.
But if you go into a distracter where your arms are asymmetrical, your head’s asymmetrical,
your hips are asymmetrical, everything is non-level, it’s going to create a much more
feeling of fun and playfulness.
Now, be careful with all of these by the way.
If you use any of them too much, it gets a little overwhelming.
So the question you might have is, “Well, what do you do in between?”
That’s a great conversation and it’s up for another video.
And by the way, if you’re interested, we also offer at Topher Morrison Incorporated,
a program called Legacy Certification and it is a professional speaking course like
none other.
If you’re interested in checking it out, you can look at the website on the screen
and go there and see what we have to offer.
At that course, we don’t just talk about these 5 positions but we talk about how you
can combine them to convey other emotions, we talk about how you can convey all of these
emotions and use these positions without ever using your arms at all, without ever using
your shoulders by being completely stationary, we’ll share with you five ways which you
can convey all of these 5 positions anyway.
So we go into a lot more depth there but this was just a taster to get you started.
Try these out, play with them and I think you’ll have a great time with it.
Alright, I think that wraps it up.
If you’ve liked this information and you’d like to get some more information, I have
an eBook that I’d like to share with you called the Professional Speaking Secrets of
Topher Morrison: How to get more cash and more cred in the biz.
And here’s the best part of all, are you ready?
It’s free.
Just go to the website that you see on the screen right now, you can sign up for it,
it’s a living eBook.
Now, what this means is, you get one chapter a week.
So it’s easy to read it only takes between 5 to 10 minutes.
Why?
Because I know that speakers are busy people, so I’ve designed a book for the busy lifestyle
of mine.
So, all you have to do is about to spend 5 to 10 minutes a week and read these in quick
tips and it’ll help you out and the book will grow.
It’s interactive as well.
There’s this places for you to fill out surveys.
There’s things that you can download, additional tools as well, and in fact there’s places
where you can give us feedback as to what you want in future chapters so the book literally
grows with you and it’s absolutely free.
That’s my way of saying thank you for being my customer and I hope to see you at one of
my events in the future.
Until then, take care.
The other dream make each day an epic adventure.
Bye for now.
Topher Morrison, Professional Speaker Training,