Become a Better Speaker by Striking a Power Pose

What if I told you that standing like Wonder Woman will make you a better conference speaker?

Amy Cuddy posing like Wonder Woman

In her TED Talk "Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are", social psychologist Amy Cuddy introduces the concept of "power posing."

A power pose is an expansive, confident posture (like the Wonder Woman pose) that can boost our feelings of confidence.

Standing in a power pose for only two minutes can lead to hormonal changes: increased testosterone (associated with dominance) and decreased cortisol (associated with stress). These hormonal changes can make you feel more confident, more assertive, and less stressed.

Don't believe it? Try it out now!

Set a 2-minute timer, stand up, and put your hands on your hips. Pull your shoulders back, stand up tall, and just be that confident Wonder Woman until the timer runs out.

How do you feel now? Better, right?

Now let's talk about how this can make you a better conference speaker.

There's this awkward, nerve-racking time before you give a conference talk, where you're just waiting around backstage. Often, this is when the nerves really sink in, and you may be at your peak of stress.

Instead of letting the stress take over, strike a power pose while you wait.

Hold this pose for 2-5 minutes before you walk out on stage, and you'll feel more confident and less stressed. This will improve your stage presence, your audience will pay more attention to your message, and you'll feel much better about how you drop that mic at the end.

Try it out before your next talk and let me know how it goes!

For more tips and tricks about stress management before your talk, check out the chapter "Stress" in my latest book: Tech Talks: How to get started speaking at technical conferences which is available for purchase on Payhip: https://payhip.com/b/vxD0b

You can also check out the full TED Talk from Amy Cuddy in the video below, or at this link.