It’s all about eye contact!

When you’re giving a speech, don’t be a hover craft – looking above your audiences’ eyes.  And don’t be a shoe drooler – looking down to avoid really SEEING your audience.

Look ’em dead in the eye!

Here’s a practice plan to develop sincere eye contact

1. Tell your family or a good friend that you need to practice eye contact
2. Start by just sitting quietly staring into someone’s eyes for 10 seconds
3. Let them talk for 10 seconds while you look. Then you talk and look at them for 10.
4. THIS IS VERY HARD TO DO! Try again.
5. At your office or at dinner, force yourself to look into someone’s eyes, at least for a couple of sentences as you start to speak. If you look away, start again to look straight into the eyes.
6. Try to draw energy from those eyes.
7. Practice this 5 minutes a day. Keep trying to add a few more sentences.

Knowing how to make eye contact helps you inspire your audience!