Stay In The Zone

There is a sweet spot for your hands: a loose box between your waist and your shoulders, out in front of your body. Gestures inside it look deliberate and easy to read. Drift above the shoulders and you start to look frantic. Drop below the waist and your hands vanish from view, wasting the effort. Try this: speak about anything for a minute on camera and watch where your hands go. Most people either freeze them stiff at their sides or let them flap with no aim. The fix is to keep the action in the box.