Chapter 5

Project Confidence: Expressing Your Intention Nonverbally

Expressing Your Intention Nonverbally

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

—Vince Lombardi

 

John F. Kennedy, like many great politicians, understood the power of nonverbal communication. He knew the importance of shaping and controlling an audience's perception through visual messages, and he used this knowledge to his advantage as a communicator. When it came time to prepare for his watershed 1960 presidential debate with Richard Nixon—the first televised debate in history—Kennedy took a vastly different approach to preparation than Nixon did. Television was a relatively new medium at that time and Kennedy understood that he needed to make it work for him.

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