The Art of Taking Up Space: How to Inspire Confidence in Yourself and Others

Own your space and embody confidence to elevate your personal brand for impactful and memorable interactions. 

Cliche personal branding advice tells you to have a “strong voice”. It implies that speaking more builds your professional presence. Another is to “increase your visibility”,  assuming that being seen has an immediate impact. But what if you want to lead more by saying less? To have the few words you do use resonate more deeply? What if you don’t just want to be visible, but actually have your presence felt? Then the way you hold your body matters more than what you say. 

The communication model highlights that only 7% of communication is related to words, 38% is tone, and 55% is nonverbal. Meaning a stunning combined 93% of communication has nothing to do with what you say, and everything to do with how you say it and even more so, your body. So instead of simply having a ‘strong voice’ in the marketplace, take up space in it.

It’s one thing to understand the power of non-verbal cues, but how can you embody confidence in your everyday professional life? So you feel confident in yourself and inspire confidence in others. Here are small techniques that can have a big impact on your personal brand’s presence:

1. Take up space in meetings

Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk, one of the most viewed TED Talks ever, set the world ablaze with talk of body language. Especially talk of the power of ‘power posing’ and its ability to set your mind in motion. Within minutes, powerful poses can create confidence. Once your mind is triggered, it doesn’t matter what the trigger was. Meaning, through your body, you can actually fake it till you make it.

You don’t just need to power pose in the bathrooms before big presentations or ahead of your next interview. Most busy professionals can barely make it to their next meeting, let alone have time for a quick power posing pit stop. If you’re going to power pose, embody it in your meetings. Consciously choose expansive versus contractive postures and body language. Stand or sit up tall, chest open and arms away from your body. Don’t just get a seat at the table. Act like you know you belong there. 

2. Use your hands to communicate with intention

Hand gestures, often called ‘co-speech gestures’, help do the talking for you. Through complementing verbal speech, they enhance listeners’ understanding and are said to boost recall of messages. When used with intention, hand gestures are a tool, not a distraction. While it can support you as a speaker in organising ideas, it can also increase the persuasiveness of your communication. Don’t be afraid to take up space in using hand gestures - use them to move your messages and tell stories well. 

3. Engage your ‘sticky eyes’

Tiny details matter when taking up space. Your eye contact can immediately infuse a space and create as much energy as a power pose. 

In Leil Lowndes' bookHow to Talk to Anyone, shehighlights that your eyes can let your relationships down, or they can be your personal brand’s secret weapon. As Lowndes says: 

“Your eyes are personal grenades that have the power to detonate people’s emotions.”

This goes beyond generic advice to keep good eye contact. They understand this intimidates some. And in some cultures, it’s even threatening and disrespectful. But, in the right context, eye contact can skyrocket your charisma. Enter what she nicknames ‘sticky eyes’.

‘Sticky eyes’ are said to stick like warm toffee. It doesn’t fall off as soon as the speaker stops speaking. It takes time to peel away. So, don’t simply skip swiftly to the next speaker or jump in with your next two cents. Let your gaze linger, take up space and make others feel seen and heard. 

Yale University research has shown that the more eye contact, the more positive the feelings. 

A heartfelt gaze increases heartbeats. The biological response to eye contact also shoots an adrenaline-like substance through your recipient’s veins

4. Command the stage

When you’re presenting, go back to the basics of high school drama class. Don’t just deliver your long monologue centre stage. Use the front stage, back stage, stage left and stage right. Don’t distract your audience with rapid pacing, but rather move with intention. Match your movements to your words, pacing and flow. Move in to emphasise your points. Move away to give the audience space to process the questions you pose. 

5. Pause 

Taking up space does not just mean taking up space in a room. Confident people take up space in a conversation - and not by talking more. You don’t need to fill every space with words. Pausing is the ultimate space-commanding power move. Through strategic and dramatic pauses, you’re taking up space in a conversation, you’re holding space for ideas to resonate. 

6. Expand your presence in your photos

Whether it’s your profile photo, website imagery, video thumbnails or podcast cover, command a posture that takes up a little more space than might feel natural. I recently heard someone describe how the camera doesn’t just “add ten pounds”, but it sucks the energy from your speech. As a Marketing and Communications Manager, I saw this play out first-hand with talent in recording studios. Studio heads would direct talent to aim for 10 times more energy than what felt natural, because so much energy is lost in the exchange. 

I feel the same is true for photos; you likely come across smaller and more contracted than you feel. So be conscious of your body. Take up space. Add energy and confidence to what can otherwise be a very 2D experience. 

Stop playing small: From contracted to confident personal brand presence

Taking up space isn’t about ego; it’s about energy. It’s how you show up for yourself before anyone else does. Whether it’s through your posture, your gestures, your gaze, or your pause, every movement tells the room how much space you believe you deserve to be there. That belief becomes contagious. When you expand your presence, you’re not just seen, you’re felt. You remind others what confidence in motion looks like. 

So, the next time you walk into a room, onto a stage, or in front of a camera, don’t shrink to fit into boxes others might try to put you in. Take up space to build your personal brand presence.