Get Coached - How to Make Your On Camera Presentation Stand Out (Episode 79)

Welcome to the Video Made Simple podcast. I'm your host, Chris Schwager. And today's question is from Derek and Derek wants to know how to make my on camera presentation stand out. This is a great question because the way you present yourself on camera will influence the decision making of your audience and get them to your call to action. You need to be prepared, rehearsed, you know, you got to be able to make adjustments. But often what we find is people get into a very bad behavior of repeating bad mistakes. And that's no good. It's no good because you don't want to be wasting any more time than you need to. Yes, you've overcome the idea that, hey, I look and sound like that. But you want to be able to make this process as seamless as possible.

One little tip, you should know right now your brain lies to you, Derek, but the camera doesn't. You think you did well, but the reality is, what was captured in the camera tells a different story completely. So here's five tips to make your on camera presentation, stand out. Tip one, force smile. So try this little test, do a small bit to camera, play it back. And then watch if you think you're smiling enough. You can never smile enough and not smiling enough is the fastest way to get into this bad cycle of trying to repeat the process. You need to consciously for smile. You can be a bit overwhelming with the lights and the camera and all of that. But you need to focus smile, smile, smile. If you deny your audience of that smile, you might come off looking a little bit confused, a little bit angry perhaps. And you don't want to be projecting that type of body language. So force smile.

Number two, if you're reading from a teleprompter, read fast. Why? Because if you read fast, the nuances of your delivery have sometimes worked out for you. So tone, inflection, comments, punctuation, all of that is worked out so that you don't have to do a lot of work. So sometimes reading fast is the way to go. Because most of the time people who read from a teleprompter are quite articulate and they tried to slow things down and keep it all very simple and easy to understand. And often they're just not experienced enough to have that sporadic nature in which people humans actually talk. And so when they read for the first time, it's very robotic. And if it's robotic, it's not authentic. And it's the easiest way to give away to your audience that you are actually reading and not just being conversational.

Number three, look at the lens only now, this is open for speculation. But as a rule of thumb, if you're producing video marketing content, like the stuff you see on the Ridgefilms website, any of those videos go to the portfolio there the Products page, I think it's ridgefilms.com.au/products. And all of the people that present in those videos have 90 minutes of training with us, prior to them going on camera. Now they are not people that would ordinarily go on camera. They're doing it because they believe in the process of making sure that they do this once and get it right the first time. Now back to my point, look at the lens.

Why do you want to look at the lens and not off to the side? Well, primarily because you're looking at the person that is actually viewing you, you want to give them as much eye contact as possible. People gravitate towards faces in the buying decision. When you're looking directly at them. It's very confronting for the viewer. And I want to make sure that they stick with you because you're giving them attention. And psychologically, you're gonna receive that attention from them in return. If you're looking off or glancing away or looking up or down in your notes. That's no good because it looks again, like you're distracted with something else. It's more important than the camera and also that you are feeling uncomfortable. You're looking uncomfortable. These are giveaways to telling your audience that you're not comfortable yet.

Okay, so point four, simplify the messaging. If you are reading from a teleprompter, you got to keep that messaging really simple and conversational. You can't be overly robotic, too wordy, too clever about the technical wording in your script, because that's not the way people talk, right? The way that people talk is (inaudible.)

They want to you know, they they're up and down, they're moving around really quickly with their choice of words. And as a recipient, you're receiving that information just as quickly. Okay, your brain has a huge capacity to ingest all that information because you're seeing, you're hearing, you're getting the vibration of what's being said and it all is gluing together for you. So you don't need to actually pronounce every single word perfectly all the time. You know, it's actually a really cool way to connect by being far more relaxed and conversational and loose about the way that you speak to these people.

You know, for years, we've been drumming home, this corporate messaging, you know, and it's just boring. So be conversational, and have fun with your messages. Have fun with your language, you know, and that's what will help people buy from you, or will build trust from you.

And point number five, be enthusiastic, be energetic, if you're energetic that radiates through the lens. And people really do get something beautiful from that, just like I'm giving to you now. If you're watching this, you'll see that I'm just adding something fresh here all the time. Now I've got some notes in my teleprompter, I'm just reading the bullet points, point five be enthusiastic, I've got in front of me, the energy radiates through the lens. That's all I've got in front of me. And the rest of it, I'm just kind of making up as I go. And because of that, I can perform this in a way that is true to me. If you see me on the street, it's most likely I'll probably be as enthusiastic as I am with you now. Now the fastest way to get this done properly is on camera training. And on camera training takes 90 minutes of your time. And if you're professionally producing videos, this is the fastest way to get up and running. And avoid all of that terrible bad cycle of behavior, the bad habits that you might encounter, doing trying this yourself.

Okay, so on camera training addresses all of the nuances of reading from a teleprompter so that you come across authentic, it helps you understand what you should be doing with your hair and your makeup and your wardrobe, where to stand, where to look, all of the things that you would expect you need help with it addresses. So it's a hugely beneficial process, I'll put a link to on camera training in the show notes to help you on your quest. If you just want to fast track this on camera training is the way to go. Don't go it alone. Have somebody else guide you through the process. And if you do that you will look and sound authentic and not robotic to your audience.

Remember, your message is not about you. It's about sharing information and delivering the message with your audience. It's about what your audience will feel as a result of watching the video and leading them to the call to action through your body language through your tone, the messaging. These all play a part in building a great strong first impression and connection and trust with your audience. So click on the link for on camera training in the show notes. And Derek, thank you so much for asking your question how to make your on camera presentation stand out. And if you use these methods I've coached you through to connect with your audience and deliver a compelling message I'm sure this is going to be hugely beneficial in terms of you gaining more viewers.

And for all the listeners trying to overcome your phobia of on camera training. What has you feeling overwhelmed? Submit your video marketing question to ridgefilms.com.au/question your chance to get coached by me and thanks for listening. See you next week.