How to Be Confident on Camera (12 Tips)
It was hard to record very first video 10 years ago. Terrible experience. I didn’t use a camera, I recorded my voice only. I had a lot of self-doubts and now, 10 years later, it’s simple activity for me.
Watch video version of this blog post:
So let’s learn 12 tips how to boost your camera confidence and talk fluently, without any fear.
1. Look in the lens of your camera
If you look on a flip screen of your camera, viewer will see this. It looks weird. You can’t create deep connection with the viewer. It’s fine to check how you look. But don’t watch all the time in this screen!
Small eye movement – big difference
2. Understand all weirdness of this shooting experience
When you record the video. it’s not typical condition for you, your body and your mind. It’s weird and artificial.
It’s all fake.
So accept this weirdness and make fun out of this activity.
3. Increase level of energy while recording
Imagine simple scale from 0 to 10. Usually when we speak in normal life, we speak at level 4. I recommend you to increase this level and speak on level 6, 7 or even 8.
Return back the the previous point. We all have this weird communication. You watch the video on your screen. We can’t touch each other. Awkward pauses during a talk is fine. But the same pauses will be just boring to watch.
At the same time, don’t overdose. Don’t use level 10 of your energy because it will look fake and strange. People will notice that you’re playing strange role and will skip your video. Be authentic.
4. Don't script your video word-by-word
Just outline a plan and use, for example, bullet points. You can think about buying and using a teleprompter but if you don’t have any experience of using it, recording will be terrible.
You will sound robotic. You need to develop a new skill how to use teleprompter and how to speak using this method with fully written scripts.
It’s better to be authentic and cut boring parts while video editing.
Camera with installed teleprompter where you put a smartphone with your script
5. If it's still hard to use bullet points, use the script
Sometimes we need to have this word-by-word script. Some types of videos are required to have fully written script: sales materials, offers, webinars with dedicated trigger words, step-by-step tutorials.
6. Talk like a human
That’s okay, if you make some mistakes. It’s okay to have poses between sentences. You are human being, I am human being. Human beings make a lot of mistakes. This raw feeling will be much more enjoyable for your viewer because you are not a robot.
7. Add additional personality inside your video
I added specific character (e.g. goose called Valera) in the video with this specific name on purpose because I’m Russian.
Russian is my first language, English is my second language.
Knowing and actively using these two languages is part of my nature because I have work in English, but I have regular life in Russian.
That’s why I added Valera and pronounce his name exactly how it sounds in Russian, without adjusting it for English market.
Varela is watching Alex Hormozi to become a great entrepreneur
This is my personality, this is additional fun moment that could be interesting for a viewer. You will separate yourself from the crowd showing who you actually are.
It’s okay, if you are trying to be a better person in front of a camera. But if you are not showing truly yourself, your personal branding will be awkward, fake and hollow.
8. Master your topic
If your plan is to post educational content. You need to be sure that you’re providing good value. You need to confident about topic you spend so much time doing it before video recording. When you are an expert in specific field, people will feel this based on the way how you speak. Mumbling won’t work.
And it works vice versa. A lot of “gurus” have audience success simply because they talk about the topic really confident, when they know nothing.
9. Speak to someone in front of your camera
This method is about tricking our brain. You are framing phrases and sentences that you can use. You can compare yourself speaking with your best friend and comparing with grandmother or someone from the government. You will use different tone of voice in front of different people.
If you speak like a corporate person, you will attract other corporate guys. If you’ll speak freely with different random stupid jokes, especially with Valera, you will attract other audience. You can change your audience just reframing the way how you speak.
10. You control the final video
You can delete bad footage. You can record yourself infinite amount of times. You can adjust your final video and clean all mess. You are in control of creating the best digital version of yourself.
When you understand that you have no limits, you can experiment a lot finding what works for you.
11. Keep your hands busy
If you are nervous or anxious about the video recording, you can use various items. To keep your hands busy. It helps distract the focus from recording the video. And it works for digital things.
When you record tutorials about apps, you can open the app itself and click on various buttons, describe how they work, etc.
12. You just need to practice
That’s all. It’s pretty simple. You just need to practice and get more experience speaking in front of a camera.
Just to compare, check this video from 2014. And after it open my last videos:
But I can’t say that I’m perfect at it and can handle all situations.
For me it’s still hard to:
- record an Instagram story on a street;
- do public speaking;
- record videos with a lot of equipment on a street alone.
But I know for sure, that this camera confidence that I gained during last 10 years, is one of the crucial skills of modern world. Skill that help me sell my services and digital products, build personal brand, create online business.
If you’re serious about growing on YouTube and want to get maximum out of it, check my free online course:
How to Launch a YouTube-Channel and Make Money From It Without Millions of Views