Stop Trying To "Be Yourself" On Camera - Do This Instead!

Work with me: http://videowithimpact.com/ I am going to show you why in this video. I am also going to share what I’ve found to be far more helpful to get comfortable and most importantly effective being on camera…and this is from someone who built a successful coaching business with youtube and video but that was extremely awkward on camera when he got started. I should also mention: that I have a background as a professional actor…and I have recently started helping entrepreneurs and coaches find their real presence on camera because to be honest…there’s a lot of bad advice out there! So If you have ever watched yourself on camera and thought — that is not me, that is some stiff, over-careful version of me that I would never want to watch — this might be a very useful video for you to watch all the way through. Because the problem is not that you are not yourself enough. Or that you should try to be more natural harder…The problem is something else and it’s easy to fix. And I want to start with something that took me a long time to figure out myself. When I was training as an actor, I noticed something that surprised me. Some of the most talented actors I knew — people who were completely alive on stage, completely believable, completely present — would freeze the moment they had to be themselves on camera. Not a character. Themselves. And they would become stiff and self-conscious and somehow smaller than they actually were. I had the same experience. I could play characters. I could disappear into a role. But the moment someone pointed a camera at me and said just be yourself — something locked up. First I thought, omg..what’s wrong with me..and then I realised something, that I now teach to every entrepreneur and coach I work with. The problem was the instruction itself. Be yourself is actually terrible advice in most situations and especially for being on camera. Not because authenticity does not matter — it absolutely does. But because the instruction to be yourself puts all your attention on you — on how you are coming across, on whether you look right, on whether you sound natural. Am I myself now? Am I myself enough? What is myself??? Who am I???? And the moment your attention is on yourself, you stop communicating. You become a person that’s monitoring themselves rather than a person connecting with someone else. The shift I made — and the shift that changes everything — was moving from trying to be myself to learning to USE myself. Here is what I mean. When you really break it down your voice, your body, your mind, your facial expressions are all tools. A means to an end. They help you communicate. That’s all. They’re not you. The key is this: When you know why you’re there, who you’re talking to and why you need them to do what you want them to do you get busy using all the tools at your disposal to achieve that goal. So everything starts with a goal. Now let’s focus on your “tools” for a second: You already have traits that make you more or less effective in conversation. The way you explain things. Your particular kind of warmth or directness or humour. The energy you bring when you are talking about something you genuinely care about. Those things exist. They are real. They are already yours. The question is not how can I be myself on camera. You are you. You’ll always be yourself. But what version of you? It comes back to the question: How can I use all the tools at my disposal to get the viewer to do what I want them to do? In order to answer that you need to know or guess: 1. Who is my typical viewer? Then ask yourself: 2. What are 2 or 3 characteristics that I already have that would help them to know like and trust me? And how do I amplify or lean into them just enough so I reach them through the lens. That’s how you end up with a camera “persona”, that helps you to develop a consistent brand persona for your audience and gives you something to aim for. The idea of amplifying isn’t just about your brand. Because here is something most people do not realise about camera. A camera compresses. It flattens. The energy that feels completely natural in a room — the warmth, the expressiveness, the slight raise of an eyebrow — looks like about half of what it felt like in real life when you watch it back. (Unless you’re in a major close up of course) Which means that if you aim for natural, you will land on flat or somewhat muted.. You need to amplify. Not perform. Amplify. Use what you have to its maximum capacity. Work with me: http://videowithimpact.com/