How to get over the nerves when being on camera?

Video works. So, what’s stopping you doing more video in your digital marketing strategy?  Well, for many people it’s often nerves that get the better of them so in this short post I’m going to share with you my top tips for getting over the nervousness of being on camera.

[video_player type=”youtube” youtube_remove_logo=”Y” youtube_show_title_bar=”Y” width=”560″ height=”315″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″]aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g/dj1GS196cjFuWFYwOA==[/video_player]

1. Just Do It.

My first tip is probably both the most obvious and possibly the most frustrating piece of advice to give to someone scared of being on camera. I don’t say this lightly though, often the biggest barrier to achieving something is just taking the first steps and one of the best ways to begin to improve your on camera presentation is just to have a go. Get out your smart phone, plan a short topic to talk about and press record. You can share the video online if you like or just watch it back and have a look at how you did. When there’s no pressure, you can take it easy and after you’ve done this a few times you’ll be feeling much more comfortable with the whole idea.

My suggestion to start with is to talk about something you’re intensely passionate about, or something that makes you angry even, it’s these topics that allow us to disconnect a little from our over-critical cognitive brain and drive from the emotions.

2. Ban the do-over.

This follows on nicely from tip one, and it’s also based on the idea of not letting our over-critical self get in our own way when it comes to presenting ourselves on camera. This one’s simple – ban the do-over. Set yourself a rule that when you’re recording your piece on camera do not let yourself stop and re-do a ‘take’ because you made a mistake or you didn’t like it. By making sure that you go through a full ‘take’ without stopping and restarting you’ll quickly begin to get more comfortable with your pace and flow of ideas, and you’ll be developing the hugely valuable skill of confidence and comfort when being on camera.

Consider how a film actor approaches their craft. You wouldn’t expect them to stop mid-scene and turn to the director and ask to start again. They would be thrown off the set and be back to serving coffee at Starbucks in no time.

They keep going. No matter what. And so should you.

You can always do the ‘scene’ or ‘take’ again.

3. Know what you want to say.

Another ‘Captain Obvious’ this one, right? But the reality is that too often I see people stumbling and bumbling their way through an on-camera performance and the nerves quickly overcoming them simply because they have not adequately prepared themselves for what they want to say. Back to the actor here; imagine an actor turning up on set without having rehearsed or even read the script!

Depending on the style of video you’re doing, or the message you’re needing to communicate you may want to write out a full script for your video to help you stay focussed, or perhaps just a handful of dot points to keep you on track. Either way, don’t go in cold. Take some time before hand to plan your message, practise speaking it out loud (perhaps even in front of a mirror), and prepare yourself so the nerves stay at bay, and you can focus on nailing your performance.

 

The skill to present on camera is certainly not something that comes easy to most, but the truth is that if you can talk comfortably and engagingly face to face with another human then you already have the main skills you need to present well on camera. You just need to get comfortable with the camera. Get started today on your first video and let me know in the comments how you go!

 

You May Also Be Interested In:

Your Video Production Toolkit To Grow Your Business

This eBook outlines the framework I’ve learnt and have  implemented for hundred’s of our video agency clients  over the last 7 years… and I want to share it with you.

Your Video
Production Toolkit To Grow Your Business

This eBook outlines the framework I’ve learnt  and have implemented for hundred’s of our  video agency clients over the last 7 years…  and I want to share it with you.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We will only send you awesome stuff!

Privacy Policy

Who we are

Our website address is: http://engagevideomarketing.com.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms
Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics
Who we share your data with
How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Your contact information
For any concerns about your privacy or information please contact Ben Amos on [email protected] directly.