How to Talk More Comfortably to the Camera | Ep. 45

Are you struggling with how to talk more comfortably to the camera? In this video, I share essential tips to help you overcome camera shyness and build your confidence! Talking to the camera can feel awkward, but with practice and the right mindset, you can transform your onscreen presence. We’ll explore practical techniques, including the importance of energy and body language, to help you speak naturally and confidently. Whether you're a beginner or looking to refine your skills, these actionable strategies will guide you on your journey to becoming a more comfortable speaker on camera. Let’s dive in!

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Transcript

<�!DOCTYPE html> <�html lang="en"> <�head> <�meta charset="UTF-8" /> <�title>45 How to Talk More Comfortably to the Camera | Ep. 45<�/title> <�/head> <�body> <�p>Are you ready to unlock the secret to talking more comfortably on camera and transforming your onscreen presence instantly?<�/p> <�p>We got to talk about this here on episode number 45 of video brand infusion. My name is Meredith Marsh. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can build a thriving video brand, grow your audience and generate consistent revenue.<�/p> <�p>And if you're still watching at this point, that means I hooked you in the first couple of seconds but I had a little bit of help because I created this really cool AI tool for my members inside of Video Brand Academy. And I was sitting here thinking, how am I going to start this video?<�/p> <�p>And I remembered. I created this opening hook helper tool. So I put in the topic, I put in the title and it gave me some really great opening hook ideas,<�/p> <�p>which definitely helped me get started. But knowing what to say when you first hit record is really only part of the battle of actually talking to the camera and then having it, feel comfortable to the viewer, having you come off as confident to the viewer. You know what I mean?<�/p> <�p>Like if you ever hit record and then felt sort of paralyzed, like a deer in headlights look.<�/p> <�p>First of all, you're not alone. I think it's totally normal because nobody is born knowing how to talk to a camera. Most people don't really want to talk to a camera. It just sort of becomes this thing that we do in the online space.<�/p> <�p>And perhaps for a small percentage of people, it does come naturally. But if you're anything like me, It actually takes effort to be natural, to be comfortable and confident, and to then like come across as confident and comfortable talking to the camera to the viewer. So that's what we're going to dive into today.<�/p> <�p>And this is not a new topic here on my channel. I've talked about this quite a bit and it's one of, I think it's one of my favorite topics. It's one of my favorite questions when somebody asks me about how to be comfortable on camera, how to kind of like get into this headspace where it feels natural to talk to the camera because I I was never an on camera person.<�/p> <�p>I didn't, I never had the desire to like talk to a camera. I didn't really, um, I wasn't a spotlight person, right? I was like a behind the scenes type of a person. but when I started to think about creating content, Um, if you know a little bit of my backstory, I really just wanted to be a blogger and it just made sense to create videos for the topic that I was wanting to create content about it just made sense to talk to a camera and that's what I saw other people doing on YouTube. And I honestly thought, yeah, I guess I could, I could probably do that. I could try that. Why not?<�/p> <�p>And I remember running into somebody in person that I, like, have known my whole entire life just a few months after starting my channel. And she happened to know about my channel, which was, like, mortifying to me. And she watched a couple of my videos. I think my mom told her about it, to be totally honest.<�/p> <�p>And she said, you seem so natural on camera. I was really surprised you seemed so natural and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, none of that is natural. I'm not natural on camera. Like, what are you even talking about? It's, it's, it's editing. It's me pretending to be comfortable and natural on camera. And she said, well, whatever you're doing, it works.<�/p> <�p>And that really stuck with me because, you know, there is, um, there's a saying like fake it till you make it. And I think, you know, that doesn't necessarily work with everything, but I think it works with talking to a camera. Because I literally, I can't even stress how truthful and transparent I'm being right now.<�/p> <�p>When I first hit record. I just told myself, just pretend that this is normal. I was recording in my living room in my house by myself. The kids were at the sitter. My husband was at work. Nobody was around. I probably went around and checked all of the windows, checked my driveway, make sure like there was nobody in the vicinity, uh, because talking to the camera is weird.<�/p> <�p>It's awkward. And I just told myself. Just pretend that it's not. Pretend that this is normal. Pretend that you know what you're doing. Pretend that you're comfortable. What, what, what would you sound like if you were comfortable talking to the camera? And that's what I did. Now, like, looking back at my first videos, which I hope you don't do, but to me, it's obvious that it wasn't, um, natural.<�/p> <�p>It wasn't comfortable. It was awkward. I was awkward.<�/p> <�p>And now talking to the camera doesn't, really doesn't feel awkward at all. And I do have some practical and useful actionable tips for you to work on with your very next video that you're going to record, but I'm just going to tell you up front, spoiler alert, it really comes down to pretending that you are comfortable talking to the camera. It does get easier over time, especially when you are making a conscious effort<�/p> <�p>now, I mentioned that when I first started, I, I could see other people were just like hitting record and talking to the camera. And I thought, well, I could do that too. And what I noticed a few different times, I would say like in the first like six months of making videos is when I would go to edit the video.<�/p> <�p>I would be like watching it back and I would think, Oh my gosh, you sound just like so and so you sound just like this person or that person, or you sound just like a newscaster. Why are you talking like that? And I wasn't trying necessarily like consciously trying to do that when I was recording. But I honestly think because it's not natural to talk To a camera, my brain was just like trying to put all these pieces of the puzzle together and emulate what I saw other people doing. Because you, when you are just having a conversation with somebody, with somebody that you are comfortable with, you're not, you're not consciously thinking about how you're speaking , I mean, unless you have anxiety over this, you're not like wondering how are these words coming out of my mouth right now or trying to think of what you're going to say next.<�/p> <�p>It's just like a natural, comfortable conversation.<�/p> <�p>But for some reason, once you hit record and you know, you're recording all of that, any comfort that you had in speaking goes right out the window. And now your brain is like consciously, uh, critiquing everything coming out of your brain, trying to sound natural, trying to be comfortable.<�/p> <�p>And the flip side of that coin, of course, is that after you're done recording, at some point you have to edit, right? You have to watch it back. And that's where you get to sort of critique your recording as a viewer and notice the Um, habits of, of when you're recording, like habits in your voice saying like, and, um, and I don't know, doing weird little quirky things there are times where I don't do this much anymore, but there used to be times where if I was trying to figure out what words I was trying to get to come out of my mouth next, like if I was trying to find the words in my brain.<�/p> <�p>I would blink a lot on camera and I, I, I didn't notice it when it was happening. I noticed it when I was editing and I thought, eh, it's not that big of a deal really. But then every once in a while I would get a comment on like how much I was blinking. and so then I became self conscious about it.<�/p> <�p>Which then led me to be aware of it when I was recording and now it happens every once in a while might even happen in in this video right now, but Because I practiced because I was consciously aware of it and consciously noticed when it was happening and maybe Stopped, paused, took a breath, thought about what words I was going to say next.<�/p> <�p>I could just kind of continue the video without all of the blinking.<�/p> <�p> And this brings up an excellent point I think because if one of the reasons why you feel maybe a little bit apprehensive about talking to a camera is because you know you're going to have to upload Your video to the internet, to the public, to strangers who might criticize you in some way.<�/p> <�p>If that is part of perhaps the fear or the anxiety or the uncomfortableness of talking to the camera,<�/p> <�p>that is a completely valid fear and after almost 10 years on YouTube, I will tell you that it's also unavoidable.<�/p> <�p>I'm not going to say like, oh, you're going to have haters and you're going to have trolls. Yes, you could. But you will probably have people in your comments that say something. Maybe not even intending to be offensive or not even intending to hurt your feelings,<�/p> <�p>but that do hurt your feelings or make you feel self conscious, like with all of the blinking that I was doing.<�/p> <�p>But comments that might seem negative or cr