Talking on camera in a YouTube video is kind of like public speaking, and public speaking is the number one fear the majority of people have, more so than sharks and deadly diseases. There's something uniquely intimidating about Putting yourself out there online, exposing your thoughts and personality in video format to potentially millions of people, and the pressure to deliver perfectly while dealing with nerves and that inner critic whispering, do it better, can be overwhelming.
But just like public speaking, being on camera is a skill you can build and perfect. So in this episode of Full Time YouTuber, I'll share some of my best insights for speaking confidently on camera that I learned on my journey from starting as a shy introvert who could barely form a sentence on camera to delivering passionate Persuasive and highly engaging presentations every single time.
Hey, I'm Ben and I help video creators who are entrepreneurs at heart grow their YouTube channels into profitable businesses. This podcast is for creators who want to help people through information based content, not to chase fame or subscribers, even though that may come. But rather to build a business that generates revenue while you sleep so you can live your dream life.
And this topic is a bit of an ironic one for me to be teaching because I am very much an introvert. I've always been one and I think I always will be one. Yet I definitely don't appear that way on camera. When I watch myself back sometimes I think, damn that dude is super confident. And I've got some extroverted friends in real life that are so much more extroverted than me in day to day social conversations.
But when you put them in front of a camera, suddenly they get nervous and completely lose all charisma. Compared to me, where I'm kind of the opposite. I feel like I'm more confident on camera than in real life. Which is probably a blessing and a curse, but anyway, I make this point to illustrate that I learned how to be confident and extroverted on camera and it's something that you can learn too.
For me, the very start of this journey was when I was working as a videographer here in Sydney and I would watch my clients talking on camera. Some of them were extremely confident since they'd delivered thousands of public speeches before and that translated naturally on camera into a good presentation.
But then there were other clients with less public speaking experience that underestimated what it's like to actually be on camera. And when I pressed record, they started stumbling and going, um, and, uh, and losing their train of thought completely, even when they were reading from a teleprompter. And I remember thinking to myself as someone who was behind the camera.
Surely it can't be that hard, dude. Just read the teleprompter and say what it says and don't overcomplicate it. So when I then went on to start my own YouTube channel to try and prove this point, and I remember pressing record on my very first YouTube video ever, And suddenly, I was the stuttering, mumbling mess that I was convinced I wouldn't be on camera.
It must have taken me a full hour to record maybe a three or four minute video, because I did so many retakes and I kept losing my train of thought. So, what causes that? Why do we get on camera anxiety and Well, there are a few reasons for this and the main one I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt is perfectionism.
Often you'll make a mistake or say the wrong thing purely because as you're filming you are constantly self auditing every single word you say and questioning whether it was good enough. The voices in your head might say, was the first word I used in a sentence good or could I have made it more impactful?
Are people actually interested in this video, or am I making it for no reason? I'm pretty sure I could explain this in a better way, but I just haven't thought of it yet. The questions go on and on and on, and what's going on is you are self auditing yourself in order to live up to the perfect standards that you had in your head before you started recording the video, and in order to fulfill those perfect standards, you feel the need to analyze it as you go.
This takes you completely out of the moment, losing All train of thought and struggling to say even a basic sentence. Another factor at play is we think people might be judging us. These voices sound like this. What if there's one person in the comments that didn't like that last bit I said? Maybe they took offense to it because it wasn't PC enough.
Or maybe I got that one technical spec wrong and I'm gonna be called out forever for not knowing what I'm talking about. Or maybe someone just doesn't like me and my personality. Let's be honest. People are savage online, and these thoughts are justified. However, that isn't a reason not to make content to begin with, because in reality, all content, especially content that is successful in the long term, is going to be scrutinized, you're going to have those people nitpicking every last thing you say.
But there's also 99 percent of people who Don't. And if your video is good, they're going to be thanking you for the great content you made. And they won't even notice that one bit that you might've got wrong. Or if you said, um, or stumbled for a second, they're not going to remember that. But what they will remember is what you did great about your video.
Whether you taught a topic very effectively. Whether you inspired them to try something new. Or gave them a solution to a problem they've had for a very long time. This is what people remember, not how perfect you were in the delivery of that information. Even in this podcast episode so far, I can guarantee that I could have said things better, but as long as I'm communicating the core points that I wanted to communicate with you, I think of it as a total win.
Because living up to perfect standards with every piece of content you make is just not sustainable long term, which is why you shouldn't ever aspire to do that. Because it's an uphill battle that you're never going to win and will eventually completely demotivate you from making content because it's just so hard to make something that is 100 percent perfect in every way.
So when delivering information on camera, you really just need to shut up the voices in your head. And let yourself deliver the video that you know you wanted to make and thank yourself later. Because what if this video was the one video you posted that totally exploded your channel? The one video that got you noticed by your dream sponsor.
The one video that got your channel monetized, or the one video that helped you find your long term direction. Well, you're not going to find out any of those things if you don't make the video, and you won't make the video if you keep self sabotaging and obsessing over every single word being perfect.
So if you've ever had this experience of going to make a video and ending up having to do hundreds of takes because you're redoing a line over and over, or you feel like you have to start again from the very start after nearly finishing the video. And a five minute video ended up being a several hour shoot.
No judgments. I have done this before myself. What I'd recommend really focusing on next time you make a video is staying fully present in the moment. This means shutting off your brain entirely so it's not constantly self auditing and letting your heart pour out of your mouth. I know that sounds really weird but what I mean by that is let your passion pour out of your mouth through being present in the moment with what you're talking about.
Because chances are the topic of your video is something that you are actually really passionate about. And when you can connect directly with that passion during your presentation, this almost always results in great on camera delivery because people love. Passionate people. There's something about passion and enthusiasm that is addictive.
And when you can present that on camera, people will become addicted to you and your channel. They'll subscribe, watch more of your videos. And as a result, your channel is going to grow so fast. So I'd really encourage you to think about being present in the moment and having a conversation. Almost like you're having a conversation with one of your closest friends or family members.
Think about it, last time you met up with a friend for lunch, were you nervous and saying the same thing over and over a hundred times? I'd be willing to bet the answer is no to that one. So what did you do? You relaxed, you had a friendly back and forth with your friend, you told them all of your latest news and heard theirs, and not for one second were you In your head, self auditing every word you said, you were just letting the words come out naturally.
And as YouTubers, this is the goal to try and replicate that quote unquote, meeting with a friend mentality while you are in front of a camera. And it is a hard thing to do, but when you can actually understand what's going on inside your brain, you can take more conscious control of it to kind of trick yourself into a really.
Good on camera performance. And for me, that's been my absolute biggest one is just letting my passion pour out. It's kind of like when you see someone go on an angry rant, either in a video or in real life, often when people are angry, they are so articulate and well spoken and communicate their points extremely clearly.
They're not nervous. They're not stumbling over their words. And ironically, they're not even in their own heads, even slightly. They are purely just letting their emotion pour out their mouth. And even though it's an angry rant, they are at least communicating effectively, which is a hard thing to do, especially if you just got out of bed or you're feeling tired or not fully present with the video you're making.
So be passionate. I can't stress this enough. One way you can basically guarantee that you'll be talking passionately is planning in advance. So in advance of every video I make I'll have a bullet point list of topics that I want to cover and often they're things that I am genuinely excited about and can't wait to share with my audience.
If I think of something I really want to share I will always write it down to make sure I don't forget it on camera. So planning out your video in bullet point form at the bare minimum is going to help you reconnect with your most passionate points while filming. Even if you do film a couple of days after you put the outline together and you might be more nervous or less in the moment, having a checklist to follow is definitely a helpful thing.
Also, something else I want to remind you about is if you YouTube channel, chances are you'd know the topic of your channel very, very well. Chances are you've done it for a very long time and you could talk about it till the cows come home. So just remember that. You are an expert at your topic and therefore you should have confidence when communicating that information because the more confident you are on camera, The more people watching your video will take in and retain that information.
So you owe it to your audience to deliver that information confidently so they can retain more of it. Now when delivering this information, is it better to use a script and a teleprompter? Or should you be completely in the moment? Well, there are pros and cons to both. A teleprompter can be good for complete beginners who find themselves getting nervous and not able to remember all the things that they know they want to communicate, even if they do know the topic very well.
It just takes the words literally in front of you to get the ball rolling on the presentation, especially for longer form videos and online courses. So if there is a lot of information that needs to be spoken and it needs to be said in a very specific way, this is when using a teleprompter is the better choice.
While I personally don't use a teleprompter for my YouTube videos, I will with my online courses, especially with lessons that need to be taught in a very specific way, and I need the wording to be really good. For example, the introduction video of the course usually should be one of the better ones, and I'll always have specific So, I'm going to write out a script for that, and follow it on a teleprompter.
So there's nothing wrong with using a teleprompter, and I'd certainly encourage any beginner that is struggling with this issue of speaking confidently on camera to give it a go and see if it makes any difference. Then they're speaking a bit more loosely and off the cuff, which is a more advanced way of making a YouTube video, but it comes with some great benefits that are really hard to achieve with scripted teleprompter videos.
For example, speaking off the cuff means you can really get in tune with your passion and use body language. Vocal intonation and a cadence that looks really good on camera and contributes to your audience trusting you a lot more compared to what sometimes can look like a zombie reading from a teleprompter.
I'm not saying everyone reading from a teleprompter looks like a zombie, but sometimes you see teleprompter videos and it's just so obviously read from a teleprompter that the video loses all authenticity. And this is one big advantage. of not using one is your videos have an even more authentic feel when you are saying your words slightly imperfectly.
Like in this podcast, I'm not following a script. I'm literally making it up as I go from a bullet point overview. And this means I can speak a bit more passionately and use more everyday words that would be the same words I would use if I was having lunch with you. And that kind of personalization connects so much better in my opinion than a perfectly scripted video.
The other main benefit of not overly scripting your videos is it gives you room to think of new ideas as you go or add little side points here and there that you mightn't have thought of earlier when putting the video outline together. So for those reasons I like to keep my videos unscripted and instead what I do is follow a bullet point list of the top.
10 to 20 things that I know I want to communicate in the video. So I'll make sure I'm still hitting all the important stuff, but I'm not planning out the words in advance. And especially when you are selling yourself and your reputation as a core part of your channel. I know on my channel, I'm often evaluating different things like.
Editors, cameras, but I'm also selling my own stuff like online courses. And the fact that my delivery is super authentic, it causes people to actually listen to what I'm saying a bit more kind of again, like the angry rant, even though anyone that does that is probably got a few screws loose, but you kind of do listen to what they're saying and see if there's any validity there.
You pay attention, there's no denying that. And that's what the power of authentic communication holds. I will add as a counter to that, that you can learn how to deliver authentically when reading from a teleprompter, it just requires a lot of repetition and practice. So depending on where you are at on your YouTube journey from beginner to more experienced, this will usually determine which of these two methods you use to speak on camera, whether it's from a teleprompter or speaking off the cuff.
If you're struggling to speak confidently, try both out and see which one you get better results with. Now I will say as someone who has been on YouTube for nearly 10 years now, I still make heaps of mistakes in every video. I stumble and I repeat bits over and over because I am using that off the cuff style.
Sometimes I will accidentally say something that really doesn't come across well, that I probably didn't mean to say. So I will kind of redo things until I am happy. Yes, I can do it a lot quicker than I could at the very start. But one thing thing that I would encourage you to try if you also find yourself stumbling over your words and doing a hundred takes, is you need to learn how to handle slip ups and just keep going.
For example, if you start saying a word and you kind of mess it up by either leaving too long of a pause or you change what you're saying, literally mid sentence. Just keep going. It doesn't matter. People get the gist of what you're saying, but by constantly interrupting yourself, you take yourself out of the moment with every single pause and restart that you make.
And the more out of the moment you are, the worse your video is going to be affected by the end. So if you can roll through just one or two mistakes, what that does psychologically is gives you the power of momentum to continue on, on the same train of thought that you are on, which will help you gain momentum throughout your delivery and make it even better and better as the video goes along.
One exercise I would absolutely recommend as a good practice of doing this is trying to make a video in one single take. I know that sounds super scary, but what if you were to make a video that you said to yourself in advance that you weren't going to publish, it's not going to see the light of day, but you're just doing it as an experiment.
So let's say your topic is drones. Press record and talk about drones for five minutes. Let yourself make mistakes, lose your train of thought, then pick it back up and keep going. Talk about all your favorite drones, all the things you should and shouldn't know about drones. It doesn't matter. No one's going to watch it.
I'd be willing to bet by the end of that video, you're going to feel really confident. And it's not until you give yourself this experience that you realize that it's going to be okay if you stumble a little bit or you change your train of thought it's human nature. But again, it's the value you deliver in your videos that people remember, not those tiny micro mistakes that you weigh over inflate in your head as being actual mistakes.
Another practical exercise to help you build confidence on camera. And this is something I do before every one of my videos. And that is getting in a peak state. What do I mean by this? Getting in a state that helps you be more animated and confident, kind of like if you're at a rock concert. And the way I do this is so simple.
What I'll do is I'll open up Apple music and put on a song that I'm really feeling in the mood for, whether it's metal or hip hop, no judgments, whichever song I've got in my head that I know is going to really pump me up and put me in a good mood, I will put that thing on and I'll play it at maximum volume and sing along as loud as I can.
I'll shake my head up and down like I've actually got hair and I'm headbanging. I do have hair by the way, at least mostly. But I put myself in this peak state from this song that is whatever I feel like at the time. And then immediately after I finish this song, I'll press record. Then when I start the video, suddenly I've just got this rush of energy and enthusiasm that I didn't have before.
It's so interesting because sometimes I will film the opening of a video and forget to do this, and then I'll go back and do it. I'll play the song, I'll get in a peak state, and then I'll do the intro again. Then watching them side by side, it's amazing to see the difference, and how much more confident and enthusiastic I am in the second one, purely because I made the effort to pump myself up and get into a great state.
And this should translate to the rest of your video if you can stay in that passionate and energetic state. So I'd encourage you to try something like this before you make your next video. Play whichever song is going to get you in a great mood, no judgment, it can be anything, and use that to pump up your energy.
Now I could go higher level in this episode and talk about vocal tonality and variety, pitch, Pace and so on. But I just think that's a little bit advanced, at least for now, especially compared to all the things I talked about, like not trying to be perfect, being present in the moment, knowing your topic intimately, rolling through your mistakes, and getting yourself in a great state before filming.
So I'm gonna leave it at that. I will say that, like I said at the start, everything takes practice. No one is an amazing YouTuber and can deliver. confidently on camera on their very first go, even the best of the best only got there after hundreds of videos. So keep practicing and get just a little bit better every time because the more you do it, the better you're going to get at it.
And eventually it's going to become a non issue because you've got it so well handled that you don't even think about it when you press record. That's what I want for you. So go out there and start practicing. If you're enjoying the Creator's Journey podcast so far, I would love it if you could leave me a rating and maybe a little comment underneath about what you enjoy about it, which would help me greatly and mean this podcast can get heard by a lot more people.
At least I think that's how it works anyway. So if you can leave me a rating in whichever app you're listening to me in, that would be very much appreciated. That's it for this episode. I wish you all the very best of luck. And hey, don't forget, you're just one video away.
