Stop! Stop! Just hitting record. The truth about speaking to camera. A warm welcome from Sheena and today I'm going to be sharing with you some myths and untruths about speaking to camera. In particular, more recently, I see this type of myth. If you don't make lots of mistakes, how can you learn to speak to camera? If you don't make a mess in the middle, how can you get better at speaking to camera? If you don't practice to an audience with lots of mistakes and things that could be better, you won't get better. Let me correct what I've just said there. The truth about speaking to camera and what I've mentioned. I saw a post on LinkedIn by somebody very well known yesterday who said he was quite pleased he had improved speaking to camera. Now, speaking to camera, that can be on a variety of your laptop or your iPhone, your iPad. I quite often use my iPhone during the week. When I do my podcasts, I do it on a laptop. So whatever is easiest for you. It depends your location and your situation. But this gentleman was saying, why would you want to be, his exact question, why would you want to be a polished presenter? people don't like listening to people who are polished. People don't like it when they start to listen to people who don't make mistakes. That was the gist of what he was sharing. And then he said, I learned to speak to camera and here's my first, and he put up a video of something he did a couple of years ago. now that is one way of people learning to speak to camera and it's unfortunately it's a way that many people when they see gurus or fairly well-known people spouting such bullshit they think it must be okay then to do that keep making mistakes and then I'll eventually get better Here's my one sentence on what I've just shared. If you keep rehearsing and practicing wrong ways to do anything, not just speaking to camera, but speaking or coaching or leadership, if you practice bad habits, it's very, very difficult to retrain and do what's correct. It just doesn't work. So my question to you today is, why would you not want to be really good or at least prepared and plan from the word go? Why would you not want to be better than dropping a bombshell when you're speaking to camera? as I've just said the problem is you keep practicing the wrong way you don't get better at all you just reinforce bad habits but the most, the crucial thing that you're doing is you're denting your credibility and you risk for people like say myself that know good from bad you are denting your credibility and you're going to lose your audience before you've even delivered your message. So this week I'm going to pull back just a little bit and tell you some of the things that you can do that it takes to speak to camera like a pro. Now if that word is off-putting or just to speak better to camera. And I often use the word be a class act. If you don't like using that type of word, how about if you spoke to camera and you had a plan, you prepared and you felt confident in what you were delivering. You see, when you're a leader or a coach or a trainer or a chief exec, people look for you to help them. They look for you to support them. They look for you to guide them and direct them. And it positions you as a special type of leader. when you come on camera or when you dent your credibility speaking then immediately the people listening to you are definitely definitely put off I had a conversation with someone who said to me Shina can you tell if someone's winging it or accidental I said yes I can. Now that doesn't mean that content is not valuable, it might be. But here's the thing, you want to become powerful. You don't want to be an invisible person, you want to become confident, you want to be that authority. and before every call or before you're going to speak on video or before you go to a meeting, you need to be confident and certain about what you're going to deliver. If you're not prepared or you don't plan, you certainly are not confident, you certainly are not certain, And do you know what? Let me tell you. You will come over with a dented image when you speak to your audience. Your hesitation and your anxiety will show. So I'm hoping you've got the overview of why, just why you wouldn't dent your image. Let's look now at the mini masterclass of what you can do right now. So let me ask you this type of engagement question you might think about. When was the last time you recorded a video for your business? And if you're saying yes to me, did you watch it back? one thing you can do there is watch it back looking at how you spoke in your body language Watch it back when you turn it face down and how did you sound The second question I'd like to ask you is Do you think your videos reflect you and the quality of your expertise? Or did it reflect, as I spoke in the beginning, you showed up? You showed up with all your flaws and mistakes. the third thing I want to ask you if you're watching someone on a video or even listening to someone on a podcast what makes you stay listening and what makes you switch it off you see anytime you're going to listen to audio like you're listening to me today about speaking to camera you should be thinking if I listen to Sheena what will I learn and what can I action immediately after Sheena's delivered her mini masterclass and you should ask that on every single book you read, every single audio what might I learn because otherwise you're wasting your time. The fourth question I'd like to ask you is if you're a speaker, a leader, a coach, trainer so I'm generally speaking to people that are professionals how do you prepare for doing your video? Do you prepare differently than if you were going to do live speaking? Now that's a crucial point. People that are going to present live usually have some preparation. And they'll have a framework and they'll know what they're going to speak about. And some may look over it, some may not. But generally people will have an idea. And what's really strange is, or I find strange, is that when they go to speak to camera, they do nothing. no preparation, no planning, no designing so let me ask you what level of pursuing excellence are you when you go to speak to camera? I'm hoping I didn't ask today I haven't asked for a few episodes if you still got or you have a Sheena book a Sheena book that you can take some brief notes to remind you what you might do I have my own little Sheena book in my bag that if I'm out and I see something that's funny or I can use as a story I just write a sentence and you can do that too and the fifth question I'd like to ask you is if you could improve one thing about your on-camera presence, one thing, what would it be? I created a new word this week, onlyness, meaning what do you only do that nobody else does when you speak on camera? Is it your voice? Is it your body language? Is it you? You see, people will judge you in seven seconds. Yes, seven seconds. So I've given you five questions. I'm going to repeat the engagement questions. When was the last time you recorded a video for your business? Did you watch it back critically? Number two, do you think your videos reflect your areas of expertise or you just showed up? Number three, what's the one thing that makes you switch off when you're watching somebody or listening to someone on an audio or a video? Number four, do you prepare your video differently than when you speak? I'm sure the answer to that is what I described. and number five if you could prepare and improve one thing about your on camera presence what might that be what do you think you need to do be honest with yourself be honest in how you think that you could do things very very differently So let's look at having just a few little frameworks that I'd like to share with you. And the aim of this is how to be visible on camera with some class and confidence. That's the key aim of today's audio. Are you a touch of class and do you have confidence? And how does your image look? You see, I believe that visibility on camera is the new credibility. Would you agree with me? Can you imagine? I know people that are super experts in different subjects and they've never gone on camera and they tell me I don't have the confidence, you know. Let me share this. If you don't have the confidence to share your expertise on camera, then you don't have the confidence to share with your clients. They will start to lack what you lack. You might not have heard somebody being so brutal. I think one of my mentees used that word. In fact, it's in my book. She gave me a review for my book and sung my praises but then said, Sheena can be brutal when she wants you to step up. That does sound a bit harsh, doesn't it? how can you let's look at how can you create video with class and how are you going to demonstrate that confidence and credibility how will you position your expertise with authority I'm asking you lots of questions today and I'm speaking slightly slower so you've got time to digest what I'm saying to you. You see, you won't get the results you're looking for because if you're not seen, people won't select you. An audience will select people that they can see and they can feel what they sharing You see video visibility is brand credibility How visible are you right now? And I know that you might say, Sheena, I start a video and sometimes halfway through, I sometimes make a mistake or, do you know, that does happen and it's happened to me. Just stop for a second if you think, oh, I forgot what's coming next. Stop for a second, pause for one or two seconds and say, you know, I've just remembered something I spoke about earlier and I'd like to recap on that. So what you need to have is a few sentences in your pocket that when you forget where you are or lose your way, you can say, just a minute, could I remind you? Or just a moment, do you remember when I said? Or lean in and say to them, I have something I've just remembered I'd like to tell you. Can you see what I'm doing there? These are common phrases that you can add to any video. And by the way, what I'm sharing with you is what I charge high and my corporate companies for sessions on camera work. But I'm so passionate about the people that support me here and the people that listen to my expertise, listen to my podcast. join me in networking and on LinkedIn. I want you to be exceptional. I want you to be the very best that you can be. But I think most of you do know that. So let's look at how we might start a video. I'm going to share a couple of very short steps that you can think about. This is called Sheena's creation. One of the things I'd like you to think about is how you might start your video. Let me keep it simple for the moment. and if you want to get in touch with me I have 10 ways that you can start a video in a couple of sentences 10 ways but for today I'm going to share with you think about the audience you're speaking to and I want you to ask them two questions that are rhetorical then I want you to mention, and this is how you descript it, write down two questions. Then on the left, write challenges and write three challenges they may have. Do an arrow to the right that says my solution. And then underneath you're going to write why me and why now? Now I would like you to start your videos with only 60 seconds that's quite difficult to do it in that time or between a minute and a minute and a half and that might sound like here's an example speaking to a chief exec who's not impressed with his managers on the recruitment side, not recruiting the right people. That was the A, the just. Watch what I do. I'm not sitting with a script telling you this. This is something that I've done a few times. Maybe today you're here to learn a little bit more about recruitment and selection. Perhaps you're a manager and you would like to have the right person in the right place at the right time. Two questions. Now watch what I do. Right now to be commercially viable, it's really important we get our recruitment correct. Watch what I do now, the challenges. Maybe right now you have underperforming teams. Maybe right now you have disruptive teams. Maybe in your team you have challenging behaviour. Three challenges. Now you're wondering, Sheena, what do I do? Yes, you're sitting nodding your head. what if I share with you today how you can improve your recruitment and selection interviews how you can select the person with the correct skills and what if I share with you how you can have people step up in their performance why is this important? it's important because in a saturated market we want to be commercially viable we want to get results why should you listen to me today? because I've worked for three decades in human resources and I'm sharing my skills, knowledge and expertise with you. Now, that was a bit longer, I think. But do you see what I did there? I asked the question, challenges, what the people need to hear me say, why it's important now. Now, write down that little framework and you can do that. It's simple, isn't it? Now, that is something that you can learn. You want a session with me? I can help you put that together. With no investment, I can sit with you for half an hour or an hour and get that first video ready for you to go out and record. Can you imagine how you might feel? You'd feel absolutely brilliant. so the framework that the second framework that I use if I want to do a longer video and I'm about to do that about my book I'm about to do three videos later today about the benefits of each of the chapters in my book there's eight chapters and I'm about to overview one or two of them today Now whether that planning speaking coaching training leadership mentoring I will choose what video I think might be really important and I think perhaps right now it mentoring So I do a video I might do this one for four or five minutes a longer one about the benefits. But getting started, do short videos on the challenges. does that seem like the answer to you going in front of the camera? Let me share with you a five-step process that I use that I think you'll find helpful. It's called the craft framework. The craft framework for a touch of class on camera. and that's the title of this episode. C stands for conversation. What conversation will you have with your audience or target or staff? What's the conversation you want to have? The R stands for rehearse. you might want to decide on the conversation with the little framework and run through it and think I'm speaking to my line managers today I want to look at how we can have protected time so they can step up in their development a couple of questions the challenges of not developing your solution but rehearse it. The third one is A in craft. Your appearance. Your presence. I've not said so much about your presence because I'm going to shoot another video or an audio here. Your presence is so important. Why is that? Do you look like you're part of the lazy sloppy brigade? Or do you look crisp, fresh, clothes, hair, just fresh? Yes, people say you shouldn't be judged on how you look. That's for some people that work accidentally. but you, after listening to me, will not be working accidentally. You're going to be having a touch of class. So your appearance will be important. The F stands for framework. And framework is something, in my book, I think I have about eight or nine different frameworks that you would use in different settings. Many people have a presentation they go out and speak about or speak on and that's the same presentation they do wherever they are, staff, joint ventures, in the boardroom. In actual fact, people with a class act have different frameworks. So what I've shared with you today is an introduction to video, an introduction to a simple framework so that you can speak about, you could do six videos in six minutes about the challenges that your audience have. But if you were going out to speak for 30 minutes, your framework would be slightly different. And the T is your tone. What tone did you use? Remember just a few moments ago I said, if you do a video and you turn your phone down, turn it so you don't see yourself, what does your voice sound like? Is it lovely to listen to you? Is it sweet? Is it melodic? Is it harsh? Think about that. I'm pausing there to let you think about that. You see, when we speak to camera, when we speak on the stage in the boardroom, speak to staff, we must command the room. We must command the room with our topic. We must connect with the people. We must be memorable. because what we want people to say is wow that was really good that was a great message I think I can go and do that so today after listening to how you could start your video and I would start with just use your phone I'm an Apple geek so I'm recording my audio here just now on my Apple Mac but when I do videos during the week I do one every day but I usually do them in a one-er then I do them on my iPhone and they look great and you can do that too until you've practised and feel that you're more confident. So let's just finish with that. And let's say, today, I hope that I've demonstrated to you the importance of being visible on camera. To be professional on camera. And to have clarity and class. More importantly, to appear on camera with authority. Remembering to create and craft videos that give you credibility. Have compelling content and become camera confident. remember visibility is the new credibility if you want to get in touch with me you can contact me on my website on www.sheenawalker.com you can call me on 075 88645702 you can link with me and send a text on my podcast site, although I'm not sure if that's maybe the best for you. Or contact me on LinkedIn, just shoot me a message or WhatsApp. If you've never done a video, let's make sure by next week that you can get started. So during the week, what I'll do is I'll put out lots of little bits of snippets that just remind you of what you have to think about. In the meantime, it's bye from Sheena.
