Ep 127: How to be Captivating on Camera (ft. Mike Ganino)
As so many of our speaking events are getting moved online, does the thought of showing up on camera make you feel nervous? Whether you're showing up in your Instagram stories, you're creating consistent video content, or you're delivering virtual presentations where you need to be on your webcam, it's time to get comfortable getting in front of the camera, and doing it in a way that truly serves your audience and your business.
Today’s guest is Mike Ganino, a storytelling and communication expert. He is the host of The Mike Drop Moment podcast and author, executive producer of TEDx Cambridge, and has been named one of the top 30 cultural speakers by Global Guru. He teaches storytelling, presence and public speaking to some of the biggest names in brands.
Today, Mike is pulling back the curtain and sharing with us what it takes to be captivating on camera, what's getting in the way for us, and why we're making it feel so hard. SO grab a pen and notepad, and listen.
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Episode takeaways you don’t want to miss:
Why are good ideas not heard?
It's about being able to package those ideas into a story. You could have the best ideas, but if you can't get in front of people and get them to hear them, then it's kind of in vain.
Standing in front of people as a human and connecting with them is one of the most powerful ways to build trust and get the relationship. So why wouldn't that translate to video?
Why doesn’t the in-person connection translate to video?
Mistake #1 - Not really doing video.
The number one mistake is not being on camera, but instead, just putting a bunch of words together, showing slides and not actually connecting with anybody. Sometimes, you have to stop the screen share and just be on camera. So if you have a point where you're on the same slide for three minutes, get rid of the slide and talk to your audience for three minutes.
Why is showing our face on the video so important? Because we believe what we see. So if you show up on video, and you are being honest and you're being trustworthy, then there's a better chance that you're going to build trust with people. And that people are going to look to you and say, “Okay, I'm going to go along with what this person has to say.” Versus if they just heard the audio. Versus if they just saw the images and the words on the screen with your voice over it. When you pair your actual face with your voice, then the trust goes up. A lot.
Lesson #1 - just do the video and put your face in the video more because trust is going to go up.
Mistake #2 - Not hooking your audience at the beginning
Mike shares that the big mistake he sees people doing in video (or camera) most often is that they spend too much time “throat clearing” at the beginning, instead of hooking the audience. There's something about those first few moments when the viewer can say, “Oh, my gosh, this is for me.” In our video work, we can do a better job at hooking viewers right from the beginning by showing that we see them, that we get them, that we know what's up there, that we know what they're thinking about.
Lesson #2 - Start with a story hook.
Mistake #3 - Trying to be someone you’re not (on video)
We live in a post-fact world right now. And we are seeking the truth speakers right now. We're seeking the truth tellers. And if you can figure out how to do that on video, you're gonna build your audience much faster.
You never want someone to say, “I love you in person, hate you on video” or I “hated you on video” or “I hate you in person, but I loved your video.”
Don’t think you need to be an actor. You're probably not getting the results you could be getting through video. If you're not connecting with your audience, chances are it’s because you're trying to be someone you're not.
Lesson #3 - Don’t be an actor. Be authentic.
Tell your story, authentically
You have a story. Let us in, show us what happened. Tell us what it was that you went through that helped you learn the thing you're telling me to do. And if you could do that, and you could do that sincerely, and honestly, we don't need all the heroics and historics and dramatics. We just need that truth. And you being willing to shine a light on something you've been through that it's so much better when you say it.
Skip the teleprompter. Ditch the notes. Ask questions instead.
Mike suggests ditching the script and the bullet point notes. Instead, have a list of questions to guide your story. And when you rehearse, rehearse your answers to those questions. People are generally good at answering questions and this may be a more relaxed way for you to pop into the camera and answer those questions. “Now when I'm talking, I have an intention. I'm trying to answer that question versus I'm just here kind of talking and I hope someone's listening And intention changes your voice, it changes your delivery.”
Manage the Screen
People pay attention to everything that fills the screen (we got this from the film industry). So as soon as the screen pops up, we as the viewer start looking for what's going on. What's that? What's that sign? What's that thing? Is there a clue there? We look for all of that, because we've been trained after a lifetime of looking at screens to look for the whole story. So if you're using slides, and you have a bunch of content, what does your audience do right away? They stop listening to you, and they start reading your slides.
So if you really, really need the slides as support, Mike recommends you put the questions on the slides, and then that's your teleprompter.
It's not that our attention spans are short, it's that as humans, we are constantly looking for change, and naturally, our attention is drawn to what changes on screen. So if you are going to use slides, then have less things on the slides and switch them out. If you have five bullet points make each slide a bullet point so that there's something shifting in their eyes. If you have a story that you're telling, then turn off the screenshare for that story and go full video because they're gonna say “Wait, what's this? This is new and different.” And this applies whether you’re doing a produced video or a live stream or a webinar. Think how you can keep it visually changing. The other thing you can do is learn to play with your voice a little bit. Learn to have some contrast in your voice, some change.
Use story cues, which are people, places and things. When the audience hears people, places, and things (a story hook) they think “oh something’s happening here” and they put down their notes, and look up again to listen to you.
Beware: Three Reasons the Camera is Lying to You
Familiarity Bias - you're used to seeing yourself in the mirror, and then all of a sudden when you see yourself on video, you see a different angle.
Confirmation Bias - all of those things we don't like about ourselves. So if you already don't like certain things about yourself, then you're going to see them on video and like them even less.
Social Bias - when we communicate with other people in person, we are standing next to them We're able to pick up social cues, we can see if they’re interested. Are they watching? Are they liking this or not? And that’s harder on video. Even on a live stream or a zoom call where you can see them, it's still hard to take it all in the same way that we do in person. What we can do is to communicate more vocally on video like we would talking on the phone. If we can build our video to be a little bit more like a phone call, where it might be a monologue but it's supposed to feel like a dialogue, then it's going to be a much better video.
In summary, get your face on video as much as you can, ditch or at least minimize the slides, hook the audience with your story, be authentic, manage the screen and don’t trust the lying camera.
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