Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome back to another episode of Digital Creator with me, your host, dylan Schmidt. Today I want to talk about a question I was asked this morning. I was interviewed on a Minovo livestream procast with Mark Ronick, who has been on this podcast twice. I'm recalling correctly, he was on episode 100 or 200. I don't know, it's all a blur at this point, but he asked me a great question that I want to talk about in this episode and that was if you're not feeling confident talking on camera, like what do you do? How can you become confident talking on camera? Because obviously I have a lot of experience with this stuff. I've made over 1400 talking to camera videos and a lot of podcasts and whatnot. So let's get into it. I'm going to give you a response. If you listen to that live stream episode with Mark, it'll be a similar response.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So I am not some natural talking to camera person. I have no background in this. I'm usually on the other side of the camera. My experience is, you know, setting up a microphone and camera for other people to record into, but what I had to do was get comfortable talking into the microphone and being on camera. That's not my element. This is not my element. It's become my element now I'm comfortable with it, but it's not something that has felt ever natural to me. Now it feels really natural now, and if you ask why is that? Well, it's because I've done it 1400 plus times, so it's become second nature and it feels just really simple. Honestly, as easy as brushing my teeth.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Yeah, my advice, though, to someone feeling not confident talking on camera and what I wish I would have heard when I was just starting out and I wanted to feel more confident about being on camera, and I feel like this would have at least put me in the right mindset. I don't know that it would shorten my learning curve or anything, but it put me in the right headspace to show up on camera as my best self, which is think of parts, right. I like to compartmentalize things and kind of organize everything neatly. So when I think of myself and my overarching confidence, there are certain areas in life where I'm not that confident, right. There's other areas where I am super confident. You know, I'm not so confident that the Dodgers. You know, as you're hearing this, they'll have played game four. I'm pretty confident they're going to win the World Series, but it would be a mistake if I was just like, yeah, I'm so confident they're going to win the World Series, it's all going to be great. I'll reserve that until after the World Series ends, which is tonight. I'm not that confident in my cooking, but I am confident in certain dishes I can make right.

Speaker 1: 2:54

So there's parts to our life and there's little areas where we feel confident in, and when it comes to filming content, filming videos like this, filming episodes like this there are parts that we're not going to be that confident in, and there'll be parts that we are confident in. Parts that I think most people aren't that confident in the beginning are usually things like editing, so they maybe feel very unfamiliar with the whole editing process. And then maybe they're not confident in the publishing section. Maybe they're like I think the titles are kind of okay I don't know if it looks good, the lighting, things like that but there are areas that you can be confident in despite all that, which is arguably the most important part of the whole video process, which is what you're talking about on camera. Now, this is assuming that you are in control of what you're talking about on camera and you're deciding to make videos. It's not like someone is telling you to make videos for some reason, which some people have to make videos for the business or something. In that case, you can still work with this, but this is mainly for people that aren't used to talking on a camera, that want to start talking on camera, and that is be confident in what you're saying, what you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 4:08

For me, when I was first starting filming videos, what I would do is I would pick topics that I was like passionately angry about because I was seeing some misinformation happen or just some gatekeeping really, around this podcast producer that I had been working with. I didn't like how he was acting, so I was confident that that's not the way I wanted to be, and I was confident that I wanted to share all these things that he was kind of keeping from me and, just like his audience, he was making it seem like it was way more difficult than it needed to be, but I knew the truth. So I was like you know, I'm going to film these videos. And then I started noticing other things. Maybe people were saying things that I didn't necessarily believe in. So I was speaking truth to what I wanted to see more of out there, and I was confident in that because I had a lived experience of this being the truth and knowing that what I was saying was true.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So there was no like lack of confidence there, right? Did I like how I looked on camera? Not really. Did I like the lighting, all these little details? No, not really. There were typos in the captions. There were a million ways I wanted to make it better, but I was at least confident in what I was saying. So I would magnify that and that's what I'm recommending you do too.

Speaker 1: 5:25

If you're not confident when you're speaking directly to camera is you can choose what you magnify and really focus on, right, you can focus on the editing and that the editing is not in its end stage yet. It shouldn't be really. I mean, do you get mad at a baby for not walking when they're a baby? Right, you shouldn't, because they're in the early stages and they're figuring it out. Same thing with talking on camera. You can instantly become more comfortable on camera when you're confident about what you're talking about and it's congruent with what you know to be true. Now, if you're like me, you'll also find like, well, what if what I'm saying I think is true, but someone could argue the other way? That's part of content, you know. That's why the news is so divisive. That's part of the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 6:16

I, as you know, have a company called Content Clips and we make clips from podcasts and there's only so much context, right, you can't say everything in 120 words or 30 seconds or so. There's always going to be room for missing pieces of information. It's just the splice. When we're talking about social media and content, it's not everything. So, understanding that it's naturally a flawed way to communicate your entirety of understanding, you're not making a thesis, you're just making a splices. That's a new word. I don't think it means anything other than what I'm saying in this context. You got to accept that. It's just. You're going to, you're going to have I don't want to say errors, but you're going to have missing pieces of information because it's just the splice.

Speaker 1: 7:04

But if you can still be confident in what you're saying is true and that your delivery and who you're filming it for is true, like what you're saying is matching and who you're talking to all that stuff it makes the confidence piece shine through You'll find that you'll have less filler. Words like um, uh, things like that. Your delivery will be way smoother. You'll come up with content ideas uh, so much faster. The whole process just all around is way more enjoyable when you're confident in what you're talking about. Anything else outside of that and you're trying to manufacture this confidence. I don't even know how to do that and it just seems really draining A lot of energy spent. That is not an efficient way to work.

Speaker 1: 7:52

So speak truth to what you want to see more of in the world and deliver that confidently, because there's a reason why you're sharing it. There's no reason not to be confident. You will not be confident in everything right. You're not supposed to be confident in the editing of your video Like this is exactly perfect. It's going to evolve right through the quantity. This is exactly perfect. It's going to evolve right Through the quantity.

Speaker 1: 8:19

The quality will pick itself up. For example, with these videos and episodes that I record like the quality has gradually gotten better and better, I have people reach out and like what has changed? You've gotten it dialed in. It's just these small incremental changes over time. I'm still the same person that is confidently believing in what I'm talking about, but the lighting has improved, or you know the camera quality or my background or desk setup, whatever it is, but my message hasn't changed and my confidence in my message really hasn't changed.

Speaker 1: 8:48

It might've evolved, or topics I've, you know, come to understand have maybe evolved or matured or whatever. That stays the same. The wrapping is going to change. That'll just change, right? I'm going to age, you know. Things will change, naturally. The environment, all that stuff, who I am, will kind of be timeless in a way. You know what I mean Because I'm confident in what I'm saying. So unless I'm confidently wrong which that I'll be confidently accepting that I'm wrong that's a future, you know, crossing roads, but for now you can just bet on me being confident in what I'm sharing with you, and my hope is that you feel confident in what you're talking about, or else I don't think you're talking about the right thing. So look for that confidence and ride with it. I'll see you in the next one.