A Blog Designed to Help You Become a Better Speaker
How to Stop Hating Yourself on Video
You Hate Being on Camera.
I get it.
Your nose looks funny. Your head does a weird side tilt thing when you talk that you didn't know it did. Your voice sounds shockingly different. You didn't know your office or your hair actually looked like that.
However, you KNOW you should be making videos.
Or worse, you just paid a fortune for a videographer to create your demo reel and you hate all the footage they shot.
As an actor who has done a lot of commercials and some film, I so understand the cringe factor of watching yourself. An acting coach once gave me the advice, that I turned into a worksheet below, to help you.
First, remember we live in a world of glorious photo and video filters. I am so spoiled with using filters that a regular photo or video of me makes me want to dry heave. Here's the truth. You don't look like the filtered version of you. SORRY! But you can't expect to be on regular video and think the filtered you is going to show up. It's not. The regular video is w...
Elevating Your Speech by Utilizing Focal Points in Storytelling
Want to be a better speaker?
When you give a speech, you can share a story OR you can invite the audience IN to the story.
I don’t mean having them help tell the story with audience participation or communicating with them directly.
It is more about “setting the stage” to invite the audience into the story so they are feeling and experiencing it at as you share. Much like a movie.
A simple way to start is to utilize something called “focal points”. Focal points are where you look when you’re speaking.
As an actor, you are never to look directly into the eyes of an audience member unless it something stylized. If you look an audience member in the eyes, that person may feel put on the spot. Some people LOVE this. I experience that performing in comedy clubs. However, most people don’t. I’m one who not only doesn’t like it – but is terrified of it. You’ll never see me in the front row of a comedy club for that exact reason.
Rather than staring at your audiences’ random eyes, yo...
