Have you tried creating videos? But as soon as you hit record and you saw that record light came on, you froze and forgot all words. If so, you are not alone! Don’t let anxiety and nervousness get in the way of presenting or recording your videos. Here are few strategies to help you overcome those nerves! Let’s dive in.
Good Posture
The first one is all about your posture. We spend so much of our days hunched over our computers and taking down notes in our desks. That posture doesn’t quite bring the energy we need for great videos.
In almost all cases when I’ve worked with advisors and planners, standing up just instantly brings new energy to your body and that energy comes through in your videos. It’s way better for us to be standing and have that good posture. Have you heard of the Power Pose? Assume that power pose for a moment, shoulders back, head held high, fully up. Make yourself as big as you can. Do that and hold that posture for a few minutes and feel the change in your body. Feel the energy!
Hold a Smile
The second thing is an exercise that often feels weird, but it works. If you’re recording a video, before you hit record, hold a smile.
Hold a smile for like one second then hit record and keep holding that smile. By the end of two seconds, you’ll see how that physically changes you. We’ve all heard the old adage “smile before you dial“. That’s because people can hear your smile. And in this case, on video, we want them to see your smile.
Hold that smile for a few seconds, then start talking, and by then you’ll realize that you actually do feel a bit different. That will be the very first thing that people see, and we know how important first impressions are! Before you start recording, and then after you’re done, before you hit or stop recording, hold that smile again. Now it’s gonna feel weird for the first few times, but you’ll get used to it. So that way the first and the last impression is you smiling. The actual physiological effect that we’ll have on you and the energy you bring will be huge!
Eye Contact
The third thing is eye contact. Here we want to focus on making sure that you are making eye contact with your audience. When you’re doing videos, look into the lens, and make sure to use a little bit of that childhood imagination.
You really do need to imagine that you are talking directly to your audience. You don’t wanna be looking down, you don’t wanna be distracted looking at yourself. In your brain, you need to picture that you’re just talking directly to your ideal target audience. Again, using a bit of imagination, but maybe stick a picture of your avatar or your ideal client nearby, so that you’re having that image of someone that you’re talking to.
Get That Energy Out
For this last strategy, you might wanna try out both and see which one works best for you. If you’re a person that has a lot of pent up energy and you feel like there’s just all this energy and you might explode and that makes you too nervous to record, go ahead and get that energy out.
Sometimes I’ve got too much energy, so I’ll do a few jumping jacks before recording. If you’re a runner, maybe go for a run and then think about what you’re gonna say in your video, what topics you wanna cover, what’s come up in recent client meetings, and get that energy out a little bit so that once you hit record and you’ve got that good posture, and you’re smiling and you’ve got the right eye contact, then you don’t have all that energy built up in you.
Get More Zen
For some people, they just need to get a bit more zen before recording. So one thing that can work really well is a tactic called Box Breathing. That’s where you breathe in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds. Breathe out for four seconds and then hold it for four seconds. Do this for three to five rounds or find what works best for you. This can bring a bit more centerness and calm to yourself. You’re calming down all of those thoughts swirling around in your brain so that you can just really focus on creating that great content and creating great videos.
Test out those last two ones and see which works better for you!
Maybe some days it’ll be a bit of exercise. Other days, it’ll be a bit of box breathing, maybe some meditation. So remember, stand up and bring that good posture. Hold that smile for two seconds before you start talking and again for two seconds at the end. For that great first and last impressions, maintain eye contact, not with yourself, but with your target audience. Picturing them using your imagination, and then find what works for you to get the centered energy so that you are fully present to bringing the energy that you desire to your videos.
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