179. Camera Shy or Camera Ready? The REAL Secret to Looking Good on Video
Almost everyone I’ve ever met has some kind of resistance to being on camera.
Yes, there’s a few people who for whom it’s no problem, but for the rest of us, facing a camera can be a giant challenge.
I think it goes really deep into the human psyche of the basic fear of being seen and revealing some part of you that you actually want to keep hidden.
You’re really afraid that if people see this part of you, all kinds of bad stuff is going to happen:
You’ll be tossed out of the tribe.
You’ll make a mistake and it’ll go out on the internet and it’ll live there forever and you’ll never be able to live it down.
This is a really big fear for many, many people.
So, are you ready to finally get over your resistance to being on camera?
Do you feel hesitant to turn your camera on during a Zoom call (or even record a voicemail message?)
You’re not alone.
In this special coaching style episode I’m sitting down with Habit Coach Ronnie Loaiza to talk about practical strategies to overcome your resistance to being on camera so that you can come across as the smart, put together professional that you are.
We’re sharing everything from adjusting camera angles to optimizing lighting and audio quality, plus actionable steps that can transform your virtual presence, boosting both your confidence and your message’s impact.
Listen up if you want to overcome camera shyness and really stand out in the business world.
Resources:
Are you as impactful in your business as you think you are? Take the Standout Business Scorecard https://awesomevideomakers.com/scorecard/
Transcript
Brad Powell:
Almost anyone I’ve ever met has some kind of resistance to being on camera. Yes, there’s a few people who for whom it’s like no problem, but for the rest of us, facing a camera can be a giant challenge. I think it goes really deep into the human psyche of just this fear of being seen like revealing some part of you that you actually want to keep hidden, and you’re really afraid that if people see this part of me, all kinds of bad stuff is going to happen, like I’ll be. I’ll be tossed out of the tribe, I’ll make a mistake and it’ll go out on the internet and it’ll live there forever and I’ll never be able to live it down. You know this is a really big fear for many, many people.
Brad Powell:
Welcome to the Standout Business Show. I’m Brad Powell and this is where it’s all about making a bigger difference by doing business differently. Today we’re doing a special coaching episode and I’ve got special guest Ronnie Lawaza on the microphone with me today and we’re going to take a deep dive into talking about standing out on video, particularly when you feel like maybe video isn’t your thing. Before we get started, I want to announce that, after three years and over 160 interviews on this show, I’ve just created a self-assessment tool that I’m calling the Standout Business Scorecard. The scorecard lets you rank yourself on how much your business stands out and we’ll give you personalized recommendations based on your score from several of my past guests. So to find out your standout business score, just go to awesomevideomakerscom slash scorecard. I’ll say that again awesomevideMakerscom forward slash scorecard. It’s quick, it’s free and you can thank me later. And now back to the show. So, ronnie, welcome to the show.
Ronnie Lo:
Good day. I almost said good morning, but All right?
Brad Powell:
Well, first of all, let’s just talk about what are you’re up to, the kind of work that you do with clients. What does that look like?
Ronnie Lo:
Well, I go by Ronnie Lowe, life Coach. Lowe is for Loisa, my last name, ronnie Lowe, life Coach, and I’m Ronnie Lowe, habit Coach. I am a certified habit coach yes, there are habit coaches and I’m a master certified professional coach, a life coach.
Brad Powell:
Yeah, okay, well, before we started recording, you were mentioning wanting to get some ideas around the mindset for going on video and doing video recording, like we’re doing right now, for instance.
Brad Powell:
So talk a little bit about the challenge that you see, either for yourself or for clients that you work with, around this idea that, like a lot of people almost anyone that I’ve ever met some kind of resistance to being on camera. I mean, there are a few people who for whom it’s like no problem, but for the rest of us it’s usually a giant challenge and I think it goes really deep into the human psyche of just this fear of being seen, like revealing some part of you that you actually want to keep hidden and you’re really afraid that if people see this part of me, all kinds of bad stuff is going to happen, like I’ll be tossed out of the tribe, like I’ll be left out in the cold, I’ll be ridiculed, I’ll be trolled endlessly, I’ll make a mistake and it’ll go out on the internet and it’ll live there forever and I’ll never be able to live it down. You know this is, this is a really big fear for many, many people. So talk a little bit about how you see this challenge.
Ronnie Lo:
Well, it’s interesting that you said us because I consider you like Brad. He’s never fearful, he’s so calm and so collected and you know exactly what you’re going to say. So I’m really surprised to hear you say that. But you know, when you think about it. Barbra Streisand still gets stage fright. Robert De Niro is shy. You know we don’t hear about all that. Meryl Streep says she’s shy when it comes to recording. I work with some clients that have literally told me we’ve gone through it and through it that they want to do looms, and if you don’t know what a loom is, I’m not being condescending.
Brad Powell:
No, I know what it is.
Ronnie Lo:
Right, it’s an instructional video where you go like, okay, let’s get on, and you do this and you do this and you show them, you share screen or whatever it is, and you take them step by step, just like the old fashioned classroom where the teacher illustrates how to do it and does it physically. So a lot of people use Loom now for instruction, especially consultants, and, like I have one lady for example, she takes her, she works in emergency relief how to be prepared, how to be prepared for emergencies that we never are until we have that earthquake or that flood or that fire or smaller, smaller emergencies. So she takes people through kind of audits their life and their home and their business, whatever, whatever they need and she wants to do looms, but she cannot stand the sound of her voice and most people I don’t know if people remember this If you don’t go look it up answering machines I remember people used to spend like a half hour redoing and rerecording and rerecording a simple 30 second answering machine and now on their phone it’s like they have to get. I have girlfriends that just no, I hate that. No, I hate that. It’s like just their voicemail, you know, saying hello and cause.
Ronnie Lo:
We don’t like the sound of our voice. You’re the pro, you know this in audio that our brains are cavities. They it hears it differently. And when you hear back how you sound to the world, it sounds different than how you heard it when it recycled through your own ears. So people are afraid of how they sound and, like you said, some people are afraid of how they’ll come off in the world, that they make a mistake on a live or that they have to re-record it and re-record it and re-record it. So it’s interesting. I’d love to hear your take on it, because there are many hacks and many try this, try that for fears. But ultimately you’re right, you have to get down to what is your main concern? That people won’t like how you came off, and then how do you work with people with that?
Brad Powell:
is just to get started here. One is you need to really be not thinking about yourself when you’re delivering your message. If you’re doing like as you say, like if you’re doing an instructional video and you’re teaching something, you really need to be thinking about well, who am I talking to? And if you’re helping someone, in this case, who’s getting prepared for an emergency, like some serious stuff going on here, this is a really worthy cause to do and you want to be thinking about well, here’s this person, a tornado is coming or whatever, a hurricane’s coming, and you’re going to help them so that when the disaster strikes, they’re going to be able to cope and deal with it in a way that won’t be as stressful and they’ll survive. Like, literally, you’ll be life-saving, doing life-saving type of thing in your instructional tutorial here.
Brad Powell:
That’s really worth doing, being very generous and caring and helpful, as in if you saw you know somebody on the side of the road who needed help. You would just run over and help them and you wouldn’t be thinking about what do I sound like, what do I look like, what do I? You know? Any of that stuff? None of that would even be in your brain. You’d just be like you’re being helpful.
Brad Powell:
And so somehow you need to require that frame when you’re doing your instructional video. It’s like I’m just being helpful and, honestly, the truth of the matter is no one, not a single person out there cares about what your voice sounds like. If they can hear you clearly, like if you’re using a good microphone, Like if they can hear you clearly, like if you’re using a good microphone, great, they’re going to hear you and your words will be clear. And if your message is clear, like if you’re actually a good teacher and all the people who are doing this kind of consulting and teaching and education content, they’re experts and they’re really good at it and so if you can just push through and go, look I’m, I have something to say here. Here’s my message how people like they’re not going to, they really don’t care. The biggest critic of how you sound and how you look is going to be you.
Ronnie Lo:
Exactly that recycled sound in your head. Exactly.
Brad Powell:
Anyway, that’s one piece. It’s just sort of shifting out of the mindset of pulling the attention on yourself and put all your attention on the person who you’re serving, and it shouldn’t be like I’m serving this giant audience. Think of a single person.
Ronnie Lo:
I love what you just said. I had heard somebody else say you’re being selfish. If you’re thinking about yourself, Okay, but that’s fear, so that’s natural. I love connecting with people. You put me on a stage. I really look face to face. If it’s five people, if it’s 100 people, I look face to face, catch people’s eyes and see who they are. Then I’m in heaven. It’s like, okay, we’re connected. I actually like looking at people’s faces. That connects me to them, because they’re looking back at me and then I I’m in my jam. My problem is, personally, it’s just that camera and it’s like that. That’s when I have to.
Ronnie Lo:
What you said, remember, okay, how. Who’s this helping? Because people and I don’t mean this in a bad way, I mean this in a good way when you go onto a seminar or you’re like I’m going to watch this recording or this live, you do subconsciously think what’s in it for me? That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. What’s in it for me, right? So you have to think of them, what’s in it for them, and that’s how you start the communication.
Brad Powell:
Yeah, absolutely yeah, I like that. That’s absolutely true. And I just want to go back to when you’re speaking on a stage or if you’re speaking to a group of people in any kind of setting, where you’re in the room and people are really there, you want to speak and read the room and you will get energy from that experience if you’re doing a good job in terms of I always sort of think about it as in the call and response that you can do in church on Sunday. You know, you say things and people say hallelujah, whatever.
Ronnie Lo:
Can I get an amen?
Brad Powell:
And you can translate that in the virtual world.
Brad Powell:
When you’re doing a live stream and you can say things and people who are there live in real time can respond, at least in the comments, where you can go back and forth with people, and that gives you energy as well.
Brad Powell:
However, when you are creating, when you are just sitting creating a recording of some kind like whether it’s a Loom tutorial, or you’re making a piece of content that’s going to go on social media, piece of content that’s going to go on social media I really feel like you want to be thinking of a single person to talk to and not be saying, hey guys, you know, how is everybody doing today? Because the experience that the person is going to have on the other side is they’re not going to be with a group of people like they would be in a room with you or in a live stage presentation, like they would be in a room with you or in a live stage presentation. They’re by themselves and like this is really true if it’s a podcast or even a video podcast, but any video format. If it’s on any part of social media, like I’m watching on LinkedIn or I’m watching on Instagram, I’m not doing this with an audience. I’m doing this just by my lonesome.
Ronnie Lo:
You bring up a very good point.
Brad Powell:
And so when you’re talking and the person is saying hey guys, I’m going, well, what guys? I’m just sitting here by myself, and so, however, if you do say you and use the language singular, that’s more effective and it’s more intimate and it’s more connecting more effective and it’s more intimate and it’s more connecting.
Ronnie Lo:
I love that, because you just made me think of that. You just said read the room. Exact same thing. Read the recording. Am I talking to one particular person when I listen to podcasts? I listen to podcasts when I drive and I listen to podcasts when I work out the ones I love the most. You are talking to, ronnie. You’re addressing my problem. What’s in it for me, or I relate to it? I love what you just said. It’s when you connect to the person directly or, like you said, if you are live and you’re addressing a big audience, then you do address the big audience.
Brad Powell:
So, yeah, read the room want to go one step further in terms of, like how do you get over this feeling like you don’t look and or sound very good on camera and so, beyond just saying, well, I don’t, I’m not going to care about it because I’m giving to the other people and that’s what’s important, there’s still something to. But I do want to sound and look good, like we all want that.
Brad Powell:
We all have a certain level of vanity where we want to show up looking good to whoever it is that we’re talking to, and it’s the same as if you were getting up on stage.
Brad Powell:
You can think about this from the same point of view of how would you dress when you show up for an important engagement, any kind of meeting? You show up for an important engagement, any kind of meeting. Most people and this is really interesting to me what we saw during the time of the shutdown of the pandemic, when even the most professional newscasters, television hosts, late night comedians all of a sudden they were home in their bedroom broadcasting and we’re all seeing that they have terrible setup. Like they just look like normal people. Their hair isn’t even done very well, like you know, all of a sudden it was just everybody seemed like everybody else, like there was no, like the whole thing of I’m in this professional studio with lighting and sound equipment and stuff was erased sound equipment and stuff was erased.
Brad Powell:
So all of us as professionals really want to look at you know, in the same way that I might dress a certain way when I go to a networking gathering or if I’m speaking at a conference, I want to dress my set so that anytime I’m on a Zoom call, anytime I’m doing a client, you know meeting, anytime I’m doing a recording, like I’m doing right now, I am sounding good and I have lighting and camera set up to where I look good, like it’s flattering to me, and there’s a huge bit of difference in terms of most people, where they set up with their laptop and their laptop is down a terrible angle, it’s super unflattering, and they’re speaking through the camera in the computer, which is not a very good camera or not a very good microphone, that is, and so your audio is not very good.
Brad Powell:
And then they’re in a dark room or they’re they’ve got a window behind them that’s super bright and their faces in shadow, so we can’t actually see them very well. These are all really super common mistakes, and so when you do that and then you look at yourself, absolutely you’re going to think I don’t really look very good and I don’t sound very good. I don’t like the sound of my voice, and there are very simple ways that this can all be enhanced. And when I work with clients, this is sort of the baseline. We just spend a little bit of time improving, first of all your audio, because almost no matter what your video looks like, if the audio is not very good, no one is going to watch it for very long, because the audio is really the most important part.
Ronnie Lo:
It is because people look away and especially with podcasts, a lot of it is audio. They don’t go to the YouTube, yeah.
Brad Powell:
And so it’s really worth it. Just in the same way that you invest in a nice outfit, you want to invest in a nice microphone and you can get like the microphone I use now. It cost me maybe a hundred dollars and it has a really high quality sound and it’s really simple. It plugs directly into my computer and so it’s literally plug and play and now I have a good sound and I can trust it, as always, no matter what, I’ve got it sitting here on my desk. Every time I do anything I can turn it on and I sound great.
Brad Powell:
The other part is what people don’t think about too much is the quality of your light. Like anytime you’ve seen any kind of film, what makes that film look amazing is not the camera, it’s the lighting and the people who are making those films who do this amazing job. They’re all behind the scenes. They’re the people who are making those films who do this an amazing job. They’re all behind the scenes. They’re the people who manage that cinematic lighting and it’s really all about the quality and the softness of the kind of light that you do. So, for instance, in my setup I have, I have a window that’s in front of me. That is sort of lighting the room. It’s like creating the ambient light of the entire space.
Brad Powell:
But I also have a bigger light, what’s called the key light, off to one side at 45 degree angle. But that light isn’t pointed at me, it’s pointed at the wall in the other direction, like it’s bouncing off the wall. I have a big white wall here, and so the light’s aimed at that, and so it’s bouncing off of that. And then I have an umbrella. That is diffusion. It’s very clear white, soft diffusion. So the white light coming off the wall comes through the umbrella and then it hits my face, and so the shadows on my face are super soft and it’s very flattering. And then I have a similar light over here on this side, which is the opposite side, and it also has a soft diffusion in front of it. And so what you have on my face is that I am lit more and brighter than the rest of the room.
Ronnie Lo:
Now I want to add to what you said and compliment what you said. People get bogged down with like well, it really just, it matters that you show up. Or you’ve heard a lot of coaches say look, it’s 90% showing up, don’t worry about how you look, just get on there, just do it, do it. Do it, nike, just do it. I get that Face, the fear, and just do it. Okay, that may take the first plunge or two, but after a while what you said, brad, is super important.
Ronnie Lo:
Because when you’re watching a really good movie or something on TV and you don’t think about the sound and you don’t think about the look of it and the lighting, it’s because it’s so good, like that ambience. Music People I mean directors have to pick the right music to evoke that right emotion and not overpower the actors. The sound and the quality of their voices, along with the score, is what makes that movie or that TV show. Same thing with the lighting. It’s when you don’t think about it that you know it’s good. When you notice something’s off or stupid, then you notice.
Ronnie Lo:
And we’re not saying be vain in how you dress, but you’re right. What image do you want to portray? At least put together, because what image do you trust when you see people? It doesn’t mean that you have to get all dressed up with a three-piece suit. I had a news reporter tell me you know she laughs at the Hollywood portrayal of news reporters with stiletto heels there’s not one woman news reporter that wears stiletto heels when she’s out in the field. That’s just dumb. And they don’t wear these great, you know Chanel suits because that’s a waste of their money. They these great Chanel suits, because that’s a waste of their money.
Ronnie Lo:
They wear something that looks good on camera. That’s it. You can go to Marshalls or TJ Maxx as long as you look put together. And that’s really important, because then people don’t notice your looks like oh gosh, he’s disheveled, oh, he dresses sloppy. If they notice that, then it deters from your message and your self-image and your confidence. When they don’t notice you because you look so put together, then that’s good.
Brad Powell:
Right. Well, I think one of the overall goals here, when you’re doing this kind of setup, is just what you just said you want to make it look as though you haven’t done anything. You want to make it look as though, well, I’m just here and I look the way I look and it’s normal. I don’t want to actually look as though I’m lit. I want to look as though I’m in the room and you can see me well.
Ronnie Lo:
Right, you don’t want to detract?
Brad Powell:
And the other part of this is that when you achieve this level of look and sound like you know you sound good, you know you look good, you know you look good. You know people can see and hear you clearly, this is where you start. You will start feeling more comfortable on camera. It’s like it’s just like when you go out in the world and you know you look good and like he’s like I’m looking good today.
Brad Powell:
Like you just feel more comfortable in the spaces where you have to be, and this is exactly the same thing, and I think there’s a lot to be said around just making the investment of creating a dedicated space, because we all have to, as professionals, communicate virtually these days. It’s table stakes. No matter what kind of work you do, somebody is going to want to get on a Zoom call with you or somebody is going to have some kind of virtual meeting with you. This is just what we need to do in today’s world, and so putting yourself in a place where getting on those kind of meeting calls is no big deal, it’s just a really great place to be and people will notice. They’ll notice, in that they won’t notice Exactly the good vibe.
Brad Powell:
You’ll come across clear. You’ll come across relatable. You’ll come across just as if they were seeing you in person, and that’s exactly where you want to be.
Ronnie Lo:
Yeah, that’s the whole point. Yeah, I totally agree. So that can help. That totally helps if you set yourself up for success.
Brad Powell:
Right, right, and I’ll go one step further, though, in the other direction, which is that it is fine to let go of all the stuff we’re talking about and to create content, to make videos, to interact with people, just with something simple like your phone.
Brad Powell:
The cameras and smartphones these days are very good, and, in fact, when you show up in different locations, wherever you happen to be, that makes the content just that much more interesting. And you know, it’s a place I want to go to, where one of the pieces that I think people are really challenged by when it comes to making video is that they feel like they need to create content, they need to come up with the idea of what am I going to talk about and sit down and write a script, or write a bunch of notes, or make some slides or whatever they need to do, and that that’s a kind of content that you can create, but it’s not always the kind of content that you need to make, and there’s a much simpler kind of thing that you can do, which is much more around documenting what you’re already up to.
Brad Powell:
This can be done in a variety of ways and, for instance, this kind of thing like you were talking about how you are now doing guesting on other podcasts, right, and you’re doing long form webinar type presentations, or you join a summit and you do a presentation in that summit those kinds of things. Well, that’s great, and it’s great when somebody is interviewing you. Like you get on somewhere and someone interviews you and you’re just saying your stuff and you’re answering questions and you’re saying things that come into your head in that moment. You don’t have to think about that or create it ahead of time. You’re just like you’re in the moment doing the thing that you know how to do really well and all of that makes for great content, and you can take the recording of any of those long form pieces of content and turn them into shorter form pieces of content.
Brad Powell:
And that’s your content, where I have a weekly podcast and I get on with someone for half an hour and we talk about stuff that’s interesting to both of us. We pick a topic and we have a conversation about it, and it’s a lot of back and forth and during those conversations, in addition to listening and pulling out the best ideas from my guests, I am also contributing to the conversation.
Ronnie Lo:
I’ve seen podcast hosts do that with me when they have me on their guests and then all of a sudden I see a snippet, like literally 30 seconds, of something I said, a soundbite on their Instagram, on theirs, and they tag me. I’m like, oh, good for you, and they repurpose the podcast they had me on with a really good headline or a really good point.
Brad Powell:
Yes, exactly. So you can do that with the content that your guest is talking about, but I also do it with the content where I’m just the one talking and I get both. And so, from just doing these weekly conversations, I spend a half an hour each week having those conversations and I’m getting all the social media content that I want done in that one half hour. And so when people are thinking about, oh, I don’t really like being on social media, I don’t want to be a social media creator, I don’t want to go in like I don’t want to be posting daily and on and on like that. That just seems like way too much time and work. And, by the way, I don’t even like being on social media. Well, okay, but you probably do like having one-on-one intimate conversations with people who are really interesting to you, and so you get to pick and choose, like who would you like to talk to the most, invite them to have a conversation with you, record the conversation and there’s your content.
Ronnie Lo:
That sounds fabulous. That really does Something that you said I used to do a long time ago, 2021, when Instagram was really in Three of us. We were three different kinds of coaches for all different kinds of problems. We decided to do an Instagram Live every Wednesday because nobody wanted to do it alone. So we’re like let’s just get it together in all three talking heads.
Ronnie Lo:
All of a sudden we had so much to talk about because it was women just talking and then people would come on, but we had each other to play off and that made us each really good and better and more confident to do it on our own later on.
Brad Powell:
Yeah, I think that’s a really good technique as well. I mean, it’s a chore and it’s scary to do it all by yourself and all of a sudden, when you’re now with somebody else, it becomes just easy, like the pressure’s off. You’re not having to carry all the weight, you’re not having to talk the entire time, it’s just not all you, and that’s a really great thing. So I think a really good technique is to get together with a buddy of some kind, like a video buddy, and at the very least, what you can do is invite someone to just come and interview you and just sit down, aim the camera at yourself Don’t even look at the camera, look at your friend and have them ask you questions and then you just answer whatever questions they ask you and each one of those answers can be turned into a piece of content, and that’s another really easy, comfortable way to create messaging.
Ronnie Lo:
I love that. Let me ask you one last question. I have my own answer. But what do you do when you’re talking to someone, like we are now, and you’re recording? I know what I do in my coaching sessions, but often when it’s a one-on-one recording and you’re not by yourself, you’re with somebody else, do you keep looking at the lens or do you look down and look at them in the eyes, like I look at you in the eyes, but on the screen so. But then I have to remind myself to look up at the camera. But when I’m looking at the camera I’m not making true eye connection, but it looks like it to the audience. So I keep looking up and down. I look at the screen, cause I’m really looking at you, and then I look up at the camera. I’m looking at the camera, not really you, but it looks like I’m looking directly at you. Do you know what?
Brad Powell:
I mean, I do know what you mean. And actually when you’re like I’m looking at the camera now and your impression now I’m making eye contact. I’m making eye contact with you because you are seeing me, look at you, even though I’m not actually looking at the image on my computer monitor. And so the rule of thumb here is that when you’re speaking, look at the camera, when you’re listening, look at the monitor.
Ronnie Lo:
That’s good, yeah, and see, you answered that really well. And that’s what I do with my coaching clients, because we are really truly in a conversation and I remind them like, if I look like I’m not looking at you, I’m looking directly at you. Now I’m looking down when they’re talking because I love seeing their facial gestures, how they’re moving their body language and.
Ronnie Lo:
I’m paying attention to them. So it may not seem like I’m paying attention to them, but I’m looking at them in the eyes, but on my screen, yeah and yeah. And then when I’m talking I look at the lens. So, yeah, that’s exactly what I do in my coaching sessions, without even thinking about it much.
Brad Powell:
Right, well, just the thing is that when you’re looking at the computer screen, you’re not actually making eye contact.
Ronnie Lo:
Exactly, you’re seeing them, but it looks like you are.
Brad Powell:
It’s just not happening. Yeah, yeah, that’s so interesting. Well, it’s a bit of a trick because of the fact that we have to look at a camera, and none of us really love it looking at cameras. The camera is just this inanimate robot thing. We much rather look at a person’s face, and so we do. The other thing that I’ll say, though, is that it’s just food for thought for people in terms of their content creation. There’s actually a lot of data that I’ve seen in terms of recordings and how well they perform when you have, like you’ve, seen lots of documentary films, and usually, when a documentary film is made, they do an interview with the subject of the documentary, and that’s always done with an interview where the subject is looking off camera, and so they’re looking off camera, like this, at the person asking the question.
Ronnie Lo:
Diagonally yeah.
Brad Powell:
They’re going like this and this is the way you see them, sort of on the side. And so when you’re doing something like we were describing earlier, where you have someone interview you or there’s two of you and you’re going back and forth, if you’re there in the room together, you can set yourself up in the same way where you’re looking off camera and it looks like you’re on a podcast as a guest in like. We see lots of podcasts on YouTube, say, where the both the host and the guests are looking off camera at each other, and that’s just the way the camera is set up, instead of looking at them straight on. And it turns out and this is just interesting to me that when you take that kind of footage that is, the off camera look and even like the microphone is in the frame, you can see the microphone and you can see them looking at the other person. That performs better.
Brad Powell:
It actually people watch that stuff longer and deeper and it gives you a little bit of authority. So I’ve actually seen people record themselves in that way, even though they’re not on a podcast, but it looks as though they are, and then they put it out there and people see it and they go oh, this person, this is from a podcast that they were on, so it must be, you know, cool. It must be just not them with their phone, like they’re actually doing something more with more authority and that kind of content actually gets watched more, which?
Ronnie Lo:
Yeah, it has this vibe of you’re the expert or you’re interesting, whether you’re the guest or the expert, because it looks like, oh, they set up a studio and it’s an actual interview, so you do have a little bit more authority when it’s the diagonal shot or the 60 minute shot, you know, and then they get the cutaways. So yeah, and that’s, that’s good. I would like to contribute that you don’t want to get stuck on any of these. None of these are the secret sauce. The secret sauce for every time. Play around with it, vary it up and don’t it’s easy to say, don’t worry about it so much but when you play with it and you have variety, you’re much more interesting and you find what feels good as well. I mean, once in a while I have thrown the camera on when I’m walking, the walking shot. It’s like, literally, I’ve been walking out of the gym and I thought of something to say and I turned on the camera and I said it.
Brad Powell:
Right, yeah, and you make a really good point. I mean, from the idea around this thing of I have to create something, there’s all kinds of moments of inspiration. You know, for example, when you do have a meeting or you’ve done a webinar or you have you’ve just done a being a guest on somebody’s podcast and you’ve just had this cool conversation and you’ve got some takeaways from that conversation, because whoever you were talking to said some things and you’re like, wow, that was really cool. I have, I have new ideas now.
Brad Powell:
Well that, and, by the way, you got up for the interview like you did your hair, you’re in front of your lighting, you sound good, like you’re all set to go. Well, it’s a really good time. After you’re done, like, you’re right there sitting in the same room, push record and share what just happened, say, oh, I just got off this interview with so-and-so and we talked about this one thing and I just want to mention, and then just say, whatever that is, and it’s just in that moment, your brain is kind of on fire and you have some things to share and you can do it right. Then, without thinking about it, you’re in your zone, you’ve got good ideas, you look good, you feel good, you’ve got this higher energy and all of that is going to come through the camera.
Ronnie Lo:
Yes, I love that. That is true. That is so true. You have that afterburn and all these great ideas. Don’t wait, because you may forget about it and not do it again.
Brad Powell:
Right, well, with that, the energy will be entirely different. Yeah, all right. Well, ronnie, this has been a very cool conversation. I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit.
Ronnie Lo:
Me too. I have a lot of takeaways and, like I said, yes, you have the technical part. That’s just as important as the mindset and the feelings of it, and the feelings and the mindset and the confidence are just as important as the technical part. So get help, ask for advice, watch these podcasts, Listen to Brad Talk about it, because everybody goes through the same thing and everybody has their own way, and some of these things can help you.
Brad Powell:
Right, exactly, all right. Well, if someone would like to get a hold of you and learn more about your work, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
Ronnie Lo:
I love being on LinkedIn. You’ll find me under Ronnie Loisa or Ronnie Lo Life Coach Ronnie Lo Life Coach. I’m also on Instagram. I just said Ronnie Lowe, Life Coach, and I’m on Facebook. So yeah, let’s connect. I love answering questions and I love asking people questions. I’m always learning from other people, so find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and my website is RonnieLoweLifeCoachcom. And thank you, Brad, for having me.
Brad Powell:
And for those of you listening at the end, I just want to remind you that if you’d like to go and get the entire archive of the Standout Business Show, you can go to standoutbusinessshow and it’s all there, All the audio, all the video, all the extra stuff that I put in there only for our listeners and until next time, thanks again. So long.
