Stop Waiting For Perfection!

Read on to learn why you should STOP HIDING in your presentations, demos, and webinars.

Your audience wants to see your face

I’ve heard all of the excuses at this point, “I need a better camera before I start,” “My background sucks,” “I hate the way my face looks,” “I hate the way that I sound,” “I could sell better, if I was as good on camera as — fill in the blank with whatever colleague you have because they’re just good at it naturally–“

Stop waiting for perfection

While OMH Creative has worked with hundreds of professional performers in commercials over the years, I have worked with thousands of non-actors, and I can tell you without reservation, that getting good on camera and connecting with your audience in an authentic way is a skill that anyone can learn with the right tactics and a little bit of practice. Whether it’s a webcam, a smartphone, whatever, your audience just wants to see YOU. In fact, here’s some science to prove the point. I’m guessing a lot of you are familiar with an environment like this: You’re presenting on camera over the web, but you are still not coming on camera. In fact, if you were to come on camera you might have excuses like I just mentioned. You don’t like the way that you look, you don’t like the way that you sound or the fact that you have hands. Actually, I have students that tell me, “I don’t know what to do with my hands when I’m on camera.”

We remember people that we resonate with emotionally

It is really, really important to come on camera because of the fact that when people can see your eyes when they can see your face, it’s scientifically proven that they form an emotional bond with you faster. We remember people that we resonate with emotionally. So, if you’re a disembodied voice while you’re presenting, or while you’re demoing on camera, it’s very likely that they’re NOT going to remember you and store you in their neocortex after you’re done demoing or presenting or giving them key information.

Don’t underestimate the power of eye contact

Eye contact shapes our perception of the other person who meets our gaze. For instance, we generally perceive people who make more eye contact to be more intelligent, more conscientious, and sincere, and we become more inclined to believe what they say. This isn’t just me. This was actually a study that was done by a British psychological society. And they proved that this was the case in test studies. People that were able to make direct eye contact and look directly in the lens, which is what you should be doing when you are demoing or presenting. This WILL help you bond more quickly with your audience. Watch one of our other videos if you need more tips on that.

Conclusion:

Just come on camera. It doesn’t matter if everything is perfect. They want to see your face, they want you to be authentic. So, stop waiting. No one cares that your background isn’t perfect or that you need a haircut. If you have a good story and genuinely have something that will help your audience, your authenticity will trump polish every day of the week.

OMH, a boutique creative agency that nourishes enterprise software companies (Microsoft and SAP) and their partners with marketing services and training that drive sales.

For more Online coaching, video production, and training tips, check out our premium Storied Teams courses. Make sure to take advantage of our free mini-course. In 30 minutes or less, you’ll feel a lot better about how you look and present on camera!