In this instructional YouTube video, Areeb Mirza explains why mastering on‑camera presence can dramatically increase a creator’s or entrepreneur’s revenue. He outlines five concrete actions to improve on‑camera performance. First, he stresses "volume beats perfection" – producing at least 30 videos consistently to build skill faster than chasing a perfect first video. Second, he recommends using frequent hand gestures, citing research that popular TED talks average 465 gestures in 18 minutes versus 272 for less popular talks. Third, he highlights the importance of vocal tonality, encouraging speakers to vary pitch, pace, and pauses to keep viewers engaged. Fourth, he advises preparing a script rather than freestyling, especially for beginners, to focus on delivery, gestures, and tone. Fifth, he stresses a good technical setup and personal appearance – proper lighting, clear audio, and decent clothing – as essential for retaining viewers. He concludes by prioritizing volume for newcomers and the other tips for more experienced creators, and offers a Calendly link for personalized coaching.
Chapters
The ability to speak in front of a camera and communicate with thousands of people at once is a skill that is literally going to 10x your business. Now, if you're watching this video, you're either in the pursuit of getting better in front of the camera, or you're just starting out. Either way, this video's going to help you identify exactly what you need to do and what action steps you need to take. We're going to improve your on-camera performance and ultimately make you more money. Let's get into it. Tip number 1 is volume beats perfection. The first thing, and this is kind of the most underrated thing I always tell our clients, is just of volume. Like even at Focus, the company, the way we accelerate the learning processes for our clients is by putting them with a director who gives them live feedback on what to do. That cuts their learning curve by 1 or 2 weeks. And I'm going to give you the exact tips I tell my directors to use, and you can apply pretty much all of them yourself from the get-go. But the number 1 thing I want you to understand and ingrained in your head right now is that the more videos you create consistently, the better you are going to get in front of the camera, period. That is the sole reason we don't offer batch recordings at Focus. We don't like doing monthly recording sessions either. It's either weekly or biweekly at the bare minimum. We want you creating that habit of creating content because we know the more you create, the better you will get. Of course, this is true for everything in life, but this is something you just have to realize. Aiming for the perfect video on your first Instagram post or within your first 30 posts is not a good strategy. Chances are if you're just starting out, you don't have a bunch of followers anyways. You're going to be speaking into some sort of void. You're not going to get a lot of user followers when you're pretty much starting from zero. So aim to upload at least 30 videos, then judge your performance. Get to the 30-video mark. Literally, I want you to open up your calendar or notepad pretty much right now and make it a goal to make 30 videos. That's the first thing I would do. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be edited perfectly. Just get 30 videos out somehow. And I promise you, from there you'll have so much more data on what to actually do next. So tip number 2, which is a little bit more practical, which is using your hands. I was listening to this podcast with Vanessa Van Edwards, and recently she said something that pretty much stuck with me. And she said after analyzing, you know, thousands of TED Talks and the difference she found between the most popular TED Talks and the least popular ones was hand gestures. The most popular TED Talks use an average of 465 gestures in just 18 minutes. The least popular ones use 272, almost half. So start using hand gestures in pretty much all of your videos. It is extremely important, especially in talking head videos. And honestly, it's super easy. Just try to portray an image inside of your viewer's mind with your hands. And there's a reason that as kids we like books with images more than books without. Your hand is the image, so use them more. All right. Tip number 3 is tonality. Listen, tonality in the beginning is something you're going to struggle with a lot. We work with lawyers and doctors with 18+ years of experience, and as soon as the camera turns on, for some reason, their entire personality, even though when we're just having a conversation, it's good. But as soon as you turn the camera on, it just completely shifts and they go into this voice of, hey guys, my name is Dr. XYZ and today I'm going to be talking about— like it's flat, it's boring, and it's just hard to watch. You can have the best script on the planet, the best edit, the best lighting, but if the delivery of the actual content is boring, no one is going to watch. There's a reason you enjoy your favorite influencers and your favorite creators. They have a specific way they speak, a specific way of presenting themselves. Tonalities is super important. The best tip I can give you is pretty much to slow down and add pauses. Go up or down on specific phrases. For example, let's say there's a sentence, "I really like flowers." You can say, "I really like flowers" by putting the emphasis on "really." "I really like flowers." Or, "I really like flowers," putting the emphasis on "flowers." Two completely different deliveries on pretty much the same exact sentence. I want you to experiment with this on your scripts too, because the same line can hit pretty much differently based on where you put the weight. Tip number 4, especially in the beginning, is— actually know what to say. Like have something prepared before you get to the point where you can just freestyle in front of the camera. You need to have things prepared. You need to know what you're going to say. Freestyling on camera and being a beginner on camera just do not mix. One is oil, one is water. When you have a script prepared, you can just go line by line and focus on the delivery, the hand gestures, the tonality, the pauses, and every single tip I've pretty much talked about so far. If you're just going to walk in front of the camera and start freestyling, it's going to be extremely difficult, especially in the beginning. And just be honest with yourself also, like about whether you can actually freestyle in front of the camera or whether you need a script first. So the The fifth point is have a good setup and dress well. Now, this isn't necessarily a proactive tip on, you know, what to do in front of a camera. This is something you just have to handle pretty much before the camera even turns on. The better you look, the better the setup looks, the better the final video is going to be. And by better setup, I don't necessarily mean you need a full-blown production studio. You can quite literally just do this with your iPhone and proper lighting or just sit outside. Because in most cases sunlight is great. That alone will pretty much enhance your video or just supplement it on whatever you're talking about. Because if you're coming on camera just janky with shaky audio, pixelated video, it's just not going to look good. And all the tonality work and hand gesture work and script prep you just did, all of that just pretty much goes out the window because the viewer themselves is not going to make it past the 5 seconds. So those are my 5 points to pretty much become a pro in front of the camera. If I had to put the most emphasis on one of them, especially if you're a beginner, it is the first one, volume. Like, get to the first 30 videos. That single thing will teach you more than anything else. And if you're already at a point where you're creating content and you're in the pursuit of getting better, then it's step 2, 3, and 5. Hand gestures, tonality, and your setup. Those are the ones that level you up from fine on camera to actually worth watching. And if you want help with this exact process and pretty much have kind of like a director who can help you get better in front of the camera, we do this for our clients pretty much on a daily basis. So if that's something you're interested in, there's a Calendly link in the description where you can just talk to us to see if this would be something we can pretty much help you on. But honestly, even if you don't work with us, just go apply these. Start with tip 1 and work your way down, and I'll see you in the next one.
