#015 What To Wear On Camera

Yeah, really, I am coming into my closet. Really happy you're here. My name is Sheryl Plouffe and you're in my closet today. We're going to talk on Personal Brand Breakthrough today about what to wear on camera and also what not to wear. So thank you so much for being here. Actually, I want to preface this by saying that it's a bit of a mess. My closet is quite a bit of a mess, but that's okay. I know where everything is, and maybe you're the same, right? Your closet is a bit of a mess, but you kind of know where to find stuff. Today I really wanted to focus on what to wear on camera because it was actually an inspiration from one of my mastermind clients who asked me a question a little bit earlier on in the week. Let me grab my notes here. And the question was, and this is in relation, let me just preface this by saying this is in relation to a method of recording videos that we use called batch recording. And what that means is that we record a bunch of videos in one fell swoop with the intention of then taking those videos and scheduling them out as an example. So her question was, Cheryl, should I wear the same outfit in each video, which to which I responded, and I'll tell you the answer in a moment. Should I be wearing the same outfit in all these videos, or should I be wearing something different in each? So that's kind of where the inspiration for this episode came from. So thank you, Christine, for that. So the question and, and the answer to that is, if you are batch recording a bunch of videos and the intention is that those videos are going to be scheduled out over a period of, say, a month, you record 4 and then each week you schedule it out to be published, I would recommend that you wear something different for each. Whereas if you're doing a series of videos that are intended to be a series, or maybe it's for an internal training or something where it doesn't really matter that you're wearing the same outfit in all 4 videos, then you're fine and good to go. And by the way, I would love to know what your favorite color is, so let me know in the comments. I've got my computer here set up, so if you have questions, I can see them. So please feel free to ask as we go along here. Let me refresh my computer. I want this to be interactive with you. If you have questions about clothing or about what to wear on camera, this is the time to ask those questions and to pick my brain because listen, I've had a lot of clothes brought my way over the last, you know, 20+ years of working in television. And in fact, a lot of the things that are still in my closet kind of come from my TV days. Some of them don't fit anymore, but that's okay. And some of them are new things that I have purchased. I'm gonna give you some tips today where to shop for clothes on any budget. I'm also gonna show you what not to wear in your videos. So let me just make sure that I am— okay, and post below. I see Christine Smile. Hi! Yes, this episode is inspired by you. Uh, let's see. Marty says hi. Hi. Hi. Okay, so let me know what your favorite color is, please, if you'll post that, whether you're watching the live show right now or you're watching the replay. I love this hot, hot pink, kind of a like almost a neon kind of pink. This really struck me, and I'll tell you where I bought this in a moment. So here's the thing about dressing for camera. There are There are things to do and things not to do. Let me tell you first what not to do. And it's interesting because I'm a fan of black and white, I really am. But when it comes to dressing for camera, what you don't want to do is dress in all white or all black. Have I broken those rules? Yes, but it's preferable to not dress in all white or all black, especially when you consider the backdrop of your video. So in this case, I'm in my— I'm in my closet right now, so the backdrop is really colorful and there's a lot of different things going on. You may be doing a video where the background is, say, a dark color, like a, like a dark wood library type room or something like that. Where it's like dark browns, kind of darker tones. What you don't want to do in that case is wear a solid black outfit because then you just look like a floating head against the backdrop. There's no definition. What you're looking to do is to create some definition between the backdrop and yourself. Okay, the same is true, and, and with black and white also there are some other considerations with solid black, it's often difficult to, to see detail in solid black. So if you have a black top and it's got some really interesting details, it might be more difficult for people to really notice that, and we don't see depth. That's another reason why we want to avoid all black most of the time. Um, all white is similar thing. If you have a light, light background, let's say you're doing those Apple style videos with a white background, You wouldn't want to wear all white because you're again going to be a floating head. You won't really— there won't be any definition. Now, can you wear white? Yes. In fact, I've got a white jacket back here as well, if you can see it. But anyway, this white jacket, and what I would do if you want to wear white, because white does look crisp, it looks really, really good. What I would do is make sure that there's a pop of color in addition to the white. So for example, I could use— in fact, let me see if I can find it here. I've got a microphone on, so if I can just— where is that coat? Okay, here. So if I'm wearing this as an example, see, this is interactive, this is fun. So if I'm wearing the white with the pink underneath, see how there's a pop of color there? Do you like the look of that? Let me know in the comments on Facebook if you like this look. So let me just go down here. I know there's a bit of a delay. Okay, so I'm just watching, watching. Okay, so let me know if you have questions. I'm happy to answer. I want this to be an interactive, um, show for you today. But you can see here how that makes a bit of a difference, right? You've got the white with the pop of color underneath. But if I was in a white backdrop and this was all white, it would— it did— there wouldn't be enough definition. So the dos and don'ts, we're starting with the don'ts. Don't wear all white, don't wear all black, especially when you consider your backdrop add a pop of color if you want to wear black or white. The other things that you don't want to do, and I've got some examples here that I want to show you. And by the way, if you find this interesting, this little tutorial that we're doing today, share it out on your Facebook network. And if you're watching the show later on YouTube, subscribe to the channel, hit the notifications bell, and then you'll be notified next time I go live or post, actually, or publish videos to my YouTube channel. Personal Brand Breakthrough is a show I do every Thursday at 2 PM Eastern time, and it's beneficial to you if you are looking to build your audience, you're looking to grow your business, and you want to do it with online video. That's kind of the premise of it, is that you have to build your personal brand, and I give you the tips and interview the experts who can help you do that. So I would appreciate when you share this out to your network. Thank you in advance. Okay, so let's take a look. These are things to avoid. You'll notice actually I've got some examples here, examples here of solid colors. What you don't want to do is something like this— stripes, you know, like a red and white stripe like this, or really any color type stripe. What that does is it creates a buzz on camera, and it's not ideal. Similarly, sometimes you have these lines, like the kind of like a squiggly line. It, it tricks the eye, and it— there's not enough, um, it just makes it look like it's bleeding and that it's, it's not— the camera's not picking it up properly. So there's one thing to avoid. The other thing to avoid would be an example, or pattern to, as an example, would be houndstooth. You know, we all know houndstooth, that black and white type of houndstooth pattern we've seen, and it's very popular. Um, actually, it seems to come back in fashion from time to time. I love houndstooth. I'm an Alabama, you know, I'm an Alabama fan, Roll Tide. So of course I've got to like houndstooth. But on camera This doesn't really translate very well. Now, the picture I'm showing you is kind of blown up, so it doesn't look— you're not— it's not tricking your eye quite as much as it would if it was further away. But in any case, those are just sort of two examples: stripes and geometric patterns that are tightly woven together. They just don't translate very well on camera. So that— those are the don'ts. Those are the don'ts in general. But what are the dos? The dos are bright colors, gem tones. A couple of examples that I have here. This is my, uh, Magenta brand color, and I love this top. Um, so that's an example of a nice bright color. It's not bright as much as it's vibrant. Uh, this is an example again, a red top. These are blouses that I purchased, and then over here are some other examples of color. I'm really partial to gem tones. It's like this sort of teal kind of color is really nice as an example. So that's something, you know, again, this sort of blue, kind of a royal blue. Look how much that pops on camera. Even as I hold them up toward the camera, you can see that they're really popping. This is like a chenille type fabric, so I like the texture of this. You may have seen me wear this in a video. I love the yellow pop. Really, really nice. One thing I wanted to mention too, let me go back into the purples, corals, and greens. Christine says, "These are my favorite colors to wear." And they look great on you because you have the dark hair, so that's a good point. Thank you, Christine. The thing is too, I just wanna mention, if you are doing videos that have, I mentioned black, dark backdrop, white backdrop. If you're doing green screen, and listen, I come from a long history of green screen, let me tell you. Did 17 years of green screen. Green screen, the, the whole technology behind it is that it's extracting out green. So if you are doing green screen, obviously can't wear green. If you're doing blue screen, you can't wear blue. So those are some other things to keep in mind. I know that when we did green screen, uh, and I was doing green screen for all those years, we also were not allowed to wear red, yellow, obviously green, and multiple shades of, of those because they didn't translate very well with the green backdrop. So for those of you doing green screen, that's just something to consider as well. Most of you are doing your videos either at your office or in your home with a backdrop of, again, a residential or office type backdrop, so there's going to be a variety of different things going on in the background. So gem tones will work great. They will. They'll work great. Thank you, Steve. I appreciate that. Didn't think you'd see me doing my show from my closet today, did you? Okay, so I'm going through my notes. So tips, yeah, don't wear all black, all white, stripes and houndstooth, geometric patterns, tightly woven. Do wear solids. Do wear gem tones. You can also do pattern And let me show you some examples of pattern. For example, like this. You know, I really like this top. I think this is— you've probably seen me do a video with this one. I like the pattern. Again, it's not a geometric pattern. This is a floral pattern. And a large floral pattern, not tight little flowers. But when you have large print floral, it tends to work. This would be another example of a top. I just wore this yesterday, actually. And I really like this one. The tones are a little bit more muted, but you can see here that it's got some nice— see, I wouldn't have been able to wear that before because of the green. So now that I'm not doing green screen at the network, I can wear green. So excited about that. Here's an example of black and white. Again, like I said, you can break the rules a little bit, I suppose. This is not all white and it's not all black, but it's a pattern. It's a floral pattern of black and white. And in certain cases, again, If you had a colorful backdrop, this would pop because it's black and white and it's floral pattern. So, just trying to give you some ideas and some food for thought around how to dress for on camera and what not to wear. So those are some examples, I went through those, the solids. The other thing I would mention— oh, thank you Steve, I appreciate that. Let me know in the comments what your favorite color is, or maybe you have multiple favorite colors. Mine is purple, and you know why, because I'm a Prince fan, but also because this is my brand color. And let me make a note and, and really talk about that for a moment. If your brand color is purple, magenta, or red, or yellow, utilize that color and wear that color. You don't have to wear it in every video all the time, but try to incorporate your brand color in the scheme of your wardrobe because it's your brand color and it's just something that really ties in with what you're doing. And if you're doing things properly and you're creating your assets and your multimedia content or even other content, digital content with those colors, then things start to tie together and they start to look branded and that visual identity really starts to take hold. So that's just a tip for you. All right. What about flower patterns? Christine, I think you said it looks nice with the pink. Yes. Yes, flower patterns are fine, but I would prefer large patterns, large flower patterns rather than those little tiny tightly— you know what? I don't know if I have an example. I don't have an example of that. So yeah, if the flower pattern's too tight, it almost translates as a geometric pattern, in which case it probably wouldn't work as well. So great question. Now, okay. Now as far as— a lot of people ask me, where do you get your clothes? Where do you shop for clothes? Now, when I had a wardrobe budget, when someone else was paying for my clothes, and that's one of the questions I get asked the most. It's like, you know, did you get a wardrobe? But yes, we did get a wardrobe budget. Twice a year they would give us a big lump of money and we would often go out either on our own or with a personal shopper, and we would go to, you know, the nice malls and buy expensive clothing. So that was great, and that's one of the perks of being on TV. But as an entrepreneur, I'm not— I'm a little bit more mindful of where I'm spending my money on clothing, how much I'm, I'm purchasing, and you are probably going to be mindful of that as well. But at the same time, I'm going to give you some tips on how you can, at any budget, create a really great wardrobe with a variety of different colors. And I'm talking predominantly here about tops because most of us are going to be doing our videos either from the waist up or from shoulders up. Because in my world at least, a lot of what we do is personal branding. So it's about being on camera. Now in some cases, if you're doing full-length videos, then yes, you'll want to be mindful of what you're wearing on your bottom half—pants, skirts, and that sort of thing. But I'd say for the most part, most of us are doing work that's going to be from the waist up, so we're concerned more about what's going on on the top. So you can invest in some, you know, a couple of good solid, solid bottoms and have a variety of different tops. One of the things that I love to do is I like to go to Winners, or in the United States would be the equivalent would be TJ Maxx. And I like to just— for, for me, it's actually a relaxation exercise, to be honest with you, because it's a time for me to think about something else in my business. And it's a way for me to unwind. So I actually make a practice of scouring the racks at Winners on a fairly regular basis, and I only look for color. I'm only looking for color. This was one of those purchases. This was one of those purchases. This was one of those purchases. And I basically trained myself to scour the racks and only look for color and things that pop. And It's worked really well for me. The nice thing about a Winners or a TJ Maxx is that most of the time you're going to be finding tops that are between, say, $20 and $40. Some are more, some are less, of course, but I'm just talking about in general. And you can actually build a wardrobe pretty effectively doing that. I make a practice of going fairly regularly. I quickly scour the racks. I'm not in there for too, too long. And I can identify the colors, I try them on, boom boom boom, off you go. Great thing is too, if you are building a brand, and I just learned this from my accountant not too long ago, that you can— in some— and I, again, I'm not an account— I'm not a tax expert by any means, you'll have to talk to your accountant about it, but he said that if your visual brand is a part of your business, as mine is and maybe as yours is, you can write off or deduct clothing or certain clothing that you wear for business purposes, whether it's on camera or maybe on stage in the case if you're a speaker or an author or something like that. And you can, you can deduct it. So I'm just putting that out there. I would definitely talk to your accountant or tax expert about that and inquire at the very least. But that's something that you want to be thinking about as well. That these can be in the, you know, business building expenses. And in the case of how he recommended, this is equipment. The clothing is equipment. So it's just something to be mindful of so that when you're going out and you're investing in these tops or what have you, that that could actually be a business expense. Another thing, again, if you're like, I just, you know, I don't have the money and I'm really trying to be careful about where I'm spending my money, Here are a few other tips for you if you want to build a wardrobe. If you want to build a wardrobe, you can also go to consignment stores. When I was on TV for all those years, myself and many of the— many of my colleagues, my female colleagues, and even guys too probably, but mostly the women, we would consign our clothes. So we would go out and we would seasonally buy these expensive items and it would run its course, or seasonally it wasn't in fashion, or whatever the case may be. These clothes were lightly worn, um, and we would consign them. So what's great about that is that you as a consumer get to buy clothing at a fraction of the cost, still get the great quality, still have it be in perfect pretty much near-perfect shape, and it's a great way to build a wardrobe. I know we have a great consignment shop here locally, and I actually still will consign clothes to them. And so I go through my closet periodically, and I'll pick out all the sort of the higher-end and higher-brand, more premium-type items, and I'll consign them. What I will also do is periodically go through my closet and find things that maybe are like cheaper-type clothes, you know what I mean? Things that maybe are not as premium but still great shape and nothing wrong with them, but I'm just not wearing them anymore, and I will donate it to Value Village or to Lees. So what are some secondhand stores near you that you could go and take a look at on a periodic basis to start building your wardrobe that way? I'm a big fan of it. I actually love going to secondhand stores and just looking through the racks. It's just a ton of fun, and you find some gems, and I love the feeling of finding a gem. So I love to do that. And that's a great way to be able to build your wardrobe as well. So at any budget, low budget, go secondhand, Value Village, what have you. Uh, the next level would be like a consignment shop type thing. Uh, the third level would be again buying new. And then if you wanna go to a fourth level, it could be really investing in premium high quality brands and items that are gonna have longevity. It's just that sometimes with those more expensive items, You can't buy as many, depending on your budget, can't buy as many, but they do last longer. So it's really more of a quality-quantity question that you have to ask yourself. So there you go. Let's see, any questions? I just want to refresh here. I hope that you've enjoyed this little tour of my closet. Uh, let's see here. Oh, I love this color too. Let me show you this color. See, look at this Banana Republic, I love that. Okay, so I just wanna make sure that we have questions. The other thing I would— okay, great, great. Okay, great. So the other thing I would say is that if any of this has resonated with you, I'd love for you to share this out with your network. It's been a lot of fun actually doing the show from my closet, but if you want to learn more about video and you're ready to embark on the next level of marketing for your business, promote yourself, and really start doing it the proper way and the right way, you can actually contact me. Here's what I would recommend that you do. Go to CherylPlouffe.com/VideoTrifecta. It's a free download to you. Can you see that on screen? I think so. It's a free download to you. It'll give you an introduction if you're new to me. I'm a video marketing strategist, so it'll give you an introduction to me and my philosophy around video and how I've been able to— some of the styles of video that you can use to build your brand and to build your business. So feel free to go and take a look at that as well. It's been a blast having you in my closet today for Personal Brand Breakthrough. I do the show every Thursday at 2 PM Eastern time. I would appreciate it if you shared this out with your network and let me know what your favorite color is, and maybe it's one of the colors in here. So if there's a top or something that I showed you, they're like, "Ah, I love that!" Let me know in the comments, and I will be happy to let you know what brand it is, where I got it, and all of that. So I hope you guys have a fantastic rest of your day. So think about that when you're dressing for camera, that you want to dress for impact. You don't want to blend into your background, and you do want to put your best foot forward. I hope this has been helpful, and I'll see you next week on Personal Brand Breakthrough. Bye now!