Master the Art of On-Camera Confidence

Who are using your lack of confidence for not wanting to get in front of the camera to share your message with your audience and with the world? Sheryl Plouffe here, and we are here today on Cash In On Camera to talk with Laura Doman because she is someone who knows a lot about on-camera confidence and has transitioned from a career as an IT sales executive to now being a voiceover artist and also an on-camera actress, and she's done work in film and television and all of that. So Laura, so great to have you here on Cash In On Camera today to discuss this important topic. Why is it that so many people are holding themselves back from ever stepping in front of the camera?

Very simply, fear. And then there's all that self-negative talk going on that just tells you you can't do it, you're gonna fail, you're going to die. And honestly, It's probably not going to happen. At least the dying part.

At least the dying part. Your former life was in IT, and I don't think that we often would put, you know, IT sales exec and then voiceover professional together. Tell us about your journey and transitioning from your corporate life to what you do today.

All right. Well, I'm going to blame it on being a Gemini. I've always liked doing more than one thing. At once and usually two things. And well, in the Gemini nature, you're balancing what looks like opposites, but not necessarily so. Because the way I see it, it's all communications. I've always had a love for business, but I was always the performer. And I was that kid that was on every stage. I was in high school behind the PA announcements, keeping kids hopefully awake during homeroom. And I chose a corporate career because I loved it. I was ambitious and I like making money, which can be very hard to do in your first few years in entertainment, as anybody who's ever tried would probably tell you. But the way I saw it was that not only do I get to understand people's businesses and they were all so different, but I had a chance to be able to do a little razzle dazzle just to close the sale. And so in my mind, I thought every presentation as a bit of an audition and every sale a booking, except I got paid for the auditioning part. And I just love both. And they go very well together, just like the entertainment goes together with law, because you're in front of people and you're communicating.

I think there are a lot of professions where if we dug in enough, we could probably see a performance aspect to that particular position or or job or career. And it sounds like you found your niche. You found the thing that really makes you happy.

Yeah, I was very fortunate. I thought at first I was a numbers person, realized accounting wasn't for me. And the thing is, when you are growing up and you're still in your 20s, you're still growing up, you discover the things that make you happy, what you're good at, what you're probably not. And then you fine-tune it as you go along. And one of the things I always wanted to do was to have my own business. And I wasn't sure how that would come about. And it actually came about later in life. And it came about very differently in a very creative sense, 'cause that's what I'm doing now. And honestly, I'm having a ball.

Yes. Well, you do a lot of corporate video work. You work mostly in the corporate media space. So I've done some corporate videos as well in the past when I was a TV broadcaster. I did do, I went on auditions And I did that whole thing where, you know, you're in a room with 40 other people and you're acting out different roles. And I did land a couple of commercials, but I know a little bit about that world. And corporate video, corporate media, website explainer videos is predominantly what you do. And I would love for you to share today what some tips are that you have for our audience on how they can become more confident in front of the camera.

Oh, absolutely. It's so important because video is king. I mean, if you look on social media, most of what you see and what's being promoted is video, and everybody's jumping on that platform. We're all on Zoom calls. We're all gonna be talking to people in person. Um, we have online meetings, so it's so important to be able to do that. But a lot of people just don't wanna be seen and they're not quite sure how to conduct themselves, so they freeze up. But there are several things that you can do. First of all, if you're really nervous, there are a bunch of relaxation techniques. There are also some techniques that I'd like to share from the, uh, the acting world and even the voiceover world that can help really anybody be able to make a more effective video. And then there are certain types of tips and tricks and tools that you can use behind the scenes to help you out, especially if you're just trying to get more comfortable.

I'd love for you to share that with us. I'm all ears, because one of the things I used to do as a, as a broadcaster, I think in the early stages especially, was, you know, I would do the exercises in the dressing room and, you know, try to be more comfortable. Over time though, as you realize that you're not nervous anymore, you don't feel the necessity to have to do those extensive warm-up exercises over the course of time. But for people who are first starting out, they may be very helpful. So what are some examples of exercises that people can do?

All right, well, I like to divide them into 3 different categories. We're doing things in threes here, uh, one for the head, one for like the whole body, and then one for vocal, uh, strength and flexibility. Just to start off with, because most of us are just showing up as talking heads is to get your head moving around. And there are certain simple, simple things you can do, even just turning your head slowly in one circle, in one direction, and then going back to the other. Going from side to side loosens up the neck. And it's so important because when your physical vehicle is relaxed, it allows you to come forth, it allows the voice to come through much more clearly, and it just gives a more natural projection of who you are. Along those lines, if you have the time to even work out a couple hours beforehand, and that could just be stretching, little Pilates, little yoga, even walking around briskly can loosen up your vehicle. So those are some basic things you can do with the head. Now, if you move your way down the body, start with your shoulders. Because if you're like me, you're holding a lot of tension. Just a simple Shoulder raise as high as you can go so you have no neck and then drop it. Do that a few times and you're just going to feel some of that tension release. You can move your entire torso just from side to side. Get those back muscles, those shoulder blades moving, and then you can work and try to tilt. And if you have the movement and the flexibility in your waist, you can move your whole body back and forth and even around. And I'm not gonna stand up right now, but what I love to do too is just to do whole body stretches. Just putting your whole hand, both arms up there with your hands and your fingers, reaching as high as you can so they tingle, and then dropping them either down below to your waist, or better yet, bending over and going as far as you can. And then just swinging around there and just let your whole body move and relax. Those are some of the simpler things to do. Now, some of the other stuff that is a little more aerobic will get your heart rate going, will help you feeling flushed, will help you feeling good, believe it or not. And that would be some old-fashioned push-ups. I mean, you got— you could do them on your knees if that helps, but a few push-ups just to get yourself moving and pumped. Even a few sit-ups. If that's too much, just try some squats, standing and squatting. And if you want to hold on to something, that's fine. But the whole idea is that you're going to be in your body, because the body is your physical vehicle, and a very important means of expression. So that's how I'd get the body started. Now, if we're going to talk about— I'm going to skip down, I guess, to some of the vocal exercises, and then we could talk about some of the on-camera stuff. There are several different things that a lot of vocalists will do. Now that means people who sing, or people who use this guy, the mic, and are projecting or just speaking naturally. That would be people who are on stage who have to reach the back of the room. Or if you're on camera, you're talking to the microphone, which could be in front of you, or it could be a boom mic right overhead. Or it could even be a lapel mic. It could be anywhere. But regardless of where you're going to be talking to, you're going to want to get your voice all warmed up. Some really simple things here would just be counting to 10, and this will help you find that middle ground where your voice really lives. So you say each number and go from low to high, one extreme to the other. Like 1, 2, 3, 4. You can even sing it if you want. 5, 6, 7, 8. I'm getting over a little bit of a cold, so my voice is a little bit deeper than it normally is. But you get the idea that if you just go back and forth and back and forth, you're able to stretch it out. You also have some wonderful tongue twisters, which I'm sure Cheryl, you're very familiar with. You know, the whole I love unique New York bit. You could do Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I like to even use a silly camp song I learned when I was 7 years old and say it as fast as I can. Ishbibliotadabobobidi da watnash. They're all nonsense words, so it doesn't matter, but it gets everything moving. And then you can just move your voice up and down.

Woo!

You can sound like a siren, which I'm going to spare your listeners from trying to do. There are all kinds of things you could do. And then you can even go back to your head exercises and do a few things like opening your mouth really wide and then frowning it. You can move your mouth side to side. You can massage in here, whatever it helps to be able to tie the vocals with your physicality. And when you feel like you're all loose, you're ready. But wait, there's more. It's your friend, the water bottle. Yeah, this is a big one. As a voiceover artist, we don't go anywhere without our water. It's so important to hydrate and it's important to start again about 2 hours before you start talking, because it takes a while for those vocal folds to just feel the dream, but keep it handy. And whenever you can, you want to drink water. And I'm sorry for anybody who likes coffee. And that includes me. I like my hot chai tea or hot chocolate or anything else like that. Stay away from that for a while. It'll just dry you out. The same thing goes with any kind of foods you might like. So if you're into peanut butter, wait until afterwards. Fresh fruit, celery. It's more than just a palate cleanser. I mean, all that can help. And another trick would be green apples. I don't know what it is about green apples. I'm sure there's somebody in your audience who does. But it does allow all the good stuff to come forth in your voice. And it never hurts to have a little bite or two here and there if you're having a little bit of problem.

So that's amazing. I love those tips. Those are all fantastic. Those are great. And really the theme is loosen yourself up. You know, you need to feel in your, in your physical body and feel connected to and loosened up in order to bring your best foot forward, or voice forward, as it were.

And Cheryl, that goes right to any of those on-camera tips as well, because the secret to anything, even in acting and in voiceover, I know it sounds trite, but it's true, to be yourself. And I'm telling you, it's even coming true in the world of social media when everything is so automated. People want to connect with a human being. And now it doesn't matter if your message is a corporate message. If you're gonna be the spokesperson, if you're going to be perhaps reading from a script and you're a totally different character, the whole point of it is who are you and what do you bring to the party? Because that's what sets everything apart. So to get there, you gotta be ready to be you. You gotta relax physically and vocally, and then you gotta get your whole mindset in there. And another secret is to have fun. Now, some of your listeners might be thinking, wait a minute, I'm not gonna have fun if I am scared to death. Well, practice makes perfect. And not everything is for everyone. But the more you work at something, and the easier it becomes. For example, and this kind of ties into some of the on-camera stuff, is memorization. Now, if you're going to be an actress or actor, on stage, on camera, then you need to have some of that stuff up here in your noggin. Because unless you're lucky and somebody's there with a teleprompter, you're it. You got to be able to speak. But the interesting thing is, the more you practice it, the easier it becomes. Now, you know, when we're all teenagers, we can memorize a script, a page or two, no big deal. You get a little older in life, it can be a little trickier. But it's a muscle like anything else. And when you practice it enough, it becomes easier and easier. And the same thing is about being on camera or talking to people or public speaking, cuz guess what? It's just a form of public speaking. So let me launch into some of those tips, tricks, and techniques to get you over that fear and any of that negative self-talk, which we just wanna kick to the curb.

Laura, you know, yet before you, before you tell us those tips, I wanted to just share that I think the benefit of the world we live in now, social media, is that it isn't expecting you to be a broadcaster. It's not expecting you to be a professional voiceover artist or to be a commercial actress. It's not expecting you to be a professional broadcaster. That you can, in the world we live in today, it's expected and beneficial for you to be yourself. So these tips are going to be helpful to you. But the underlying theme here is that you just really can be yourself. The biggest challenge that I think a lot of people face is just they are so nervous that they're not willing to take the first step to step in front of that camera to begin with. That's the problem from a business perspective, because you do want visibility. You want to be able to speak on shows, podcasts, YouTube, on a pod— whatever it is. You need to get out there and speak about your message. So, I love that you've shared these tips with us. So, go ahead and share with us the tips, the confidence tips that we can all use.

I'm so glad you brought all this subject up because it is so important. People want to deal with people. I knew that when I was in sales and marketing. It doesn't matter if they're buying a huge corporate database. They want to know who they're dealing with and who's the company. And guess what? Touching on something else you mentioned, Cheryl, What is trending, what people wanna watch is authenticity. They don't want full-blown productions. They wanna see you with your phone, nice and easy, just doing a video and talking from your heart. That is the most important thing of all, that human element. So you're nervous, you're scared. How do you get there? The number one trick, anytime you talk to the camera, Anytime really that you're even addressing an audience, and especially anytime you're doing a voiceover, is to talk to one person. Doesn't matter who. Take a look at what you're saying and figure out who it doesn't make sense to be talking to. Now, normally that could be a good friend. Pick a good friend that you have. I think of Stephanie. I think of Melissa. They're two great friends, very different people that I use as my go-to. You can even have a picture up if that helps, right next to the camera. But you're gonna wanna talk to them as if you're sharing something really interesting, something that they could benefit from. And by the way, they really wanna hear what you have to say. So when you're talking to that little light over there or that camera lens, just in your own mind, in your own imagination, see a good friend, maybe even your spouse. Maybe your mother. It doesn't matter, but it will get you over the hump. And then you'll feel like you can just talk to yourself, like yourself, not like a presenter. One thing people want to hear is conversational tone. They want to hear a real person sharing something really cool. They don't want to be told. If you're taking a look at what the Gen Z and the millennials have always said, don't talk at us, don't try to sell us, tell us why we should listen to you because of something you experienced. That's probably the number one tip I would give.

Now, I'm gonna— I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. And when I was, uh, on television, that is what we would do, right? Is you're looking at the lens and you're really thinking about one single person, even though you know, you know that there are thousands, potentially in, you know, hundreds of thousands of people watching at any given moment, but you have to think of it as one person. So it's that, that lands really well for me. And I absolutely 100% agree with that.

Good. Because the people who are watching this, you're probably just watching it one-on-one, not with a group of people. And yes, I am talking to you. Then maybe you perked up a little bit. It's like, what? Yeah, I'm talking to you. I got something I wanna tell you. That's a lot more interesting than, oh, and today we are going to discuss A, B, and C. Boring. Now let's move on to a second tip for on camera. Remember that small is big. Well, no, no, small is huge. And Cheryl, you know this too. You're dealing not with the big wide world. You're dealing with a frame, which, you know, might be like side to side. You got this. All right. You're a talking head in this example. Any movement you make is going to look exponentially larger than you think it is. So if you're a very energetic person, like I tend to to be, you might just give people some headaches if you're just gonna bounce all over the place and you're going forward and back and you're moving off camera, nobody could see you. Just remember that you only have so much space to work in and keep it small. One thing they say in the on-camera world is that stillness is your friend, cuz there's something mesmerizing about it. And when you're on camera, people look at your eyes. Now in voiceover, they're gonna listen to your voice.. And you'll have different reactions perhaps to what I'm saying by people, whether they're watching this as a video or perhaps listening to it as a podcast. But it's very important to understand the medium that you're playing in. And if you're not sure, I would default to the on-camera just because it involves then two senses, the eyes and the ears. Just keep in mind too that you're not gonna want to get too spastic with your hands. If you're a big hand talker, don't go flailing all around like I'm doing right now. Whoa, that's too much. Just use a hand to perhaps gesture and know what's in frame. It'd make more sense if you're a fidgeter to keep your hands down below the frame. You might even use a fidget toy or a pen or a ball, something that doesn't look like it's anything on camera. It doesn't make any noise, and you could be doing whatever you want and it might relax you. And when your hands are busy, It might relax your arms, it might relax your shoulders, and you look like just a person who's talking. So just keep that one in mind. And then finally, I already talked about this a lot, it's just to be yourself. And what that means is bring your own personality to whatever you're doing. Now, if you're a spokesperson and you have to be very straight-laced, that's fine. But nobody says you can't have a little bit of humor here and there. Your expressions themselves can tell people so much. And again, they're gonna look at the eyes to see if they should believe you. If you're doing something off of a script, or if you're gonna be using a teleprompter, put your own personality in there the way you normally speak. You don't have to read it at an even spaced clip like this, because that sounds robotic. People, we've got AI that can do that for you. You probably don't wanna listen to it or watch it for too long. Just speak like you normally do. And there's certain things that you can use that make it really interesting. And I call that dynamic delivery. Pause. People are wondering, what, what's going on? What's next? You can even build up to something and then people are gonna wanna hear what the next point is. You can use different volumes. And pacing and tone to get your message across and understand what you're talking about. I mean, that might sound kind of silly, especially if you're just talking as you, but know what is the message that I am trying to communicate? Who am I talking to and what do I want them to take away from it? This is all the essentials of communications. What do I have to say? Why do I have to say it? Who am I saying it to? And what would I like for you to do afterwards? That call to action. And if you put it all together, you're gonna be very effective and nobody needs to know how nervous you were before you got started.

The last thing I wanted to share too is that no one on the other side of the camera knows what you have planned.

Mm-hmm.

So sometimes we build it up in our own minds as, what if I mess this up? 'What if I don't say it properly?' And I've prepared this thing, but what, what if? And the truth is no one really knows what you have planned. Nope. So you can go there and be yourself.

Exactly. And if it's really funny, guess what? Clip out a part of it, stick it on TikTok as a blooper reel, and who knows, you may end up with a million followers. Could happen.

The bloopers— when I was on TV, the bloopers were the ones that got the most attention. And if you can be self-deprecating and if you can see the humor in it, other people see the humor in it. They see the human side of you. And I think that the tips that you've shared are absolutely on point. Laura, thank you so much. Thank you. How do people get in touch with you and learn more about your work?

Well, the easiest way is to go to my website, my name dot com, lauradoman.com. And I also have a YouTube series That is @Loradoman. I call it Tips for Busy Execs, where I have about 30 different videos, each one super short, that will tell you how to get more comfortable and effective on camera yourself. And by the way, if you're also interested, I'm gonna be at a conference virtually called Lincoln Rocks, uh, '23, which is going to be on March 1st. I even wrote a, a chapter for a marketing book that's coming out early June. On the same topic, Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever. So you gotta check that out. Awesome.

Laura, thank you so much for being on Cash In On Camera today. These are great tips. I wholeheartedly support these tips and I absolutely agree with you 100%. At the end of the day, you really want to be comfortable and you wanna be yourself. And those are the things that will help you to build that confidence. But to your point earlier, you do need to step in front of the camera. You've got to do it. You do have to be consistent and it is going to develop over the course of time. That the most difficult part for a lot of people who are nervous is just the getting started part. And you've given some great tips on how to prepare your body, how to prepare your voice, how to prepare yourself for doing that. But at the end of the day, you do have to just start, start, and you're not going to melt. You're not going to perish by getting in front of the camera and doing a TikTok or doing a YouTube video or speaking on a podcast. It's all going to be okay. Absolutely. Laura, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate your insights.

Oh, thank you, Cheryl, so much. I really enjoyed it.