You Can Speak - So Why Is Video So Hard?

You are a decent speaker, and I hear this a lot from entrepreneurs, small business owners who are doing networking, right? You're doing all that offline networking and marketing that you need to do to grow your business. So you're a pretty decent speaker. So why is it so hard for you to do video? And especially with this. My name is Sheryl Plouffe. I am a video strategist, and this is has come up actually several times in the last week or so. This concept and idea that I'm a pretty decent speaker, so why am I having such difficulty with speaking on camera and doing it, you know, with a phone or really any type of camera. My specialty is helping people to build their audiences and to build their businesses through smartphone video and webcams and the stuff that's really easier for us to use and that we already have. But the reason why it is so difficult, why you might be challenged in this area, is because this is an inanimate object. When we speak on stages or in a small group or what have you where there are actual human beings in the room, there's a different type of energy. There's a different energy around that, and we can play off of— we can see the reaction of people in the audience. We can see their body language, we can see if they react to things, we can make eye contact with people, we can get verbal— so we can get nonverbal cues from people in the audience whether they're getting what we're saying. That doesn't happen with this. So the reason why this is more challenging is because this is completely unnatural. It's completely unnatural to be speaking to an inanimate object like a phone or a camera. As opposed to real people. One of the things that happens when you're in conversation with people is that there's a back and forth. It's a dialogue. You speak, the other person responds, and so on and so forth. But with a phone, with a camera, with video, that's not the case. It is a one-sided conversation. Completely unnatural, right? So the key to getting over that is to not think of this as an inanimate object a smartphone, a computer, a camera, think of this as a person. So you want to personify that little camera lens and think of it as a person. When you do that, you're tricking your mind into having a conversation with this inanimate object. And when you can get good at that, it will take practice. When you get good at that, it really opens up a whole world of opportunity for you to be able to speak on camera using video. And when that happens, beautiful things start to happen. You get— you grow your audience, you connect with people on a different level virtually, you can get more free traffic, more business, grow your business, grow your connections, build relationships, and all of the wonderful things that come from know, like, and trust in marketing. The key though is to not think of this as an inanimate object but to think of it as your best friend, someone you trust, someone who you are having a conversation with, and it will take practice. I hope that's helpful for you. If you want to learn more about me, you're obviously on my YouTube channel right now, so please subscribe and hit the notification bell, and you can visit me at CherylPlouffe.com, and at that URL you will find a free, absolutely free, week-long, 7-day, well, 7 days, week-long, 7-Day Video Challenge. The 7-Day Video Challenge is another way to reach it. And what we do is we mentor you and we coach you for free for an entire week to help you get out of your comfort zone and to become a better speaker on camera. Start taking those steps toward that place where you're gonna feel much more comfortable on camera. Thanks so much for listening and watching, and I'll see you in the next video.