Why You Feel Awkward on Camera (And How to Fix It)

Today on Ultimize Discover, you're getting a short practical sample from the Ultimize universe. Use this on its own, take one idea and apply it today, or go deeper at ultimize.com. Ultimize is the world's largest personal development podcast, audiobook, and online learning network. Ultimize. Most people who want to become motivational speakers are waiting. Waiting for a stage, waiting for someone to invite them, waiting for the moment when they feel ready. And it all sounds reasonable because the image in your head is very clear: a big room, a big stage, an audience, a microphone. And you think, that's when I'll start speaking. But let me tell you what actually happens. Someone finally gets that opportunity and they struggle, not because they're not smart, Not because they don't have something valuable to say, but because they've never really practiced speaking in a real and repeatable way. I've seen this over and over again. Someone gets asked to speak at a company meeting or a conference, and even just in front of a small group, suddenly everything changes. They start overthinking. They script everything in their head. They rehearse silently instead of speaking out loud. And the moment comes They open their mouth and within the first 30 seconds you can see it. Yeah, they're a little tight. They're trying to remember what comes next. They're not really connecting. They're performing instead of communicating. Now compare that to someone who's spoken out loud 30, 40, 50 times recently, not on a stage, but just speaking, working through ideas, hearing themselves, adjusting, That person walks into the same room and they feel different. Not perfect, but comfortable because they've done it before, dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times. Let me show you the difference in a simple way. There's the bad version. You're standing there thinking, don't mess up, don't forget your points, and everything you say feels careful, filtered, slightly unnatural. There's a better version. You're thinking, I've said this before. I know where I'm going with this. Now your voice relaxes, your pacing improves. You actually sound like yourself. Here's the shift. Stop thinking of speaking as something that happens occasionally. Start thinking of speaking as something you do regularly, daily, because occasional speaking creates pressure. Regular speaking creates comfort. Now let me give you a real-world example. I've worked with executives who are incredibly successful, smart, experienced, confident in their business, some of them billionaires, but the moment they have to get in front of a group, everything changes. Why? Because they don't actually practice speaking. They prepare ideas, they don't practice delivery. And then I've seen people with less experience but far more repetition, They speak more often. They hear themselves more often. They adjust more often. And when it's time to speak in front of others, they come across as more natural, more confident, more believable. Here's the idea I want you to start using immediately: I speak out loud regularly, not occasionally. That's it. That one shift changes everything because your problem is not lack of opportunity. It's lack of repetition. And repetition is something you can control every single day. You don't need a stage, you need practice. You don't need permission, you need repetition. And once you start doing that consistently, something interesting starts to happen. You stop thinking about becoming a speaker because you already are one. You're just getting better at it. Let me tell you something that surprises almost everyone the first time they experience it. Speaking to a camera can be harder than speaking to a room full of people, and that's exactly why it works. Think about a normal speaking situation. You're in a room, there are people in front of you, they're nodding, they're reacting, they're smiling, or at least pretending to. You get feedback, even if it's subtle, and that feedback carries you. Gives you rhythm, gives you confidence. Now take all that away. You're standing in your office or your kitchen or wherever you've decided to do this. You press record and now you're staring at nothing. No reaction, no feedback, no energy coming back to you, just a lens. And it feels strange, flat, a little uncomfortable. Here's what most people do in that moment. They start talking and within 10 seconds they stop. They say something like, that didn't sound right. They restart again and again and again. I've seen this with highly accomplished people, people who can walk into a boardroom and run a meeting with total confidence. Put a camera in front of them and suddenly they can't get through 30 seconds without stopping. Let me show you the bad version. You press record, you start speaking, You hesitate on a word, you stop, you sigh, you say, well, let me try that again, and you restart from the beginning. That's what most people do, and it kills the momentum. Here's the better version. You press record, you start speaking, you hesitate, you keep going, you lose your place for a moment, you keep going, you finish. Now you have something real. Something you can actually learn from. Because here's the truth, the camera exposes everything. Your pacing, your, uh, um, filler words, your lack of clarity, your nervous habits, things you don't even realize you're doing. And that's why it's so valuable, because you're no longer guessing. You're not thinking, I think I sound pretty good. You can see it, you can hear it. And once you can see it, You can fix it. Now, here's the part most people miss. If you can speak comfortably to a camera with no feedback, no audience, no energy coming back at you, then speaking in front of real people becomes easier, not harder. Because now when you step in front of an audience, you have something you didn't have before. You have internal confidence. You're not relying on them to give you energy. You bring your own. Let me give you a very simple contrast. Here's a stage-dependent speaker. They need the audience. If the audience is quiet, they struggle. If the audience is low energy, they drop their energy. But a camera-trained speaker, they're different. They don't need anything from the audience to get started. They've already practiced creating clarity and energy on their own. So when they get a real audience, That's a bonus. Here's the key idea to install: if I can do it on camera, I can do it anywhere. That's the standard. So instead of avoiding the discomfort, use it. The awkwardness you feel at first, that's not a problem. That's the training. Because once you get comfortable speaking to a camera, you've removed one of the biggest barriers most speakers never overcome. And from that point forward, Every real-world speaking situation feels a little easier. Let's address something right away. Your first videos are going to feel awkward. Not a little awkward, very awkward. And most people take that as a sign they're doing something wrong. They're not. They're doing something new. Let me describe exactly what's going to happen. You press record, you start speaking, doing some version of your motivational speech, your motivational content, and within seconds, You become hyper-aware of yourself. Your own voice sounds strange. Your hands don't know what they're supposed to do. You start thinking, do I always sound like this? That's the moment most people stop. They say, oh, let me try that again, and then again, and then again. And pretty soon they've done 12 takes and they don't like any of them, so they give up. Now let me show you what's really going on. When you speak in everyday life, you're not watching yourself. You're just talking. But the moment you add a camera, you introduce a new layer, self-awareness. And self-awareness at the beginning feels uncomfortable. Here's the bad reaction. I sound awkward. Something's wrong. I'm not good at this. So you stop. Here's the better reaction. Of course this feels awkward. I've never practiced this before. So you keep going. Here's an example. Think about hearing your own voice on a recording for the first time, maybe a voicemail. Almost everyone has the same reaction. Do I really sound like that? Yeah, you do. You just weren't used to hearing it. Speaking on camera is the same thing. You're not used to seeing yourself speak, so your brain interprets that unfamiliarity as a problem. Well, it's not a problem. It's exposure. Now here's where this becomes powerful. The more you do it, the less strange it feels, and eventually it feels normal. I've seen this transformation over and over again. Someone records their first video, they hate it, they don't want to watch it, they feel uncomfortable. Then they record 10, then 20, then 30. At some point, they watch themselves and think, hey, that's not bad. That's a huge shift because now they're no longer fighting the process, they're working with it. Let me show you another contrast. Here's the early stage. You focused on yourself. How do I look? How do I sound? Am I doing this right? Everything is internal. Me, me, me, me, me. Later stage, you're focused on the message. Is this clear? Is it useful? Would this help somebody? Now everything is external. It's not about you anymore. The shift is what you're working toward, from self-consciousness to message focus. Here's the idea I want you to install. Awkward means I'm practicing something new. It's not failing. It's not practicing. It's not the worst in the world. So when you feel that discomfort, that's okay. It's good. That means you're doing the work. Because the people who avoid that feeling never really improve. And the people who move through it become comfortable, then confident, then effective. So Don't wait to feel natural. Record until you become natural. And once that happens, you'll realize something. What felt awkward in the beginning was actually the fastest path forward. And then you start sharing it with other people and getting feedback. And not all of it will be positive. I've had people even a long time ago say, hey, TJ, where'd your, your hair go? I don't like your teeth. You have beady eyes, which is true. Guess what? It doesn't matter. I have messages that help people and that motivate people. I keep sharing it every day, and that's what I want your mentality to be as well. By the way, quick question for you. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to consume content and how hard it is to actually do anything with it? I mean, you can listen to 100 episodes, read 10 books, and your habits are exactly the same. That's the gap most people never close. So if you're listening to this and thinking, yeah, I want to actually improve, go to ultimize.com. We've got free courses there for you, either on communication skills or building better habits. And it's designed to get you to actually use what you're learning, not just hear it once. No cost, no catch. Just go to ultimize.com and start. Ultimize.