If you are an entrepreneur, I know you know.
You know you know "should" make more videos. Create more content, have better quality videos for your website and sales, make authentic videos for your social media presence. And yet, you don't. Wether you don't know what to start with, or you hate to see yourself on camera, you always think of it as a "should".
Well, here are 3 tips to make it easy for your to jumpstart and see how not difficult it is.
1) TRY and train even if you don't like it
You are not going to like what I'll say because we all like magic formula. But I really believe you should just start with whatever equipment you have, preferably your smartphone (no matter how shitty it is) and start shooting. Questions and answers will come after.
You don't like looking at yourself? You don't like your voice? You don't like what you are saying? Welcome to the club.
Sorry to break it up for you, but you are not special on that one. Like 99% of creators out there, you are going to judge yourself harshly and hate reviewing your video.
Here is the secret: do it anyways.
This is my face when I looked at myself the first times on camera.
And the next ones.
And a year later.
But the more you hear yourself, the more you'll train yourself to see objectively what you are doing. Days after days, weeks after weeks, and you'll be able to look for tips out there (on Youtube for example) on specific points you want to improve. With time, you'll relax and get your authentic self out there. It will be uncomfortable, it will be weird, you will feel stupid at first, but you'll be doing what 99% of people don't want to do. And that it the first step to success.
2) THINK SMART(PHONE)
5 years ago I bought a digital camera for 1000 euros. Today, its performances are ridiculous compared to the latest smartphone that you can have for nothing if you buy it with a new operator (or for 1K euros if you don't). If you are a beginner and don't know where to start, I can tell you that technical details are not your starting point.
But if you want to have a good quality image and yet not open a video production company, forget about the big cameras with lenses and buy one of the latest Samsung, Huawei or Iphone. No affiliation going on here, but I have the Iphone 13 for 5 months now, it cost 1K euros or so and it is amazing. You can now have a blurry effect in video selfie mode. And that makes all the difference. Here are 3 screenshots of me on camera with with different lights and nothing but my Iphone handheld.
To have the right light, focus and keep the "blur" effect, you'll need way more time and set up with a professional camera and probably loose the momentum and energy. And definitely have less stability.
So, I'll make it easy for you: buy a good smartphone and look straight into the lens, as if you were talking to a good friend. <---------- Like that
Really, it isn't more complicated than that.
Here are two methods for newbies :
1) Classic: pick it up at eye and look straight into the lens.
Make sure we don't see inside your nose too close, like older people do.
2) Hold your smartphone down at a 30° on the side. Like I did on the car on the picture above.
3) USE BULLET POINTS INSTEAD OF A PROMPTER
I love prompters. I think it is such a smart system, especially now that you can have them with apps on your phone while the video is running. But here is a fact for you:
I've done 200 videos + of people talking face camera in the last 2 years and I used my prompter like 3 times.
Why? Because it comes across WAY MORE authentically when you are not reading out what you are saying. It is a hard skill that only actors, politicians and trained professionals can master. Even top speakers have a hard time to pull that off. On the other side
our audience's bullshit radar is highly trained, and they don't have to do anything for that.
So, use bullet points, the simplest system you can think of. On a blank piece of paper or a word document. If the video is longer, for each thought, each "paragraph" or part, make it one take and put them all together in the editing (no special effect needed here because trend is to have rough cuts anyways, like the few seconds of this video.)
And ironically enough, you can read your bullet point using a prompter app on your phone! So you can scan a few keywords and instantly know what you are going to talk about.
This way, you talk with more conviction, energy, authenticity and have more fun doing it!
CONCLUSION
My conclusion is simple: start now.
Decide what you want to record, pick up your phone, try it out, hate yourself. Repeat.
But this time think about 1 or 2 ways to make it better. For that, go on instagram and check out videos of people you like or follow and see what is different from yours: the location? Their pace at which they are talking? The energy? The lighting?
And incorporate it to your video. You will suck at the beginning, this is the way. But bit by bit, with the help of trusted friends to give you feedback and a couple of tutorials here and there, you will not suck anymore. And people will be jealous on how easy it looks when you talk to your phone. Well, you worked for it!