Video Authenticity: How to Perform On-Camera

Do you want to connect with your audience via video?

Looking for tips to convey confidence and authority?

To explore how to improve your on-camera performance, I interview David H. Lawrence XVII.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview David H. Lawrence XVII, an actor and professional voice artist. You may recognize him as the Puppet Master from the TV show Heroes. He specializes in audio and video communication and his course is called Camera Ready U, where he helps actors and marketers with their on-camera performances.

David explores ways to be yourself in front of the camera.

You'll discover how to prepare for a video performance.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
Listen Now

Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Video Authenticity
David's Story

David started as a voiceover talent and moved into on-camera work. In both cases, after David found success, people asked him how he achieved that success.

At events such as Social Media Marketing World, David talked about simple things people can do on-camera to be authoritative or authentic. For instance, he talks about how to hold your hands, what to do with your eyes, or how to hold your posture. After speaking, David would be mobbed by people asking about his course, so he decided to create one.

As David developed his course, he discovered he knew so much more than he realized about his area of expertise. David created an inventory of all of the things he knew and that became the Camera Ready U curriculum. The same thing happened with voiceovers. David started by teaching commercials and ultimately created 36 different classes for VO2GoGo, covering not just the art of voiceover, but also the business and technology aspects.

Listen to the show to discover how long David has been in the entertainment industry.

Least Important Factors for Video

Videos don't have to be perfect. Comb your hair, brush your teeth, put on makeup, wear your cool outfit, and whatever else you need to establish your base. After you do that, the key is not to be a better version of yourself, but your most authentic self with all of your flaws. That's what makes you human.

Don't kick yourself if you flub a word or don't remember to turn your shoulder. People will connect with you when you're simply being yourself. And you can't be yourself when you're constantly trying to be that better version of yourself. The notion of perfection gets in the way of being real.

Also, your equipment doesn't matter. If you want to get very artsy, you might need a more expensive camera. But you don't even need to buy a camera. You can start vlogging immediately with your smartphone.

You may need to add a light, but you can simply set up a table lamp. Plus, you might want to get a $20 lavaliere microphone from Amazon. And that's it. You can do whatever you want with that minimal setup.

Listen to the show to hear David and me discuss how people can hold themselves back with an "I can't until I..." mentality.

Authenticity On-Camera

Have you ever watched a video and thought, "This guy's a bag of wind" or "She's fake"? It's because they've spent too much time trying to present and too little time being themselves.

The people viewers connect with most often are those who seem down to earth and genuinely interested in the subject. When you stop worrying about how you look and sound, you can start thinking about the content. And when you can focus on your content, viewers feel you're speaking to them. You make a connection.

When you're completely interested, immersed, and can't wait to help people with their needs, your authenticity meter goes through the roof.