When I talk to fellow creatives and makers there’s a comment that comes back often: ‘You’re so brave going live, you look so confident on camera! I wish I were more like you!’ Whenever someone tells me something along those lines my first reaction is almost always: ‘Me? Brave? Confident? Pffff, pleaaaase!’
In fact I often consider myself a scaredy cat, being risk averse, intimidated by new experiences and all.
So how come the way I see myself and the way others see me is so different? How come I look confident on camera when I don’t always feel that way?
Well, as I’ve found out for myself, the biggest secret to being confident on camera is… to practise.
Have you ever noticed that things always seem to be blown out of proportion when they’re new and unfamiliar? They’re bigger, scarier, more overwhelming, more difficult, you name it!
I wanted to get better at public speaking (understand: sharing my thoughts with other people in a clear and concise way) and so I challenged myself to go live weekly on Instagram to do just that: share my experience, thoughts, things that I’ve learned, and ideas from books that I liked.
When I started I thought I’d do it for three months. Then three months quickly turned into six, and finally I got to a whole year of going live weekly.
My first lives weren’t great, mostly because I was awkward and boy - you could tell! Going live used to make me feel so nervous that I used to get out of them real sweaty, the kind of sweaty that you have to get entirely changed afterwards.
But little by little I got better. I grew more comfortable. And I think that’s what other people mean when they comment and say that I look confident on camera: what they see as confidence is probably just me looking comfortable.
We often hear the saying ‘Practice makes perfect’. I don’t know about perfection but I can attest that practice creates confidence!
You see, too often we think that either we are confident or we’re not, like it’s a personality trait or a genetic quality when in fact, confidence is a skill and therefore it’s more like a muscle: the more we work it, the bigger it gets.
So if you wish you were brave enough to jump in front of the camera to share your thoughts, or talk about your products and services, please stop using lack of confidence as an excuse not to do it! You totally have what it takes, what you might need is just a little more practice.
And the best time to start getting that practice is NOW by the way! No postponing until tomorrow, next week, next month. You’ll never feel completely ready and there’ll never be a better time.
Sure your first live or appearance on camera might be a bit embarrassing. Or maybe it’ll totally suck. But after a few times doing it you’ll start finding a bit more of a flow and before long you too will have other people tell you: ‘You’re so brave going live, you look so confident on camera! I wish I were more like you!’