How to Instantly Look Better on Video. (4 Simple Hacks)

You may or may not know that when I first started my career, I was actually a journalist or a reporter and I have interviewed a lot of people on camera and I’ve been on the camera for a very long time. Cameras do weird things to people, so I wanted to break down through all my years of experience four ways to instantly look better on camera.

Quick tip before we dive in:

There is nothing more uncomfortable than watching someone who is uncomfortable on camera. Your viewers and audience want you to look relaxed so they can sit back, relax, and enjoy your content. You got this.

Hack #1

The first thing that will instantly make you look better on camera is something I call the “S & B Combo.”

There’s a funny thing that happens when you get nervous, and sometimes you forget to smile and you also forget to blink. The reason video is so powerful for your business, your brand, and it’s just a really big part of our world now is because it makes you build a trust factor with the person watching.

But people don’t trust you, if you look like a serial killer.

Keep your mouth relaxed, think of something happy, smile, and it sends an actual physical reaction through your body to just sort of breathe and that does make you look more comfortable and more confident on camera.

The reason that video is so important in building your business and your brand is that it builds trust, so you want to make sure that you don’t have the serial killer vibes and that you have trustworthy vibes on camera.

How do you actually implement this when you’re still not used to it?

All you have to do is watch yourself back.

What I would when I was first working in media is I would do a bunch of different exercises on camera, I would interview friends and family on camera, and I would see what my presence actually looked like and I would pick out the things that I liked and then work on the things that I didn’t like. Don’t shame yourself, don’t be embarrassed, it’s not natural to talk to a camera, so it feels weird at the beginning.

Bosses, let’s have a moment of honesty. Have you ever watched your footage and thought to yourself, “I look a little like a serial killer.” If you have, put serial killer in the comments below. I’m one of those people.

Hack #1

The second way to instantly look better on camera is to stop thinking about the camera as a camera.

One thing that I would do when I was first starting out talking on camera is I would either visualize or I would actually put a picture of a friend or a family member on my camera, so it made me feel like I was talking directly to them.

Makes things a lot easier, makes you feel a little more comfortable and at ease, and it makes you remember that you’re not talking to millions or hundreds of people even, you’re talking to one person. That’s how you build a connection with video, that’s how you build a connection on camera.

If you can visually think of someone in your head who would make you feel comfortable, maybe it’s your mom or your best friend or your boyfriend or your husband, whoever it may be, think of them.

If it makes it even easier, put the picture near the camera so it makes you feel like that you’re having that one-to-one conversation.

Comment below, let me know who you are thinking of when you feel you’re most comfortable and you’re most confident on camera.

Hack #3

The third way to instantly look better on camera (I’m going to stand up for this one) is your posture.

When you feel uncomfortable, your tendency is to sort of protect yourself and move your body inwards. That makes you hunch and look down and not make eye contact. Y

ou don’t trust people who don’t make eye contact with you, so when you’re on video and you can’t look directly at the lens, which is really looking at another human being in the eyes, you come across as shady and untrustworthy.

First things first is the eye contact piece of it which means you need to have your chin up, buttercup, and you also need to make sure your shoulders are back.

Most importantly, you’re looking directly at the lens. Do you feel like I’m talking directly to you right now? If you do, let me know in the comments below.

That’s what good camera presence does, it creates this kind of a connection, but you need to actually make eye contact in order to do that.

Hack #4

The final way to look really comfortable on camera is preparation.

What I used to do is when I was going live at some location in the middle nowhere and there was a bunch of distractions around me, I actually would keep my notes in my back pocket, and I’d also give another copy of my notes to my cameraman or I would tape it somewhere in and around the camera on the tripod.

I usually didn’t end up even using those notes, but just the safety and comfort of knowing that they were somewhere that I could look at in case I froze, which has happened before, it made me feel a lot more confident and comfortable and made me present myself in a much more comfortable way.

Preparation is key, so knowing what you want to talk about, and also keeping in mind, you are an expert at whatever topic it is that you’re talking about, so know that and really kind of pep talk yourself, and that’s part of preparation.

Pep talk yourself into knowing, “I know what I’m talking about, I’ve been talking about this for years and years and years, if someone asked me at a party what I do for a living or what I’m passionate about,” you could go on for days. It is no different when you’re talking to camera.

So prepare, prepare, prepare, and the one thing I will say about preparation … I often get asked this question and a lot of you bosses had asked me this …

Should I get a teleprompter and should I read from notes when I’m filming my videos?

I actually don’t think that you should because it makes you come across much more stiff and you’re more focused on getting the words right on screen than you are coming across natural and comfortable.