Hate Being On Camera? Performance Tips For Better Marketing Results [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 78]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy.

Lindsey Auten
0:00:00
You know, one of my favorite phrases from the CrossFit world is be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And you might be asking yourself, how does that apply to on-camera performance and video? Well, we're gonna get into that right now.

Alex Winter
0:00:16
♪♪♪ Welcome back to Endless Customers. I'm your host Alex Winter and today we are joined by Lindsey Ott and she's a trainer

Alex Winter
0:00:25
here at Impact.

Alex Winter
0:00:26
Lindsey, welcome back to the show. Thanks Alex. Long time no see, right? Long time no see. Thank you for being a regular on the show.

Alex Winter
0:00:33
We love picking your brain.

Alex Winter
0:00:34
You have great insights. You have a ton of experience.

Alex Winter
0:00:36
We have a really great topic today. We're talking about on-camera performances. I love it too. I think this is something that a lot of people, when you say on-camera performance, like they start to cringe.

Alex Winter
0:00:53
They're like, you want me to be on camera? You want me to do what? But it's so important for they ask you answer. It's so important for building trust. It's so important if you want to scale and grow your business to create content

Alex Winter
0:01:04
where you're in front of the camera. So let's just talk about it. Let's address the elephant in the room, right? Where do we want to start when it comes to on-camera performance? Should we talk like the mentality shift

Alex Winter
0:01:14
that needs to happen just to kind of open up this conversation and get people in the right headspace?

Lindsey Auten
0:01:18
Yeah, I think one thing is important to realize is that video and on-camera performance has a way of bringing out all of your vulnerabilities. Like your fear of how you look, how you sound. If you did your makeup well that day, if you're wearing the right shirt, it has that ability to bring out all the little insecurities

Lindsey Auten
0:01:43
that people can shove down on a daily basis when they don't have to look at themselves in a lens or realize that there are going to be other people looking at them, possibly judging them on the other side of the camera. Some people still think, oh, it must be easy for you guys. You're all in front of the camera all the time. I'll put my hand up and say, I'm the first one to admit when I'm having a day where I don't want to be on camera. I've been doing it for 10, 12 years now, and there's still days where I'm like,

Lindsey Auten
0:02:26
I'm not feeling it today. It's not gonna happen, it's not gonna be good, but sometimes you just have to, sometimes you have to get over that.

Alex Winter
0:02:35
Well and also to interject here, for people who don't know Lindsey's background, she used to be a newscaster, she used to be in front of the camera pretty seriously for sports entertainment and was very professionally doing this in front of the camera for quite some years.

Alex Winter
0:02:48
So it's true, even with the experience, and hey, I'm on this podcast weekly, I'm doing this all the time, and there are days, like anything else, where you just have an off day, and you're like, you know what? I'm not feeling it today, I'm not into it today.

Alex Winter
0:03:00
So you have to get in the right mentality of powering through it, and just realizing how important this actually is.

Lindsey Auten
0:03:08
Yeah, we have a saying in the CrossFit world, for people who don't know my background there, I've been doing CrossFit for 10 plus years now at this point and he used to coach and there's a saying of get comfortable being uncomfortable. And I love that. You can recognize like I'm uncomfortable right now and that's okay. I'm going to get through this and you know, on the other side I can, you know, I can pat myself on the back

Lindsey Auten
0:03:34
for doing something new. I can pat myself on the back for doing something uncomfortable and overcoming it. And the more you do it, the less uncomfortable it should become. So it's just a matter of getting over that initial feeling of being uncomfortable, recognizing that you are uncomfortable, recognizing it's okay to feel that way, but also building up the, like the grit to say, okay, I feel that way, but I'm not going to let this stop me from doing something that I

Lindsey Auten
0:04:04
know could be beneficial to my career, to my goals. From a salesperson, it could be very beneficial to my financial goals and how much I make in commission. So there's a lot of benefit to being in an uncomfortable situation, working through that, and then reaping the benefits that come from that. Whether it's a mental resiliency

Lindsey Auten
0:04:27
or translates to something tangible like increased commission on a deal because you sent a video that helped a decision maker make a decision.

Alex Winter
0:04:35
Right, right, versus just sending an email, which they may or may not get down, which they may or may not understand the tone and who you really are and get that personal connection that you really can't get unless you send a video. So that's a huge piece.

Alex Winter
0:04:48
It's really important, but I also see a lot of hesitancy. So we talked about this a little bit, but why are people so hesitant to get in front of the camera? I can imagine why, but you train a lot of people on this, so what are you seeing on the streets as you're trying to get people in front of the camera

Alex Winter
0:05:02
that maybe haven't been in front of the camera before?

Lindsey Auten
0:05:04
Yeah, most of the time they're trying to analyze what is the benefit. They understand it conceptually, but then they're wondering what's in it for me. So I can't promise someone, hey if you make, my favorite example is if I send cold emails

Lindsey Auten
0:05:20
and include video in it, is it gonna make that cold email better? Well, I don't know, maybe, but that's cold email. No matter what you do, it's probably gonna suck. Right, unless you're giving away people money.

Alex Winter
0:05:33
Yeah, so it's one of those things where

Alex Winter
0:05:37
Yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:05:37
Yeah. So it's one of those things where to answer your initial question of like, why are people still so hesitant is that they don't fully understand like what's in it for me or if it's going to work for them. And if they're going to commit time to doing that, time that they could allocate to other things that they know has previously worked and they're already in a position where they're

Lindsey Auten
0:06:00
feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable, then there's a, they're going to be hesitant. I would probably be hesitant too, honestly. Like trying something new is not always going to work. So I understand where they're coming from. It's the ones who are like, oh, I see how it could work in this way to start.

Lindsey Auten
0:06:21
Once there's a light bulb moment of, oh, yeah, this could be helpful in this scenario. I'll try it here. Once they try it here, that spot, they see success, and they're more open to trying it in other places. So it's about finding where we can cut our teeth

Lindsey Auten
0:06:41
and have the biggest payoff first before we go into something like, I'm gonna spend two hours making a new video for every cold email I send. And it's like, well, that's not the best use of your time.

Alex Winter
0:06:53
That's a really interesting point. So how can people, like how do you help people decide what is that correct video? If they're gonna take the leap, they're gonna start making videos, how do you decide which one it is?

Alex Winter
0:07:03
Because clearly cold emails, that's a whole can of worms in and of itself. That's a tough one. So we get that point, but like what should people, what videos should people be making? I guess is what I'm asking.

Lindsey Auten
0:07:15
You know, one thing that I always start people off with before we dive into sending any customers, like for anyone outside of your organization, eat videos, is just sending them to each other. Try to commit to sending three videos to a teammate for your first week, first month,

Lindsey Auten
0:07:31
and see how that changes your communication, how that builds the muscle of creating a decent video and sending it. And it's less pressure than sending it to a, like someone who could make or break your, someone who could make or break your bank for the quarter.

Alex Winter
0:07:49
Yeah, that's a really interesting point.

Alex Winter
0:07:51
That's a great way too to start things off is start sending them internally. And frankly, that's what we did here at Impact a long, long time ago when Marcus first really started pushing this. It was like, let's start just sending,

Alex Winter
0:08:05
if I'm gonna send an email to Lindsey, don't send an email, make a video and send it to Lindsey in an email. I mean, excuse me, send it to Lindsey in a video. And it took a little bit, that was definitely, I wasn't used to that, I was so used to sending emails

Alex Winter
0:08:18
and typing out my different pieces. So to make that shift took a little bit, but you're right, after a couple weeks of doing that, it becomes second nature and it almost is faster. So it's like, hey, I actually like this better because it takes less time and it is more effective

Alex Winter
0:08:33
from a communication standpoint, in my opinion.

Lindsey Auten
0:08:35
You know what's really fun? I was teaching this lesson last week to a sales team that I'm working with right now and their sales leader said, well, I'm gonna send a video internally to someone who I'm asking to join a sales call with me to prep him for everything that he needs to

Lindsey Auten
0:08:53
know heading into that call. So instead of sending the email, he's sending the video prepping his own employee on how to show up to the call, what that person needs to talk about, what that person shouldn't talk about in that decision-making process. And I think that's a great way to prep someone to join a situation like that, like a sales

Lindsey Auten
0:09:17
call.

Lindsey Auten
0:09:18
Totally. So I think that was a really smart way of, all right, we're going to send videos internally. What value is that going to add? Well, it's going to add value here. That's great lateral thinking.

Alex Winter
0:09:31
Yeah, it's great thinking. And the tools that we use here at Impact just to play into this, like Austin will send me a video in Slack, and what's great is AI will also transcribe it. So you can watch the video, you also have the transcription. It's just a really amazing communication tool that I think helps us do our jobs faster

Alex Winter
0:09:48
and communicate more succinctly, more directly, and not leave any room for miscommunication, which is so important.

Alex Winter
0:09:55
Yes.

Lindsey Auten
0:09:55
The next step of that is, okay, you sent videos to each other. You're getting in the groove. You're understanding how to make a decent video. Where are you spending your most of your time in the process of speaking to a prospect?

Lindsey Auten
0:10:10
Well, I'll use the same example at the same company that I'm currently training is they have a lot of people who need to be part of the decision making process so they could give someone a quote and that quote could sit for months, like up to a year possibly.

Alex Winter
0:10:27
Yikes.

Lindsey Auten
0:10:28
Yeah, that's a long time to not know whether or not you're going to close this business, close this deal. Yeah. At the same time, you have people who on the other end have to play telephone with the people who weren't on your last call. So why wouldn't you send a video simplifying the information so that person who would be the man in the middle,

Lindsey Auten
0:10:52
person in the middle, the go-between,

Lindsey Auten
0:10:54
they're not gonna make a mistake now

Lindsey Auten
0:10:56
that you sent them the video because you're explaining it instead of them explaining your explanation that they may or may not have understood in the first place. Yeah, that's extremely well said.

Alex Winter
0:11:06
You got me thinking too, it's just, it's the path of least resistance because if you send a video along with the proposal, it feels way more purposeful than just shooting it through in an email and being like, let me know if you have any questions.

Alex Winter
0:11:19
It's so open-ended that, if I receive an email like that, it might take me a couple weeks to get back on your proposal, but if you send a video with it, that's like explaining it to me

Alex Winter
0:11:29
and breaking it down what I need to do for next steps.

Alex Winter
0:11:32
I don't know, the perception of it,

Alex Winter
0:11:33
it just feels way more personal and I would feel more inclined to get it back to you sooner. And it's just the psychology behind it, right?

Lindsey Auten
0:11:40
Let's say we're on a sales call together and you know that you need Bob, Chris, and Marcus to sign off on something before we make a decision. Like I get off the call, I know I'm gonna send you a proposal, and I send you an email that says,

Lindsey Auten
0:11:54
hey Alex, great talking to you today. I know that Bob, Marcus, and Chris all have to agree to this proposal before we can move forward. Now, before you open the proposal that's attached in this email,

Lindsey Auten
0:12:07
I made this 10-minute video walking you through all of the elements of the proposal so that when you go to speak to Marcus, Chris, and Bob about it, they're all on the same page with what we discussed. Here's the video, make sure they watch it,

Lindsey Auten
0:12:23
make sure you watch it, review the proposal, and I'll follow up next week to see if there are any questions about what we talked about. That is way more powerful, shows way more authority, shows confidence in the proposal, shows that you actually listened to me, that I actually listened to you during our conversation, that there's more than one person that has to make a

Lindsey Auten
0:12:41
decision, and is probably going to be a faster conversation turnaround time than it would have been previously.

Alex Winter
0:12:50
Absolutely, those are really great points. I might have to do that. I'm already kind of doing that, but I need to lean into it more. And that's also a good point. We talked about this at Impact Live not so long ago.

Alex Winter
0:13:01
It was something that Marcus said. You tend to build these habits, which are good habits, but then it's also really easy to sort of fall out of them and like, oh, I'll just send an email, or oh, I haven't sent a one-to-one video in a couple weeks.

Alex Winter
0:13:12
How do you stay consistent? Where does that accountability piece come in of like, I need to do this, the whole company's doing it, how do you set that mentality across the board?

Lindsey Auten
0:13:21
One thing, it starts with the leader. Like if you're a sales leader telling your people, you need to send video, but you're not doing it yourself, then you need to come up.

Alex Winter
0:13:28
You tell people to do video and an email? That's probably not the right way to do it. Okay, I get it.

Lindsey Auten
0:13:34
It reminds me of what my dad used to say, because I said so, and as a child, I was too smart for my own good and would say, that's not a good enough answer, dad.

Alex Winter
0:13:42
Yeah, come on dad, what else you got?

Lindsey Auten
0:13:45
Yeah, so something like.

Alex Winter
0:13:47
Starts from the top down, lead by example. Yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:13:50
Okay. Lead by example. And during your one-on-ones with your sales manager, during your revenue team meetings, it should be a regular practice that you are watching and critiquing each other's videos. That sounds

Lindsey Auten
0:14:06
very uncomfortable. It does. It is. It is very uncomfortable. But I can tell you, you're going to learn and grow a lot from those experiences. Like I remember a time here at Impact where me and the other trainers would get in a Zoom room, pull up someone's call, watch the call, give each other feedback. And when it was my call, I was sweating profusely, very nervous, even though I had probably done a decent job and just like, hate it. I hate looking at myself performing.

Lindsey Auten
0:14:45
I hate hearing the sound of my own voice. But ultimately like those calls that we all did together made us better at our job.

Alex Winter
0:14:54
Right, and why is that? Is that because you're really looking, you're not just looking at the good, you're acknowledging, hey, you're doing this great job, but let's get really serious and granular about how you can optimize that?

Alex Winter
0:15:06
Is that the mentality?

Lindsey Auten
0:15:07
Yeah, it's like, what are we doing well? What could we be doing better? What are the communication best practices that you're using? What could you be using better? How could your presence and energy be better? What was really good about your presence and energy?

Lindsey Auten
0:15:19
What are you presenting on are you presenting on it in a new way in a different way in the same way that we usually? do it like You can pick a million things out of out of a single call so

Alex Winter
0:15:30
That makes sense. Yeah, it definitely like

Lindsey Auten
0:15:33
Definitely helps you grow, but it's probably the most uncomfortable thing that you can be doing.

Alex Winter
0:15:41
Yeah, so this is a perfect segue, because this sounds like something that you can use to develop and hone your skills to be better on camera, to maximize your on-camera performance. But you said some really interesting things

Alex Winter
0:15:51
that resonate with me, and I'm sure resonate with our audience too, and a lot of people, I think, feel this way. Because I'm on the podcast, I'm the host here, I never thought I'd be hosting a podcast. I don't like looking at myself,

Alex Winter
0:16:01
I don't like hearing myself. There's all these idiosyncrasies and things that I see that I'm like, wait, do I do that? Do I sound like that? And I think a lot of people feel that way because you don't really look at yourself

Alex Winter
0:16:11
almost from like a third party perspective. So what are some skills that can be developed to help you like get over that and then also just help your on-camera performance as a whole? And I know part of it is just you gotta do it,

Alex Winter
0:16:23
but that's really easy to say, like the more you do it, the better you get, like duh, that's like anything with practice. But what are some strategic things we can dive into? I know there's an acronym we were talking about. That's an important one here,

Alex Winter
0:16:35
but how can people get more comfortable on camera and develop those skills in a way that's gonna be meaningful?

Lindsey Auten
0:16:40
Yeah, so if you're trying to just, in general, develop your on-camera performance and make the most of your time when you hit that record button. Start with trying to remember these six steps. So think of it this way, the acronym is SIMPLE.

Alex Winter
0:17:02
Simple.

Alex Winter
0:17:03
Very simple.

Alex Winter
0:17:03
It's very simple.

Alex Winter
0:17:04
Okay, SIMPLE.

Alex Winter
0:17:05
Next, start with a smile.

Lindsey Auten
0:17:07
So if you hit record and you have RBF on, then that recording is going to look like you're a little ticked off.

Alex Winter
0:17:18
Right.

Lindsey Auten
0:17:19
And it's not going to have good energy coming from you to the audience and people watching are going to feel it. So if you start smiling before you hit record, like three to five seconds before you hit record, that's going to change your energy, it's going to change the energy of the video and it's going to make you feel more in control of your emotions.

Alex Winter
0:17:42
Right. And it's going to make the end user feel like you're more inviting instead of not.

Lindsey Auten
0:17:48
Yeah, instead of a jerk. So, next letter in simple is I. And when you think about what goes with I, imagine the camera as a person. The camera is an inanimate object. It cannot give you body language cues to say, like, you're doing a good job. It cannot respond to you. It's a brick wall, essentially. It's like you're talking to a brick wall.

Lindsey Auten
0:18:14
But if you can picture a person to talk to as you're talking to the camera, then that's going to help you appeal more to and feel more natural and appeal more to the people who are watching it. So imagine the camera as a person.

Alex Winter
0:18:29
That's a great one, yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:18:31
The next thing that you need to keep in mind, the M is momentum. Now, when you think about momentum, an object in motion stays in motion, you're the same way. Your top track, when it's in motion, it stays in motion.

Lindsey Auten
0:18:45
Do not stop yourself. So don't stop in the middle to say, oh cut, can we do that again, it sucked. Just keep going. Keep going and if you still think it sucked, you can do it again.

Lindsey Auten
0:18:57
So don't stop. Keep your momentum flowing.

Alex Winter
0:19:00
Yeah, that's a really good one and that's one that Mark has taught me and I've been shooting feature films and documentaries and all sorts of things and that's a common thing is people will get halfway through a sentence and be like,

Alex Winter
0:19:10
I don't like what I said, start over, cut, let's do this again. And I think when you power through it, it helps you consolidate your thoughts or it helps you kind of get, even though it's messy,

Alex Winter
0:19:19
it helps you get to that final piece of like, okay cool, now I got it, let's take it from the top and then the next time usually you nail it. But you need to go through that in order to get there, yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:19:28
I think one of the advantages of, in my past life, if I'm live, doing either play by play in color or on the sidelines, I can't say, oh cut, can I do it again? You don't get one take.

Alex Winter
0:19:40
That's right, yeah. When it's live, you can't do that. But that's the beauty of this, is if you're not live, you still should power through it and pretend like it is live just so that you can get more experience and get into a better cadence and rhythm.

Alex Winter
0:19:55
That makes sense, yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:19:56
Exactly. The next one, P. Simple, P. Posture matters. Posture definitely matters. You know, it's really, it was really funny.

Lindsey Auten
0:20:06
I'm not gonna say who it was, because this person's definitely gotten enough feedback from me on this, but I was watching videos, some videos that a client of mine sent me. And one of the sales team members had his hands on his hips while he was sitting on the stool,

Lindsey Auten
0:20:21
and he was like angled slightly like this, and like leaning forward a little bit, and like, he looks really surly. Like, that's the thing that came to mind. It's like this man looks quite surly and very sure in his delivery. And that was, you know, part of that was his posture and how he was sitting

Lindsey Auten
0:20:37
and the way he was presenting himself and how he was angled sort of away from the camera. So if you have like, if you have that closed off body language of like, I'm holding my arms up, I'm like tilting my head to the side or like looking like this, you'd think that like I'm your mother scolding you. But if my body language is open, if I'm slightly like leaning forward into the camera, like it's more welcoming and opening. And if I'm just like laid back and not like shoulders forward or whatever, like you're gonna think that I don't

Lindsey Auten
0:21:11
care. But I got shoulders back, I'm leaning forward into the camera, my energy is completely different. So your posture dictates the energy of the video almost as much as your smile does. So that's why posture matters, and that's why it is part of simple in on-camera performance.

Alex Winter
0:21:28
No, it's huge. That physical behavior plays just as much as what you say. You know, your body language, I think, subconsciously dictates just as much as what's coming out of your mouth. At least for viewers, your end viewer's gonna pick up on that for sure.

Alex Winter
0:21:40
Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsey Auten
0:21:42
Next piece of this is L, leverage the power of storytelling. Humans respond to stories. We've responded to stories from the beginning of time. You know, one of the things that we're taught as kids in history is history was passed down

Lindsey Auten
0:21:57
through oral traditions and stories.

Alex Winter
0:21:59
It's been around for a long time.

Lindsey Auten
0:22:00
Use stories to your advantage. Use types of storytelling in videos. Start with a problem. Understand and outline that there is a guide, you, helping them get through that problem, and then the conclusion of how they can win at the end

Lindsey Auten
0:22:15
if we take these steps to solve the problem. I love it. That story arc is incredibly powerful in your videos.

Alex Winter
0:22:27
Well, it creates relatability, and relatability is the first step towards building trust, isn't it?

Lindsey Auten
0:22:33
Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Winter
0:22:34
Yeah.

Alex Winter
0:22:35
What's the last one? We're almost there, so we're on number six.

Lindsey Auten
0:22:38
We're on number six, engage naturally. E, engage naturally. So, your instincts when you're on camera are correct. Your instincts for how you want to use your hands when you talk, how you want to maybe move your head when you're talking. Those instincts are all correct. Talk natural, engage naturally, act natural. If you would do something in real life

Lindsey Auten
0:23:00
and you find yourself wanting to do it on camera but you think it might look stupid, just do it. Talk with your hands. It's okay. We are going to trust you and like you even more as a person if you are engaging naturally. So those are the steps to at least getting started with on-camera performance that you should think about.

Alex Winter
0:23:25
The six simple steps.

Alex Winter
0:23:27
So that's it, simple, gotta keep it simple.

Lindsey Auten
0:23:30
Gotta keep it simple.

Alex Winter
0:23:31
Thanks for breaking it down. I also think, I just wanna take away that out of what you said, you need to just force yourself to get in front of the camera, because I think people go like, I don't like how I sound

Alex Winter
0:23:40
I don't like how I look I said this earlier, but that's who you are. That's how you sound That's how you look to literally everyone else that you interact with so what you're talking to somebody on the phone or face-to-face Or whether it's on video It goes back to what you said you just have to be authentically you if you talk to talk with your hands Lean into that if you have whatever you know whatever characteristic traits You have you got to just own that because that's part of who you are.

Alex Winter
0:24:02
It makes you authentic, and I love that piece. So for the last question here, what tips do you have for leaders to try to inspire their salespeople and to inspire their team to do this? I know we talked earlier about leading by example,

Alex Winter
0:24:14
but what else can leaders do to help their organizations and their team members embrace this video-first ideal?

Lindsey Auten
0:24:21
Yeah, first is just to reiterate, start making your own videos, leaders. Lead by example. Second thing is bring someone in who can help your team get better on video. If it's not your expertise,

Lindsey Auten
0:24:37
then that's something you should be looking for in a videographer. That person should be outgoing, helpful, friendly, someone who your sales team and marketing teams would wanna hang out with outside of work hours.

Alex Winter
0:24:51
That makes sense.

Lindsey Auten
0:24:52
And last but not least is hold people accountable. If you are going to do this and you're committed to doing it then you can't take no for an answer. And that might piss some people off, but it's ultimately like you know you want to do it, you know you have to do it,

Lindsey Auten
0:25:08
you know it's going to make a difference and you have to be steadfast in your decision to go all in on this.

Alex Winter
0:25:15
Yeah, well said. And I think once people lean into it, even if it is scary, and it can be scary, when you see the results that happen, it's not so scary anymore. It's actually really exciting when you start to see

Alex Winter
0:25:27
the needle flip in the other direction and you start to get customers and people giving you feedback that are like, I love the video you sent, I feel like I already know you. If somebody's showing up at your door and you see them on the ring camera

Alex Winter
0:25:36
and you already know who they are, that's a win. Like that's what we're trying to get to here is building that trust, building that relatability. So now it's my favorite part in the show. What's the one thing, Lindsey, one thing that people should take away from this episode

Alex Winter
0:25:48
over anything else, if you had to say it,

Alex Winter
0:25:50
what would that be?

Lindsey Auten
0:25:51
Being on camera is going to make you uncomfortable and that's okay. The real losing battle is if you let being uncomfortable get the best of you. Not just in being on camera, but in everyday life. If you ran away from something

Lindsey Auten
0:26:09
every time you felt uncomfortable, then it would be hard to make progress. So, embrace being uncomfortable. It will get better. Just give it a shot.

Lindsey Auten
0:26:19
Give it a shot and the results

Alex Winter
0:26:20
will speak for themselves, people. All right, well, Lindsay, thank you for sharing your knowledge and your expertise. We really appreciate having you on the show.

Lindsey Auten
0:26:29
Thanks, Alex.

Alex Winter
0:26:30
Alright, good to see you and for everybody out there watching and listening, thanks for tuning in. tuning in. We'll see you on the next episode.