Thanks to Covid-19, a lot of businesses are canceling their real-life conferences and going to virtual planners like We & Goliath (weandgoliath.com) so they are able to still hold the conference, just in a safe, virtual way. But with this rise of virtual conferences, speakers are having to adapt to presenting on a video conference or on a recorded video which is different than presenting in front of a live audience in the same room. Accept that difference and be excited to learn how to master other presentation modes. The world is open to your message! You don’t have to be in the same room as your audience. That’s exciting, isn’t it?
One warning, especially for extroverts, is that speaking in a room alone to record a video (or looking at the webcam while presenting on a video conference) feels far different from speaking from the front of the room to a live audience. There is no energy from the audience to give you energy. And, you may hate how you present on video, at first.
Just keep doing it. Practice, reflection, and improvement over time will make you a more confident video presenter.
1. Practice the Platform
If you have never used a particular video conferencing platform before, find a way to practice it and to rehearse your presentation. This is critical to your feeling confident. Find a co-worker or family member to help you practice. If you are doing a group presentation, set up a practice session. Other people’s poor performance can reflect on you. Make everyone look good.
Practice presenting your slides and sharing your screen. Speaking of your screen, if you will be sharing your desktop, clean up your desktop, if there is anything you don’t want others to see.
Practice video conference engagement tools available for the platform such as voting, polls, whiteboard, and chat.
2. Look Your Best
When you look good, you will feel more confident. Consider the following:
Webcam or camera placement. No one looks good when viewed from below. Having your webcam or camera placed at slightly above eye level creates a more attractive angle. If you are speaking from your laptop, use books or boxes to elevate it.
Lighting. Good lighting is the difference between looking healthy and vibrant or, in bad lighting, looking like a creature from the crypt. Overhead lighting is not flattering. Experiment with light sources so that your face is lit from the front. At a minimum have a lamp behind your screen, slightly higher than the screen. Two lights are usually better than one. You might even try using a selfie light. Don’t be backlit.
Clothing. To look your best, wear low-contrast clothing (not white, not all black, not neon or extremely vibrant colors) without strong patterns or writing on them. Solid colors are best. Usually only your top half matters. So, go ahead, wear yoga pants and flip flops, if they won’t be seen.
Posture & Position. Sit upright in a relaxed posture, without slouching, although you can lean in slightly to show interest and engagement. Position yourself so that the video captures your image from at least mid-chest to a couple of inches above your head.
Background: Aim for an uncluttered background. Nobody wants to see dirty dishes or a pile of papers. Consider using a green screen with a virtual background.
3. Minimize Distractions
It can rattle your confidence if you have unexpected distractions.
“Do Not Disturb.” You might need to put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign for your office door when you are on a video conference. If you are working at home, make sure kids and pets will not disturb you. The cat might not be in the room when you start, but she will walk across your keyboard at the worst time. Close the door.
Turn off anything that might make noise. Even mute yourself when you aren’t speaking, just in case there is background noise (like when you type something into the chat box). Silence your phone.
Don’t distract yourself. Get a beverage (non-alcoholic, ideally with a straw) and take a restroom break well before you start. Have any notes or other materials you will need in place. Don’t multi-task (no checking notifications, or your phone, or your email).
4. Be Early
Don’t wait until the meeting start time to log-in for a video conference.
Nothing will kill your confidence faster than dealing with technical or other challenges as you are trying to log-in to the system. Allow yourself some margin. Someone may stop you on the way to your office. Your computer may take longer than usual to boot up. The internet might be down (do you have a back-up plan?).
Plan on logging on at least 5-10 minutes early.
5. Don’t Fidget
The limited visual field of the video will magnify any fidgeting.
Avoid touching your face, twirling your hair, and swiveling your chair. If you must fidget, fidget out of view of the camera (doodling, if it isn’t in full view might look like you are simply taking notes).
Do have meaningful gestures but avoid flashing your hands in and out of the video or moving them too quickly as they may appear as a blur.
6. Look at the Camera
Eye connection on video conferences is tricky because you can’t make mutual eye contact. Either you do what most people do and look at the other people’s faces or you look into the webcam, which feels a little strange.
If you look at the faces of your audience, you can appear on-screen as if you are looking down or away. This is not a confident appearance.
Even if it feels strange, you should look mostly at the webcam while you are presenting. Looking at the webcam will give your audience the impression you are making eye contact. Of course, the downside is that you aren’t reading people’s faces when you look at the webcam.
However, you can break away from the intense webcam eye contact during longer pauses to look at people’s faces. Make it a point to look back at the webcam before you start speaking again. When others are speaking, look at their faces, not at the webcam.
You can get creative with the placement of your brief speaker notes (in a big font), keeping them near the webcam so that you don’t have to shift your gaze too far to glance at your notes. Remember: Talk to people, not to paper.
If you are recording a video for YouTube or some other platform, look at the camera. The camera is your audience.
7. Sound Confident
Here are some tips to sounding clear and confident on video:
Use an external microphone. For video conferencing consider wearing a headset microphone and for recorded videos consider a clip-on microphone.
Practice and deliver from keywords. On video conference presentations, and for many recorded presentations, this method will allow you to be clear, concise, and conversational. If you mess up on a recorded video, you can do another take.
Read, Look, Say. For recorded videos, in which you don’t mind significant editing, you can try this technique: Read, Look, Say. First, read a few lines in your notes, then look at the camera lens, and finally, say the lines conversationally. If you mess up, take a breath, and say the lines again. Then, repeat with the next few lines. When you are finished, you can edit out the parts where you look down to read or where you mess up.
Try a teleprompter. This is a more advanced technique that can be tricky, but for short, recorded videos you can try using a teleprompter to avoid multiple takes. There are even teleprompter apps for your phone that allow you to read your script, but you still appear to be looking at the camera. Sounding conversational while using a teleprompter is difficult for most people. Adjusting the scrolling speed to be a little faster than your reading speed can add excitement to your voice.
8. Learn from Others
You can learn a lot about how to appear confident by watching others, especially from people who present on video. Video presentations are typically shorter than in-person presentations, so you can watch more in a shorter amount of time.
Try watching videos on topics for your field, including TED Talks, to see how presenters in your field present, and to be inspired about your topic. Watch videos on presentation skills (even videos on how to be confident in a video recording). Take a few notes on what you like, what you don’t like, and what you might like to try. Be a student of confidence.