Читать книгу On-Camera Coach - Reed Karin M. - Страница 17

Nowhere was the need for on-camera training more apparent than when I served as a regular webcast moderator for a corporate client. My role was to facilitate the discussion among global thought leaders on the panel. I was largely scripted, which helped me to come across as more knowledgeable than I truly was. What amazed me, though, was the panic many of those brilliant panelists felt just because they were going to be speaking on camera. I thought: I should be the one who is nervous. You know what the heck you're talking about. I don't. But I had spent more than two decades both in front of and behind a camera. Without that familiarity, those cameras represented a seismic shift in the environment.

In fact, I thought one of my first gigs as a webcast host was going to be my last. The topic of the show that day was incredibly technical, so my client had brought in an expert with strong credentials and deep domain knowledge. What she lacked, though, was experience communicating through a camera.

I noticed that she looked a little “moist” as we were getting mic'd up, but I had no idea how nervous she really was. In short order, though, it was revealed. I read the introduction of our guest and tossed it over to her for her 30-minute presentation. However, instead of taking the baton and running with it, she simply said, “I can't do this,” and attempted to take the mic off her lapel.

Thankfully, this was only the rehearsal. I somehow managed to find the right words to calm her down and convince her to try again. Her performance during the actual show wasn't stellar, but it was much better than no performance at all. (A big shout-out to our makeup artist on that day, who managed to keep the flop sweat mopped up during quick breaks.)

It all boils down to this: there's an assumption that if you can speak to a live audience, you can speak, convincingly and effectively, to a camera lens. And too often, that assumption is proven false, and at the worst possible time.

Unless you have experience performing on camera or are one of those rare people who just takes to it like Tiger Woods to golf, you will want and need some strategies, some guidance to perform at your best.

Perhaps if I had tested out some techniques for answering stock pageant questions (“Bring about world peace, feed the hungry.” yadda, yadda, yadda), my most embarrassing moment of all time might have been my biggest triumph. (Okay, maybe not biggest triumph, but certainly not a complete and utter failure to perform.)