How to get comfortable speaking in front of a microphone or camera

If you’re a personal brand then you already know you need to speak in front
of a microphone or a video camera.

In today’s episode I am going to show you how to get comfortable speaking
in front of tech so you can no longer worry about how you sound.

By the time you finish listening, you’ll know:
• How to look good in front of a camera
• How to sound good in front of a microphone
• How to get better speaking in front of tech

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the voice for Business Podcast, episode 55. In today's episode, I'm revealing how to get comfortable speaking in front of a microphone or a camera that's coming up next. Ready to learn what it means to have a voice for business, to utilize your voice to create the influence, impact and income you desire. Join me Catherine back voice actor and voice coach, as I show you how to show up and stand out as the voice of your business. Learn my best tips on how to uncover your true voice to speak with authority and establish a personal connection to your audience that will leave them wanting to hear more. This is the voice for business podcast. Okay, we will jump into today's episode in just a moment. But first I want to give a big shout out to less is more who says Catherine has a great voice. And I enjoyed listening to her podcasts. First, she gives you some really great information. And she's super easy to understand and follow. I'll be recommending this podcast. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so glad that you're enjoying this podcast. And that is exactly why I started this podcast to inspire and teach others how to use their voice to be easy to understand to follow. And I'm so glad that you're enjoying listening to the show. That really means a lot to me. And hey, if you're also out there and you are enjoying listening to the show, go ahead and let me know, leave me a five star review. And when you do, you will get featured on the podcast and you're gonna get a special podcast gift from me in the mail. So if you're loving this episode, go ahead and leave us a review. And one more announcement. Don't forget that right now we've got a free five day voice challenge happening right now and it is not too late to join in. All you need to do is register at Katherine beck.com/challenge. It is free. We are going to be working closely together for these five days. I'm excited to work with you on your voice. So make sure you register to that as well. All right, let us talk video cameras and microphones. Now, if you are of a certain age like me, then you would have experienced a lot of changes to film and movies over time to all things really going from analog to digital. That was a really big part of transition over the years. For me growing up, I've noticed lots of things from going from a rotary phone, having a phone with a cord to a cordless phone, a smart phone. In movies, I went to film school. So I've seen lots of shifts there as well going from when I was in film school, we would shoot our short films on 16 millimeter film actual film that we would cut and splice together in an editing room. And I'm so very thankful for that experience. Because I gained such a great appreciation for film as we learned how to first edit with actual film, and then digitally later on. And before the digital editing, you had to be so careful with film, you know, when you were in that editing room, because it wasn't so easy to undo things that you did that maybe you wanted to change, you need to be really specific and intentional with your filming, as well as your editing. Not like today. Today, it's way easier with digital, right? You can keep redoing, and re filming and re recording as much as you would like. But back in the day, we had to be very intentional. But one thing that has not changed from all of that, whether you're working in film, TV, podcasting, whatever, if you are speaking in front of a video camera, or smartphone, or a computer screen, or microphone, there's a certain amount of time that it takes to get comfortable speaking in front of a device and most of the time, you know, pretending or imagining that you're speaking to someone as you talk that can be really weird thing. So it takes a bit of time to get used to that. So for example, for a podcast like I'm on right now talking to you, I'm speaking in front of a microphone and I am imagining that I am speaking to you, you the listener right now as I speak even though I know that you're not there. And I know you won't be hearing this right now. You're going to be hearing this in the future. But it's my job as I record this to connect to you through this microphone so that when you do listen, it sounds like I'm actually speaking to you in that moment connecting to you for the very first time that you listen and that my friends is a skill and how do we get good As a skill, we practice and that is what I did. And that is what you will need to do as well. And obviously, I've taken a variety of different classes along the way that have helped me get to this point and feel really comfortable and natural speaking in front of a microphone, acting classes, voice over classes, voice classes, improv classes, I've taken a lot of classes. But all that training helped me to sound natural in front of this microphone. And I definitely highly recommend some form of training or coaching, if you are really going to be the voice of your business, if you are a personal brand, if you are the voice of your brand, whether you're an actor, a coach, a teacher, a business owner, whatever it may be, you need to be able to sound natural speaking in front of a microphone, or a camera or in front of an audience. Whatever aspect of that you may be using your voice in your business, because it's not just enough to show up and press that record button. That is not enough to get your audience to take that next step, whatever it may be, because it's not just what you say, it's how you say it. And making that first impression is so important that first time someone hears your voice, they're making a choice, whether or not they want to continue to listen or not listen to you to tune in to what you're saying, or turn you off, switch that channel, swipe to the next video put on a different podcast. So if you're already using your voice, you have the ability now to either attract or repel your audience. So what decision are you going to make? Personally, I would choose to attract my audience through my voice. Now a really great way to get comfortable in front of a camera or a microphone is to understand your proximity. So for example, the microphone, how does your microphone pick up your voice? And what proximity should you be to the microphone, what distance how close or how far away should you be to get the best quality sound, it's about finding that sweet spot. So your voice is not too hot, which means you're not too close. And those sound waves are getting really big, where we might lose some of the notes in your voice or the sound may start to get distorted when you speak. And also if you're too far away, and might make it harder for us to hear you to understand you and even amplify the sound, we may lose some of that connection to you because you're pulling away from that connection to the microphone because you're so far away. And then the same goes for video as well, finding that sweet spot where you're not too close and not too far away. So we're talking about the framing the amount of your body physically that we see a medium shot is always really a great place to start. And that basically means not too much headspace so space above your head, we want your head closer to the top of the screen. And then there should be some space but not too much space on either side of you, but just enough for you to move your arms freely if you want to express yourself and that sort of way. So we're looking for a medium shot. And to start feeling comfortable on camera or in front of a microphone. Well, you need to start recording yourself and listening back or watching back because it's in that playback where you will start to notice things in your performance can't always hear your voice when you're speaking. But you can certainly hear it in the playback. And when you can start to analyze your voice in the playback Well, we can start to improve aspects of your voice that you want to improve. And as I said before, this is a skill and that requires practice to get good at the skill, you can get better, more comfortable, the more you practice. So I recommend practicing recording in front of a microphone or a video camera as often as you can. And that's how you're going to start to notice improvement as you work on the skill and gain confidence on screen or in front of the microphone. And that's really key right feeling confident when you step foot in front of a camera or a microphone so we can release those nerves and really focus on your beautiful message and connecting that to your audience. So those are my tips today for getting comfortable working in front of a microphone or a camera. And if you are ready to stand out as the voice of your business don't forget to register for my free three day challenge that is happening on the 24th of January. All you need to do is head over to Katherine beck.com/challenge And I'll see you there. And remember if you love this episode, go ahead let me know take a screenshot of the show. Share it with me on your Instagram stories and tag me In it at Catherine underscore Beck underscore and coming up next week on the show, I am putting the spotlight on one of my amazing students, Lindsay, who's going to share with you how she discovered her voice for her business. Now make sure to share the show with all your friends. Let them know what's coming up next week and invite them to tune in with you and learn how to show up, speak up and stand out as the voice of your business. Until then go on, get out there and use that powerful voice of yours and I'll see you back here next time.