September 20, 2024 • 57 mins
In this engaging episode, Loreta Tarozaite, an expert in enhancing onstage presence and on-camera confidence for entrepreneurs and executives, shares invaluable insights into practical habits for connecting with the camera, the psychology behind camera performance, and personal stories that highlight her journey and expertise.
As a former TV news anchor and seasoned marketing strategist, Loreta delves into the importance of humanizing brands through video content. She offers tips on overcoming the fear of being on camera. She also discusses the differences between stage and video presence, the role of teleprompters, and the impact of internal drive on mastering video communication. Loreta generously provided a free presence checklist which you can download here: https://www.loreta.today/executive-company-presence-checklist-complimentary
Whether you're an entrepreneur/professional looking to boost your visibility or an executive aiming to enhance your on-camera skills, this episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiration. Tune in to discover how you can elevate your authority and connect with your audience more effectively through the power of video.
Do you have questions or comments? Your feedback ensures that we continue to give you content that adds value to you, fuelling our commitment to providing high-quality content and fostering a community of informed and successful entrepreneurs. Leave your voice note here https://bit.ly/3XzIEyj
Connect with the guest, Loreta Tarozaite:
Website: https://www.loreta.today/
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/loretatarozaite/
Book a meeting: https://calendly.com/loretatarozaite/30min?month=2024-09
Free presence checklist: https://www.loreta.today/executive-company-presence-checklist-complimentary
Connect with the host, Ola Williams:
Website: https://bit.ly/3rxixue
Linkedin: https://bit.ly/3XojaT6
X: https://bit.ly/3zhpALd
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3zgMzWR
Listen on:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, I've seen some of those recordings, and some of them are really bad.
So that's where the opportunity arises, you know, to help them.
I truly want to help, you know, people to get better, because I know how powerful
video is. is talking to the microphone in this kind of, let's say,
(00:20):
podcast kind of setup, right?
The microphone would be higher, it would be very visible, you know,
and they're talking as if they're talking to somebody.
So the camera is kind of on the side, which gives the impression.
In today's episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Loretta.
Loretta is an expert helping entrepreneurs and executives to enhance their onstage
(00:43):
presence, boost their on-camera confidence.
We explored practical habits for connecting with the camera,
delved into the psychology behind camera performance, and shared some personal
stories that brought us to this point.
Now, before we dive into our conversation, I have to admit, I did speak with
(01:05):
Loretta before recording this.
So fingers crossed, it's a staple from the last one I did.
Now, without further ado, let's watch as Loretta introduces herself.
My name is Loretta Terozaita. I fix marketing and communications chaos for growing
B2B companies and startups so they can unlock visibility, trust, and authority.
(01:26):
I am also an executive and company presence strategist, fractional CMO, and on-camera coach.
I have over 20 years of cumulative industry experience as a former TV news anchor,
video producer, and marketing and communications strategist.
When I work with companies and their leaders, I focus on one key thing,
how to make them look good and elevate their authority and visibility in the market.
(01:46):
I specialize in companies that are in the transitional phases specifically and
help them enhance both executive and company visibility, trust,
and authority in the market.
When I moved to the United States in 2003, one of the things I discovered was
(02:07):
that a lot of people or a lot of leadership team,
that was, let's say, what, 20 years ago, were hiding behind these corporate walls.
They were really not out there relating to their audiences, relating to their
customers in a manner that they, you know, can do right now in this day and
age when video is very prominent.
So one of the missions that I set for myself was to humanize those companies.
(02:30):
And by that, I meant, you know, get those people out of those corporate walls
calls into the public, you know, outside of, you know, stage,
you know, presentations and keynotes, but truly connecting with people through
video content, video as a medium.
And what I uncovered, and back then I lived in Silicon Valley.
So what I uncovered back then was that a lot of technology people,
(02:51):
people in technology industry, right?
Really did not know how to use this medium properly. And I come from the background of TV journalism.
So to me, camera is a very natural thing, but to executives or to senior directors,
people in corporate world, or even entrepreneurs in tech, they really struggle
to tell their story, to be themselves on camera.
And through those, you know, exercises, through those coaching,
(03:14):
you know, experiences that I've had when working with people,
you know, I realized that it's a a huge, huge problem.
And unless they master video, even especially right now, when it's that much
more important, you know, they will be continuing to stay invisible.
Not relatable and not connecting, you know, in a matter that people consume the content right now.
So that was probably one of the reasons why this particular communications medium,
(03:36):
you know, jumped out to me as one of the priorities when it comes to leadership.
I think the mindset, the intentions, the right for self spirituality aspect of it, right?
From the very beginning, from the very early ages of my life,
I think I was maybe 12 or 13 or something like that.
Maybe even younger, actually, maybe 10 to 13 years of age.
You know, I would be watching nightly news on television and I would be telling
(03:58):
my parents one day I will be in front of camera sitting there and reading the news.
You know, there was one news anchor that I admired a lot. She was so beautiful. She was so pretty.
She just had a good energy about her. And I just dreamed of being there one day.
So that was, like I said, 10, 11 years of age. Now, obviously.
(04:19):
I didn't know what mindset work is back then as a child, nor did my parents
pay a lot of attention to that.
But as obviously as I grew up and as I evolved as a human being,
you know, through the years, you know, I noticed the natural and my parents
also noticed the natural ability to communicate that I have.
And I leaned, I started, you know, when I was college age, I went to the University
(04:42):
of Vilnius and studied journalism.
And specifically through the study of the journalism, I realized that I really
don't like writing content.
Even to this day, I really don't like writing content. That's not my medium.
I tried radio and radio to me is like talking into the abyss.
It's just a very closed off environment where you're just in front of the microphone
(05:04):
and you don't even know who you're talking to.
I mean, some could say that it's similar with anchoring the news,
but with anchoring, you know, in a studio as a news anchor, you still have a
slightly different dynamics. There's people with cameras, there's light.
It's just a different dynamics and you imagine your audience differently.
So when I did try, you know, the TV aspect of it, I felt like it's within my nature.
(05:25):
And one of the ways that I was put in front of the camera was there was a new
program that was being established on the national television station.
And they were looking for news anchors of that program. It was a 10 minute or
20 minute business program, as far as I remember.
And they were looking for fresh faces for news anchor. And I think I was in
my second year of university back then.
And I thought I would, you know, try it out. So they plopped me in front of
(05:49):
the camera, put the teleprompter. I've never seen the teleprompter in my life.
And they said, okay, read.
And I did that and I didn't overthink it. And that I think was the key.
I did not overthink it. I was just doing what I was told to do and it was being me.
And it just flowed naturally from me because I did not see camera as a thing
(06:11):
that I should be afraid of.
And a lot of times that's what people pick up when they see that button,
the green light, the record button, you know, the red light,
I should say, you know, on the record in studio camera,
you know, they immediately have this like shutdown of their personality,
shutdown of what they wanted to say, of who they are.
(06:31):
Now they go into the performance mode and that's the opposite of what camera needs.
You cannot be performing unless you're the actor, but you cannot be performing
in front of the camera. You have to come across as you.
And that's the biggest challenge a lot of executives, you know,
or leaders or entrepreneurs or founders have, you know, it's how they can translate
(06:54):
that passion that they have in person through the media and what they need to
connect with the audience virtually.
So I, like I said, I don't know why it was natural to me. Maybe it was meant to be.
I materialized that and thought about it, you know, for pretty much the majority
of my, you know, young life.
And it just probably was the calling of some sorts. Yeah, I was going to say
(07:15):
that possibly you are living your purpose because when you are doing what you're
meant to do, I have found it just comes naturally to you.
There's something that everybody is very, you know, exceptionally good at,
and it just takes little effort for you.
(07:35):
So maybe you're living your purpose. And when I was asking that question,
I was going to say, there's this popular saying where people say,
oh, some people believe that leaders are made while some believe that leaders are born.
And so that's why I asked you that question, because I found that interesting
when I was listening to you and you said you have never felt fearful in front of the camera.
(08:00):
And I said, well, perhaps Lawrence was born for the camera, like some of us. It was.
So in your work with founders and all, you know, entrepreneurs,
so if somebody wasn't born to be on camera like you, would you say you can work
with virtually anybody, no matter how fearful or how non-confident they are?
(08:26):
Yeah. There's a couple of things that, you know, prevent some of them to be
successful in going through the coaching program or how to improve their presence
on camera or how to even use the medium.
And I found that a lot of times that ties back to the internal drive.
You know, if they don't believe that they need it, they will not get through it.
If they believe they have to grow into that role, they have to become more visible.
(08:51):
It's part of them as leaders to
you know, through their career, they will go through the program and they will
become successful. We will uncover those layers.
But those who don't, those who think I don't need it, why would I do it?
I'm doing this just because I was asked by my boss to be and deliver this message.
It's not the right energy, you know, and I've had instances where people,
(09:14):
you know, we would spend hours and hours coaching, you know,
they would show up to the studio, would have I have only 30 minutes with that
particular executive and I'd be doing everything possible to help them get comfortable on camera.
And it just doesn't click and it shows on camera, right?
And then when they see themselves, they don't like it. That even more,
that rejection feeling is, is, is even bigger at that point because they're
(09:36):
just not happy with what they're, what they're seeing.
To me, sometimes it's also, you know, the more you do it, the more comfortable you become, right?
But if they have that first fearful impression that first, this was painful,
I don't want to deal with this anymore, they will not continue doing and they
will not get better either.
So it's kind of like a little bit of a chicken and egg in that sense.
(09:57):
But yeah, I've had multiple instances where people would see me in the hallway
and be like, well, right, don't come to me.
I don't want to talk to you. I know you're going to pull me to be in front of the camera.
I don't want to deal with that. You know, it was too stressful of the conversation.
And, you know, it does take a lot of time, especially when I've interviewed
people for the very first time, you know, they show up, we agree that,
okay, this particular message is going to be delivered via video and they've
(10:20):
never done video work before.
You know, I coached them a little bit in advance on how to think about the messaging,
about the story, you know, identify the pillar points, you know,
that storytelling, and then we would show up on stage, not on stage, on set.
And it would take me three hours to get that story out. So...
It is a process for those who are not used to it, but a lot of that prep work,
(10:44):
you know, that I do sometimes, you know, it depends, you know, how people like to work.
Sometimes they just say, okay, just coach me on the spot and I'll do it on the spot.
Sometimes people need a little bit more handholding leading to the actual recording
so that have time to think about it, kind of, you know, digest,
get comfortable with the feeling.
And I provide certain, you know, steps that they have to do to just be comfortable
(11:04):
with hearing their own voice, you know, just record themselves as reading to
that, to that video interview.
So yes, to answer your question, I know I gave a long-winded answer,
but to answer your question, if it's possible or not possible.
It is possible, but it has to, in a way, be internally driven as well.
They have to recognize that there is a need, they have to do it,
(11:25):
and they will make it work, you know, and I can work with that.
Obviously, nobody is born, or I should say, not a lot of people are born naturally
good on camera, to be good on camera.
Yeah the majority will be really afraid
of it yeah like me i am learning
like i told you before we started recording that uh it's one of the reasons
why i wanted to talk to you about this because i am learning you know to be
(11:49):
confident on camera too and i know a lot of entrepreneurs like me uh learning
as well and so i wanted to talk to you so that we can get something that
will help us write practical things that we can start doing that will really help us from right now.
And, you know, I was talking to you earlier. I said, so one of the things, and context is helpful.
(12:12):
I like the way you give context to that question because that's helpful to really
know and see, oh, actually, I can improve or there's hope for me.
Okay, if I start doing it this way.
For example, when you said that someone has to really, you have to have self-drive.
You have to want to do it. Not that, oh, my boss said I should do it or my,
(12:35):
you know, maybe public relations department or because I want to do that.
So you really have to want to connect.
And then you said that that shows in the camera, it shows in the work that you do with people.
You know, it resonates with me because like I I was speaking with you earlier,
I said, I have heard that conversations are easier.
(12:57):
People have done research to say people enjoy conversations and have more meaningful
conversations, for example, when they are side by side with people rather than
facing somebody directly.
Like when you are in a car with someone, you find out that you have better conversations
or when you're walking with someone maybe along the beach.
So I wonder whether that's why people are not comfortable on camera,
(13:24):
because it's kind of intimidating, isn't it?
So if it's true that people have better conversations side by side,
then you have a camera staring in front of you.
I wonder if technology can make it so whereby you can be talking to a camera
and then it can be by your side. Yeah.
(13:45):
Maybe that would make you more comfortable. I'm just saying,
I don't know. You know, I don't know how much video content you or your audience consumes online.
But the point that ties back to what you're saying is this.
What I've observed recently happen, especially on Instagram,
because that serves that dynamics, that type of medium very well.
And I'm not a TikToker, so I don't go to TikTok. I don't know what content is there exactly.
(14:07):
But let's say Instagram, sometimes I just go there for inspiration or to just
look at beautiful things sometimes, you know.
But what I've noticed recently for the, in the past two years,
I've noticed people talking to the microphone in this kind of,
let's say, podcast kind of setup, right?
The microphone would be higher, it would be very visible, you know,
and they're talking as if they're talking to somebody. So the camera is kind of on the side.
(14:31):
Which gives the impression that they are being interviewed by somebody else.
And for a while, I thought, oh, that's a lot of people being interviewed until it clicked to me.
I'm like, they're using a camera trick because they're not doing directly to camera.
They are building their authority by staging the interviews, right?
(14:51):
So they're staging that perception that you're being interviewed.
And then you become, oh, somebody is asking me these awesome questions.
I have these awesome answers, you know. know, and I'm giving them as if somebody
else on the other side is sitting.
So when I picked up on that, you have started, you know, being very critical
in the setting and the setup, you know, I started analyzing eye level and trying
(15:13):
to catch, you know, are they reading the script or are they actually talking to a person, right?
So there are tricks, right? When we talk directly to camera,
that's one of the most difficult things because you really like in an in-person
conversation sometimes, right?
When you're conversing with somebody face-to-face, let's say across the table,
you want to engage with their eyes, right?
You don't start wandering around and talking to somebody while you're turned away.
(15:34):
You're talking to somebody while looking at them. And what camera gives when
you're talking directly to camera, it's that eye connection, you know?
So you right now on the receiving end or whoever's going to be watching this,
you know, they will be connecting with my eyes because I'm looking exactly into the lens.
I'm not looking to the sides. I'm not looking at myself at the moment,
you know, into the frame. I'm looking directly into that lens.
(15:56):
And that's the most difficult thing when it comes to keeping that connection
with the camera, because naturally we want to wander around because we're uncomfortable.
We're uncomfortable looking into this little thing that means nothing.
It's just a device, right? But that's what connects, you know,
and that's what translates.
Now, if we convert that into a, let's say, studio setup or an interview,
media interview in a TV studio or an interview for a documentary on an interview
(16:20):
for a business, you know, corporation, you know.
Story of some sorts. You know, usually there is a producer, right?
So the setup is sometimes two camera angles.
And that's when the person is not talking to the camera, but they're answering
the questions to the producer.
You know, they're looking away from the camera. They're talking to somebody.
That's why the digital, you know, the different influencers picked up on that
(16:43):
notion, mimicking it, right? Because it's much easier to talk to somebody.
And you can easily, you know, if I had a script over here in front of me,
I could easily be reading what I'm saying right now.
And people would be thinking that I'm talking, you know, I'm just naturally
expressing my thoughts.
So yes, that lens gives a little bit of that fear and intimidation because you
have to truly contain the eye levels, the concentration on focusing,
(17:06):
you know, into that little dot.
And the reason for that is people who are consuming, the moment you start wandering
around with your eyes or turning around, you become less confident.
You appear like you don't know what you're talking about.
You're a little bit scattered, feels like you are not sure what you want to
say either because you're constantly, your eyes are always moving around.
So direct-to-camera versus indirect are two completely different type of coachings.
(17:31):
As the podcast benefited you in one way or the other so far,
if you haven't done so already, this is the time to like and follow the channel.
Thanks very much. Part of what I teach at the Small Business Startup School
is financial literacy. And I thought sharing some lessons in each podcast episode
(17:54):
may be beneficial. So here we go.
Recently, I was teaching financial resilience.
Financial resilience is simply having the confidence that things are going to
be better, no matter the setback that you may be experiencing financially,
as long as you are breathing,
(18:16):
I encourage you to believe that things will be better. Your financial situation will improve.
Just know that you can do this. Your financial situations will improve.
What you need to do is to keep on learning financial literacy.
So financial literacy is adding that courage and that confidence and believing,
(18:42):
irrespective of the circumstances, however adverse that may be affecting you financially,
having that belief that things are going to improve, that your situation,
your financial situation is going to be better as long as you are breathing.
When people consume content that is digital on the phones, video content,
(19:06):
I should say, on the phones, they normally consume it alone.
They don't gather like in a movie theater with a bunch of people unless there's
a specific program like, you know, a stream of Emmy Awards or Oscars, right?
So then maybe there's a party of sorts and then people watch it live.
But when we're watching content online of any of the experts that we follow,
any of the influencers, any of people who really produce content and deliver
(19:31):
it via video as a medium, we normally consume it online.
Alone, on the go, you know, in front of our computers.
And that person has to speak to us, to me, one person, not masses of people,
even though the reach is masses, one by one by one, big masses, right?
But a person on the other side of the lens speaks to just one person.
(19:53):
And that person has to feel the connection.
Oh, he's delivering that information to me, you know, because we are self-absorbed.
It's about us all the time, right? It's not about other people.
It's about us when we consume content. We find it either relatable or not relatable.
And that's why it is, you know, important to not consider that lens as a device.
(20:15):
It's just a transmission of your message to a person. Imagine this as an eye,
you know, an eye of somebody. You're looking at somebody's eyes.
Like I said, if you were sitting across the a table for me right now,
you know, I would be talking to you and holding my, you know, glance at you.
Is that the right word to use? I don't know. My, my, my eyes on you, right?
I would not be looking around unless I'm thinking.
(20:36):
And that's, you know, to a point when people think naturally,
you know, they, I, for example, I look upwards when I think,
and sometimes I look this way upwards.
Sometimes I look that way upwards, right? So those types of moves from camera are okay. Okay.
Where it's not okay is when it's those small eye movements, you know,
where it's like, you feel like you're looking for something out there.
(20:57):
And that's when people start thinking, oh, this is not the right,
you know, energy. I'm not feeling this person. They don't know what they're talking about.
But when you're thoughtful, again, that goes back to the presence,
who you are as a person, how does that translate through camera?
You know? So if let's say I'm standing here and you're asking me a question,
I have to have a moment to think about I would normally be doing something like
(21:18):
this and they'd be like, okay, so that's normal, right?
It's like, that's what would happen in normal conversation, right?
So again, it's a dynamic between two people conversation via virtual environment
and one-on-one when you're a one, one person, when you're recording your own messages, you know?
And you just have to learn certain tricks, you know, and translate who you really
(21:38):
are, translate that energy through the lens.
Okay. What are the tricks? The tricks are, you know, to uncover those layers,
you know, as to pay attention to who you are.
Like, for example, I know I use a lot of hands.
Sometimes, you know, people are still, right? And what the trick with a camera
is that camera exaggerates either very good things or very bad things.
(22:03):
So you don't really want to be too stiff
on camera because you will be not interesting not
engaging you have to have a little bit of your dynamics go through the lens
you know so and sometimes you just have to find that balance so it's not like
you know i'm not coming at you with my energy i have to understand the distance
(22:23):
you know let's say if i'm moving my hand here up to the microphone phone, it's natural, right?
The moment I move over here, it'd be like into the frame, right?
So you have to learn, you know, where that frame that you have to reside within has to be.
And same applies not only for virtual environments, but also for,
you know, in-studio environments.
(22:44):
You know, sometimes executives would come to studio and be like this, like soldiers.
And they would be talking to me like soldiers.
I know who you are as a person. That's not who you are as a person.
Give me a little bit of oomph, you know, give me a little bit of hand,
you know, and, and of course, those hand movements have to be thoughtful.
You can't also be very, just using them just to use them.
(23:04):
They have to be precise to accommodate your message, you know,
and finding those flavors, finding, you know, and kind of understanding your
personality and testing out a little bit. How does that come across on camera?
You know, I noticed, and I even did a post on it and I'm still doing it right now, actually,
I noticed my, my horrific fellow words that when I started listening to my own
(23:28):
interviews, I'm like, oh my God, this is something I'm coaching executives and leaders on.
And I'm doing this key mistake myself, you know, here we go.
You know, I use the word, you know, and so, and I don't know how to get rid
of them because I speak fast.
And sometimes, times, you know, when I pause, now I'm starting to catch myself.
(23:50):
When I pause, I feel I need to fill a little bit of that gap,
which I shouldn't. I should be just made a sentence, you know,
pause a little bit, make another sentence.
So some of it is habitual and they become so much more vivid and prominent on
camera that you will hate it.
That's what happened to me. I hated it. I said, how do I need to get rid of
(24:11):
this? You know, here we go. You know.
But you know what? Until you mention it, I didn't even notice.
I started noticing when I started listening to all the interviews that I was
in, the kind of back to back.
And I needed to extract snippets. And one snippet would have like five you know's.
(24:33):
And I was like, what the heck, Loretta? You have to stop doing that.
You have to get rid of this word in your language.
Yeah, so very helpful. When you, I was speaking to you earlier,
Loretta, I said, a lot of founders I speak to, they say to me,
(24:54):
I'm embarrassed about, you know, me recording, they recorded themselves.
What has happened is they recorded themselves cells and they watched it and
they're like, no way I'm listening to that.
When I was listening to one of your recordings, you said, record yourself, practice.
And my next question to you is, I have spoken with founders that recorded themselves
(25:20):
and they're like, I'm not doing that.
Nope. I'm too embarrassed. What can help?
Well, I've seen some of those recordings and some of them are really bad.
So that's where the opportunity, that's where the opportunity arises,
you know, to, to help them.
I really, I truly want to help, you know, people to get better because I know how powerful video is.
(25:44):
I come from that medium. I come from that background. And when people realize
how much more visibility they can get, if they get in front of camera and master
the communication through it,
it's just the floodgates open because the attention is more on that. We all know, right?
We all know. Why do, you know, movie stars exist or, you know, musicians exist?
(26:04):
Because we watch them. We look at them. We know their lives,
right? All eyes are on them.
And if they're good at it, we want to watch more and more of them.
So same happens in the corporate world or in the entrepreneurial and business world.
If you become the authority of your business, people will build more trust with you.
(26:26):
Again, one of the early days when I started my video producing freelancing business
back in 2010, you know, I was like, okay, how do I, how do I even pitch this idea?
You know, how do I even get people comfortable to, with the idea that they have to be on video?
And one of the key things, as I said earlier, is humanizing the brand,
humanizing your business because it's, people are, how cliche it sounds,
(26:50):
people do business with people, you know?
And one of the first things that even exists today, you would sometimes go to
the website, let's say, of a smaller business, you know, where it's not a corporate,
you know, executive leadership display. Let's say smaller business.
You would read about all the awesome things they've done for their clients.
And if I'm bought into the idea that they're great, I want to hire them to do
(27:14):
whatever, I don't know, fix my house or something.
And I go into their About page, and there's nothing.
There's no picture that I could see. There's no video. There's nothing about
them that will make me pull the trigger that I know now who they are,
that they're real people.
So video just brings that dynamics, you know, even in our conversation,
(27:35):
right? You see how I operate. I see how you communicate.
I see, you know, the differences. And we all build that rapport about each other
through video as a medium. And then when you meet that person in person,
you kind of feel like you already know them because you've seen them.
You already know their energy. You already know their vibe.
You already know the mistakes they make when they communicate grammar mistakes like me.
(28:00):
Yeah, so connection is better. Yeah. Yes. So it's that that,
you know, sometimes helps people understand.
And of course, like I said earlier, when you see yourself and you do it by yourself,
you know, thinking, okay, I will try it and you, you don't like it.
You just build that wall of rejection bigger, you know?
(28:21):
So you have to literally record yourself multiple, multiple times because the
way we hear ourselves internally, when we speak, it's different how you hear me right now.
My voice projection comes to your ears completely different than how I hear
myself right now speaking because of how audio travels.
And like I said, video exaggerates things. So if we had a little tick of some
(28:44):
sorts, I know that I always tilt my head.
I know that I say, you know, all the time. So it becomes that much bigger.
And things that you do right also get exaggerated because their personality gets through.
So it's a medium that requires a little bit of work for those who really are
not comfortable working within that medium.
So they need a little bit of the guidance and working through it and trying it out.
(29:09):
And, you know, as an example, as a news anchor, for example,
when I started my career as a news anchor, nobody really coached me.
I didn't really know how to be a good news anchor. I just went in as myself
and I thought, okay, I guess they hired me for that.
So I probably am good with what I have.
But back then I would watch, you know, CNN, BBC News, and I would see a completely different.
(29:33):
Dynamics on the hosts, anchors in those other channels, Western world channels
back then, because I grew up in the USSR environment.
And on-camera coaching in Lithuania did not exist. So I did not get any professional coaching.
Everything that I've learned came from my own experience, observations,
(29:53):
trials, and embarrassments.
And then thinking, thinking the key thing is to be you. I can't fake to be anybody else.
It's just people pick up on that through the camera. It's just people pick up.
People are not dumb. That energy is felt.
So it's very important to translate who you are, you know, outside there.
(30:15):
And it's very, very hard.
You know, if I watch some of my early career videos, I'm like,
I'm closing my eyes, my ears. I don't even want to look at it because I was horrible.
I was horrible. And I think that's going to be helpful to people because,
you know, what's holding a lot of people back is embarrassment.
And somebody once said that the reason why you're not progressing or doing so
(30:44):
well or well is because you're not willing to suck at it.
A lot of people are not willing to suck at anything. So it's helpful the way you said your story.
Like, if you look back to your early career videos, you want to,
you know, close your eyes.
But you went through it. You were willing, you were vulnerable to put it out
(31:09):
there, no matter how embarrassed you were.
So maybe this will help someone that even if it's embarrassing,
just be willing to go through it. That's the only way to move forward.
You know, yeah, we are, we are our worst critics always.
We always see the imperfections. You know, if you share any content with somebody
(31:31):
else, they might just see you
because they're not experts in picking up on things that could be better.
Like, I mean, so maybe somebody like me could be able to pick up,
oh, you know, this is what you did here.
This message was not positioned well, or how you ended, you know,
in a voice that's high pitch versus low pitch when you finish the sentence.
So those are, you know, people who are trained to pick up on these cues can pick up.
(31:54):
Somebody else who's not trained, they'd be like, oh, this is actually a good
video. Why are you afraid?
Because we're all afraid of being out there, putting ourselves out there,
being judged, being embarrassed.
And, you know, there's, and it's valid because social environment,
I should say online social environment sometimes could be very,
(32:14):
very cruel depending which platform you choose to be on.
And that builds that wall. That's very true. So teleprompters.
I have heard that uncles use teleprompters. I'll trace that.
So does it help in the work that you do?
Yes. So teleprompters for sure. Anchors,
(32:34):
I can't speak to everybody using teleprompters in the United States.
I grew up, like I said, in my career, TV career was all back in Lithuania.
So news anchoring for sure was all, you know, teleprompted because you have
to be precise in delivering the message.
You know, the time for the, let's say news, news to be delivered is set.
So 30 minutes. So you have to calculate every minute, you know,
(32:54):
how long each segment is, how long your intro is.
So that's how you would control the time. And if you had in-studio interviews,
you know, that would be, let's say five minute interview for this,
you know, so you would always be on this live broadcast time tracker.
So it's easier to measure and identify the requirements for the time when it's
teleprompted and scripted.
The trick with a teleprompter is you have to read it so that it doesn't sound like you're reading.
(33:19):
And sometimes people who are not trained in using teleprompter,
they think, oh, it's just going to be so much easier. I don't have to remember anything.
And they go in and it's the same problem. They just read it.
They just read it, you know, like a newspaper. The way you have to read it,
you have to read it like you're reading a story to a child.
You know, how you're talking to a person in person. You're using inflections.
(33:42):
You're using voice. You're using pauses.
And that's how you fake it, so to say, that you're reading the teleprompter.
Because it doesn't sound like you're just reading the lines.
It sounds like you're reading a story that you're trying to tell.
You make intentional pauses where they fit.
And there's tricks how we structure the teleprompter as well.
You know, sometimes we make bigger spaces between different paragraphs or capitalize
(34:04):
the words to show that this is a big word.
You have to put more stress on that word or you have to pause. It's a bigger spacing.
You have to pause in the section before you read the other line,
natural kind of way of controlling the flow.
And that is also, you know, a part of training.
It's easier probably than just pure on-camera training because all your coaching
is just on inflection of the voice and a little bit of body language than just,
(34:26):
you know, communication and also exuding your personality, you know,
and being clear in your communication.
The scripted environment is usually very convenient when executives don't have
time or when the words have to be so precise.
Let's say if it's an acquisition or if it's a merger, if it's some type of reputation
(34:47):
management and you have to hear from a leader, the words have to be very, very precise,
legally approved by legal departments so that whatever you say,
once it's out there, nobody has anything to pick up on and challenge you on. right?
So that's when scripts are very crucial and important.
Another aspect of scripts is when if you've mastered it, you can truly save time.
(35:10):
You know, you can just script your little message that you want to talk about on video,
read through it, boom, you can get like 10 videos easily done in probably 30
minutes by scripting them through in advance and just reading in a manner that
it doesn't sound like you're eating, you know, and you're saving time this way.
So there's applications for it.
I've tried both ways. When I do my video content, I've tried both ways and I realized that,
(35:34):
I don't like scripting myself too much, you know, through the teleprompter.
I just like going with the flow and I'd rather spend a little bit more time
gluing the different pieces together in the post-production world than,
you know, scripting verbatim everything because then I sound too perfect and I'm not perfect.
Then I eliminate all the you knows, I eliminate all the stuff that ends up not being truly me.
(35:56):
And I want to be a little bit of me. I want to have a little bit of these imperfections
in my language because I can't hide them in person.
So if I'm too perfect, not in person, then people meet me like, well, she's a literal.
She's complete illiterate. She can't put a sentence together.
(36:17):
Yeah, that's really helpful. So there's a training involved.
No wonder. I've tried teleprompter. I'm like, I watched the video. I didn't like the video.
And then I did another one. I didn't like it. Eventually, I said,
you know what? what, I'm not using this teleprompter. I just take it myself.
You have to be a little bit of an actor on the teleprompter.
(36:38):
The voice inflections, the facial expressions, you have to act a little bit
when it comes to the teleprompter.
It makes sense because when you watch news, for example, CNN.
It's hard to believe that they're reading. They're just flowing. They're just flowing.
And then when you're reading, there's high movement, right? So I guess they've
(37:01):
trained them so much that you don't even see their whole...
Well, it also depends on the distance of how far the teleprompter is.
So the closer it is, the more you will see the eye movement.
The closer to the camera it is, the more you will see the eye movement.
In big studios, you know, when there's a desk and there's a host or an anchor,
I should say, the cameras are normally not right in front of you.
(37:24):
You know, they're much, much further out there.
The teleprompters are, I don't know how much you or your audience knows about
teleprompters in terms of how they work in person. Not much.
Okay, so usually the teleprompters go in front of the camera.
I'm not talking about, let's say, presidential addresses or things like that
(37:44):
where they have teleprompters on the sides and they have to address the audience. It's different.
But when we're talking specifically TV, the teleprompter usually goes in front
of the camera so it's aligned with the lens and it mirrors the text.
So there's a mirror that's in front of it, of the lens, and the camera lens
goes through that clear glass. But the front to the viewer, I mean,
(38:06):
to the anchor, it's a mirrored effect.
So the text is on the bottom and it's mirrored upwards to that teleprompter.
And you're pretty much reading a mirrored text that's reflected from the bottom
of where it's being teleprompted from.
So the camera is usually much, much further out there in studios.
So that's why it doesn't feel like they are reading.
You know, they have a little bit more space to work with, you know,
(38:26):
in acting, so to say, and delivering that message. But, you know,
obviously when you watch some, some, you know, hosts for 30 minutes, just talk.
It's not flowing from their heads with these precise words.
They are reading something or bits and pieces of it, you know,
to get themselves into that mode.
Yeah. And all those mirror and it explains why it's so difficult to do it by yourself in your room.
(38:52):
Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit of a technical challenge.
Yeah. It's a bit of a technical challenge. Yeah. Exactly. So video is different
from stage, of course. Yes.
So the techniques, let's talk about the techniques now. Are the techniques different? Yes.
So in stage, the key thing is to connect with the audience that's present,
(39:16):
that's there physically.
In video, you're connecting with only one person and you don't know where they are.
They're somewhere consuming your content, but you're connecting with that one person.
On stage, you're connecting with multiple people. And when you're presenting
on stage, you have to be engaging.
Some of the tricks still apply, the body language, the use of hands,
(39:36):
the inflection of the voice, the how you tell the story, how you pause,
how you lead into how you build the excitement, you know, what's on the screen
when you're presenting the PowerPoint,
how does that communicate that story, you know, accompanied with your voice.
But the trick here is, is how do you engage the audience? And that is much more
difficult, in my opinion, to control.
(39:58):
You know, unless you are, you have that stage presence that's just,
it's just, your eyes are drawn to you.
It's very, I think it's much more
challenging in my opinion to build stage presence than video presence.
If, if let's say you're not in tune with who you are as a leader that much,
but, but it's much more difficult to control the audience in person.
(40:18):
You know, you have to really be much bigger on stage.
On camera, you have to be a little bit smaller because you're within a frame,
right? Within a frame of the lens.
On stage, you have to fill in the stage. You have to make sure that,
Somebody sitting on that edge of the audience is connecting equally the same
way as somebody in the middle and on that end of the audience.
(40:38):
You just have to be more grand on stage, you know. But again,
naturally grand, not acting grand.
What does that mean? Meaning that, you know, like I said earlier,
when it comes to camera, some people just start performing because they're on
camera and they have like, oh, I have to now be somebody else.
Same stands for stage. You can't be somebody else. You just be you,
(41:01):
and you don't put on the face just because you're on stage.
One thing that you might notice or your audience might notice,
it's very obvious to me as a former news anchor person, but in the United States,
I noticed that a lot of news anchors have very specific inflections of the tone of the voice.
Even the journalists, when they're reporting from the field,
they just speak in a very specific waviness of the voice.
(41:22):
And sometimes people have that stage voice. They're completely different when
they're in person, but then the moment they go on stage, they somehow have the stage voice.
So some people have camera voice, some people have stage voice.
And, and that to me is very obvious to some people it's not,
but to me, it's very obvious.
And to me, it's a big disconnect because when I start speaking to that person, it's different.
(41:45):
The dynamics is different when it's a person versus on stage and there's nothing right or wrong.
Sometimes we just have to get into certain mindset to, you know,
to project in authority that we imagine, you know, that we are.
To me, it's always a look for authenticity hooks, you know.
I want you to be the same way on stage, on camera, as you are when we're talking,
(42:07):
you know, outside of these mediums. Yeah.
Yeah. That makes sense because that makes you more human, right?
I can't imagine, you know, listening to somebody, maybe your favorite someone
online and then you meet the person in person and you're like,
this is not the same person I've been connecting with that can be disconnected.
(42:29):
I, you know, the work you do is very interesting to me because it is real.
The problem is real. And I just, you know, I have an experience with somebody
that used to be my boss and I just hope they're not listening right
now but this is it's not it's just to share the
story and to kind of like
(42:49):
say this problem is really real and we were having an event in my company there
my former company and and my boss a C-suite you know executive was speaking
and was really looking down it was in in a.
Like the stage one, like it was on a stage and there were people in the room.
(43:13):
And as in steam, you know, I felt, oh, come on.
Does that make sense? Like kind of like felt embarrassed for them.
Like, yeah, look up. But looking, you know, with some bit of hindsight,
it's not really their fault, is it?
No. They just haven't been trained. and
(43:36):
and so i i feel that companies
should look into this like maybe formally
or send people for this kind
of training or or maybe take it
personally as your own goal even if the company you're working for is not sending
you on the training make sure you train yourself because and because like i
(43:58):
said in that the story i was sharing i wasn't connecting and i doubt a A lot
of people were connecting with them, with the person.
So that wasn't really helpful. And I told myself, oh, goodness,
I have to be better. I have to be better on stage. I have to be better.
I have to continuously improve myself because this is not good.
But you have the drive, right? You have the drive. Some people just don't.
(44:23):
Yeah, yeah. And I heard you say that helps a lot.
So would you say when one is on stage, I have heard some people say it's better
when you just pick somebody in the audience and just connect to that person.
Do you think that helps or no? What are the tips you can give?
(44:44):
From engagement, like from staying focused, yes.
Right? So if you're walking across the stage, you know who you're connecting
to on that side of the audience, the middle and so forth. It just helps you
hone in a little bit and your eyes are not scattering around all the time, right?
Obviously, you want to occasionally look broader.
Give that broad view that you're seeing somebody in the back, right?
(45:06):
But if you want to stay focused and deliver the message in a concise manner,
it helps you when you kind of pick who you want, who you're talking as you're
wandering around the stage, because at the same time, it gives you feedback.
Are they engaged? Are they looking on the phone? You know, are they laughing? Are they smiling?
Like, what's that emotional, you know, connection, not connection,
but expression on the face that you're seeing, right? which gives you immediate
(45:29):
feedback on like camera, you know, how to maybe adjust your content or how you present it, right?
Standing there, just looking down or just reading the slides,
that a lot happens. People just read the slides as if they don't know what the story is.
It's twofold thing. It's lack of coaching.
And sometimes people are just not, they just don't like the visibility.
(45:54):
You know, they just don't like being on stage or on camera, they don't like all that attention.
And it's so outside of their comfort zone that they just, they're just hiding.
Let me get it over with and I'll be out of here, you know?
So that's why I said sometimes it really depends on that internal driver.
If you decide to, okay, my career is stalling. I can't get through.
(46:19):
I'm not visible. I have so much to offer. Nobody is noticing me in the corporate world.
Well, how can I improve that? video, or even putting yourself in the situations
where volunteering to do a
presentation in some breakout session at a conference or something, right?
You start attracting that visibility to yourself to be noticed,
(46:40):
to accelerate your career path as well.
People who don't want that visibility, who want to be hiding behind the walls,
they will never pursue those mediums. they will never want to be,
or they will never, no matter how much coaching you do, they may just never
get out of their own skin.
It's just not their nature. That's why there's extroverts and introverts and
(47:02):
the mix in between, you know? Yeah.
So internet drive again, internet drive. So that helps a lot.
So you also help with video stories.
What does that mean? Video storytelling. So as I said, and referred to earlier,
when I moved here into the United States, I started my entrepreneurial career,
(47:22):
so to say, through business storytelling.
And one of the paths that took me to that direction was when somebody,
when I started networking with a business environment, one of the ladies said,
hey, Loretta, with your background, you should be doing YouTube videos.
And I was like, well, what does this mean? I had no idea. That was 2008,
2009, sometime in that year range.
(47:43):
YouTube was just starting to gain traction. And that lady was in marketing.
So she had a client and she said, I want you to go and just film her.
And I'm like, okay, let me try it out. I had no idea.
Like I, even though I am technical enough, but I, you know, I, camera is not my thing.
I don't like operating camera. And I learned that fairly quickly in that particular
(48:05):
exercise when she sent me over and she said, okay, I need you to capture this
video of this business owner. And I want to put it on her website.
I invested into camera gear. I started reading about the lighting because obviously
when, when I'm a news anchor, all of this is taken care of.
I don't have to worry about it. Although naturally, I've always been a documentary
in my family since early days, you know, video or photos.
(48:28):
I would always be that person doing and documenting everybody's life.
But when I had to do it professionally, I realized it's not for me.
It's too much technical because people are paying money to actually get good
quality. And I know where I lack in those skills. else.
So when I showed up to that person, to that person's home, and I set up everything
that I was to that basic knowledge that I had back then with lighting,
(48:50):
with microphones, with my basic camera that I invested into.
And I started interviewing her about her business. And I started giving her
feedback about, you know, oh, is that what you're saying here?
So if you're saying that, and if you mean that, can you rephrase it slightly differently?
You know, because for the video, we need a little bit shorter sentences.
And that's when I realized that.
(49:11):
I am actually good at extracting that message, that story, because I have listener ears.
I can edit content on the spot in my head. I know that, oh, he or she said something earlier.
That actually ties back to what he or she said later in the video or in that interview.
And I can visualize in my head how all of it connects, you know,
(49:32):
because I edit everything on the spot in my head as we're going through the story.
Story so so so that's why
that that's humanizing you know the businesses that's
why i pursued that track because i wanted to
help businesses share those true human stories and again i started with small
business owners because corporations were so far behind in that type of thinking
(49:54):
they were thinking only based on the needs of the business oh we have a trade
show we need a product video or we have a demo and we need to get this captured
they were not thinking about the connection with people, executives connecting to their audiences,
you know, or salespeople using video as a sales tool.
Back then, they were not thinking about that. So it was, I think I was way too
(50:15):
early with my mission back then.
Now with AI world, I feel that real video is just playing that much bigger of
a role because there could be a lot of fake content out there and people will
have to learn to decipher what's real, what's not real.
And video can be that tool, especially if you're that real person talking and
(50:36):
you're not faking yourself by using AI tools.
So there's a way a story can be told and obviously it should be told better
with some skills and that's how you help.
Yes, correct. Sorry. Yes, that was your question.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have, you know, my premise is communication, right?
(50:56):
So I studied journalism and my premise is communication. Are we communicating clearly?
Are we translating what we want to say clearly?
And a lot of times, when we are in the weeds with our own messages,
with our own content, with our own sort of selling points, we sometimes lose the clarity.
And that I noticed very much in the tech world. Engineers are so good at talking
(51:19):
about feature specifications and how they build this.
And my job is to distill that to common language that people can understand.
So I have to really tune in and on the spot, understand the business,
understand the product,
understand what they're trying to achieve with it, and guide them to deliver
(51:43):
the message that resonates with the audience who's going to be consuming that content.
So it's a lot of listening ears, a lot of, you know, education I have to go through all the time.
Because you can't really tell
a good story if you don't understand what that person is trying to say.
So I have to educate myself through those conversations, digest it,
(52:04):
and then say, oh, if that's what you're doing, If that's for this market,
so then this is probably the story we have to tell.
And they're like, oh, yeah, that's right. Can you tell it for me?
I said, no, this is your job.
Yeah. You're right. Because technical people are so technical. So they understand it.
But the problem is then making another person to understand what they say.
(52:29):
Yeah. I personally feel also that I'm an accountant, that accountants are,
you know, because of the nature of the profession, are not usually outward facing.
The accountants are usually like working in the background.
And so I personally believe that accountants are not people that are used to
(52:51):
camera, that are used to public speaking.
And I feel it doesn't do a lot of accountants, it doesn't do them any favours,
it doesn't help them if they just accept that.
I feel that accountants also, just like you help technical people,
I feel like accountants do need help with speaking more.
(53:15):
Being visible more, you know, engaging with the camera because that's not the
natural sphere of the profession.
Yeah. So I release with that very well.
Yeah. And Ola, what you're doing, for example, you're using video as a medium,
you know, for your podcast.
So you are putting yourself out. And so if you looked in your industry,
(53:37):
to your point, how many accountants are doing this? Yeah.
Probably you can count on fingers, right? So you have the ability to stand out
within that market with your authority, with your thoughts, with your ideas,
and draw people towards you.
Because like I said, it builds that rapport. It builds that relationship up front.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Loretta. It's one of my missions.
(54:00):
I am so passionate about it. So I'm still looking at ways I can help because
I really believe it's going to help the profession a lot if we,
you know, are more visible as accountants.
If we appear on camera more, I feel, you know, that we will progress our careers better that way.
Listen, Loretta, it's been so, so nice speaking with you.
(54:23):
As you know, we have a tradition on this podcast where I ask our guests what
they would like to learn next.
So for you what would you like to list
ah okay i would probably meaning as a topic for your content in that in that
no oh oh just for myself in my life oh in my life yeah in my life in your life
(54:45):
i have so many things i want to learn in my life let's start with learning how to swim.
Okay i just find it interesting i just because i'm not about learning so i i
literally just want to know what you want to learn next you know it doesn't
matter anywhere so I guess that's interesting.
Yes. So I have a love and hate relationship with AI. I have to admit that.
(55:07):
I love it for certain aspects of productivity. I love for that.
Sometimes, and I told you earlier, if I'm stuck looking at a blank sheet of
paper because writing is not my skill, it's easier for me to talk and record
myself and just transcribe this and then create content out of that.
But sometimes I just don't have that. I just need to write something immediately.
So I like AI help for these idea idea generation.
(55:31):
I like AI's help for some creative aspects of it, but I also hate it because it dehumanizes.
And that's the aspect that, you know, I'm seeing so much of right now online
that I feel I would like to learn, you know, the balance.
And I think I know that balance intuitively, right?
But how do I find that happy medium where I don't feel guilty using AI on efficiencies,
(55:59):
adopting that thing because it's going to stay here, like video.
It's going to stay here. So we will have to learn to live with it.
But how can I learn not to feel guilty by sometimes leaning onto it,
you know, improving and saving time on certain things?
What I don't do and what I alluded to, what I see a lot of right now happening
(56:19):
is, you know, I hate the copy pastes that I see, identical messages,
identical phrases, identical structure of the sentences.
And I'm like, Like, oh, what is that human aspect?
You know, so for me, it's the balance of not feeling guilty.
I don't use it to the extent where I take it and I literally plop it into content as is.
(56:41):
My mission, like you had your mission, but my goal and my mission is to just stay human.
Stay human somehow, you know.
Clean up that AI, use it for help, don't feel guilty.
But you know make it human just make
it human i so much love that and that's really interesting
i believe in here as well at the same time
(57:04):
i believe in connections and i believe that you know right from ever since we
can remember the connections have always that human connection has always been
there we should not lose it but at the same time like you say ai is here to stay So that balance,
that's a very key thing you just said right there.
(57:26):
So that balance is very key to finding it. So we'll continue to learn.
Again, thanks so much, Loretta. This has been really helpful.
I have no doubts that it's going to help someone out there.
So thank you. Thank you, Ola, for inviting me into your podcast.
I really appreciate that. You're welcome.
Music.
Well, I've seen some of those recordings, and some of them are really bad.
So that's where the opportunity arises, you know, to help them.
I truly want to help, you know, people to get better, because I know how powerful
video is. is talking to the microphone in this kind of, let's say,
(00:20):
podcast kind of setup, right?
The microphone would be higher, it would be very visible, you know,
and they're talking as if they're talking to somebody.
So the camera is kind of on the side, which gives the impression.
In today's episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Loretta.
Loretta is an expert helping entrepreneurs and executives to enhance their onstage
(00:43):
presence, boost their on-camera confidence.
We explored practical habits for connecting with the camera,
delved into the psychology behind camera performance, and shared some personal
stories that brought us to this point.
Now, before we dive into our conversation, I have to admit, I did speak with
(01:05):
Loretta before recording this.
So fingers crossed, it's a staple from the last one I did.
Now, without further ado, let's watch as Loretta introduces herself.
My name is Loretta Terozaita. I fix marketing and communications chaos for growing
B2B companies and startups so they can unlock visibility, trust, and authority.
(01:26):
I am also an executive and company presence strategist, fractional CMO, and on-camera coach.
I have over 20 years of cumulative industry experience as a former TV news anchor,
video producer, and marketing and communications strategist.
When I work with companies and their leaders, I focus on one key thing,
how to make them look good and elevate their authority and visibility in the market.
(01:46):
I specialize in companies that are in the transitional phases specifically and
help them enhance both executive and company visibility, trust,
and authority in the market.
When I moved to the United States in 2003, one of the things I discovered was
(02:07):
that a lot of people or a lot of leadership team,
that was, let's say, what, 20 years ago, were hiding behind these corporate walls.
They were really not out there relating to their audiences, relating to their
customers in a manner that they, you know, can do right now in this day and
age when video is very prominent.
So one of the missions that I set for myself was to humanize those companies.
(02:30):
And by that, I meant, you know, get those people out of those corporate walls
calls into the public, you know, outside of, you know, stage,
you know, presentations and keynotes, but truly connecting with people through
video content, video as a medium.
And what I uncovered, and back then I lived in Silicon Valley.
So what I uncovered back then was that a lot of technology people,
(02:51):
people in technology industry, right?
Really did not know how to use this medium properly. And I come from the background of TV journalism.
So to me, camera is a very natural thing, but to executives or to senior directors,
people in corporate world, or even entrepreneurs in tech, they really struggle
to tell their story, to be themselves on camera.
And through those, you know, exercises, through those coaching,
(03:14):
you know, experiences that I've had when working with people,
you know, I realized that it's a a huge, huge problem.
And unless they master video, even especially right now, when it's that much
more important, you know, they will be continuing to stay invisible.
Not relatable and not connecting, you know, in a matter that people consume the content right now.
So that was probably one of the reasons why this particular communications medium,
(03:36):
you know, jumped out to me as one of the priorities when it comes to leadership.
I think the mindset, the intentions, the right for self spirituality aspect of it, right?
From the very beginning, from the very early ages of my life,
I think I was maybe 12 or 13 or something like that.
Maybe even younger, actually, maybe 10 to 13 years of age.
You know, I would be watching nightly news on television and I would be telling
(03:58):
my parents one day I will be in front of camera sitting there and reading the news.
You know, there was one news anchor that I admired a lot. She was so beautiful. She was so pretty.
She just had a good energy about her. And I just dreamed of being there one day.
So that was, like I said, 10, 11 years of age. Now, obviously.
(04:19):
I didn't know what mindset work is back then as a child, nor did my parents
pay a lot of attention to that.
But as obviously as I grew up and as I evolved as a human being,
you know, through the years, you know, I noticed the natural and my parents
also noticed the natural ability to communicate that I have.
And I leaned, I started, you know, when I was college age, I went to the University
(04:42):
of Vilnius and studied journalism.
And specifically through the study of the journalism, I realized that I really
don't like writing content.
Even to this day, I really don't like writing content. That's not my medium.
I tried radio and radio to me is like talking into the abyss.
It's just a very closed off environment where you're just in front of the microphone
(05:04):
and you don't even know who you're talking to.
I mean, some could say that it's similar with anchoring the news,
but with anchoring, you know, in a studio as a news anchor, you still have a
slightly different dynamics. There's people with cameras, there's light.
It's just a different dynamics and you imagine your audience differently.
So when I did try, you know, the TV aspect of it, I felt like it's within my nature.
(05:25):
And one of the ways that I was put in front of the camera was there was a new
program that was being established on the national television station.
And they were looking for news anchors of that program. It was a 10 minute or
20 minute business program, as far as I remember.
And they were looking for fresh faces for news anchor. And I think I was in
my second year of university back then.
And I thought I would, you know, try it out. So they plopped me in front of
(05:49):
the camera, put the teleprompter. I've never seen the teleprompter in my life.
And they said, okay, read.
And I did that and I didn't overthink it. And that I think was the key.
I did not overthink it. I was just doing what I was told to do and it was being me.
And it just flowed naturally from me because I did not see camera as a thing
(06:11):
that I should be afraid of.
And a lot of times that's what people pick up when they see that button,
the green light, the record button, you know, the red light,
I should say, you know, on the record in studio camera,
you know, they immediately have this like shutdown of their personality,
shutdown of what they wanted to say, of who they are.
(06:31):
Now they go into the performance mode and that's the opposite of what camera needs.
You cannot be performing unless you're the actor, but you cannot be performing
in front of the camera. You have to come across as you.
And that's the biggest challenge a lot of executives, you know,
or leaders or entrepreneurs or founders have, you know, it's how they can translate
(06:54):
that passion that they have in person through the media and what they need to
connect with the audience virtually.
So I, like I said, I don't know why it was natural to me. Maybe it was meant to be.
I materialized that and thought about it, you know, for pretty much the majority
of my, you know, young life.
And it just probably was the calling of some sorts. Yeah, I was going to say
(07:15):
that possibly you are living your purpose because when you are doing what you're
meant to do, I have found it just comes naturally to you.
There's something that everybody is very, you know, exceptionally good at,
and it just takes little effort for you.
(07:35):
So maybe you're living your purpose. And when I was asking that question,
I was going to say, there's this popular saying where people say,
oh, some people believe that leaders are made while some believe that leaders are born.
And so that's why I asked you that question, because I found that interesting
when I was listening to you and you said you have never felt fearful in front of the camera.
(08:00):
And I said, well, perhaps Lawrence was born for the camera, like some of us. It was.
So in your work with founders and all, you know, entrepreneurs,
so if somebody wasn't born to be on camera like you, would you say you can work
with virtually anybody, no matter how fearful or how non-confident they are?
(08:26):
Yeah. There's a couple of things that, you know, prevent some of them to be
successful in going through the coaching program or how to improve their presence
on camera or how to even use the medium.
And I found that a lot of times that ties back to the internal drive.
You know, if they don't believe that they need it, they will not get through it.
If they believe they have to grow into that role, they have to become more visible.
(08:51):
It's part of them as leaders to
you know, through their career, they will go through the program and they will
become successful. We will uncover those layers.
But those who don't, those who think I don't need it, why would I do it?
I'm doing this just because I was asked by my boss to be and deliver this message.
It's not the right energy, you know, and I've had instances where people,
(09:14):
you know, we would spend hours and hours coaching, you know,
they would show up to the studio, would have I have only 30 minutes with that
particular executive and I'd be doing everything possible to help them get comfortable on camera.
And it just doesn't click and it shows on camera, right?
And then when they see themselves, they don't like it. That even more,
that rejection feeling is, is, is even bigger at that point because they're
(09:36):
just not happy with what they're, what they're seeing.
To me, sometimes it's also, you know, the more you do it, the more comfortable you become, right?
But if they have that first fearful impression that first, this was painful,
I don't want to deal with this anymore, they will not continue doing and they
will not get better either.
So it's kind of like a little bit of a chicken and egg in that sense.
(09:57):
But yeah, I've had multiple instances where people would see me in the hallway
and be like, well, right, don't come to me.
I don't want to talk to you. I know you're going to pull me to be in front of the camera.
I don't want to deal with that. You know, it was too stressful of the conversation.
And, you know, it does take a lot of time, especially when I've interviewed
people for the very first time, you know, they show up, we agree that,
okay, this particular message is going to be delivered via video and they've
(10:20):
never done video work before.
You know, I coached them a little bit in advance on how to think about the messaging,
about the story, you know, identify the pillar points, you know,
that storytelling, and then we would show up on stage, not on stage, on set.
And it would take me three hours to get that story out. So...
It is a process for those who are not used to it, but a lot of that prep work,
(10:44):
you know, that I do sometimes, you know, it depends, you know, how people like to work.
Sometimes they just say, okay, just coach me on the spot and I'll do it on the spot.
Sometimes people need a little bit more handholding leading to the actual recording
so that have time to think about it, kind of, you know, digest,
get comfortable with the feeling.
And I provide certain, you know, steps that they have to do to just be comfortable
(11:04):
with hearing their own voice, you know, just record themselves as reading to
that, to that video interview.
So yes, to answer your question, I know I gave a long-winded answer,
but to answer your question, if it's possible or not possible.
It is possible, but it has to, in a way, be internally driven as well.
They have to recognize that there is a need, they have to do it,
(11:25):
and they will make it work, you know, and I can work with that.
Obviously, nobody is born, or I should say, not a lot of people are born naturally
good on camera, to be good on camera.
Yeah the majority will be really afraid
of it yeah like me i am learning
like i told you before we started recording that uh it's one of the reasons
why i wanted to talk to you about this because i am learning you know to be
(11:49):
confident on camera too and i know a lot of entrepreneurs like me uh learning
as well and so i wanted to talk to you so that we can get something that
will help us write practical things that we can start doing that will really help us from right now.
And, you know, I was talking to you earlier. I said, so one of the things, and context is helpful.
(12:12):
I like the way you give context to that question because that's helpful to really
know and see, oh, actually, I can improve or there's hope for me.
Okay, if I start doing it this way.
For example, when you said that someone has to really, you have to have self-drive.
You have to want to do it. Not that, oh, my boss said I should do it or my,
(12:35):
you know, maybe public relations department or because I want to do that.
So you really have to want to connect.
And then you said that that shows in the camera, it shows in the work that you do with people.
You know, it resonates with me because like I I was speaking with you earlier,
I said, I have heard that conversations are easier.
(12:57):
People have done research to say people enjoy conversations and have more meaningful
conversations, for example, when they are side by side with people rather than
facing somebody directly.
Like when you are in a car with someone, you find out that you have better conversations
or when you're walking with someone maybe along the beach.
So I wonder whether that's why people are not comfortable on camera,
(13:24):
because it's kind of intimidating, isn't it?
So if it's true that people have better conversations side by side,
then you have a camera staring in front of you.
I wonder if technology can make it so whereby you can be talking to a camera
and then it can be by your side. Yeah.
(13:45):
Maybe that would make you more comfortable. I'm just saying,
I don't know. You know, I don't know how much video content you or your audience consumes online.
But the point that ties back to what you're saying is this.
What I've observed recently happen, especially on Instagram,
because that serves that dynamics, that type of medium very well.
And I'm not a TikToker, so I don't go to TikTok. I don't know what content is there exactly.
(14:07):
But let's say Instagram, sometimes I just go there for inspiration or to just
look at beautiful things sometimes, you know.
But what I've noticed recently for the, in the past two years,
I've noticed people talking to the microphone in this kind of,
let's say, podcast kind of setup, right?
The microphone would be higher, it would be very visible, you know,
and they're talking as if they're talking to somebody. So the camera is kind of on the side.
(14:31):
Which gives the impression that they are being interviewed by somebody else.
And for a while, I thought, oh, that's a lot of people being interviewed until it clicked to me.
I'm like, they're using a camera trick because they're not doing directly to camera.
They are building their authority by staging the interviews, right?
(14:51):
So they're staging that perception that you're being interviewed.
And then you become, oh, somebody is asking me these awesome questions.
I have these awesome answers, you know. know, and I'm giving them as if somebody
else on the other side is sitting.
So when I picked up on that, you have started, you know, being very critical
in the setting and the setup, you know, I started analyzing eye level and trying
(15:13):
to catch, you know, are they reading the script or are they actually talking to a person, right?
So there are tricks, right? When we talk directly to camera,
that's one of the most difficult things because you really like in an in-person
conversation sometimes, right?
When you're conversing with somebody face-to-face, let's say across the table,
you want to engage with their eyes, right?
You don't start wandering around and talking to somebody while you're turned away.
(15:34):
You're talking to somebody while looking at them. And what camera gives when
you're talking directly to camera, it's that eye connection, you know?
So you right now on the receiving end or whoever's going to be watching this,
you know, they will be connecting with my eyes because I'm looking exactly into the lens.
I'm not looking to the sides. I'm not looking at myself at the moment,
you know, into the frame. I'm looking directly into that lens.
(15:56):
And that's the most difficult thing when it comes to keeping that connection
with the camera, because naturally we want to wander around because we're uncomfortable.
We're uncomfortable looking into this little thing that means nothing.
It's just a device, right? But that's what connects, you know,
and that's what translates.
Now, if we convert that into a, let's say, studio setup or an interview,
media interview in a TV studio or an interview for a documentary on an interview
(16:20):
for a business, you know, corporation, you know.
Story of some sorts. You know, usually there is a producer, right?
So the setup is sometimes two camera angles.
And that's when the person is not talking to the camera, but they're answering
the questions to the producer.
You know, they're looking away from the camera. They're talking to somebody.
That's why the digital, you know, the different influencers picked up on that
(16:43):
notion, mimicking it, right? Because it's much easier to talk to somebody.
And you can easily, you know, if I had a script over here in front of me,
I could easily be reading what I'm saying right now.
And people would be thinking that I'm talking, you know, I'm just naturally
expressing my thoughts.
So yes, that lens gives a little bit of that fear and intimidation because you
have to truly contain the eye levels, the concentration on focusing,
(17:06):
you know, into that little dot.
And the reason for that is people who are consuming, the moment you start wandering
around with your eyes or turning around, you become less confident.
You appear like you don't know what you're talking about.
You're a little bit scattered, feels like you are not sure what you want to
say either because you're constantly, your eyes are always moving around.
So direct-to-camera versus indirect are two completely different type of coachings.
(17:31):
As the podcast benefited you in one way or the other so far,
if you haven't done so already, this is the time to like and follow the channel.
Thanks very much. Part of what I teach at the Small Business Startup School
is financial literacy. And I thought sharing some lessons in each podcast episode
(17:54):
may be beneficial. So here we go.
Recently, I was teaching financial resilience.
Financial resilience is simply having the confidence that things are going to
be better, no matter the setback that you may be experiencing financially,
as long as you are breathing,
(18:16):
I encourage you to believe that things will be better. Your financial situation will improve.
Just know that you can do this. Your financial situations will improve.
What you need to do is to keep on learning financial literacy.
So financial literacy is adding that courage and that confidence and believing,
(18:42):
irrespective of the circumstances, however adverse that may be affecting you financially,
having that belief that things are going to improve, that your situation,
your financial situation is going to be better as long as you are breathing.
When people consume content that is digital on the phones, video content,
(19:06):
I should say, on the phones, they normally consume it alone.
They don't gather like in a movie theater with a bunch of people unless there's
a specific program like, you know, a stream of Emmy Awards or Oscars, right?
So then maybe there's a party of sorts and then people watch it live.
But when we're watching content online of any of the experts that we follow,
any of the influencers, any of people who really produce content and deliver
(19:31):
it via video as a medium, we normally consume it online.
Alone, on the go, you know, in front of our computers.
And that person has to speak to us, to me, one person, not masses of people,
even though the reach is masses, one by one by one, big masses, right?
But a person on the other side of the lens speaks to just one person.
(19:53):
And that person has to feel the connection.
Oh, he's delivering that information to me, you know, because we are self-absorbed.
It's about us all the time, right? It's not about other people.
It's about us when we consume content. We find it either relatable or not relatable.
And that's why it is, you know, important to not consider that lens as a device.
(20:15):
It's just a transmission of your message to a person. Imagine this as an eye,
you know, an eye of somebody. You're looking at somebody's eyes.
Like I said, if you were sitting across the a table for me right now,
you know, I would be talking to you and holding my, you know, glance at you.
Is that the right word to use? I don't know. My, my, my eyes on you, right?
I would not be looking around unless I'm thinking.
(20:36):
And that's, you know, to a point when people think naturally,
you know, they, I, for example, I look upwards when I think,
and sometimes I look this way upwards.
Sometimes I look that way upwards, right? So those types of moves from camera are okay. Okay.
Where it's not okay is when it's those small eye movements, you know,
where it's like, you feel like you're looking for something out there.
(20:57):
And that's when people start thinking, oh, this is not the right,
you know, energy. I'm not feeling this person. They don't know what they're talking about.
But when you're thoughtful, again, that goes back to the presence,
who you are as a person, how does that translate through camera?
You know? So if let's say I'm standing here and you're asking me a question,
I have to have a moment to think about I would normally be doing something like
(21:18):
this and they'd be like, okay, so that's normal, right?
It's like, that's what would happen in normal conversation, right?
So again, it's a dynamic between two people conversation via virtual environment
and one-on-one when you're a one, one person, when you're recording your own messages, you know?
And you just have to learn certain tricks, you know, and translate who you really
(21:38):
are, translate that energy through the lens.
Okay. What are the tricks? The tricks are, you know, to uncover those layers,
you know, as to pay attention to who you are.
Like, for example, I know I use a lot of hands.
Sometimes, you know, people are still, right? And what the trick with a camera
is that camera exaggerates either very good things or very bad things.
(22:03):
So you don't really want to be too stiff
on camera because you will be not interesting not
engaging you have to have a little bit of your dynamics go through the lens
you know so and sometimes you just have to find that balance so it's not like
you know i'm not coming at you with my energy i have to understand the distance
(22:23):
you know let's say if i'm moving my hand here up to the microphone phone, it's natural, right?
The moment I move over here, it'd be like into the frame, right?
So you have to learn, you know, where that frame that you have to reside within has to be.
And same applies not only for virtual environments, but also for,
you know, in-studio environments.
(22:44):
You know, sometimes executives would come to studio and be like this, like soldiers.
And they would be talking to me like soldiers.
I know who you are as a person. That's not who you are as a person.
Give me a little bit of oomph, you know, give me a little bit of hand,
you know, and, and of course, those hand movements have to be thoughtful.
You can't also be very, just using them just to use them.
(23:04):
They have to be precise to accommodate your message, you know,
and finding those flavors, finding, you know, and kind of understanding your
personality and testing out a little bit. How does that come across on camera?
You know, I noticed, and I even did a post on it and I'm still doing it right now, actually,
I noticed my, my horrific fellow words that when I started listening to my own
(23:28):
interviews, I'm like, oh my God, this is something I'm coaching executives and leaders on.
And I'm doing this key mistake myself, you know, here we go.
You know, I use the word, you know, and so, and I don't know how to get rid
of them because I speak fast.
And sometimes, times, you know, when I pause, now I'm starting to catch myself.
(23:50):
When I pause, I feel I need to fill a little bit of that gap,
which I shouldn't. I should be just made a sentence, you know,
pause a little bit, make another sentence.
So some of it is habitual and they become so much more vivid and prominent on
camera that you will hate it.
That's what happened to me. I hated it. I said, how do I need to get rid of
(24:11):
this? You know, here we go. You know.
But you know what? Until you mention it, I didn't even notice.
I started noticing when I started listening to all the interviews that I was
in, the kind of back to back.
And I needed to extract snippets. And one snippet would have like five you know's.
(24:33):
And I was like, what the heck, Loretta? You have to stop doing that.
You have to get rid of this word in your language.
Yeah, so very helpful. When you, I was speaking to you earlier,
Loretta, I said, a lot of founders I speak to, they say to me,
(24:54):
I'm embarrassed about, you know, me recording, they recorded themselves.
What has happened is they recorded themselves cells and they watched it and
they're like, no way I'm listening to that.
When I was listening to one of your recordings, you said, record yourself, practice.
And my next question to you is, I have spoken with founders that recorded themselves
(25:20):
and they're like, I'm not doing that.
Nope. I'm too embarrassed. What can help?
Well, I've seen some of those recordings and some of them are really bad.
So that's where the opportunity, that's where the opportunity arises,
you know, to, to help them.
I really, I truly want to help, you know, people to get better because I know how powerful video is.
(25:44):
I come from that medium. I come from that background. And when people realize
how much more visibility they can get, if they get in front of camera and master
the communication through it,
it's just the floodgates open because the attention is more on that. We all know, right?
We all know. Why do, you know, movie stars exist or, you know, musicians exist?
(26:04):
Because we watch them. We look at them. We know their lives,
right? All eyes are on them.
And if they're good at it, we want to watch more and more of them.
So same happens in the corporate world or in the entrepreneurial and business world.
If you become the authority of your business, people will build more trust with you.
(26:26):
Again, one of the early days when I started my video producing freelancing business
back in 2010, you know, I was like, okay, how do I, how do I even pitch this idea?
You know, how do I even get people comfortable to, with the idea that they have to be on video?
And one of the key things, as I said earlier, is humanizing the brand,
humanizing your business because it's, people are, how cliche it sounds,
(26:50):
people do business with people, you know?
And one of the first things that even exists today, you would sometimes go to
the website, let's say, of a smaller business, you know, where it's not a corporate,
you know, executive leadership display. Let's say smaller business.
You would read about all the awesome things they've done for their clients.
And if I'm bought into the idea that they're great, I want to hire them to do
(27:14):
whatever, I don't know, fix my house or something.
And I go into their About page, and there's nothing.
There's no picture that I could see. There's no video. There's nothing about
them that will make me pull the trigger that I know now who they are,
that they're real people.
So video just brings that dynamics, you know, even in our conversation,
(27:35):
right? You see how I operate. I see how you communicate.
I see, you know, the differences. And we all build that rapport about each other
through video as a medium. And then when you meet that person in person,
you kind of feel like you already know them because you've seen them.
You already know their energy. You already know their vibe.
You already know the mistakes they make when they communicate grammar mistakes like me.
(28:00):
Yeah, so connection is better. Yeah. Yes. So it's that that,
you know, sometimes helps people understand.
And of course, like I said earlier, when you see yourself and you do it by yourself,
you know, thinking, okay, I will try it and you, you don't like it.
You just build that wall of rejection bigger, you know?
(28:21):
So you have to literally record yourself multiple, multiple times because the
way we hear ourselves internally, when we speak, it's different how you hear me right now.
My voice projection comes to your ears completely different than how I hear
myself right now speaking because of how audio travels.
And like I said, video exaggerates things. So if we had a little tick of some
(28:44):
sorts, I know that I always tilt my head.
I know that I say, you know, all the time. So it becomes that much bigger.
And things that you do right also get exaggerated because their personality gets through.
So it's a medium that requires a little bit of work for those who really are
not comfortable working within that medium.
So they need a little bit of the guidance and working through it and trying it out.
(29:09):
And, you know, as an example, as a news anchor, for example,
when I started my career as a news anchor, nobody really coached me.
I didn't really know how to be a good news anchor. I just went in as myself
and I thought, okay, I guess they hired me for that.
So I probably am good with what I have.
But back then I would watch, you know, CNN, BBC News, and I would see a completely different.
(29:33):
Dynamics on the hosts, anchors in those other channels, Western world channels
back then, because I grew up in the USSR environment.
And on-camera coaching in Lithuania did not exist. So I did not get any professional coaching.
Everything that I've learned came from my own experience, observations,
(29:53):
trials, and embarrassments.
And then thinking, thinking the key thing is to be you. I can't fake to be anybody else.
It's just people pick up on that through the camera. It's just people pick up.
People are not dumb. That energy is felt.
So it's very important to translate who you are, you know, outside there.
(30:15):
And it's very, very hard.
You know, if I watch some of my early career videos, I'm like,
I'm closing my eyes, my ears. I don't even want to look at it because I was horrible.
I was horrible. And I think that's going to be helpful to people because,
you know, what's holding a lot of people back is embarrassment.
And somebody once said that the reason why you're not progressing or doing so
(30:44):
well or well is because you're not willing to suck at it.
A lot of people are not willing to suck at anything. So it's helpful the way you said your story.
Like, if you look back to your early career videos, you want to,
you know, close your eyes.
But you went through it. You were willing, you were vulnerable to put it out
(31:09):
there, no matter how embarrassed you were.
So maybe this will help someone that even if it's embarrassing,
just be willing to go through it. That's the only way to move forward.
You know, yeah, we are, we are our worst critics always.
We always see the imperfections. You know, if you share any content with somebody
(31:31):
else, they might just see you
because they're not experts in picking up on things that could be better.
Like, I mean, so maybe somebody like me could be able to pick up,
oh, you know, this is what you did here.
This message was not positioned well, or how you ended, you know,
in a voice that's high pitch versus low pitch when you finish the sentence.
So those are, you know, people who are trained to pick up on these cues can pick up.
(31:54):
Somebody else who's not trained, they'd be like, oh, this is actually a good
video. Why are you afraid?
Because we're all afraid of being out there, putting ourselves out there,
being judged, being embarrassed.
And, you know, there's, and it's valid because social environment,
I should say online social environment sometimes could be very,
(32:14):
very cruel depending which platform you choose to be on.
And that builds that wall. That's very true. So teleprompters.
I have heard that uncles use teleprompters. I'll trace that.
So does it help in the work that you do?
Yes. So teleprompters for sure. Anchors,
(32:34):
I can't speak to everybody using teleprompters in the United States.
I grew up, like I said, in my career, TV career was all back in Lithuania.
So news anchoring for sure was all, you know, teleprompted because you have
to be precise in delivering the message.
You know, the time for the, let's say news, news to be delivered is set.
So 30 minutes. So you have to calculate every minute, you know,
(32:54):
how long each segment is, how long your intro is.
So that's how you would control the time. And if you had in-studio interviews,
you know, that would be, let's say five minute interview for this,
you know, so you would always be on this live broadcast time tracker.
So it's easier to measure and identify the requirements for the time when it's
teleprompted and scripted.
The trick with a teleprompter is you have to read it so that it doesn't sound like you're reading.
(33:19):
And sometimes people who are not trained in using teleprompter,
they think, oh, it's just going to be so much easier. I don't have to remember anything.
And they go in and it's the same problem. They just read it.
They just read it, you know, like a newspaper. The way you have to read it,
you have to read it like you're reading a story to a child.
You know, how you're talking to a person in person. You're using inflections.
(33:42):
You're using voice. You're using pauses.
And that's how you fake it, so to say, that you're reading the teleprompter.
Because it doesn't sound like you're just reading the lines.
It sounds like you're reading a story that you're trying to tell.
You make intentional pauses where they fit.
And there's tricks how we structure the teleprompter as well.
You know, sometimes we make bigger spaces between different paragraphs or capitalize
(34:04):
the words to show that this is a big word.
You have to put more stress on that word or you have to pause. It's a bigger spacing.
You have to pause in the section before you read the other line,
natural kind of way of controlling the flow.
And that is also, you know, a part of training.
It's easier probably than just pure on-camera training because all your coaching
is just on inflection of the voice and a little bit of body language than just,
(34:26):
you know, communication and also exuding your personality, you know,
and being clear in your communication.
The scripted environment is usually very convenient when executives don't have
time or when the words have to be so precise.
Let's say if it's an acquisition or if it's a merger, if it's some type of reputation
(34:47):
management and you have to hear from a leader, the words have to be very, very precise,
legally approved by legal departments so that whatever you say,
once it's out there, nobody has anything to pick up on and challenge you on. right?
So that's when scripts are very crucial and important.
Another aspect of scripts is when if you've mastered it, you can truly save time.
(35:10):
You know, you can just script your little message that you want to talk about on video,
read through it, boom, you can get like 10 videos easily done in probably 30
minutes by scripting them through in advance and just reading in a manner that
it doesn't sound like you're eating, you know, and you're saving time this way.
So there's applications for it.
I've tried both ways. When I do my video content, I've tried both ways and I realized that,
(35:34):
I don't like scripting myself too much, you know, through the teleprompter.
I just like going with the flow and I'd rather spend a little bit more time
gluing the different pieces together in the post-production world than,
you know, scripting verbatim everything because then I sound too perfect and I'm not perfect.
Then I eliminate all the you knows, I eliminate all the stuff that ends up not being truly me.
(35:56):
And I want to be a little bit of me. I want to have a little bit of these imperfections
in my language because I can't hide them in person.
So if I'm too perfect, not in person, then people meet me like, well, she's a literal.
She's complete illiterate. She can't put a sentence together.
(36:17):
Yeah, that's really helpful. So there's a training involved.
No wonder. I've tried teleprompter. I'm like, I watched the video. I didn't like the video.
And then I did another one. I didn't like it. Eventually, I said,
you know what? what, I'm not using this teleprompter. I just take it myself.
You have to be a little bit of an actor on the teleprompter.
(36:38):
The voice inflections, the facial expressions, you have to act a little bit
when it comes to the teleprompter.
It makes sense because when you watch news, for example, CNN.
It's hard to believe that they're reading. They're just flowing. They're just flowing.
And then when you're reading, there's high movement, right? So I guess they've
(37:01):
trained them so much that you don't even see their whole...
Well, it also depends on the distance of how far the teleprompter is.
So the closer it is, the more you will see the eye movement.
The closer to the camera it is, the more you will see the eye movement.
In big studios, you know, when there's a desk and there's a host or an anchor,
I should say, the cameras are normally not right in front of you.
(37:24):
You know, they're much, much further out there.
The teleprompters are, I don't know how much you or your audience knows about
teleprompters in terms of how they work in person. Not much.
Okay, so usually the teleprompters go in front of the camera.
I'm not talking about, let's say, presidential addresses or things like that
(37:44):
where they have teleprompters on the sides and they have to address the audience. It's different.
But when we're talking specifically TV, the teleprompter usually goes in front
of the camera so it's aligned with the lens and it mirrors the text.
So there's a mirror that's in front of it, of the lens, and the camera lens
goes through that clear glass. But the front to the viewer, I mean,
(38:06):
to the anchor, it's a mirrored effect.
So the text is on the bottom and it's mirrored upwards to that teleprompter.
And you're pretty much reading a mirrored text that's reflected from the bottom
of where it's being teleprompted from.
So the camera is usually much, much further out there in studios.
So that's why it doesn't feel like they are reading.
You know, they have a little bit more space to work with, you know,
(38:26):
in acting, so to say, and delivering that message. But, you know,
obviously when you watch some, some, you know, hosts for 30 minutes, just talk.
It's not flowing from their heads with these precise words.
They are reading something or bits and pieces of it, you know,
to get themselves into that mode.
Yeah. And all those mirror and it explains why it's so difficult to do it by yourself in your room.
(38:52):
Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit of a technical challenge.
Yeah. It's a bit of a technical challenge. Yeah. Exactly. So video is different
from stage, of course. Yes.
So the techniques, let's talk about the techniques now. Are the techniques different? Yes.
So in stage, the key thing is to connect with the audience that's present,
(39:16):
that's there physically.
In video, you're connecting with only one person and you don't know where they are.
They're somewhere consuming your content, but you're connecting with that one person.
On stage, you're connecting with multiple people. And when you're presenting
on stage, you have to be engaging.
Some of the tricks still apply, the body language, the use of hands,
(39:36):
the inflection of the voice, the how you tell the story, how you pause,
how you lead into how you build the excitement, you know, what's on the screen
when you're presenting the PowerPoint,
how does that communicate that story, you know, accompanied with your voice.
But the trick here is, is how do you engage the audience? And that is much more
difficult, in my opinion, to control.
(39:58):
You know, unless you are, you have that stage presence that's just,
it's just, your eyes are drawn to you.
It's very, I think it's much more
challenging in my opinion to build stage presence than video presence.
If, if let's say you're not in tune with who you are as a leader that much,
but, but it's much more difficult to control the audience in person.
(40:18):
You know, you have to really be much bigger on stage.
On camera, you have to be a little bit smaller because you're within a frame,
right? Within a frame of the lens.
On stage, you have to fill in the stage. You have to make sure that,
Somebody sitting on that edge of the audience is connecting equally the same
way as somebody in the middle and on that end of the audience.
(40:38):
You just have to be more grand on stage, you know. But again,
naturally grand, not acting grand.
What does that mean? Meaning that, you know, like I said earlier,
when it comes to camera, some people just start performing because they're on
camera and they have like, oh, I have to now be somebody else.
Same stands for stage. You can't be somebody else. You just be you,
(41:01):
and you don't put on the face just because you're on stage.
One thing that you might notice or your audience might notice,
it's very obvious to me as a former news anchor person, but in the United States,
I noticed that a lot of news anchors have very specific inflections of the tone of the voice.
Even the journalists, when they're reporting from the field,
they just speak in a very specific waviness of the voice.
(41:22):
And sometimes people have that stage voice. They're completely different when
they're in person, but then the moment they go on stage, they somehow have the stage voice.
So some people have camera voice, some people have stage voice.
And, and that to me is very obvious to some people it's not,
but to me, it's very obvious.
And to me, it's a big disconnect because when I start speaking to that person, it's different.
(41:45):
The dynamics is different when it's a person versus on stage and there's nothing right or wrong.
Sometimes we just have to get into certain mindset to, you know,
to project in authority that we imagine, you know, that we are.
To me, it's always a look for authenticity hooks, you know.
I want you to be the same way on stage, on camera, as you are when we're talking,
(42:07):
you know, outside of these mediums. Yeah.
Yeah. That makes sense because that makes you more human, right?
I can't imagine, you know, listening to somebody, maybe your favorite someone
online and then you meet the person in person and you're like,
this is not the same person I've been connecting with that can be disconnected.
(42:29):
I, you know, the work you do is very interesting to me because it is real.
The problem is real. And I just, you know, I have an experience with somebody
that used to be my boss and I just hope they're not listening right
now but this is it's not it's just to share the
story and to kind of like
(42:49):
say this problem is really real and we were having an event in my company there
my former company and and my boss a C-suite you know executive was speaking
and was really looking down it was in in a.
Like the stage one, like it was on a stage and there were people in the room.
(43:13):
And as in steam, you know, I felt, oh, come on.
Does that make sense? Like kind of like felt embarrassed for them.
Like, yeah, look up. But looking, you know, with some bit of hindsight,
it's not really their fault, is it?
No. They just haven't been trained. and
(43:36):
and so i i feel that companies
should look into this like maybe formally
or send people for this kind
of training or or maybe take it
personally as your own goal even if the company you're working for is not sending
you on the training make sure you train yourself because and because like i
(43:58):
said in that the story i was sharing i wasn't connecting and i doubt a A lot
of people were connecting with them, with the person.
So that wasn't really helpful. And I told myself, oh, goodness,
I have to be better. I have to be better on stage. I have to be better.
I have to continuously improve myself because this is not good.
But you have the drive, right? You have the drive. Some people just don't.
(44:23):
Yeah, yeah. And I heard you say that helps a lot.
So would you say when one is on stage, I have heard some people say it's better
when you just pick somebody in the audience and just connect to that person.
Do you think that helps or no? What are the tips you can give?
(44:44):
From engagement, like from staying focused, yes.
Right? So if you're walking across the stage, you know who you're connecting
to on that side of the audience, the middle and so forth. It just helps you
hone in a little bit and your eyes are not scattering around all the time, right?
Obviously, you want to occasionally look broader.
Give that broad view that you're seeing somebody in the back, right?
(45:06):
But if you want to stay focused and deliver the message in a concise manner,
it helps you when you kind of pick who you want, who you're talking as you're
wandering around the stage, because at the same time, it gives you feedback.
Are they engaged? Are they looking on the phone? You know, are they laughing? Are they smiling?
Like, what's that emotional, you know, connection, not connection,
but expression on the face that you're seeing, right? which gives you immediate
(45:29):
feedback on like camera, you know, how to maybe adjust your content or how you present it, right?
Standing there, just looking down or just reading the slides,
that a lot happens. People just read the slides as if they don't know what the story is.
It's twofold thing. It's lack of coaching.
And sometimes people are just not, they just don't like the visibility.
(45:54):
You know, they just don't like being on stage or on camera, they don't like all that attention.
And it's so outside of their comfort zone that they just, they're just hiding.
Let me get it over with and I'll be out of here, you know?
So that's why I said sometimes it really depends on that internal driver.
If you decide to, okay, my career is stalling. I can't get through.
(46:19):
I'm not visible. I have so much to offer. Nobody is noticing me in the corporate world.
Well, how can I improve that? video, or even putting yourself in the situations
where volunteering to do a
presentation in some breakout session at a conference or something, right?
You start attracting that visibility to yourself to be noticed,
(46:40):
to accelerate your career path as well.
People who don't want that visibility, who want to be hiding behind the walls,
they will never pursue those mediums. they will never want to be,
or they will never, no matter how much coaching you do, they may just never
get out of their own skin.
It's just not their nature. That's why there's extroverts and introverts and
(47:02):
the mix in between, you know? Yeah.
So internet drive again, internet drive. So that helps a lot.
So you also help with video stories.
What does that mean? Video storytelling. So as I said, and referred to earlier,
when I moved here into the United States, I started my entrepreneurial career,
(47:22):
so to say, through business storytelling.
And one of the paths that took me to that direction was when somebody,
when I started networking with a business environment, one of the ladies said,
hey, Loretta, with your background, you should be doing YouTube videos.
And I was like, well, what does this mean? I had no idea. That was 2008,
2009, sometime in that year range.
(47:43):
YouTube was just starting to gain traction. And that lady was in marketing.
So she had a client and she said, I want you to go and just film her.
And I'm like, okay, let me try it out. I had no idea.
Like I, even though I am technical enough, but I, you know, I, camera is not my thing.
I don't like operating camera. And I learned that fairly quickly in that particular
(48:05):
exercise when she sent me over and she said, okay, I need you to capture this
video of this business owner. And I want to put it on her website.
I invested into camera gear. I started reading about the lighting because obviously
when, when I'm a news anchor, all of this is taken care of.
I don't have to worry about it. Although naturally, I've always been a documentary
in my family since early days, you know, video or photos.
(48:28):
I would always be that person doing and documenting everybody's life.
But when I had to do it professionally, I realized it's not for me.
It's too much technical because people are paying money to actually get good
quality. And I know where I lack in those skills. else.
So when I showed up to that person, to that person's home, and I set up everything
that I was to that basic knowledge that I had back then with lighting,
(48:50):
with microphones, with my basic camera that I invested into.
And I started interviewing her about her business. And I started giving her
feedback about, you know, oh, is that what you're saying here?
So if you're saying that, and if you mean that, can you rephrase it slightly differently?
You know, because for the video, we need a little bit shorter sentences.
And that's when I realized that.
(49:11):
I am actually good at extracting that message, that story, because I have listener ears.
I can edit content on the spot in my head. I know that, oh, he or she said something earlier.
That actually ties back to what he or she said later in the video or in that interview.
And I can visualize in my head how all of it connects, you know,
(49:32):
because I edit everything on the spot in my head as we're going through the story.
Story so so so that's why
that that's humanizing you know the businesses that's
why i pursued that track because i wanted to
help businesses share those true human stories and again i started with small
business owners because corporations were so far behind in that type of thinking
(49:54):
they were thinking only based on the needs of the business oh we have a trade
show we need a product video or we have a demo and we need to get this captured
they were not thinking about the connection with people, executives connecting to their audiences,
you know, or salespeople using video as a sales tool.
Back then, they were not thinking about that. So it was, I think I was way too
(50:15):
early with my mission back then.
Now with AI world, I feel that real video is just playing that much bigger of
a role because there could be a lot of fake content out there and people will
have to learn to decipher what's real, what's not real.
And video can be that tool, especially if you're that real person talking and
(50:36):
you're not faking yourself by using AI tools.
So there's a way a story can be told and obviously it should be told better
with some skills and that's how you help.
Yes, correct. Sorry. Yes, that was your question.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have, you know, my premise is communication, right?
(50:56):
So I studied journalism and my premise is communication. Are we communicating clearly?
Are we translating what we want to say clearly?
And a lot of times, when we are in the weeds with our own messages,
with our own content, with our own sort of selling points, we sometimes lose the clarity.
And that I noticed very much in the tech world. Engineers are so good at talking
(51:19):
about feature specifications and how they build this.
And my job is to distill that to common language that people can understand.
So I have to really tune in and on the spot, understand the business,
understand the product,
understand what they're trying to achieve with it, and guide them to deliver
(51:43):
the message that resonates with the audience who's going to be consuming that content.
So it's a lot of listening ears, a lot of, you know, education I have to go through all the time.
Because you can't really tell
a good story if you don't understand what that person is trying to say.
So I have to educate myself through those conversations, digest it,
(52:04):
and then say, oh, if that's what you're doing, If that's for this market,
so then this is probably the story we have to tell.
And they're like, oh, yeah, that's right. Can you tell it for me?
I said, no, this is your job.
Yeah. You're right. Because technical people are so technical. So they understand it.
But the problem is then making another person to understand what they say.
(52:29):
Yeah. I personally feel also that I'm an accountant, that accountants are,
you know, because of the nature of the profession, are not usually outward facing.
The accountants are usually like working in the background.
And so I personally believe that accountants are not people that are used to
(52:51):
camera, that are used to public speaking.
And I feel it doesn't do a lot of accountants, it doesn't do them any favours,
it doesn't help them if they just accept that.
I feel that accountants also, just like you help technical people,
I feel like accountants do need help with speaking more.
(53:15):
Being visible more, you know, engaging with the camera because that's not the
natural sphere of the profession.
Yeah. So I release with that very well.
Yeah. And Ola, what you're doing, for example, you're using video as a medium,
you know, for your podcast.
So you are putting yourself out. And so if you looked in your industry,
(53:37):
to your point, how many accountants are doing this? Yeah.
Probably you can count on fingers, right? So you have the ability to stand out
within that market with your authority, with your thoughts, with your ideas,
and draw people towards you.
Because like I said, it builds that rapport. It builds that relationship up front.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Loretta. It's one of my missions.
(54:00):
I am so passionate about it. So I'm still looking at ways I can help because
I really believe it's going to help the profession a lot if we,
you know, are more visible as accountants.
If we appear on camera more, I feel, you know, that we will progress our careers better that way.
Listen, Loretta, it's been so, so nice speaking with you.
(54:23):
As you know, we have a tradition on this podcast where I ask our guests what
they would like to learn next.
So for you what would you like to list
ah okay i would probably meaning as a topic for your content in that in that
no oh oh just for myself in my life oh in my life yeah in my life in your life
(54:45):
i have so many things i want to learn in my life let's start with learning how to swim.
Okay i just find it interesting i just because i'm not about learning so i i
literally just want to know what you want to learn next you know it doesn't
matter anywhere so I guess that's interesting.
Yes. So I have a love and hate relationship with AI. I have to admit that.
(55:07):
I love it for certain aspects of productivity. I love for that.
Sometimes, and I told you earlier, if I'm stuck looking at a blank sheet of
paper because writing is not my skill, it's easier for me to talk and record
myself and just transcribe this and then create content out of that.
But sometimes I just don't have that. I just need to write something immediately.
So I like AI help for these idea idea generation.
(55:31):
I like AI's help for some creative aspects of it, but I also hate it because it dehumanizes.
And that's the aspect that, you know, I'm seeing so much of right now online
that I feel I would like to learn, you know, the balance.
And I think I know that balance intuitively, right?
But how do I find that happy medium where I don't feel guilty using AI on efficiencies,
(55:59):
adopting that thing because it's going to stay here, like video.
It's going to stay here. So we will have to learn to live with it.
But how can I learn not to feel guilty by sometimes leaning onto it,
you know, improving and saving time on certain things?
What I don't do and what I alluded to, what I see a lot of right now happening
(56:19):
is, you know, I hate the copy pastes that I see, identical messages,
identical phrases, identical structure of the sentences.
And I'm like, Like, oh, what is that human aspect?
You know, so for me, it's the balance of not feeling guilty.
I don't use it to the extent where I take it and I literally plop it into content as is.
(56:41):
My mission, like you had your mission, but my goal and my mission is to just stay human.
Stay human somehow, you know.
Clean up that AI, use it for help, don't feel guilty.
But you know make it human just make
it human i so much love that and that's really interesting
i believe in here as well at the same time
(57:04):
i believe in connections and i believe that you know right from ever since we
can remember the connections have always that human connection has always been
there we should not lose it but at the same time like you say ai is here to stay So that balance,
that's a very key thing you just said right there.
(57:26):
So that balance is very key to finding it. So we'll continue to learn.
Again, thanks so much, Loretta. This has been really helpful.
I have no doubts that it's going to help someone out there.
So thank you. Thank you, Ola, for inviting me into your podcast.
I really appreciate that. You're welcome.
Music.
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