Donald Jones

Your Appearance – Choose your outfit wisely. Find colors and fit that flatter you, and are also event/content appropriate. Avoid all white and logos. Solids always work better on camera. Prints can be fine, but not small or complex prints or lines- which can confuse a camera. And large prints could draw attention away from your on-camera purpose.

Your Body – If you normally use your hands when you speak, use them. The more you act yourself, the more natural you will appear. That being said, if you’re an over-the-top hand-talker then practice lesser movements. You’ll make others feel uncomfortable and they won’t hear your message. Be natural, with the best posture you can muster. Head up, Face bright.

Which brings me to…

Your eyes –  Take Tyra Bank’s advice and “smize” Smile with your eyes. Do it now. Try smiling. Now, think about including your eyes in that smile. Much different feel, right? You can’t look someone in the face with a smize, without them feeling something. You can and should use your eyes, even if the content is serious. The eyes are where we connect. If your interviewer is visible, look at them. If you’re being filmed, don’t hesitate to ask ‘Where should I be looking?’

Your Speaking – It goes without saying you should work to speak clearly and enunciate correctly. These things will help… ASK ahead of time how you can be best prepared, or what topics may be touched on. A good interviewer should help draw information out of you and has hopefully already had a discovery conversation with you. But if the interviewer is not good, YOU should know your most valuable points and stick to them (in crisis communication this is crucial) so that you can drive the conversation. But to avoid looking ingenuine, don’t memorize lines. And don’t ever feel like you have to fill all space. Pauses are perfectly fine. We get in trouble when we ramble.

Practice these things, so you aren’t thinking about them when the camera rolls. A bathroom, mirror or phone recording of yourself is a great way to get familiar with how you look when you’re on camera. Talk outloud to yourself while you’re getting ready for bed (smizing at yourself) or set up your phone and record yourself at breakfast. If you think that feels silly, imagine feeling sillier if you choke while live on camera!

Now, Go For It. You’ve got this!

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