by: AskPat 857 Episode Transcript
Pat: What's up, everybody? Thank you so much for joining me to today in this episode of AskPat. This is Episode 857. Well, that's a weird intro, it's different from the other ones for some reason.
Anyway, we have a great question today from Brandon, but before we get to that, I just want to mention that I love you guys. Thank you so much for all the support and if you have a moment to head on over to iTunes, after the episode, please do that. Look up Ask Pat and leave a review for the show. That's all I'm asking you today. Thank you, and now here's today's question from Brandon.
Brandon: Hey Pat, this is Brandon Yost, I'm the owner of Veg2Bowl.com, a farm to food truck business that I'm now looking to turn into a franchise. So, I've started this business basically from scratch. I've been running the farm and the food truck by myself, and now that I've done it, starting from nothing, I want to share this idea and help others start the same kind of business.
So, I've already made a great connection with a top influencer, and actually, my number one target in a space that has an audience that I want to get in front of. They've asked me to film a course as part of their online curriculum on how this model works and the details behind it. I've already got the scripts, I already know what I want to say, but it's going to be that time soon when I'm standing in front of the camera and I need to talk into it. So, this is causing me quite a bit of anxiety, because even though this opportunity massively excites me and I'm going to do it, I feel a bit of intimidation on how I'm going to come off and present myself when the cameras are rolling.
So, do you have any advice on how I present myself with confidence, just as I would when I'm talking to somebody one on one? Thanks.
Pat: Brandon, thank you so much for the question. I think a lot of the people who are listening to this right now can totally understand where you're coming from. So, first of all, it's okay to be nervous. Don't worry. This stuff doesn't come naturally. Definitely didn't come natural to me, and to be honest, it was something that I just kind of got more comfortable with as I started to do more of it. So, I mean, the first piece of advice I have for your is to just know that it's okay to be nervous, and actually understand that that nervousness is a sign that this is actually something very meaningful to you, which should hopefully drive you to excellence here.
Now, excellence doesn't necessarily mean being perfect. Don't worry about being perfect. Just be yourself. Obviously, that's much easier said than done, and once the cameras are on, and you see that red dot recording you, you may freeze, and that's okay. But here's the thing: practice makes perfect. There are opportunities, probably right now, to be able to practice before you actually go live. Now, I don't when this episode goes out versus when you're coming out with the course or starting to film it, but if I capture you beforehand with this answer, what I would recommend is actually go live on Facebook and practice, even if it's with friends and family, even if there are no viewers, it's going to help you learn to just get comfortable with being in front of a camera. Sometimes you just have to get through that mess first before you can become the best that you can be. Obviously, every time you do it again, your going to get better and that kind of thing.
Now, here's the other thing. Rehearsing with the scripts and getting familiar with the content and realizing that you are the expert here, that's going to give you confidence as well. I mean, this is going into public speaking tips and things like that, remember, people are there to learn from you. They are not there to criticize you, they want their time to be worth their while. Right? So, when you consider that, when you get on camera or when you get up on stage, it really puts you in the right frame of mind, in terms of you're getting support from people here, and nobody is against you. We are our own worst enemy, usually. Of course, you know that this is where this is coming from.
The final piece of advice I have for you is remember, when you're recording, again, like I said earlier, you don't have to be perfect, but realize that you're going to make mistakes. You're going to just, hey, put that moment past you and try again, and just keep doing that. Again, like I said, over time, you will get better at this, even within a short period of time, like even a half an hour.
I mean, I remember some of the first courses that I recorded with my buddy Caleb, who is my videographer, we had recorded a number of lessons to start and they were kind of rough, but we got through them. As the course went on, you know, lesson four and on, I started to get more comfortable, I started to get into a groove. Then what did we do? Well, after we finished through the entire course and all the lessons, I went back to lesson one, two and three and re-recorded those. Looking at them side-by-side it's obvious that the later recordings of those lessons were much, much better.
So, you just got to get through that muck and that mess to get to the good stuff. You might even have to record through those and scrap them later. You can always scrap things later, there's this thing called post-edit. I mean, you're not going live with this, as you are recording, which is great. So, that should put your mind at ease too because much like with a blog post, while you edit, you're just creating as you go, obviously, with some guidance from your outline and scripts, and your knowledge and your expertise. But you can always go back and re-film certain parts, or if you make a mistake you can just say, “Okay, I'm going to do that again,” keep rolling and have yourself or somebody in post-edit make it seamless, and you'll just go from there.
So, Brandon, I want to wish you the best of luck. This is so exciting. It sounds like an amazing opportunity and I'm sure you're going to knock it out of the park. So, I think we're all rooting for you. For anyone else out there who is struggling with confidence on camera, hopefully, this has been helpful to you. Now, Brandon, I want to send you and AskPat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show as well, all you have to do is head on over to AskPat.com and you can ask right there on that page.
Thank you so much, I appreciate you. Like I said earlier, hey, if you have a moment, just head on over to iTunes, leave a review for AskPat. I appreciate each and every single review that comes through, and I look forward to reading them. Thank you so much.
Now, here's a quote to finish off the day by Saul Steinberg. “The life of a creative man is lead, directed, and controlled by boredom. Avoid boredom is one of our most important purposes.” Now, hopefully I've kept you from being bored today, and if so, I appreciate you. Thanks so much, and I'll see you in the next episode of Ask Pat. Bye.
