How comfortable are you ‘on camera‘?

If your answer is, “Not very!” you’re not alone. I just did a Google search for the terms ‘camera anxiety‘ and ‘camera comfortable‘ and it’s amazing what I found.

Exact searches:

·         Camera anxiety: 19,000,000+

·         Camera comfortable:28,000

Wow!

It sorta looks like more people are a little camera shy than are comfortable being filmed doesn’t it? Why do you suppose that is?

I know why I think it is. It’s basically a lack of complete confidence.

Notice that I didn’t say ‘confidence’ but rather ‘complete’ confidence. There’s a difference between the two and let me explain.

The difference is that people can have confidence in one area but not another. They can have skills they feel confident about and other areas they don’t feel so confident about. That’s incomplete confidence.

I’ve been an acting coach for a long time and I’ve had a chance to work with many people who are trying to build their camera presence. It’s always amazing that many of my clients are very successful and confident in their primary profession yet they turn to jelly when a camera is pointed at them.

So I ask myself, “Why the difference?” And I think I know. By the way I wrote the book “Acting For Real”

The difference is that they know where they fit into the reality of their profession. They know that a little imperfection is OK. They know what to expect in their primary profession. It’s something very real and familiar to them.

But their concept of being ‘on camera‘ is not so realistic. To them, being ‘on camera‘ means they have to measure up to the images and reputations that society has given them about being a ‘movie star’.

The first thing I always try to do to help people overcome their camera shyness is help them understand their ‘inner critic’. What’s an inner critic, you say?

The inner critic is the conditioned reflex your mind gives when you attempt to do something new. It stems from your earliest days as a vulnerable infant or toddler when those people who loved you (e.g. especially your parents) were reluctant to let you try ‘new things’ lest you get hurt.

Later, when you’re older and more capable of decisions on your own and protecting yourself, all those voices of caution from your past, whether they make sense or not, are so deeply rooted in your subconscious that they exert an unseen force just like the gravitational pull of celestial bodies.

Do you ever feel like something is holding you back but you don’t know what it is?

Most likely it’s your inner critic. Identifying and managing that inner critic is part of what I do (usually one of the first things) for my acting clients. In recent years as I’ve begun to coach more non-actors I’ve still always started with grabbing hold of that inner critic, slapping it around a little bit and ‘educating’ it on who’s the boss.

Actually that inner critic has some positive uses too but we’ll talk about them some other time. For now I’d like to invite you to take the first step in managing your inner critic…..here’s how.

More people than ever today are looking for ways to increase the percentage of their talents they use and to better focus them on worthwhile and inspiring goals…usually their business. Often it’s hard to do by yourself.

Maybe you need a coach. http://thom@nicheceleb.com

My sons (James and Tyler) and I recently released an exciting course called NicheCeleb. In NicheCeleb we show people how to use Youtube video to become the leaders (i.e. the ‘niche celebrity‘) in their own business, profession and life.

If you could go through that course it would be the best of two worlds. You’d have me and my years of Coaching actors for stage, screen and TV and my sons (James and Tyler) as your coaches. Together we’ll show you how to release the niche celebrity inside you and use that new found power to build a new, more successful life with yourself as the ‘star’ of any scene life gives you.

James and Tyler are two of the very first YouTube Partners and have made videos that have gained over 30,000,000 views. When you combine your new ‘niche celebrity‘ persona with the power of YouTube there’s very little you can’t do.

To show you how powerful this coaching is, we’ve prepared a special 21 page free report called “YouTubeDomination” and 4 videos to show you how it all works. You’ll gain valuable insights on success and Youtube from this free material and it’s your just for the asking.

Visit our website here to request your free copy.

See you on the tube.

Be Bop

Thom