Transcripts
1. Introduction: Feeling confident
on camera feel like an impossible dream only for those blessed
with natural talent? If that's been holding you back from communicating
your message, then this class is for you. My name is Aaron Palabyab, and I'm an award winning
filmmaker and content creator. I've been doing public speaking
since I was 7-years-old, but even so, developing a confident authentic
presence on camera didn't come naturally. I had to work on it for years. So I want to save you a
little time and jump start your journey to
having a confident, authentic presence on camera. And here's the good news. You already have the ability, and I know it because
you're able to carry on conversations and
communicate in real life. And the key is to
bridge that gap in confidence by
adjusting your mindset to bring that to the camera. We'll start by finding your real voice
within a few seconds. And then from there,
we'll learn what being authentic on
camera actually means. And then we'll address the most common problems
of not being yourself, lacking confidence, sounding
robotic or performative, or just generally like
someone you're not. So this class is for
anyone who wants to communicate their message more effectively
and comfortably, whether via content creation
or even public speaking, but has been held back by a so called lack
of natural talent. Anyone can learn to be
good on camera with regular practice and some
help from this class. So if you're ready
to break through the blocks, let's begin.
2. Class Project: Class project will be to
create a short video, about 30 to 90
seconds of yourself speaking naturally and
comfortably on camera. You'll apply the principles you learned in this class and pay special attention that you speak naturally as if you're
just talking to a friend. Stay attuned to the greater purpose behind what
you're saying. Stay mostly physically
still apart from normal hand gestures
that you do not rush, and you allow pauses. And most important, you aim for comfort and presence,
not perfection. It's essential that you share your class project to close the learning circle
and so that I can give you helpful feedback
that will point you in the right direction as you continue to practice this skill. In fact, I would even encourage you to post a new project after a few months or even
regularly so that I can continue to check
on your progress. Alternatively, you
may also post any of the several short exercises in the lessons in this class
as your class project. To share a project,
all you have to do is upload YouTube video and set its privacy to Unlisted and then embed it on your
class project post. I've posted instructions
on how to do that below. I just suggest that
if you use one of the earlier exercises as your class project
that you repeat it upon completing all of
the lessons so that you can benefit from everything in the class and see
a bigger change. And with that, let's
dive into the class.
3. Find Your Real Voice in Seconds: Hello, everyone, and
welcome to the class. Thanks for spending
your time with me. I want to start you off
with something instant, effortless, and yet
possibly life changing. Let's find your real voice. The fact is that many of
us, for whatever reason, speak in a register that's
higher and thus more constricted or tense than where
our voice naturally sits. So, this exercise that I
learned from singing lessons brings us back to that
home pitch. Are you ready? All you need to do is say Ah, starting from a
slightly higher pitch and let it naturally drop with no conscious effort to where it actually
wants to be. And it should feel
effortless, like so. You'll know it's the right note when there doesn't feel like there's any effort to go
up or go down in pitch. So one more time. Alright. Hopefully you've done
it by now so that we can process and talk
about the experience. In my case, doing
this exercise for the first time revealed
two things to me. First, that my
voice actually sits on a significantly lower
register than I thought it did. And second, more
important, even, is that it taught me how effortless speaking is
actually supposed to feel. For reference, I used to
speak more in this register. Can you hear the difference? It's a bit subtle, really, because I
still sound like me, but you can hear that I'm
slightly more constrained, that I seem to be making
more of an effort to push my voice outward as if wanting to be heard instead
of staying down here and being relaxed and confident
that I will be heard. So now, let me know. Was there a big difference or did
it stay mostly the same? Did you have a similar
experience as me? And how do you feel about it? Are you surprised and
maybe trying to figure out now how to use the voice
that you actually have? Because that's what
happened to me. I've been speaking with
a different voice for so long that I was really
trying to figure out, how do I now re learn something
so basic as how to speak? So let me know your experience in the discussions and even feel free to share the video doing this exercise as
a class project. I'm very curious to see where
most of you will end up. And hey, that's it
for the first lesson. Hopefully, many, if not all of you found your
real actual voice. In the next lesson, we'll go further and talk
about why you might ironically have a hard time
being yourself on camera and, of course, how to fix it.
4. Why You Can't "Be Yourself" On Camera: In the previous lesson, we found your real voice. In this lesson,
we'll find out why it's ironically hard to be
your real self on camera. For many of us, I assume that the goal isn't to speak
like a news anchor, but to have an authentic
presence on camera. But what does authentic actually mean so that we
know how to achieve it? For our purposes, I'll define it as being on camera confidently in a way that resembles how we engage with
others in real life. But on a deeper level, it's really more about being present and connected when you speak instead of being
self conscious and forced with the result
of looking authentic, being a mere byproduct
of this attitude. In my work, directing and shooting professional
talents and celebrities, I've noticed how effortlessly they can just lock in
when the camera rolls. And this isn't a state of
tension like being locked, but of relaxed, yet
focused confidence. They can easily speak
from the heart and hold genuine conversations even with the camera and all the
lights and all the crew. And sometimes they'll even
sound exactly the same as they did when we were chatting off camera
a few minutes ago. Though at other times,
the energy will be anywhere from a little
to a lot higher. It depends on the
persona they choose to project or the nature of the actual project
and what it needs. Now, you might ask, isn't choosing a persona
to project inauthentic? Not necessarily,
because no matter what, a video can never capture
every side of you. And so it's all about
choosing which of them is most relevant to present
according to what you're saying. So here, in this class, I'm presenting
myself as relatively serious and authoritative
because I'm teaching something. But I also have a silly
side, like most of you, which not only would be a
distraction from this lesson, I also, honestly prefer to save that mostly
for my friends. So think about what side of
you you want to present. It's not about having
a mask or being fake, but just choosing which of your multifaceted self you need to be able to show
for your purposes. Now, here's a secret
that I've learned. Looking neutral as in simply
just not sad on camera. Almost always requires that
you put in what feels like ten to 15% more energy into speaking than a real off
camera conversation. And I think that's
just natural because being on camera triggers self
consciousness in everyone, even the pros, more
on that later. However, it is true
that many people, especially if their niche is in entertainment or
comedy, especially, choose to be more
animated and louder because being larger than
life works for the genre. But be careful
because it takes a lot more than being
loud to be funny. So we'll aim to hit this
zone of natural plus 15%. This better addresses errors on both sides of the spectrum, namely, on one hand,
lacking confidence. As in, Hey, guys, I'm Aaron, and today's
video is about my travels. And on the other
hand, overperforming. As in, Hey, guys, what's up? It's Aaron here, and we've got another video about the
latest YouTube drama. Neither of these is the way. Let's start with a
natural baseline, and then you can add more if your test videos reveal that your message would be
better served that way. So now the exercise. I'll ask you to record
yourself on camera, reading this in four
different ways, and then review it to
see the difference. And then you may share
the video for feedback as a class project or work on it on your own.
Here are the four ways. First, no direction,
how you want. Second, as if addressing your 100,000 loyal
YouTube subscribers. Third, as if you're
talking to a friend. And fourth, as if
you're on stage, talking to an auditorium
full of people. So please pause the lesson now and record, and
then play it back. I'll wait. So what
did you notice? What version did you like
best? Here's the secret. None of these is necessarily
the best version. It depends on you
and what you think is truest to how you
want to communicate. These are only guides to help
you find your sweet spot. It doesn't matter how you get there just as long
as you find it. Now, how would I do it? Well, I would go for
something a bit neutral, like I didn't expect a day to turn out like
this, but I'm glad it did. Some things only make sense once you stop
trying to control them. I could also opt for
something a little more theatric but still
relatively natural. Like, I didn't expect a
day to turn out like this, but I'm glad it did. Some things only make sense once you stop
trying to control them. If you're having a hard
time kind of getting all of these different tones and emotions in your
voice, it's okay. I think what I would
do is try more active listening to good
speakers to train your ear to hear these differences
so that you can figure out how to
do them yourself. It's kind of like speaking
a hard new language. You can't learn to produce a sound that your brain
can't process yet, so you have to listen. In a way, this is sort
of like learning to identify different pitches in music so that you
can sing in tune. It's the ground floor. And it's totally normal to have to start on
the ground floor, so don't get discouraged. In the end, we can't be exactly as we are in
real life on camera. We can only present a
glimpse of ourselves, and finding that
isn't a matter of thinking about it so much
as of practicing it. There's no wrong
answer as long as you're telling the truth
and being true to yourself. In this lesson, we
learned how to approach being more authentic on camera. In the next lesson, we'll focus specifically on how to
overcome being robotic, having low energy,
and talking too fast, which are all symptoms
of lacking confidence.
5. Addressing Lack of Confidence: Previous lesson, we practiced being more natural on camera. In this lesson, we'll zoom in on the more common
problem of most people, which is sounding robotic, talking too fast or
a weak delivery, all due to a lack of confidence. A lack of confidence leads to excessive self consciousness, which leads to overthinking, which leads to robotic delivery, weak projection, and
talking too fast, as if these will
help you to escape being heard saying things wrong or saying the wrong thing. But again, don't
feel bad about that. Oftentimes, it's not
even your fault. The thing is, when most
people are given directions to say things this way by
some well meaning director, it makes the problem even worse. The pressure of having a whole crew waiting for you
to get your lines perfectly memorized and then perfectly
delivered as the lights bear down and the cameras roll
causes many people to freeze. So instead of speech being an effortless,
unconscious act, every word suddenly
feels like it needs to be closely monitored
by your brain. You stop trusting
yourself to do it right when the job was simply to
sound like a human being. This inevitably makes
you sound unnatural. In my experience as a director, telling someone exactly how
to say something is one of the least effective ways to help non professionals because it just destroys their
self confidence. And professionals
may hate it, too, because then you're encroaching on their craft and authenticity, all of which is to say, I don't believe this is primarily
a talent problem. It's a mindset issue. And thus, we can adjust it. So instead of telling you
exactly how to say something, which will never work because
only I have my voice. I'll instead help you to teach your nervous system to relax. And then over time, speaking naturally will
just come naturally. So how do we do this? I would start with breathing. That's the easiest thing to
forget when you're nervous. You have to make sure
it's through your belly, not your shoulders or
chest because breathing like this increases tension. What you want to do actually is observe yourself from the side, put your hand on your belly like this and make sure it's rising. And falling. Just breathe in. It rises, and breathe
out. It falls. And that will help
you to just relax your muscles and
feel comfortable. The goal really is to
just make everything slow down and to get out of your
head and into your body. Less pressure, more presence. And another effective hack. Take a second, laugh. If you've taken one of
my previous classes, you know, I keep
recommending this. 'cause I don't know, after all, it's a ridiculous and downright magical thing
that we get to do this, put ourselves in front of
this machine and then be seen by an infinite number of
people all over the world. I mean, oh, my gosh,
that's insane. And I think that's
worth a laugh to just absorb all of that. So basically,
again, slow inhale, slow exhale, through your belly, relax your muscles, do that
as many times as you want, I need to prime yourself. And then, let's do
our next exercise. You know the drill, record, review, and get feedback. Your task now is to
record yourself speaking on any topic for just
30 seconds to a minute. If you can't think of a topic, then just introduce
yourself in what you do and why you're
taking this class. That's simple. Again,
you'll do it in three different ways to discover where you sound
most like yourself. So first, do it the way you
do it now with no guidance, but applying what we've learned so far about relaxing
and breathing. Second, now, imagine that you are the expert on the
topic, even if you're not. The goal is just
to kind of imagine the confidence you
would have and then bring that
into your delivery. And then finally, breathe and relax yourself
for a minute or two, laugh at yourself a little
bit, and do another take. The secret to being great
on camera is simply to do enough takes to get
it right enough to splice together in an
edit with no mistakes. That's movie magic, baby. So as you do this, don't
forget to regularly sip water to keep your
throat fresh and relaxed. Your throat is getting tense
and hoarse really easily, then maybe you want to go
back to the first lesson and recheck if you're using your
natural voice register. Because for me, for years, whenever I would record long
talking videos like this, after maybe just half an hour, I noticed my throat
would be so tired, and it's only now
that I'm speaking in my natural register
that I'm able to last longer without
having to drink water. You can also revisit
the exercise from the last lesson and see if you notice any difference
or improvement. Now, just another note on
tracking your progress. In my singing lessons, I sing the same three songs week after week to be able
to track my progress. And sometimes progress won't necessarily be
sounding much better. At times, it'll just
be finding new ways to use my voice to convey different shades of
emotion and meaning, or it could be achieving
exactly the same sound, but with half the effort. So similarly, you're not looking to improve
in leaps and bounds, though you definitely might. Rather, the task is to explore the different dimensions of your voice and find which
ones work best for you. In this lesson, we
learned how to address the self consciousness that keeps us from
speaking confidently. In the next lesson,
we'll address the opposite problem
overperforming.
6. Addressing Over-Performing: This lesson, we'll address the
seemingly opposite problem to lacking confidence,
which is overperforming. While this does translate
better on camera, the problem is that
it sounds equally inauthentic and can actually be more jarring to the viewer. Remember, we no
longer need to sound like news anchors or
daytime TV hosts. By and large, audiences today prefer a more casual,
relatable delivery. Now, overperforming can
manifest in various forms. It can just be trying to
sound like somebody else, whether someone famous or adopting that infamous
influencer voice. It can be trying too hard, talking too loud, or
gesticulating too much. So instead of trying
to be the next generic, loud,
annoying YouTuber, what we want to do
is to be relax, be ourselves, take our time
and sound conversational. Even when and especially when reading off a teleprompter
or reading for a voiceover. I see overperforming as just a different manifestation of the same problem as before, which is self consciousness. But this time, it's an overcompensation in
a different direction. Basically, you aren't confident enough in your real self
and what you have to say, so you compensate by being loud. But remember, volume
is not comedy, and volume is not authority, despite what society
shows us lately. In fact, real authority
is the opposite. It's quiet confidence
confidence that doesn't try to hit anyone over
the head to get attention. So when on camera, basically, you don't have to project as
if you're speaking on stage. But the thing is,
it might be hard to identify this tendency at first and how far
along you are on it, which is why the next exercise
is designed to help you. So again, record yourself
and then get feedback, whether just from yourself, the video or from me or
somebody close to you. Now record yourself speaking
the following phrase. On Take one, speak normally
without thinking about it. OT two, pretend now as if you're talking to a friend who's just across from you. Now is where things
get interesting. Ontake three, decrease
the volume by 50%. Ontake four, decrease it by 90%. And now, do it again in a way that you
think feels natural now that you have the
perspective of how loud you're actually talking because we try to decrease the volume. So, did you notice a difference? Which take worked best for you? Again, feel free to share your videos in the
class projects if you'd like feedback or
just to show your progress. The purpose of this exercise was really to get some perspective. By lowering the volume, we found out if there was
actually any volume to lower. And most of the time, bringing it down a bit makes us be more natural while
at the same time, makes speaking more
physically effortless. But in the end, curbing
overperforming really entails letting go of any
idea of how you should sound. In fact, I would say, stop focusing so much
on yourself and think instead about being a present and empathetic
communicator. Don't aspire to be a man or
woman of the masses because this isn't about popularity or attention for its own sake. It's about connecting
with real people in whose lives you can bring
some good with your message. So instead, think
about moving and speaking as if you're talking to someone whose concerns
you've listened to, and you're compassionately
in conversation with them to try to help them through the same problems
you've been through. And that entails, of
course, being thoughtful, not rushing so that you can just be connected
and present because basically being present is
how you develop presence. In this lesson, we learned
how to pull back from overperforming and
about ultimately the power of empathy
in good communication. In the next lesson, we'll
address something not nearly enough people talk about when learning
how to speak, which is how to actually
have something to say.
7. Have Something to Say: The previous lessons,
we focused on the how practicing to become
better speakers on camera. In this lesson, we'll talk
about the what and the why. That is how to actually have
something worth saying. There are far too many
people on social media with loud voices whose messages are empty at best and
harmful at worst. So this class actually
exists for a single purpose, which is to empower good
people like you to spread your message to help tip that balance towards the
meaningful and the good. But good intentions
are only a start, and you need to infuse a sense of purpose into this
and driven by that, create and deepen
your personal well of ideas to draw from. That way, even without
any form of script, you'll never run
out of things to say that are worth hearing. So for this lesson, we'll
take a break from being on camera and spend more time
thinking and writing. So, of course, you want to start by building a
strong foundation, which I'm sure many
of you already have, and you get that
by being curious, by being the eternal student. You get it from reading books, watching quality
content and movies, listening to people
smarter than you, and equally important having silent time without
your phone or other distractions
for reflection to process all of this input and discern what's
meaningful for. The next step is
just as essential. And in my experience, it's what allows me to always
have something to say, answer questions,
share insights, even if the answer
might just be. You know, I don't know. And it's writing. Simple, unstructured
journaling or reflecting in the
medium of your choice. But particularly, I think, writing long hand
with a paper and pen. This is easy, gentle
exercise for your mind, which is the engine
for your ideas. So care for it, use it, tune it up, and it
will take you far. Neglect it, and it'll let you down when you
need it the most. And I'm sorry to say this because I'm as guilty
of this as anyone. But constantly being on social media and keeping up with the latest
irrelevant drama works actively against you
and your ability to think and generate good ideas
or even any ideas at all. So for your exercise
in this lesson, I'll just ask you to write why you're practicing
to be better on camera. It could be an
overarching mission or purpose or if
that's too deep, then just about a topic for which you
have a lot of passion. If you have a hard time,
just think of it this way. Your target audience
is a community or maybe just a single
person who has the same problems as you that you have had
a chance to work on. As such, your purpose
is to help them because you've put in the work to think about it and try to
solve it for yourself. At the end of the day, the
biggest problem when being on camera is having
nothing good to say. So in this lesson,
I hope I helped you realize that you have
something good worth sharing. In the next lesson, we'll do one more exercise to help you work on developing presents.
8. Developing Presence: So far in this class, we've
practiced how to be more confident on camera and
also learn that knowledge, curiosity and empathy are an indispensable part
of that, as well. In this lesson, we'll
work on developing that X factor, your presence, and we'll do that by
trying to slow things down and becoming more comfortable
with slowness and pauses. Remember what we
learned earlier. Authority is not volume, and neither is it speed. It is quiet,
purposeful confidence. A person with power can
hold silence for a reason. And if you have to
pause to think, that's not a failure, and you can turn that
to your advantage. What I want you to do
now for your exercise is to read this and then
deliver it on camera, focusing on slowing things down. You will feel the pressure
to rush through it, especially if you're not that experienced, and that's okay. This exercise is
designed to ease you into slowing down
and being present. So on the first take, do it without any
additional directions. Second, do it in a way
that you think is slow. And for the third take, try to do it in twice
the amount of time. Draw it out, make
yourself uncomfortable. So pause the video now, and please record yourself
doing the exercise. Watch takes again a notice which of these three comes
across most confidently. As before, the goal isn't to say which of these three
methods is correct. It's to find out what
works best for you, while training you to
be comfortable with slowing down and
making natural pauses. This will serve you
well, particularly in real life, public speaking. Okay, now hopefully
you've done the exercise because I'll just
give you an example of how I might do it. But still, I
encourage you not to copy my delivery
as the sole basis because what's
natural for me can be totally unnatural
for somebody else. I'm going to take a moment
before I say anything else. Not because I've forgotten
what I want to say, but because I want to be
here while I'm saying it. There's no rush. And nothing is chasing after me
to speak faster. If I pause, it's on purpose. If I breathe, It's
because I need to. And if this takes longer
than expected, that's okay. I'm not trying to just get through this. I'm
actually trying to say. I guess what I realized
from how I did that is that lesson was less
about speaking slowly, although you should, I was just more about
meaningful pauses. But again, this will differ from student to student because some students will definitely
be speaking way too fast. But if you already have more
or less a natural speed, then it will be much
more about the pauses. Alright. In this lesson, you slowed things down and
worked on developing presence. In the next and
final main lesson, we'll put it all together and work on your main class project.
9. Making Your Class Project: This lesson, we'll try to put
together everything we've learned in this class and work
on the main class project. So I invite you now to write a 60 to 92nd introduction to yourself and your
story and or mission, which we discussed in
the previous lesson. You've done all the exercises, and the challenge now is to use your own words as you would if you had your own channel
or social media account. You may read it to make it easy or memorize it if
you have that talent, or you can also just speak from the heart guided by a
few talking points. Now, I really encourage you to try speaking from
the heart if you can. You don't have to use
that if it doesn't work. But basically, I
want you to keep in mind that the goal
isn't to be perfect. Is to be present and to be real. That's the real test. So I really it doesn't matter
to me as your teacher here, if you memorize it perfectly, if it's perfectly written. But I just want to see
the real you being as sincere and natural
as you can be on camera, helped by everything
we've practiced so far. You practice and
deliver your spill, don't forget the tips from
the previous lessons. Of course, first,
breathe into relaxation, two, pretend you're
the expert, three, lower the volume,
and then set it back to normal if
you need to four, back off the speed, and then set it back to normal
if you need to. Aim for a minimum of three takes and have a glass of water
nearby to refresh your throat. But also, don't kill yourself
trying to make it perfect. Do what makes sense for you to be able to best practice
everything you've learned. And of course, please
share your projects with me as unlisted embedded
YouTube links, or you can also make
it public if you want, because I always strive
to give helpful feedback. Let me know in the
discussions below if you have any trouble uploading,
and I'll be glad to help. With that, I have
some parting words for you as we wrap up the class.
10. Parting Words: Congratulations on
taking your first steps to transforming how
you speak on camera. Some of you might have had
instant transformations, while some might find
their progress slower. But regardless, this is a continuous journey of finding and honing
your authentic voice. I am still constantly
learning and discovering new things about mine as I grow in knowledge
and experience. So as you submit
your class projects, I encourage you to
keep in mind that the goal with sharing your
progress isn't to be, like, the best student in class. So don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself
with your classmates. Please. The reality is that talent isn't evenly distributed. Some of you will be better
at this out of the gate, but I don't care about that. What I care more
about is that time and effort reward anyone
that invests in them. So it takes that and consistent work and
trust in the process to reprogram your nervous system so that this can someday
appear effortless. I promise if you do the work, you will be able to look
forward to being on camera as a chance to share your
message instead of hearing it. So stay focused,
keep practicing, and celebrate all
the small wins. And, of course, feel
free to leave me and your classmates any questions
in the discussions plow. If you're really
committed to improving, you also have the option to book one on one sessions
with me here on Skillshare for
personalized guidance and because having a coach can really supercharge
your progress. That's totally optional, though I'm not forcing
you to do that, but it's just something that's there if you're interested. Or also if you'd like to take the next step into
content creation and have some other
great classes here on Skillshare as well
to get you started. As a final request, please leave an honest review for this
class once you've finished it, and it not just helps me but
also your fellow learners. With that, thank you so much for investing your time and
energy with me in this class. I sincerely hope it helps you in whatever you're
striving for right now, or at the very least,
that you had fun. With that, again, my name is Aaron Palabyab and I'll
see you again soon.
Aaron Palabyab, Filmmaker and Photographer
