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Transcript

Is This the Villain Keeping You From Recording Video? · Your Mic

• 0:00
  There is a solid chance you're not on video because you're blaming the wrong villain. You think it's your nose. You think it's your jawline. You think it's that one eye you swear is smaller than the other. Maybe you think the villain is your face. The real villain, however, is between your ears.
• 0:25
  Welcome back to Your Mic. My name is Freddy Cruz, and today we're going to talk about your phone, your face, and what a plastic surgeon who lives on the camera can teach you about camera readiness when your brain is screaming, hell no.
• 0:42
  Her name is Dr. Angela Sturm. She's a double board certified facial plastic surgeon and host of Beauty Unveiled. She's one of my company's Speak Podcasting's longest clients. And she talks about a concept I love. To you, the thing on your face, the mold, the bump, the scar, the asymmetry, it's huge. You think everybody sees it the way you see it.
• 1:05
  You turn your head a certain way so people won't notice. You avoid certain angles, certain cameras. Meanwhile, everybody else is walking around with their own noise in their head about their own face. Nobody cares about the thing you care about. They're not looking at you the way you are looking at you.
• 1:30
  And if they do notice, they're probably your friend, gently saying, if prompted, yeah, maybe take care of that. The internet, as ruthless as it can be, is probably not going to drag you. On top of all that, we're staring at ourselves through a piece of glass that lies. It's your iPhone, the marvel of engineering.
• 1:54
  It's also a funhouse mirror. Dr. Sturm explains it like this. It behaves more like a fisheye lens. Whatever is in the middle looks bigger, even when you're not trying to make it look bigger. You take a selfie from below, right up under your nose, and then zoom in. Of course, it's gonna look bizarre.
• 2:15
  "'Nobody sees you from that angle in real life.' "'People will come into her office holding up photos "'directly from under the nose, saying, "'Look, don't you see how bad this looks?'
• 2:27
  And her response is basically this. Yeah, because that's not a real world angle and that's not a natural lens. The clinic, she says, uses standard photography, specific cameras, specific distances, specific angles. Not because she's some sort of camera snob. It's because these settings are the closest thing to how people actually see you in reality. Plus, you know, she's a professional.
• 2:55
  Your phone, on the other hand, well, it's a phone at the end of the day. And as good as the technology is, it's still a phone. So here's the double whammy. You've got a distorted piece of glass showing you a version of your face nobody ever actually sees. And you've got a distorted voice in your head telling you that version is the truth. No wonder you don't want to be on video.
• 3:24
  Add to that the fact that a lot of people, including Dr. Sturm, used to be terrified of speaking on camera or on stage or both. She talks about being literally in tears at the thought of public speaking. Imagine standing in front of a room of people who have done what you want to do, but they've done it for 20 years, knowing if you get one minor detail wrong, someone is going to let you know. And that is a special kind of pressure. Yeah.
• 3:54
  Fast forward to now. She's hundreds of YouTube videos deep. She's got a podcast, a full aesthetic practice, multiple businesses, her daughter at school Googling her and showing teachers the videos like trading cards. She found a way to show up as herself to share what works for her, what she has seen, what she's done. You can argue with an opinion.
• 4:18
  It's way more harder to argue with, here's what I've experienced and here's how I learned about it. So what does this mean if you're a host avoiding video because of how you look or how you sound? First, your phone, it's not a judge. It's an accessory.
• 4:39
  Stop letting it be the lens that decides whether you're allowed to be on camera. Second, everybody else is busy, too busy as a matter of fact, worrying about their own perceived flaws to obsess over yours. The mental noise in their head is louder than whatever they might think about your crooked smile. Third, your job is not to show up as a flawless mannequin.
• 5:04
  You're a person. Your job is to show up as a guide, as somebody who has seen something, tried something, survived something, and is willing to put that on record. The nose, the jawline, the eye, your entire face. Those are supporting characters at best. Your listener did not hit play because they thought, oh, wow, look at her pores. Look at his eyebrows.
• 5:34
  By the way, Dr. Sturm, she also knows what it's like to change something for herself. She has had a rhinoplasty. She talks openly about being both the surgeon and the patient, about understanding what it's like to see your face looking different for the first time, to be nervous five days post-op, and then months later, to be genuinely grateful she did it. It's not love yourself and never change anything. It's nuance.
• 6:04
  You can love yourself enough to show up on camera as you are today. You can also change things up later if you want to. Like using your smartphone camera at first and then upgrading to like one of those fancy cameras. Yeah, you can absolutely do that. You can change things up. I promise you can. Neither option requires you to disappear in the meantime.
• 6:28
  Here's the key takeaway. Your iPhone is lying to you. Your brain is exaggerating. It's gaslighting you. And your audience is going to care more about the truth you're willing to share than the angle of your jaw.
• 6:46
  Step in front of the lens anyway. I dare you. I dare you. You know why? Because I believe in you. Because I know you can do it. My name is Freddy Cruz. This is your mic. And if this gave you one centimeter of extra courage to show your face, use it. Record the video. Post the clip. Let the reps catch up to the fear. Because they will. Thank you so much for listening.