5 Tips To Look Natural on Camera [New REALTORs]
Tips for New Real Estate Agents Using Video
As a new real estate agent, you know the importance of using video in your business, but how can we start to feel more natural on camera? Video has led the way when it comes to personal marketing in real estate and connecting with the consumer. Many top businesses started to use video in their marketing, blogs, and social media profiles when the stats started to come out on user interaction with video and the search engine’s love for this type of content. Some of the startling numbers that lit a fire underneath marketers include
- Marketers who use video grew their revenue by 49% when compared to non-video users
- Marketers who use video increased their web traffic by 41% when compared to non-video users
- Including a video on a landing page increases conversion by 80%
- 80% Of viewers recall a video ad that they saw in the past month
Source: RenderForest
As a new REALTOR, you need to be paying attention to these statistics. Some argue it is even more important to use video in real estate because we REALTORs are consumer facing and much of the relationship is built on knowing, liking, and trusting the agent. The beauty of video is you convey all three of these on camera.
Ok, you know video is important as a new real estate agent and you are ready to jump in front of the camera, but you are also nervous about how to look natural on Camera.
Just start, the more time between you thinking of doing it and you actually doing it, will increase your nervousness.
How To Look Natural on Camera as a New Real Estate Agent
Look, the first time that you jump in front of the camera, you are going to feel strange and uncomfortable, but that’s ok, everyone is in the same boat. As you start to find your voice and style, you may feel a little choppy and unnatural. Keep shooting video! The age old saying of “the more you do, the easier it becomes” holds true on for video.
Hack 1: Enthusiasm
In almost all cases, enthusiasm is lacking when you first start shooting videos. Even if you think you are being more animated than normal, you are probably coming across as less exciting than you could. Instead of just trying to bump up your enthusiasm, try to 10X your energy. This will feel a little strange on camera, but I promise you it will make your video more irresistible to watch.
Adam LoDolce says that his analytics don’t lie and on his videos where he is more animated, the viewership is much higher.
Takeaway: Don’t just slightly increase you enthusiasm, try to 10X your energy on camera.
Hack 2: Don’t Think of The Camera as a Camera
Say, what? It’s a camera, how can I think of it as anything different? Looking directly at the camera just kicks the nerves into overdrive, however, if you are not looking directly at the lens, you will quick lose the viewer as it will seem like you are not talking to them. The solution is to picture a close friend or a family member instead of the camera. This trick comes from YouTuber Sunny Lenarduzzi and she says that we she started out she actually put a photo of a family member under the lens. That way, when she was on camera, it felt like she was just talking to her family.
Takeaway: Post a photo of a family member by the camera and picture yourself just talking to them.
Hack 3: Blink and Smile
Here is another great tip from Sunny Lenarduzzi, remember to blink and smile. It seems obvious but when you get in front of the camera, a switch almost flips and we turn on the serious mode. You need to consciously be thinking to smile and blink. If you don’t believe me, have a look at this screenshots from one of my videos.
Yikes!!!
And here is the thing, I’m not an angry guy. I was in an awesome mood that day, but there was no smile to be found.
This is often because we are focusing so heavily on the what we are saying and our next line that we forget to have normal facial expressions.
Takeaway: Remember to smile and blink
Hack 4: Try Not To Be Perfect
If you strive for perfection, chances are you will never post your first video. One of the best hacks in the list is this one: try not to be perfect. This goes beyond just letting go of perfection, this goes one step further to trying to avoid being perfect. This concept can free yourself from shooting the video 15 times and taking 3 days to edit that shot. When you consciously avoid perfection, you also tend to be yourself and this makes you much more natural on camera.
We use a similar concept when we are learning to prospect; instead of trying to get the client or secure the appointment, we are just trying to get a “no”. In doing this, you increase the repetitions and in turn improve quickly.
Takeaway: Turn perfection on its head and try not to be perfect.
Hack 5: Preparation
Preparation for shooting your video can go one of three ways: you can wing it, you can script it, you can use point form. If you are new to video, I recommend you use point form. Winging it will go south very quickly. Some experienced people can jump on camera and just start talking in a natural way but most of us will hit a roadblock after a couple of sentences. If not, then you run the risk of going off on a tangent and losing your viewer. If you script every line, you will sound robotic and it might end up being a dry video. When scripted, you will be so focused on your next line that you will forget to act with enthusiasm, to smile, and to blink. Also, not everyone has a teleprompter.
When preparing, use point form. This is the best of both worlds. You have a general plan to follow but you can also stay focused on conveying your message with passion and energy. You will also not feel so tied to the script which allows your personality to come through in the video. Finally, you won’t spend hours writing out every line. You just jot down your points and hit record.
Takeaway: Use point form when preparing for your video.
Bonus: Start Small
Start shooting Instagram Stories today. Shooting a quick 15 second video on Instagram can be your first step to becoming more natural on video. The stakes are low because it will disappear in a short period of time and can shoot a few takes if necessary. If you are just getting started with video and using Instagram Stories to increase your confidence, try to not shoot more than 3 times before launching the story. This plays on Hack 4 where you need to be comfortable with not being perfect.
Takeaway: Start small with Instagram Stories and start right away.
Conclusion:
As a new real estate agent, you need to starting thinking of using video on a regular basis. Being a REALTOR is a customer facing career where the client needs to know, like, and trust you. The beauty of video is people will start knowing, liking, and trusting you just from watching your videos online.
Your first few videos will not be comfortable but don’t worry about it. Use the 5 hacks above to start shooting videos today.
Freebie: Online Lead Scripts
Additional resources: 7 Tips For Being Comfortable In Front of The Camera, Increase Confidence on Camera, 3 Quick Tips for Being on Camera
Podcast Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Rev Real Estate School. The podcast with quick tips and actionable advice to help you sell more real estate in today's world. And now your host Michael Montgomery.
[00:00:10] Hello and welcome to another episode of Rev Real Estate School. My name is Michael Montgomery. Do you struggle with confidence when you're on camera on video? That's very very common. And today we are going to talk about five different hacks quick tips that you can use in order to be a pro on camera.
[00:00:30] If you listen to yesterday's episode we talked about responding to a lead using video and how important that is and how important it will be moving forward to help differentiate yourself. Tthen we did talk about how you know what it can be a little bit challenging to jump on video not because we don't know it's important. We know it's important. It's been talked about over and over again. What our challenge typically is we're just not comfortable in front of the camera and that's fine. That is totally normal.
[00:00:57] Let's talk about a few quick tips that we can use right away in order to improve our ability to communicate on camera and just feel more comfortable.
[00:01:06] Tip number one is use in enthusiasm. Aanytime before you're about to jump on camera tell yourself 10 X your enthusiasm. Even when we're trying to be enthusiastic, chances are it's not coming across as such like we really really have to crank up the enthusiasm in order for that to come across on the camera. And when you do that when you have a higher level of enthusiasm you appear to have more confidence. So enthusiasm and confidence can go hand-in-hand that you can take it too far with the enthusiasm we're not talking about that. But when you're about to go on camera just think 10 X your enthusiasm don't think just a little bit more enthusiasm think a ton more enthusiasm and you will come across a lot better. Plus it will come across a lot more confidence a number one enthusiasm.
[00:01:55] Number two comes from professional YouTube's Sunny Lenarduzzi. Now she has a lot of great tips on her channel on how to perform on camera and get comfortable in front of the camera and then also different camera gear and that sort of thing. We'll link it up in the show notes. She has a couple of tips here. So number two and three actually both come from her. Number two is don't think of the camera as a camera. So what she says she says try to think of the camera as a friend or a family member and she said when she was first getting started out she would actually put a picture of a friend or a family member just underneath the lens. So when she looked at the camera she would just think like she was talking to her friend or her family member. I think it's a great great hack in order just become comfortable with staring at that camera. It is not a natural feeling for us to sit there and look at this camera that's that we know is recording us and looking right back at us. So number two is don't think of the camera as a camera. Feel free to put up a photo of somebody that you know like. And then that way just speak to them and you're not speaking to the camera.
[00:03:02] The next one she says is honestly people will forget to blink and smile when they are on video. This has happened to me numerous times where I'm going back and I'm editing up my video or I'm looking at my video and I'm staring at myself. I'm like wow I am sitting there staring giving like the death glare directly into the camera and I look like I'm a serial killer or something like that. And it's not because I'm super focused. Instead it's just you're not used to sitting there staring at this black box looking back at you and smiling and blinking and acting normal. So number three is to blink and smile.
[00:03:42] Number four try to not be perfect. So try to shoot your video and actually try to make it make it NOT perfect. This lowers the pressure that you put on yourself. If at the end of the day you tell yourself Look this does not have to be a perfect video I'm just putting this out there. Then you're going to lower your pressure right off the bat.
[00:04:03] Number five is preparation. This one should go without saying but when you're preparing you're going to increase your confidence. Have you ever been to a listing presentation and been totally prepared knew the market knew all of the sales and it just went perfectly. And have you ever been to a listening presentation where maybe you were rushed and you didn't know what the one down the street sold for and it was a little bit more on the shaky side. That's just simply coming down to preparation. So before you're going to go shoot the video just prepare. Just have a little bit of a script have some notes know what you're going to say. The thing about this is there's always this back and forth as do I sit there do I read my notes do I get a teleprompter. I'd recommend not I just grab some point form notes read through those make sure I'm comfortable with them and then jump on the camera and see where it goes now that comes probably with a little bit of practice and the more scripted you can be off the start probably the better because it will your comfort with doing video. But then the more than you do. Just having some point form notes just helps me know I can come back to that if I need a quick refresher or something like that I'm not just totally winging it.
[00:05:11] So those are your five quick tips I would recommend going to the show notes for this one you can download these hacks. The cheat sheet for it and there's also a video to help walk you through some of these tips. Thank you very much for listening to this episode and we will catch you on the next lesson.
[00:05:29] This episode of Rev Real Estate School has come to a close. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you back here for the next lesson.
Follow Up Reading:
How To Avoid Perfectionism in Real Estate
Real Estate Lead Follow Up Hack (Video)
Top 10 Habits for Real Estate Agents
Question: Do you use video in your real estate business? Let me know in the comments below.
-Michael Montgomery