How to Be Confident On Camera and Nail Your Presentation: A Former TV Anchor Spills Industry Secrets + Free Course for You

There's no escaping this truth: People assume you're a leader when you're a strong communicator, speak well, and present well. And they're much likelier to listen to you and buy into your ideas when you're confident and compelling.

That's why honing your skills is critical to being confident on video — whether it's a presentation on Zoom, speaking on stage, on a virtual keynote, serving on a virtual panel, or recording an educational or promotional video for your website or social media feeds.

Each episode of the Own Your Lane® Personal Branding Podcast highlights one of the four steps of the Own Your L.A.N.E. personal branding roadmap to help you gain clarity, confidence, and a clear path to growing your influence and impact.

L: Launch Your Vision – Lead with clear intention and purpose
A: Assert Your Difference – Define what uniquely sets you apart
N: Navigate Your Presence – Shape your personal brand foundation
E: Elevate Your Authority – Grow impact and influence with publicity

This week, we're focusing on "N-Navigate Your Presence" with host Michelle B Griffin and expert guest Susan Siravo, a former TV anchor, reporter, and social media strategist, who will share her best industry secrets so you can go from feeling like a "deer in the headlights" to "dazzling on screen."

As Susan says, being confident on camera is "a skill that everyone should work to develop."

Susan has a free course for us, " Don't be a Deer in the Headlights" - Learn to Dazzle on Camera Instead! (In just over an hour, link below)

🎥  WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW

LINKS
Connect with Susan Sivaro on LinkedIn
SusanSivaro.com
Susan's FREE Confident on Camera Course

Ready to Own Your Lane? - The Brand Leaders® Podcast

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Transcript

Michelle B. Griffin: Welcome to the Standout Women Podcast. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin, founder of Standout Women Media. As an author, speaker, and certified personal brand and PR strategist, I’m here to empower and elevate women just like you to get visible, build your personal brand, and own your lane as a visible brand authority and thought leader in your space.

I'm super excited you're here. Now let's get going with today's show.

Michelle B. Griffin: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of Standout Women Live. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin. I am excited to welcome to the show, Susan Siravo. Welcome.

Susan Siravo: Hi, Michelle. Thanks so much for having me.

Michelle B. Griffin: We are here today to talk about a topic that you hear a lot: be confident on camera, all these things. But we're taking it in a whole new avenue because, you know what, it's not just about being confident on camera to market yourself and social media. Leaders are great communicators. When you are a strong presenter, you talk well, present well, your ideas get heard. Change happens. People are more willing to listen.

And so, I wanted to bring Susan to the show. She's going to tell us a little bit about her background and why this is so important, and to be honest, give us some of these industry secrets that I'm hoping she's going to share so we can all look really good on camera. So, Susan, for those who haven't met you yet, tell us a little bit about your background.

Susan Siravo: Well, Michelle, I started my career in TV news, and I was a producer, reporter, and anchor. I did that for a little over a decade, and then I moved into PR and marketing. And I've been doing that ever since. After I left news, I went to work for a public agency. And then after that, I came to Comerica, a regional bank. And right now, I run social media for the bank, which I love. It's a wonderful program that we have. And then I also have a side business where I coach people on how to show up as their best on camera.

The reason I started this side business is because during the pandemic, as you know, everything in person went away. And we were starting to do everything online and using Zoom and Teams and Google Meets and all the platforms. And a lot of people just didn't really have the skills to show up like a boss on camera. So, I started helping people to do that. And it's been a lot of fun ever since.

And recently, I decided to create a course called Don't Be a Deer in the Headlights. And that is because I still get a lot of emails and DMs from people asking for tips here and there, whether it's about a camera or lighting or how to not be nervous or how to speak more concisely. And I thought, you know what, I'm just going to take all of my ideas and my tips, put them together in one course. There are about 15 videos, and the whole course is just over an hour. So, I just send the link to people when they have questions and say, watch the course. It pretty much covers most of the bases, not all of it, but most of the bases.

Michelle B. Griffin: Well, I know we're not here to, you know, just sell it, but I've seen it. I've been able to take many of the lessons, and the minute I opened this course, I had never actually seen you on camera. I didn't even know you were, you know, had this TV background. And the minute I started watching your course, I was like, wow, Susan's so good on camera. And you know, you see a lot of people, and I'm like, she's really polished. She really is so pro. And I was like, wow.

And then you mentioned somewhere in the intro, and then it just got, and the more I listened to this, and then why we're talking today, I thought, you know what? We all need this. This isn't just "get on video." You see this on LinkedIn, "get on video and promote yourself." Yeah, that's important. Totally important. I don't care if you have your own business or you're in corporate America, everyone needs to have a presence. And that is something more than just being confident on camera because what you talk about in this course are some of the things that I'm sure you learned in broadcast journalism school and, you know, as a reporter, anchor, and all that. But the main thing, which we were talking about in the green room, is really just knowing how to have a presence.

Is it something that we can learn, or where do we start?

Susan Siravo: Absolutely. And we learned this in broadcasting that you have to have a lot of energy. You have to have enthusiasm. Otherwise, whoever's watching you isn’t going to care, right? Because if you show up on camera, and you're monotone, and you just don’t seem like you’re that into it, why would anyone pay attention?

And when you think about how we consume video—let's say you're watching a presentation or a webinar—people are scrolling on their phones, they’re looking at their email, their mind is somewhere else. So, if you're not really captivating on camera, people are just going to tune out, and we don’t want that. So, when I talk about having a presence, I mentioned in the course that I think being good on camera is kind of like the new FaceTime.

And I don’t mean like the FaceTime app. What I mean is, in the old days, it would be like, okay, if you were in the office a lot, and the higher-ups were there, you had FaceTime, right? Because they saw you, and you interacted at the water cooler or getting coffee. But now that so many people work remotely or part of the time, you don’t have that face-to-face interaction with other leaders in your company, or clients, or prospects—whatever your business is. So, that time that you have on Teams or Zoom, that’s your FaceTime. That’s your opportunity to put your best foot forward and have that face-to-face with people and make that connection.

So, that’s why even just a regular meeting or a sales call, whatever you have going on, why not show up as your best?

Michelle B. Griffin: I love that. And, you know, I want to add another part of this. You mentioned since the pandemic we’re more remote. Even in the last year and a half, since the advent of AI and the scary stuff that can come down—the fakes and all that—and, of course, now written content is such a commodity, right? In the flip of a millisecond, you can get whatever you want.

And we now need to be very strong on video and camera, have a presence, because we need that connection, that human connection, more than ever to know that, "Hey, that is us. We are the thought leader we say we are. This stuff is ours." But also, just us. Because, goodness gracious, we have too much AI stuff, and I’m just calling for more human connection because of it. So, you know, this presence is so electrifying in the best way when you see that humanism. And so, I really think that’s another cause for presence.

Susan Siravo: Definitely. It's like a muscle—you just have to train it, train it, train it.

Michelle B. Griffin: Yes, because I know we also talked about this. Some people will just say, "I don’t have the personality for camera." What do you say to those people?

Susan Siravo: Well, this also goes to people who may be introverts. Because it seems like nowadays in business, if you’re an extrovert, maybe you might have a leg up on introverts because you have that bubbly personality, or you're really good with people. But I would say being on camera—anybody can do it. Because, remember, you’re not talking to a huge audience like you're on a stage. This is just you and me together, Michelle, and we are both looking at our cameras and talking. So, whether I’m an extrovert or an introvert, it's just me in a room looking at a camera.

So, like I say in my course, the best way to get that pizzazz when you're on camera is to just practice. When I was first starting in news, we didn’t have phones with cameras on them. It was quite a while ago, but I had an old-school camcorder. So, I put that up and then I would just talk to the camera. Maybe I would read the newspaper, or I would read something, or I would tell a story, whatever—just so I got comfortable looking at the camera and being expressive or demonstrative, and telling a story. And that's really what we’re talking about—just comfort level. People don’t have that comfort level, but like anything, it's like riding a bike. Once you do it long enough, or often enough, the repetition is what makes you more confident and gives you that comfortability.

Michelle B. Griffin: I agree with that. And I even think having a place where you can either stand up, I prefer to stand up, but sit down. I think that’s completely different than holding your phone for a selfie—that's too awkward. Like, I think you probably need a real place where your camera’s filming you, and you can critique it and just get those reps in.

What are your thoughts about, you know, now there’s technology where, say, if you’re going to practice, either you ad lib it or maybe there’s a script and there’s a teleprompter—probably what you read back in the day—but now there’s teleprompters that will even train your eye to look even if you’re not looking.

What are your thoughts about tools like that to help you with your comfort level and practice?

Susan Siravo: I think you should do both. I think you should practice talking to the camera. Just get a tripod, and I mentioned this in the course. There are tripods on Amazon for, I don’t know, 15, 20 dollars. Just get a tripod, put your phone on the tripod, and then hit video. Talk to the camera. Tell a story. Tell a funny story from high school or something your kids did that was funny, and just get used to that.

And then also try the teleprompter apps where you download a script, write a script, and then upload it to the teleprompter app. Then have it on your camera, and it'll show you. Like with my camera here, let’s say the lens of the camera is right here, so the words are going to be right there, and they’ll scroll right there, so it looks like you’re looking at the camera, and you can learn how to read moving words.

It's a little daunting at first, but like everything else, once you get used to it, you can do it. So, if you have a recorded video that’s maybe two minutes or more, and you need to say something exactly, then use the teleprompter app, record it with a teleprompter, get comfortable with it. Great. But also, learn to ad lib as well so that you can do both depending on what the need is. Sometimes we just need to record a video that’s short, no big deal. Sometimes we’re going to be on a live stream like this, where we wouldn’t use a teleprompter because we’re ad-libbing our Q&A together. Or if you’re doing a webinar, you’re not going to say everything word for word.

Michelle B. Griffin: No, exactly. Because there’s context for everything. This might be a great place to ask the question that I think some of us, myself included—I’m always working on this, so I’m not pointing fingers—is learning to talk in sound bites. To me, that is, you know, interviewing a lot of people, no fingers pointed. And I think a lot of it’s nerves. Some people over-talk or talk too long, or say something again and again and again and again. I’m making a case in point here, but you know what I’m saying—cut to the chase.

So, what’s your best industry tips on how to talk in sound bites?

Susan Siravo: We have to remember that it's important to make your point and then stop talking. Like, why do we continue to talk after we make our point? Maybe because we think it makes us sound more knowledgeable or smarter if we keep talking. There are all different reasons. Maybe we’re afraid that there's going to be some awkward silence.

But I would say when you have something that you're going to get across—a certain message, let’s say—you have an important meeting coming up or an important phone call, talk it over with yourself beforehand. Figure out how to make those points in a few short sentences. And that might be you just, like, while you're on a walk, kind of talking to yourself—hopefully no one will think you’re weird—but if so, whatever. Or if you're in your car, just figure out how to make your points in short sentences, and then stop talking. Wait for the other people to reply.

Now, we do that when we ask questions too. I’ve found myself doing that, where I’d ask a question and then I’d keep talking, and the person’s just like waiting to reply. But like, okay, I’ve got to stop talking now. So, we all do it. It’s just a matter of being aware and making an effort to try to stop doing it.

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, I’m guilty of it too. And that’s something I’ve got to learn too. So, you know, getting out there—none of us improve anything by just wanting, wishing, and reading about it. You’ve got to actually do the reps. And that’s why your course is so good because you really show us how to do this in really bite-sized things.

And that's the thing when we’re practicing on anything, we can get so caught up in the weeds on how to do something. But in your case, at the end of the day, get a tripod and just start practicing. So, what do you think after that? Once we practice, what are your next tips on, you know, after we’ve assessed and practiced our videos, where do we go from there?

Susan Siravo: Well, a couple of things. Let’s talk about PowerPoint slides. Most presentations have PowerPoint slides, and we’ve all seen this where we spend so much time tweaking those slides and then getting other people to look at them, getting opinions, and they go through a long approval process. And it’s all about the slides, but we haven’t rehearsed what we’re actually going to say.

So, that's something that we need to do—figure out what we’re going to say. And then the slides are accompanying what you’re going to say, but you’re the main show, not the slides. So, I would say it's important to figure out what you’re going to say for each slide. And then when you're practicing, time yourself. Time yourself and record yourself. You can record on Zoom or any of the platforms. Do your presentation, or your two-minute talk, whatever it is, record yourself, and then watch it. You’d be surprised. If I were to say, "Okay, I need you to talk for two minutes," a lot of people would say, "Okay," and then they would talk for five minutes. And I’d say, "Well, you talked for five minutes." They go, "What? What do you mean? No, I hardly talked at all!" Because we don’t necessarily have an awareness of how long it's taking us to make our point.

Michelle B. Griffin: So true! Because every time I do one of these live shows, it seems like we're on air for five minutes. I’m sure that’s how it was when you did the news, right?

Susan Siravo: Yeah.

Michelle B. Griffin: One good tip that came to mind, I don’t know if you talk about this in your course—I haven’t finished the entire course—but it just reminded me that Canva has a really good feature. You can do your slides in Canva, and you can record yourself and then play it back.

And so, that's an excellent idea. I’m so glad you brought up PowerPoint. You’re so right. It’s not the slides. In fact, I believe too many of us put too much in slides. Nothing is worse than when you go to a presentation, and people just read the slides to you. To me, that’s a disservice. It shouldn’t even be allowed. It should not be allowed. My favorite slides are like one picture, one word, and you’re intrigued, and then the person sets the stage.

So, that’s a wonderful way to do it, but you’ve got to practice that too. So, now that we know to forget the slides, it's where the star—let's really hone our message, get really succinct in the timing and the delivery—where do we go from there?

Susan Siravo: Well, I say in the course that it’s good to get feedback from other people, and that could be a coworker, a manager, or just a friend that you trust, some sort of colleague to give you that feedback and say, "Hey, you know what, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I just need to know, what do you think of how I'm doing here?" And ask for honesty.

People can tell you things like, "Well, this part was a little slow," or "I kind of tuned out during this part," or "This part—you didn’t go into enough detail. I wasn’t really sure what you were talking about. It was a little bit confusing." Or they might say, "I don’t know where you're looking. You're looking in the wrong spot," or "You're talking too fast," or "You're talking too slow." Who knows? We just don’t know until we get feedback from other people.

And when I first started in the news business, we would have consultants come in, and it was a little scary because they would take copies of the live presentations that you did and just go through them with you. And they would point out everything that you needed to do better. But they were professionals. They worked with people all over the country. So, you have to just kind of check your ego at the door and say, "Okay, I'm here to learn. I'm here to improve." So, just say it like it is.

Michelle B. Griffin: Well, when you think about any person who's trying to get to the next level—Hollywood actors, athletes—we all hire coaches and people to point out what we don’t see in ourselves. And that's essentially what it is—nothing personal. They're here for professional reasons to help strengthen you. So, I love that. And I understand you do that as well with some of your clients on a specific case-by-case basis. Is that correct?

Susan Siravo: Yeah. Some of them, I will just take a look at videos. Maybe they've served on an industry panel, or maybe they've had a media interview, or just a social media video that they've put out. And I'll take a look at that, and I can just go through a quick checklist of tweaks that they need to do and improve really quickly.

So, oftentimes, people are really close to being great. They just need a little boost in a couple of different areas, and then they’re good to go.

Michelle B. Griffin: Wow. That’s a line—people are so close to being great. Oh my goodness. When you think about that, we probably all are at some point, but unless we take that extra step, get that help, put the reps in and practice, we're never going to get to where we’re that close. You know, we're going to be that much closer. That’s really powerful. I love that.

You know, my background’s in communication—not media or news—but I have an undergraduate and a master’s in PR and advertising. So, communications has always been something I’m passionate about because I know the power of communication. And I love that you're doing this for today’s times, and it’s not just for social media. Thank you for pointing that out because I think a lot of people—and maybe you find this with your corporate clients—do they say, "Well, I don’t have my own business, I don’t need to be on social media"?

So, how do you counter that? Because I know we talk about Zoom, but do they even think that, yes, with a little bit of prep, they can be really, really good and perhaps someday do that social media video? What do you tell people?

Susan Siravo: Well, usually the people that come to me, it's a referral from someone who is working with them that says, "Listen, this person that I’m working with is really close to being great, and they need to get to that next step. Why don’t you have a chat with them?" So, that's usually kind of how it comes about.

There's one other thing I wanted to mention, Michelle. I had seen a social media post that you put out a while ago, and I’ve quoted this before too, where you said, "Visibility isn’t vanity." Remember that?

Michelle B. Griffin: Yes!

Susan Siravo: I think that’s really important because people get nervous about video and putting themselves out there, and that’s natural. We all do. Especially when we do a video, and then we hit post, we’re like, "Oh!" But becoming more visible is helpful for your career. That’s the way it is nowadays because you get more exposure, people notice you, you look and sound like a leader, and people start looking at you a little bit differently. So, it’s important to be visible, and doing it with video amps things up even more.

Michelle B. Griffin: Yeah. My favorite line—I see it everywhere, and it’s in my book coming out in the fall—visibility is not vanity. Visibility is being valuable. You have an expertise message, a unique take and point of view, especially these days, that we need to hear. And, you know, especially in the corporate world, if you're just thinking, "Oh, that's for entrepreneurs." No, that is professional insurance—being visible. And it’s really opportunity, it’s profitability, it’s all the things that come your way when people see you.

And as you say, you look and sound like a leader—that’s icing on the cake, you know? They go hand in hand. So, I’m glad you brought that up. And the whole reason why we’re here today is because these are all just crutches—like, "Oh, I'm not good on camera." Anything can be learned for the most part, you know? And with the right mindset and within reason, most things can be learned and applied, and realize how much it benefits you. So, that's so, so important.

So, as we continue and wrap up—before we close today—any more industry secrets? I kind of teased that you were going to help us. Behind the scenes, what else can we learn to hone our craft?

Susan Siravo: Well, the speaking in sound bites, like you mentioned, here’s why that’s really important nowadays—because of social media, especially short-form video like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. A lot of people are on podcasts, LinkedIn Lives, video podcasts, and you have the ability to take those clips and post them on short-form video social media sites and get a lot of recognition from that.

But you have to be able to make your point in less than a minute or less than 30 seconds. So, if you're able to do that—maybe you did a 20-minute interview or a 30-minute interview—you could have 5, 6, or 10 clips from that one interview that you can put out on all these social media sites for people to see you and discover you. So that’s another reason why you should speak in sound bites.

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, absolutely.

Susan Siravo: And in terms of a secret, I would just say the lighting, camera, and audio—that's all really important. And I have a couple of videos at the beginning of the course on those. I know some people feel like, "Well, I have the camera on my laptop, it’s okay." They look at it and say, "Oh, it’s good enough." No, invest in a webcam. Maybe if you have a brand new Mac, that camera is good enough. But invest in a webcam. You might need an external mic, maybe not. Invest in some lights. Lights have never been cheaper, and you can get them on Amazon so that you’re well lit, and your video and audio quality are great.

That will put you head and shoulders above the rest because when you hop on a Zoom call, and you're looking like you could be on a broadcast, people are like, "Oh, well, this person means business."

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, it’s an important first impression. And, you know, I have two new Macs, and trust me, the Mac camera isn't as good. You know, I swear by the Logitech Brio, and it makes everyone look good. It's another form of professional insurance, just like you would do XYZ for classes. When you buy these things once, you rarely need to upgrade them. And lights are very inexpensive, and the camera, and then microphones. You can go from the very low-end to the very, very high-end. But I think sound, to me, is probably the most critical. Of course, they all come into play, but if people can’t hear you after you’ve worked so hard, it’s a disservice to all the work you're doing. So, I love that you do that.

There's never been an easier and more economical time to invest in those things. And as you say, they're really to increase your career credibility. So, as we finish up today—we have just a few more minutes—please, talk.

Susan Siravo: Actually, Michelle, I do have one more tip.

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, please tell us. I want to hear them all.

Susan Siravo: Getting to the point is very important if you want to hold people’s interest. So, I’ll give you an example. When you watch a local newscast, and let’s say the reporter is out in the field, usually the anchor has 10 seconds to introduce a story, 10 seconds to introduce the reporter. Then the reporter has about 15 seconds to introduce their story. And then their story that’s on tape, where they have sound bites and narration, is usually about a minute 15 to a minute 30. And then you come back, and the reporter has about 15, 20 seconds to wrap up and toss it back.

So, if you think about that, the whole story, the entire story, can be told in two minutes or less. And that's because it cuts out all the fluff. And we just know that with a newscast, they keep a certain pace. Some stories are 45 seconds, some stories are a minute, some stories are two minutes. And then they do the tease and go to commercial, but the pace is very quick.

So, we don’t need to do that type of pace when we do presentations or PowerPoints. But if we go in with the mindset that the audience can "turn the channel" at any moment because they’re just not engaged and can go somewhere else, it forces us to make our presentations or our talks efficient with every word and sentence.

Michelle B. Griffin: I agree. So, we don’t have to—like you said in the course—come to the camera like, "Hey there." Just cut to the chase, right? Just go straight to the point. That’s another course for you—course number two. How to do a presentation like a TV news show. That’s course number two! I’m signing up for that one. You’ve spilled so many industry secrets! This has been phenomenal. I’m geeking out on all of this because I think, secretly, I wanted to be a news anchor back in the day.

For those who want to learn more about your media training business and course, where can they find you, Susan?

Susan Siravo: I do have my course on my LinkedIn profile. I have the course on Thrive Cart, and it’s just a link you can click on and register for the course. It’s free. Like I said, it’s an hour and two minutes, so it’s pretty quick. You can just watch the videos that are relevant to you right now and come back and watch the others that might be relevant at a later date—whatever works.

Michelle B. Griffin: This is incredible. Did you hear the word "free"? Susan is providing this for free, at least for now, so if you’re interested, run, don’t walk—run and go get this invaluable product. It’s just tremendous. So, it's very generous. And then tell us again where your website is to learn more about your other services.

Susan Siravo: Yeah. SusanSiravo.com is my website.

Michelle B. Griffin: Okay.

Susan Siravo: But I have everything on my LinkedIn profile, so it’s easy just to go from LinkedIn.

Michelle B. Griffin: And then follow Susan on LinkedIn because I know you post pretty regularly, right?

Susan Siravo: Yes.

Michelle B. Griffin: Okay, thanks. And for your stuff, and then for the bank. I think you do a really good job on that too. You’re always showing pictures. I love the pictures. You’re always meeting people, I guess, in your job. You do a good job of sharing what you do behind the scenes at the bank. So, if you want to learn about social media posting from a media perspective, definitely give Susan a follow.

Susan, I think you’ve been in the community like three years. I’m so glad we finally got a chance to meet, and this has been incredible. Thank you so much for your time today.

Susan Siravo: Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle B. Griffin: All right, everybody, until next time, keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share, and people to impact. We’ll catch you next time. Take care.