Episode 277
What People Really See When You’re on Camera
When you’re on camera, people decide how much they trust you a lot faster than you realize.
In this episode, we revisit a conversation with Peter Hopwood, a speaking coach who works with presenters, sales teams, founders, and TEDx presenters on how to be more confident and credible on screen. Peter shares what helps people connect through a camera, especially when the usual in-person cues aren’t there.
The conversation covers why curiosity is key to building trust, how voice and small physical movements influence engagement, and why many people misread audience reactions in virtual settings.
Peter also shares practical advice on eye contact, standing versus sitting, recording yourself to improve, and avoiding common distractions that can undermine your credibility without you even noticing.
Learning points from the episode include:
- 00:00 - 01:29 Intro
- 01:29 - 04:22 Peter’s roots in the industry
- 04:22 - 09:23 Defining success on camera
- 09:23 - 13:50 Peter’s one tip for being on camera
- 13:50 -18:25 Why is trust so important on video?
- 18:25 - 23:43 Defining the role of visual aids
- 23:43 - 27:07 Things Peter has seen that can break trust and why setting matters
- 27:06 - 27:51 How to connect with Peter
- 27:51 - 29:02 Peter's final take
- 29:02 - 29:38 Outro
Important links and mentions:
- Check out Peter’s website: http://www.peter-hopwood.com/
- Connect with Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhopwoodpublicspeaking
- Follow Peter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HopwoodMedia
- Follow Peter on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterhopwood/
- Listen to Peter’s first appearance on The Visual Lounge: https://the-visual-lounge.captivate.fm/episode/how-to-break-your-viewers-trust
Transcript
Showing curiosity, feeling like you're
Speaker:curious will make the other person that's looking at you,
Speaker:listening to you feel like you want to connect with them. So if you
Speaker:can show that, if you can show it through how you look, how you move
Speaker:your voice so your voice is so, so important, if you can,
Speaker:you can show your intention of that
Speaker:curiosity that you want to connect, that you're
Speaker:interested in, in the other person who's on the other side of
Speaker:the camera, then, then that, that should help you become
Speaker:a stronger communicator and getting better and getting good
Speaker:at this.
Speaker:Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Wherever you are and wherever you're watching
Speaker:from. My name is Matt Pearce, host of the Visual Lounge, where we talk about
Speaker:using images and videos in the workplace. Today
Speaker:we're going to be talking about something I think is really important. As you get
Speaker:on camera, as you're on screen for people, it is
Speaker:so easy to not build trust. It's easy to lose trust. So
Speaker:we're going to be talking with a speaking coach and expert about on camera
Speaker:presence and how not to lose that trust. So Peter travels the
Speaker:hybrid globe helping speakers, high performing professionals, corporate
Speaker:teams, TEDx speakers and founders to share more powerful
Speaker:stories and, and build accurate speaking and presence skills.
Speaker:With that all said, please help me welcome Peter Hopwood to the
Speaker:Visual Lounge. Hey, Peter. Curious, how did you get started
Speaker:with using like video and images in your work?
Speaker:Yeah, well, essentially as a speaker coach and
Speaker:helping people to stand on stages and in
Speaker:boardrooms really connect by what they say, by how they move,
Speaker:by, by the connections they're trying to achieve
Speaker:through the pandemic. That was obviously a time where, you
Speaker:know, all my traveling stopped. I couldn't do it in person anymore. And
Speaker:after a kind of a long period of just
Speaker:wallowing and not really stepping up, I realized that
Speaker:actually here, this, in this screen, in this box,
Speaker:there are skills to be learned to connect.
Speaker:Right? So it's not clearly not the same as when you're
Speaker:in person and trying to do the same thing, connect, build that trust, build that
Speaker:connection here on a screen, it's different. There
Speaker:are so many other things that have, you have to think about things that,
Speaker:skills that you can learn, behaviors you can share.
Speaker:And so simply through the pandemic,
Speaker:two years or so, that was really where I
Speaker:was able to kind of share my skills to help other people really
Speaker:create this, this connection. So whether it be sales teams
Speaker:that were trying to have a, trying to get good at this
Speaker:with their intro calls, building up that trust, building up that relationship at the
Speaker:beginning of their, of their sales journey or whether it was
Speaker:presenters or, or people who had to share certain
Speaker:information through the screen and do it in a good way, it gave me the
Speaker:chance to do that. So, so really, although I was doing it many years before
Speaker:as a presenter as well through the pandemic, that was really, I kind of
Speaker:gave me a chance to hone in on, on the real skills and
Speaker:as I say, behaviors, their behaviors, behaviors
Speaker:to get good at this. And when you get good at this or you
Speaker:start to get good at this, you
Speaker:actually start to leave the competitors behind. You start, you start
Speaker:to excel and people remember you better. They, they build up more trust
Speaker:with you quicker and yeah, it's good for business
Speaker:and everybody can connect with you better. But
Speaker:still, this is not natural, this is not a natural
Speaker:thing we should be doing. However, as I say, you, if
Speaker:you look at it as a, you know, strategic things you have to do,
Speaker:strategic behaviors, skills, ways
Speaker:of moving, ways of, of speaking, your
Speaker:intention, your eye contact, all these, all these things you can put together
Speaker:and work on quite quickly. You can start
Speaker:to, as I say, start to get good at this. Feel, feel confident
Speaker:at this and feel confident that what you say,
Speaker:what you, how you show up is actually going to connect better with the
Speaker:people that are looking at you. How would what, what does success
Speaker:look like for a good on camera
Speaker:presence? Like, how would you know if you're being successful at it?
Speaker:That's a fantastic question you just asked there because it's really
Speaker:difficult to know whether you're doing
Speaker:well or you're not doing well, right? But maybe use
Speaker:this as a gauge. So basically, essentially when you're
Speaker:on camera, when you're doing your zoom calls, your virtual exchanges,
Speaker:record one or two of them, right? Have a look back
Speaker:at what you look like, right? So it's all about
Speaker:critiquing yourself and being aware of what this
Speaker:box is like to the people that are looking
Speaker:at it, right? So the perception. So look at the way
Speaker:you're looking at the camera. Look at the way perhaps are your,
Speaker:are your, do you have gestures? Are they moving? Does it seem like
Speaker:this is dynamic? When you look back at yourself, do you look at yourself and
Speaker:see yourself looking curious or feeling
Speaker:the intention you want to feel when you're connecting with that person.
Speaker:So, but doing it will actually really and
Speaker:quite quickly help you to probably do two things. Number
Speaker:one, you'll realize you're not as bad as you think, okay.
Speaker:And number two, you'll start to see things that
Speaker:actually you know, I could have done that better. Or maybe what, you know, why
Speaker:was I moving so much? Or maybe I wasn't moving
Speaker:enough. Maybe I didn't have enough gestures, or maybe my background
Speaker:was. It just seems like there's something. Something
Speaker:not right or something that is not helping the
Speaker:communication, not helping to build up trust, or not
Speaker:even. Maybe not even helping the conversation. So when there's
Speaker:curiosity, that's. That's a really important word I want to throw in there. So
Speaker:in this box, gesturing is good. It's really good
Speaker:because it shows the other person that we're
Speaker:alive, that we're moving, keeping animated, but not. Not
Speaker:a distraction. But keeping animated is something that, again,
Speaker:helps the other person feel like, okay, this
Speaker:is going somewhere. This is actually a connection. It keeps our brains
Speaker:moving and stimulated as well. So all these things, just
Speaker:by looking at yourself, you'll be able to tell whether
Speaker:you feel like you're getting somewhere or not. Our
Speaker:audiences, whether they're online or whether they're
Speaker:virtual or even live, they don't have to.
Speaker:And they don't always do it. They don't have to give us the signals
Speaker:that we interpret as signals of
Speaker:listening or signals of being engaged. Right? So sometimes, quite. Actually
Speaker:quite often, certainly here in this environment,
Speaker:I think we have to kind of just believe in ourselves that we actually doing
Speaker:this in the right way. We're doing all the things we should be doing.
Speaker:We're trying to show curiosity, as I say, we're
Speaker:using gestures to. To let them see that we're. That we have
Speaker:a better intonation with our voice, naturally. So the more we. We're
Speaker:using our gestures. And you can see here, I'm just simply. I'm not
Speaker:using gestures, like large gestures all the
Speaker:time, but you can see what my hands are doing, and. And you
Speaker:can see I'm using them as batons. I'm using them as. Using
Speaker:the rhythm as well. But you can see you have an indication of what they're
Speaker:doing. So just the gestures can really help. But going back to the
Speaker:original topic here, again, I think we sometimes have to just
Speaker:believe in what we're doing,
Speaker:know we're trying to do, trying to engage. And even if we don't
Speaker:get the engagement back because we can't, I mean, to
Speaker:expect it is probably wrong because not
Speaker:everybody will show they're engaged. Not everybody will show
Speaker:they like what they hear, then not everybody will show that
Speaker:they're actually listening to you, although they may well
Speaker:be listening to you. I know as a fact, you know, when I'm really
Speaker:listening to someone or I'm really thinking or I'm making a decision about
Speaker:something. Often listening to pictures. Let's say
Speaker:I'm. I'm actually. I've got my. I've got a frown on my face. My arms
Speaker:are kind of like. Like this. I'm sort of leaning back
Speaker:slightly. But in fact, these may look as if they're kind of
Speaker:closed gestures. But in fact, for many, when we think
Speaker:we cross our arms or we have a frown. Right. Yep.
Speaker:We go back slightly. Right. So. So if we were to take all
Speaker:these individual signals that
Speaker:we see and that we hear or don't hear,
Speaker:I'm sure it would start to play with us, play with our minds,
Speaker:and we would start to doubt. Right. So. So what I say
Speaker:to, you know, everybody that I work with in terms of people who stand on
Speaker:the stage, certainly, and again on screen as well. Well,
Speaker:I. I love it. And you've already given us so many great things. I. I
Speaker:want to get to our third question, then we'll dive into more about trust because
Speaker:I think it's, you know, you've given us a couple things like gestures or some
Speaker:things that you can do to be successful to improve. What
Speaker:would you say is like one more tip, just quick tip that you think would
Speaker:improve someone. Their presence on video? Obviously, I think there's
Speaker:energy. I think one thing I've noticed you doing during this even is you lean
Speaker:in a little bit. Like you're like kind of back then. You're like, lean in
Speaker:and talk. Got any kind of one thing you think anyone can do
Speaker:to improve kind of quickly? Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker:dibbled and dabbled on quite a few things there. So the moving. So essentially
Speaker:I stand up. I stand up because it helps
Speaker:me to feel more stable.
Speaker:I can. I feel like. So, like when I'm
Speaker:presenting, or even if this was just an intro call, a sales intro call,
Speaker:just standing up is almost like saying, you know, I'm. I'm here
Speaker:to show myself. I'm here to. To show you respect
Speaker:in a way. Although that sitting down and standing up in terms of respect
Speaker:isn't really a lot. However, in my mind, when
Speaker:I'm standing up, I feel like I'm kind of giving you more respect because
Speaker:I, you know, I'm. I'm here to. To meet you. Right.
Speaker:So. So standing up can give me this. This. You can see,
Speaker:I can actually go. I can lean in. I can do my gestures as well.
Speaker:I can go. I can say something that's. That I Want you to hear more.
Speaker:I can lean in when I'm listening. I might lean back slightly. I can
Speaker:do all these things if I was sitting down, and it's more difficult to
Speaker:do that. And again, the sound that's coming through
Speaker:my voice is only as good as the air
Speaker:that goes inside and comes out. And if you're sitting down, especially if
Speaker:you're sitting down all day, by the end of the day, you know what it
Speaker:feels like everyone does at an office by their
Speaker:desk. You know, your stomach is all kind of scrumpled up
Speaker:and the air is. The air isn't as good as it could be. So
Speaker:standing is a good one. So if I was to give you one
Speaker:other big tip, so the eye contact. I think I've already mentioned
Speaker:that as well. Again, just by practicing
Speaker:looking at the lens. Now, this is a big one for so many people,
Speaker:right? So many people have an issue with this. Still have an issue
Speaker:with it. Because when I look clearly, when I look at the lens
Speaker:and there's other people on the call, I can't see what they're doing. I
Speaker:can have an idea, I've got an idea of what's happening,
Speaker:but I can't actually see their eyes and get the
Speaker:connection that maybe I want. However, priority, I always say the
Speaker:priority is what? Is it me looking at you or
Speaker:is it you building up the trust in me? I
Speaker:want you, let's say this was a sales call. I want you to build
Speaker:up the trust in me. I want you to feel like I'm curious
Speaker:about you, curious about how we can work together, curious about
Speaker:the work we can do together as a collaboration. Right?
Speaker:So the more I kind of look at you, the more I give
Speaker:you my eyes, the more I kind of show
Speaker:you, look through this screen and imagine you
Speaker:here, the more you have the feeling like
Speaker:I'm respecting you, an element of respect when
Speaker:I look at you more especially when you're talking to me.
Speaker:So if somebody else is looking, talking to me through their
Speaker:camera, but maybe not looking at the camera, as I'm looking at the
Speaker:camera, they'll still see me looking at them
Speaker:as if I'm really listening to them. So doing it as
Speaker:much as you can, again, it's a really sort of strange thing to get used
Speaker:to. But you've got used to it. I've got used
Speaker:to it. Presenters, we do it all the time by looking at the camera and.
Speaker:And imagining this camera, that is where. That
Speaker:is where that person is that you're talking to you. So I'm looking at the
Speaker:camera now to my left is. I
Speaker:can see with the peripheral vision, I can see you
Speaker:nodding. It's practice getting used to it, but
Speaker:the more you do it and again looking back at it when
Speaker:you've recorded yourself, you'll see that actually this is
Speaker:actually a really good thing. So if you start with that, get used to that,
Speaker:it will start to boost up your confidence and as I say, you'll start
Speaker:to get better on this virtual journey. Really
Speaker:great advice for anyone who's listening. Get good at looking into
Speaker:your lens. So I want to learn from you the things I can do to
Speaker:build trust and not inadvertently break some of the trust
Speaker:when we're in these relationships. Whether it's a virtual experience like this
Speaker:or even if it's like a pre recorded where, where someone's going to watch
Speaker:it because I imagine they're similar. Obviously there's differences, but I imagine if
Speaker:you're watching a video of me and I'm doing something that's
Speaker:maybe going to break some of that trust, I want to know so I can
Speaker:get better at it for you. Why is trust in
Speaker:this environment? So if you could sum it up
Speaker:quick, two sentence. Why is trust so important?
Speaker:I think we all kind of know it and feel it, but I'd love to
Speaker:hear it from you. Okay. In person
Speaker:we, we can show so many other signals that, that
Speaker:build up that trust that help us, help us
Speaker:help the other person when they're perceiving us, when they're judging us. They have
Speaker:so many other things, they have lots of things to go by. Right.
Speaker:And in a natural human connection environment,
Speaker:we've been as, as kids, we grow up to be
Speaker:teenagers, to be, be adults. We've been trying to
Speaker:connect and meet people, we shake their hand, we say a few words,
Speaker:we then talk about other things, we smile. All these things,
Speaker:all these things we've been doing for years, right? So we kind of, we kind
Speaker:of as humans, we're kind of good at it. But here we don't, we don't
Speaker:have those, we don't have those at all. All we really have, all we
Speaker:really have is a box, a flat box, right?
Speaker:And so we have to kind of imitate as many things as we can
Speaker:from the in person world to here. If
Speaker:I'm, if I start to lose your attention
Speaker:through, through what you see or through what I
Speaker:say or through how I say something with
Speaker:the tone, with the sounds that you hear,
Speaker:you on the other side can just
Speaker:with your finger click and leave me.
Speaker:Yeah, right. We can't do that in the real world. Right. It's really difficult to
Speaker:do it. Well, you could, you could just, you just like, walk away, just. I'm
Speaker:out of here. Right, but. Or in an audience listening to a
Speaker:conference, most people don't just get up and walk. Some people do, but most people.
Speaker:I haven't. Maybe you have, but most people don't get up and just walk out.
Speaker:Right. But here, whether it's something on YouTube, whether
Speaker:it's recorded, whatever it is, we, you know, our audience are really
Speaker:powerful, are far more powerful here than anywhere
Speaker:else because with their finger bang, they can just click and then we're gone.
Speaker:We're gone forever. Maybe not forever, but we're gone at that moment.
Speaker:So really, we have to keep people, to get people's
Speaker:attention and keep their attention. That's probably, probably
Speaker:even more difficult right here than anywhere else.
Speaker:You have to grab it and maintain that attention
Speaker:throughout. Right? So, so, so in
Speaker:terms of trust, these are the things we really need to think about.
Speaker:You know, we. We have to. Again, I have to gain your
Speaker:attention. You don't owe me a thing.
Speaker:Listening to me now. You listening to me now? Okay.
Speaker:It's your podcast. You invite me on, and
Speaker:naturally you. You want me here. However, listeners,
Speaker:people that are watching this or watching a clip of this, they
Speaker:owe me nothing. They owe you nothing, Matthew. They owe nobody
Speaker:anything. And they don't owe us anything to stick around. So they don't have to
Speaker:stay with us, they don't have to listen to us, they don't have to subscribe.
Speaker:They have their choice. So we have to give
Speaker:them something in terms of value,
Speaker:something in terms of why they're going to stick around. Right? So we have to
Speaker:build up that value, and we have to accept that people can
Speaker:just leave us just with a click of a finger. So
Speaker:we have to, we have to really build up that trust right from the
Speaker:beginning and really, again, show curiosity,
Speaker:show that we want to give value, show that we're ready to give something.
Speaker:As a mindset has always helped me, and that's something, you
Speaker:know, when I'm speaking to, working with, coaching
Speaker:speakers, coaching people who are pitching, time is
Speaker:the biggest commodity of all. Right? So you really have to
Speaker:respect that they're giving you their time. They
Speaker:don't have to. No one does. But they have. Hopefully they
Speaker:have. Hopefully they're still with us right now. Right? Right. And we have to
Speaker:give them back the value. What's the role of, like, in
Speaker:your work and what you've seen the role of like the visual
Speaker:aids that come up, you know, so if someone's given a presentation,
Speaker:I've watched tons of TED type presentations
Speaker:and it's obviously the onstage movement that those
Speaker:interactions are really important and they focus on in an 18
Speaker:minute video, they probably focus most of it on the person telling the
Speaker:story. But we also see these visuals. So how does that
Speaker:play into building trust with the audience, if at all?
Speaker:So, okay, so we watch it. Let's say we're watching a TedX talk.
Speaker:The number one thing. Thing. The number one thing certainly
Speaker:for me in, in all of this that is going to grab
Speaker:our attention. That's going to really keep us hopefully
Speaker:engaged. Hopefully sticking with,
Speaker:emotionally sticking with what the speaker is saying
Speaker:is actually, and you'll probably, you'll, you may disagree with me,
Speaker:but it's actually the voice, okay. The sound. So
Speaker:sound is so important. So you can have somebody that's walking
Speaker:on stage, looks a mess, you know,
Speaker:looks a total mess. Right. Although you, when you do a TEDx or who, who
Speaker:would look a mess, most people don't look. However, somebody that's
Speaker:not looking that, that, you know, respectable.
Speaker:I don't know if he comes on or she comes on
Speaker:and you've already made this judgment in your, in your mind about who
Speaker:they are. It's often when we see like reality shows like I don't know or,
Speaker:or music shows like the Voice or the X Factor, we see somebody come on,
Speaker:they, they don't, they don't look like a singer, they don't
Speaker:move like a singer, they don't sound when they speak like a singer.
Speaker:But when they suddenly sing, some of them, not all
Speaker:of them actually some of them completely surprise us with,
Speaker:with this beautiful, amazing, crazy voice. Right? Yeah.
Speaker:It's the same with, with speaking on stage,
Speaker:people will come out and obviously you've got to look as
Speaker:respectable as you can and create all these points
Speaker:of, of trying to persuade your audience or
Speaker:that judgment that they're giving you, trying to get closer
Speaker:to where you want to be. But your voice is number one. So
Speaker:that's the number one thing. Now in terms of visual aids, in terms of
Speaker:slides, these are all there so simply just to help
Speaker:make things maybe even more clearer. Especially when it's
Speaker:maybe a complex theme or topic,
Speaker:using slides which make things simple
Speaker:can really help. Right. Also, it also
Speaker:sometimes takes away the, you know, we want, we want, as a speaker, we
Speaker:want most, we want people to be listening to us, focused on us. But let's
Speaker:say so quite. It's a longer speech or a
Speaker:longer talk, just a switch
Speaker:to the slide can just again, just break up
Speaker:that. The movement and also give us, give our brain something a
Speaker:little bit more stimulating to focus on and then you come back
Speaker:and again when I'm nodding. So if I want, for example, if I want you
Speaker:to agree with me on something or I know it's something that
Speaker:you probably would agree with, right.
Speaker:I can use, I can, I could say something like, listen, you'll agree
Speaker:with me that, that right now the situation in terms of
Speaker:inflation pretty much across the globe,
Speaker:it's tough and it's tough for me and it's, it's, I'm sure it's tough for
Speaker:you as well, right? You'd agree with me there, right? So even just like
Speaker:by saying something that I think you're going to agree with me on,
Speaker:nodding and doing this movement can really help. And
Speaker:presenters, weather presenters often do that. Whoops. Often do
Speaker:that movement as well. So the next time you're
Speaker:watching a presenter, weather presenter, try to see
Speaker:the movement they do. And in fact, I'll tell you this now, there is actually
Speaker:one presenter in the uk, she's on BBC.
Speaker:She's energetic, she's got a really smooth voice,
Speaker:lovely tone. She's an attractive woman as well, which also helps. But, but
Speaker:right at the end, right at the end when she's finished, what
Speaker:she does, and she does this every single time, she gives a
Speaker:little wink, just a small little
Speaker:wink and she. I'm not saying that's good or bad, but
Speaker:she gets away with it because it's all part of this feel
Speaker:good, two minute, snappy
Speaker:engagement that hopefully people will remember.
Speaker:And they remember. I certainly remember that week.
Speaker:Yeah. So it's about being purposeful, right? You're thinking about every
Speaker:gesture as a extension of what you're saying to help.
Speaker:You know, I think with the nodding in particular, it reminds me of what's
Speaker:called mirror neurons. Right. Like we have these neurons that will fire.
Speaker:If I see you doing smiling, for instance, smiling is a big one. If
Speaker:I'm smiling, I'm happy. You are much more likely to
Speaker:feel that need and want to smile because our neurons start to fire. Like,
Speaker:oh, we're smiling today. So I think there's a lot to that. But being
Speaker:very purposeful in those things to help engage your audience
Speaker:so that they're coming along with you and they're trusting you. And of course, trust
Speaker:is a delicate thing. I want to flip the script a little bit and let's
Speaker:talk about things that You've seen that break that
Speaker:trust like and obviously we've talked. You could take all the things you just said
Speaker:and we, you know, well, don't use hand gestures, don't look at the camera. But
Speaker:are there other things you see that just you're like, oh, oh my gosh, that,
Speaker:that really can make it hard for an audience
Speaker:to connect with a presenter or break that trust right
Speaker:away that they're doing something that's like, oh, that could have been a good
Speaker:presentation. Low hanging fruit. Naturally, our logistics
Speaker:out set up. If it's okay, I've got a ring light here, I've
Speaker:got one, I've got a light here. You've got yours professionally as
Speaker:well. But we don't everybody else, you don't need to buy a ring light. You
Speaker:just have to make sure you've got light in front of you. Light which lets
Speaker:people see your face, light which lets seek
Speaker:people see your expressions. If they can't or if it's
Speaker:difficult to do that, it becomes a big
Speaker:distraction. It becomes far bigger than.
Speaker:It becomes a very big distraction indeed. Another big distraction
Speaker:is the sound. If the sound is your computer audio
Speaker:and that seems to be okay. If it's some, if it's a specialized
Speaker:mic that you've bought or you know, great equipment like you've got as well, this
Speaker:is all fantastic. However, if it, if
Speaker:the, the, the audio, if there's crackling or
Speaker:if you can't hear it enough or there's something this, there's a
Speaker:disturbance that becomes a real distraction,
Speaker:right? It's the same as like WI Fi, you know, when there's a, when that,
Speaker:you know, with WI fi, if we have to wait a while, even if it's
Speaker:for 30 seconds, 10 seconds even, we get agitated,
Speaker:right? Because in this world we live in right now, everything has to be like
Speaker:straight away. So if we can't see you clearly or
Speaker:if there's a distraction, if we can't hear you clearly or there's a distraction,
Speaker:these are the things that are going to really start.
Speaker:You're starting on the wrong foot. Just think about
Speaker:what people see all in this box. Because again,
Speaker:we have full control over this
Speaker:and that's a good thing. So I can actually spend
Speaker:and you can as well, you know, hours and hours and
Speaker:thinking about what you want people to see
Speaker:and that's a good thing. Other places you can't control that. When you go for
Speaker:a meeting or presentation, you depend on the environment,
Speaker:on the room, on the conference hall, on the stage.
Speaker:But if we can, if we can. And here we can control it. Like I
Speaker:say, you can control all of this. So if you can create something that
Speaker:actually gets closer to what you want people to feel
Speaker:and what you want people to
Speaker:get from this exchange, and that could be very different. It could be
Speaker:very different depending on that exchange you have. Right.
Speaker:So if you thinking about it and just, just having a little bit of
Speaker:time, I've said hours and hours, but you don't need, obviously hours and hours, just
Speaker:five minutes of thinking, okay, what do I. And you can play around with it.
Speaker:You can play all day. I can go. You can pop into different rooms all
Speaker:day to try to get a spot which
Speaker:seems to work. A spot which seems to work and
Speaker:feels natural. Right? Yeah. And I love that. And
Speaker:it's always, it has always been worth my time to, to make sure whatever's behind
Speaker:me looks good and is set. So. But we want to thank you for
Speaker:joining us. So before we wrap up, where can people connect with you? If they
Speaker:want to learn more, they want to connect with you and maybe getting some speak,
Speaker:speaking, consulting or whatever it is that they'd like to do. How can they connect
Speaker:with you? Yeah, the best, best way, go over to
Speaker:LinkedIn, find me there. Peter Hopwood, Speaker, Coach
Speaker:Tedx. You'll find me. It'll come up probably quite quickly
Speaker:on, on the screen. Connect with, with me there. If, if you're
Speaker:connecting and you've listened to this podcast, you know, write a little note that
Speaker:you've, you've been listening to the podcast. You can see everything that I've been
Speaker:doing. That will give you a good flavor of
Speaker:maybe, just maybe how I can help you or your teams with,
Speaker:with their communication as well. So jump over to LinkedIn and you can find me
Speaker:there. Fantastic. Now we like to, to wrap up with our final
Speaker:take. Peter, this is our, our, our quick summary of kind of big idea of
Speaker:something we talked about today. So Peter, what is your
Speaker:final take? My final take
Speaker:really is simply all, all around, all based
Speaker:around one word, and that is curiosity.
Speaker:Showing curiosity. Feeling like you're
Speaker:curious will make the other person that's looking at you,
Speaker:listening to you feel like you want to connect with them. So if you
Speaker:can show that, if you can show it through how you look, how you move
Speaker:your voice so your voice is so, so important. If you can, you
Speaker:can show your intention of that curiosity
Speaker:that you want to connect, that you're interested in
Speaker:the other person who's on the other side of the camera, then, then that,
Speaker:that should help you become a stronger, communicating,
Speaker:getting better, and getting good at this.
Speaker:Fantastic. Peter, thank you so much for joining me today in the Visual
Speaker:Lounge. Well, thank you so much. I hope we can do this once
Speaker:again sometime in the future. You bet. Well, everybody, we
Speaker:want to thank you for tuning in today's show. I hope you got some really
Speaker:strong ideas about what you can do to get better in your
Speaker:presence, to build that trust and to not break that trust as you're on camera.
Speaker:Because, you know, we talk about this all the time on the Visual Lounge is
Speaker:that it's. It's not about, you know, doing everything all awesome at
Speaker:once. It's about building those skills over and over, and it's starting with that first
Speaker:video. Starting with. By trying to look at the camera a little bit more. Doing
Speaker:the things that Peter taught us to do today will help you get better.
Speaker:So as we like to end every show, we hope you take a little bit
Speaker:of time to level up, and we'll see you next time.
