“How to combat nerves on camera: techniques to keep your cool while communicating digitally” with Edie Lush
Part Three of Edie Lush Series
Edie Lush is a communications specialist. Born in California, she has worked as a political analyst for UBS, as a host for Bloomberg Television, as a podcaster and is a trainer for on screen speakers.
How does one read the room in the digital sphere?
To engage a digital audience, Edie suggests encouraging the audience to keep their cameras on. Once you have a couple of faces on your screen, you can start to build a relationship with them like you would with an audience in the front row of an in-person presentation.
“Nerves are what stop people from saying yes to things”
Edie recaps her techniques discussed in part one of this series “Zoom with Confidence” to help prepare yourself with confidence-boosting posture and techniques to control your diction. Even before you get to the point of presenting to an online room, the technique is to put yourself in a place where you feel incredibly relaxed. One of Edie’s tips is to practise rubbing the knuckle of your hand whenever you feel calm to associate feelings of calm and relaxation with this feeling on your thumb. It took five times before Edie got that association but this simple act can calm you down before the start of a presentation.
Let yourself feel the nerves
Edie continues by explaining that you need to let yourself feel the nerves. Nervousness is a process you have to go through to get your body ready. You should become familiar with the steps in this process so you know the endpoint.
Another technique Edie learned from a fighter pilot is when put in an uncomfortable position, for example if you are asked a question you do not want to answer, curl your toes. This takes the nerves out of your brain and down to another part of your body.
“The discomfort can act as a trigger to respond in the present.”
When asked about panicking before a presentation, Edie acknowledges it can be a pain to have to prepare for when your throat closes up but, “if you know it is going to happen it is important to get your voice ready.” If this is known to happen mid-presentation use interactive programs like quizzes and polls to put the focus on something else. An alternative is to invite a co-host or speaker to deflect the attention away from yourself.