Engaging people is about energy, whether it’s your movement, emotions feelings, and so on. These are just ways of conveying and giving energy. You need to have lots of energy as that’s what people want.
When you get it right, you are giving so much it’s almost like putting on a dance or spectacular for people.
You mustn’t be at all uncomfortable as then you will make the audience uncomfortable. You can do many bad things on stage, but that is the worst one that is unforgivable as it will repel people.
You mustn’t think about yourself, or how you were coming over, this is ego. If you think about yourself, what people think of you, what they are thinking about how you look and so on, you will become defensive.
If you are being defensive then you cannot openly put all into pleasing the audience.
You have to listen to the audience and please them. Then if they are pleased you will be engaging them.
The audience is interesting, has their lives, and each person has different needs and wants, you must listen to the audience.
If you are interested in what you are doing, other people will be as well. You must have a passion, energy and enthusiasm about what you’re doing. You must also be really excited about it, so they are too.
You also have to sell it, if you think it’s brilliant, other people will as well. You have to behave and be like what you are doing is brilliant.
You also have to be happy, people like to be with people who are happy.
You also behave like you love the person, nothing is too much trouble, you would do anything for them as you love them so much.
Being entertaining is also important, people love to be entertained, such as by telling jokes. If you are boring then nobody wants to be with you.
It’s about life, being alive, having fun.
Whatever it is, even if it’s boring, you can make it fun. Bring in dancing, music, jokes, be fun and all kinds of fun stuff.
All these things also make you charming as people want to be with you.
You have to be honest, bleeding your heart out, say the honest truth of who you are (eg. even if you are not a great person, lonely, scared to death).
You have to bare your soul, not pull any punches, be authentically you. Do not pretend to be better or more talented than you are, just be raw. Then when other people cry, you will cry and have a real human connection that is not scary and it feels good. Then people will be good to you.
Confidence
Steve Martin said of his stand up act.
“When I first started, I decided to fake confidence, because I thought it was important that they sensed I believed. If I was slightest bit nervous about something they could smell it and then they would become judges. If I was the slightest bit nervous about something they could smell it, and they would be
But if I was confident, it’s like “I don’t care what you think.” That worked “I don’t care what you think.”
Lots of energy for the audience
You have to have lots of energy for the audience, it’s what people want.
Before your performance, make sure you have lots of energy and have it to give and put into things
To have lots of energy, relax, dance, sing whatever you have to do to energize yourself and be happy.
Being passionate about it is contagious
Joe Rogan says he’ll watch somebody doing all kinds of subjects if they’re passionate about it as that is contagious.
It’s great to watch people who are interested in things, fascinated and in love with what they’re doing.
People who are smiling with their whole face about something.
If you love the subject and what you are doing
As always, love is the answer.
If you love what you’re doing, and the subject, then people will be interested and love watching it.
If you massively love it, then people will love it even more and want to watch what you are doing.
Be authentic and not fake.
You also have to be enthusiastic about things, if you are enthusiastic about what you’re talking about, other people will be as well. If you are interested in what you’re doing, other people will be as well. This is what makes the most engaging YouTubers and podcasters.
If you making content that you don’t care about. For example, just to make money, audiences can smell this authenticity. Audiences can tell when someone is not authentic.
It helps if you know you’re making content that you care about, you know it helps people you care about.
You also need to be fun, have fun in a way that other people enjoy that with you, be fun. People will even want to do what you do, because you’re fun.
The best way to get people to ignore you, is to be really boring.
Nuseir Yassin from Nas Daly
Be engaging.
Scream, smile, do whatever you can to get people to pay attention.
Are you enjoying it?
If you are enjoying it, other people will too.
You need to take care of yourself, so you can enjoy it.
If you’re not enjoying it, other people will be able to feel it and will not like watching you.
If you enjoy it, then you’ll think it’s all good and will like what you’re doing, so other people will as well.
You need to have fun, be interested in what you’re doing, and let it show.
If you are interested in what you are doing, other people will be as well.
Other things
You need to make yourself fun and enjoyable to watch.
People want to be happy, so you have to be really happy and people will want that. If you are on YouTube, then you have to be insanely or extremely happy.
You must have confidence in the content you’re delivering, for example don’t be like you are just filling time because you have nothing else to say.
It has to be fun, an event, a party.
You also have to be relatable, so people can see their own lives in you, they relate to you and feel how similar you are to them.
You say something and they think it’s funny and relate to it, because it’s something they do as well. Like getting hungry and raiding the fridge at 3am, eating food that is unhealthy and you shouldn’t be eating.
Look into the lense, not the picture of yourself if there is one.
Be certain about things and not uncertain. If you are not certain on something, then be certain about your uncertainty. If you say something without certainty it sounds like a question and you don’t know what you are talking about.
Like you are speaking to a close personal friend
On YouTube you need to speak to the person like they’re your closest friend, so they really feel they are getting to know you and they like you.
You can’t speak like you’re talking to the thousands, hundreds thousands, or million viewers that there are. You need to speak like you’re talking to one person.
Practice talking to the camera like the person watching the video is your closest friend.
You don’t do it like you’re talking to a massive audience, you do it like you’re talking to an individual friend.
It’s the same when you are in front of a massive audience, you look at the people like you’re talking to a close personal friend.
Even if you are the best expert and know more than they do, never talk down to people. Treat people with love and respect and talk up to them.
Be relaxed on stage
Don’t be uncomfortable, embarrassing or awkward as it won’t be nice for the viewer. They would also think you’re unprofessional and not like watching you.
After doing lots of public speaking or YouTube videos, you’ll get used to doing it, will feel comfortable and not awkward.
Don’t be stressed on camera or with an audience audience. Be relaxed.
You have to make it look like it’s easy. This is because if you make it look hard, the audience cannot relax and enjoy themselves.
Don’t
Don’t do things like you are seeking the audience’s approval of you. So don’t do things to get them to confirm their approval of you. A bit like when people look at you through the corner of their eye, to see if you thought something was funny.
If you don’t take yourself seriously, the audience will think they shouldn’t take you seriously. Then they think, why should they be listening to you. However you also have to balance that with not taking yourself too seriously, or won’t be engaging and fun too watch.
Don’t speak in monotone
Don’t speak in monotone, it makes it too boring to listen to your voice. You need to spice it up a bit. You need to be animated and interesting. You need to be varied with your voice tone and put interest into it.
For example, when you introducing something make it big as you’re saying that the thing that’s coming is big and amazing.
People are attracted to interesting things, such as when you hear someone shouting, you want to know what’s going on that’s causing the shouting. Being interesting attracts attention.
Do things intentionally
Don’t do non purposeful or unnecessary movement. Of course you need your hands to communicate, but most of the time when it is not purposeful or intentional, it’s not good.
You also need to be natural and not stiff like a board, it is natural to move around a bit and so on.
If someone on camera unconsciously just wanders off, such as looking away different directions, what they’re saying strays over the place and so on, it’s not engaging
Only move the video camera when it’s intentional or needed.
Speaking on camera
If someone asks you to speak to them, like you would on camera, they would see it as way too much for them.
A level 10 energy and excitement in front of the camera, appears like a 3 to the person watching it on their screen. So you really have to be amazingly excited to get that number up. You have to up the energy.
When doing a recording on YouTube, even if you feel you’re at an 8 energy, you’re probably at a 4
Some people find it hard when speaking to a camera, speaking like they would to a friend. That’s just because the camera is just a piece of electronics and they’re just looking into a camera lens. However, it’s what you have to do.
The way some people do it is even when they are recording to a camera, they’re thinking of the person like a friend who’s watching it.
How to get used to speaking to a camera
Carry the camera around and speak to it, do this in different places, including in public. This will get you out of your old habits.
It has to be personal
Laugh at yourself on camera, this is a good way to get people to like you as you are a real person who can laugh at themselves. It also gets you to loosen up. Read some jokes that you find funny, look into the camera lens and laugh, just so you get used to laughing on camera.
Film yourself in public where there are people around, this will help get you out of your fear of public speaking.
Watch raw unedited recordings of yourself, This will help you get over things about yourself that you may be uncomfortable with, such as your voice, how you look and so on. It’ll help you to start to like yourself and be able to see things from a more impartial perspective. It will also help you to get more familiar with yourself, on and off camera.
Personality
You have to have personality, this will help make you interesting.
For example, there is a woman who has a successful YouTube channel where the viewer is just coming shopping with her and things like that. People watch because the videos because the videos and her have personality and so are interesting.
If the videos in her were bland and boring, people wouldn’t watch them.
Find your authentic voice
Jack Dee the comedian was failing miserably, it was going to be his last performance as he was going to give up after it.
On that performance he had nothing to lose, he was just depressed on stage as that was the real him.
However people found that funny and it was him being the real him. As a result he found his authentic voice and was very successful.
Before that he had been performing like a positive game show host.
James Acaster the comedian wasn’t doing very well. He had thought he would do really well if he was the cool guy who is like the popular one at school.
However that wasn’t him and it was only when he became on stage the person who wasn’t quite so cool and popular that he became successful as he had found his authentic voice and became successful.
You will then find your audience and the people that like you.
If things are going well for you, people want to be part of what you are having
If you are happy, well and things are going well for you then people would like to be part of what you are having.
So if you are a street performer who is happy, things are going well for you and are having fun. People want to be part of that.
Even if it’s just an unknown person performing on the street, people will be drawn to that performer and performance.
It has to be personal
Whether it’s music, or talking to people, it’s the personal stuff that makes a unique and special. You personally may not be perfect, but there’s stuff there and it’s real.
Your personal view on the world, your take on things and how you are.
How you see the world that’s different from how others see the world.
To do this you have to really trust in yourself and push the boundaries.
When there is a successful song and other people try to just do the same thing, so they can be successful too. It isn’t great and doesn’t work so well because they aren’t making it personal, their own personal thing. The stuff just isn’t there.
Concentrating and relaxed at the same time
Rowan Atkinson says you have to be concentrating and relaxed on stage at the same time.
Concentrating so you can perform brilliantly, see the audience reaction and everything else. However if you do this without being relaxed, you will just be stiff.
You need to be relaxed so the audience can be relaxed and enjoy it.
If you are concentrating and relaxed on stage at the same time, it’s like you’re the master of time and space. You can see everything that’s going on and do everything, and the audience can enjoy it as well.
Don’t be flustered
If you are blinking a lot then you appear to be flustered, this makes you look weak and being flustered is not pleasant for the audience to look at.
If you don’t blink much then you look strong and are relaxing and calm and nice to listen to and watch.
These are all examples of things that make you look weak and ineffective so people don’t want to listen to you. Basically they are signs that you are flustered, best not to be flustered.
Lifetime Wisdom 