How to Boost Your On-Camera Confidence with Emmy Award-Winner Kerry Barrett

Do you ever feel stiff, awkward, or uncomfortable on camera? If so, you’re not alone. Even seasoned professionals, like Emmy-winning journalist Kerry Barrett, once felt the same way. However, after years of honing her skills in front of the camera, Kerry is now an expert at helping people show up powerfully on video—whether it’s for job interviews, content creation, or virtual meetings. In a recent podcast episode, Kerry shares the insider techniques that not only transformed her own confidence but can help you step into your best self on video too.

Kerry’s advice is full of simple but impactful tweaks that can make a huge difference in how you come across on camera. One of her top tips is to focus on looking directly at the camera lens, rather than yourself. This small adjustment shifts the dynamic of how you connect with your audience, making you seem more engaged and approachable. Another game-changer Kerry recommends is to dial up your energy by about 20%. It’s easy to forget that on video, our energy doesn’t translate the same way it does in person. A little extra energy can make you appear more confident and enthusiastic.

Perhaps one of the most powerful tips Kerry offers is the importance of pausing with purpose. In the world of video content, there’s often pressure to rush through everything, but pauses can work wonders. They give you time to collect your thoughts, allow your audience to digest your message, and create a sense of command and authority. Pausing also helps you avoid rambling and keeps your delivery focused and clear.

These techniques aren’t just random tips; they’re strategies used by top broadcasters and public speakers to command attention and build trust with their audience. They allow you to naturally project confidence without having to fake it. The good news is that these adjustments can be made without any additional effort or acting skills. Kerry emphasizes that the goal is to present yourself in a more authentic way, so you can show up as your best self, both professionally and personally.

If you’ve ever struggled with your camera presence or felt unsure about how to present yourself on virtual calls or online platforms, Kerry’s expert advice is a must-listen. Whether you’re preparing for an important interview, creating LinkedIn content, or leading a virtual meeting, these tips can help you look and feel confident, polished, and engaging. It’s time to own the camera like a pro!

 

Transcript:

Mary (00:00.912)
Kerry Barrett, welcome to Recruiting Insider.

Kerry Barrett (00:03.912)
It is fantastic to see you. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Mary (00:09.4)
I’m excited to have you. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce our guest, Kerry Barrett, an Emmy-winning on-camera coach, corporate trainer, and keynote speaker on a mission to empower you to level up your on-camera skills and confidence. With over 20 years in the TV industry, including stints with major networks like NBC, ABC, and FOX TV,

Carrie knows firsthand the power of leveraging video for authority, visibility, and even revenue. After overcoming her own debilitating fear of public speaking, which I can relate, she transformed her struggles into strengths. Carrie’s unique approach is designed to help you cultivate a confident and authentic presence, whether you’re on stage or in front of the camera. So her insights are also invaluable for anybody navigating the job.

market today even. you where the ability to present yourself well can truly set you apart from the competition. So let’s dive into our conversation. Carrie, can you share? Yes. Carrie, can you share your journey from overcoming your fear of public speaking to becoming a successful on-camera coach? I mean, what inspired you to help others on this path?

Kerry Barrett (01:17.357)
Looking forward to it.

Kerry Barrett (01:32.319)
So it goes back a number of years and I’ve always been shy. I’ve always been an introvert. In fact, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my career as an elementary school child, I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I love animals, don’t have to talk to people, hopefully quite as much. And then, yeah, not on camera or at all, was what I was hoping.

Mary (01:49.807)
Mmm.

Not on camera anyway.

Kerry Barrett (02:01.222)
I was a little bit naive, but nevertheless, I enrolled in college as a pre-veterinary medicine major and organic chemistry put a fairly decisive end to that. And I took a little bit of time to figure out what it was that I wanted to do. And my school had just started this new communications program. So bonus, no organic chem. Second bonus, I’m going to have to take two public speaking courses to sort of…

Mary (02:20.974)
Mmm.

Kerry Barrett (02:25.914)
hopefully get my arms around this fear that I knew somehow was probably going to limit my abilities to achieve success in the corporate world. So I re-enrolled in a broadcast journalism degree. I spent 20 years after that in the news business as a broadcaster wrapped up in New York City about five-ish years ago and then started my own business taking

everything that I know about communicating effectively on camera and using it to teach executives, lawyers, business owners, people in general, how to communicate on camera in those high-stakes situations, which of course certainly involve when you’re looking for a job.

Mary (03:01.666)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mary (03:11.479)
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, think first of all, thank you for sharing your story. And I think that a lot of us can relate and I know that I definitely can because it’s always been a huge struggle for me to get behind a camera. I mean, I can have a conversation with almost anyone off camera, but as soon as the camera’s rolling, it’s like I freeze up and I become a robot and my personality changes. You know, I get super nervous.

And you start to feel that too, right? It’s like my heart starts to beat faster, my voice gets shaky, and I have a hard time articulating my thoughts. And I’ve always been one of those people that I write down. I’m a better writer than I am a speaker. And so I’m sure that I’m not alone in feeling this way.

Kerry Barrett (03:43.112)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (04:02.386)
No, you are absolutely not alone. In fact, I just I just signed a new client who’s in the legal space and he sent me a couple of videos and while his demeanor is is fine and you wouldn’t necessarily know that he was nervous, I could hear he was sort of breathless. And I know that was because he was so nervous. He was breathing very shallowly. And this wasn’t a lie.

Mary (04:19.02)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (04:28.21)
video that he had recorded or a podcast or anything. This was just a video that he recorded on his phone that he was using to practice. So it wasn’t going anywhere. And you can imagine if you’re that nervous when you’re just practicing the idea of getting up and going live in front of somebody or doing a podcast or heaven forbid, doing some sort of media interview on CNBC or wherever it is, the idea of doing that is terrifying for most people because it brings, yeah, it brings, it brings

Mary (04:31.821)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (04:49.343)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (04:58.299)
the fear of public speaking, which so many of us have, then it marries it with this idea that it’s going to live in perpetuity on the internet forever, and if we mess up, people will be there to see us and make sure that we know we messed up. And so it’s like this sort of perfect combination of two perfect storms that swirls about and makes it really challenging for people.

Mary (05:12.354)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (05:21.228)
Yeah, absolutely. So for somebody just starting out, mean, just, you know, like similar to the client that you just picked up, what are some just really basic techniques that you would recommend that would help them become more confident and more comfortable with being on camera?

Kerry Barrett (05:30.723)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (05:41.606)
Yeah, so it’s interesting, the psychology, and I’ll try and keep this brief because I could go on and on about it. The psychology is any time we’re in front of an audience, our sort of lizard brain, if you will, sort of that reptilian brain that’s always looking for danger on the horizon, yeah, sees that audience, whether it’s an actual audience on a stage or whether it’s a perceived audience behind the lens at some point, we see them as a threat.

Mary (05:46.547)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (05:57.78)
Yeah. Yes.

Kerry Barrett (06:09.955)
And so as a predator, really. so when we… What would you imagine you would do if you were a caveman and you were out on the horizon hunting and you saw a saber-toothed tiger? You definitely wouldn’t jump up and down and make a lot of big raises and sudden movements and all this other stuff because you’d be drawing your attention. Psychologically, it works exactly the same way. So we have a tendency to shrink ourselves when we get nervous to try and make ourselves smaller.

Mary (06:24.869)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (06:39.022)
What that looks like is our voice becomes a little more monotone. We’re not as engaged in terms of the way that we’re talking. We have a tendency to stand stock still. You know, we either like stare at the camera and get in a stare off with it, or we don’t look at the camera and we look away. All of those things, aside from the fact that

the camera is energetically flattening anyway for a number of reasons. You’re taking a 3D person, putting them into a 2D environment. There’s no context outside of the four walls of that little screen that you’re on. And you have other things like microphones and lighting and internet connection that sometimes messes with us and all that other stuff. the…

Biggest, look at the camera, number one, right? Always having eye contact is a way to exude confidence, even if you’re not necessarily feeling it. And the other element that is the biggest mistake people make is they don’t have enough energy because of all the reasons that I listed before. So think about this, when you’re in front of the camera, if you’ve ever gone to a noisy restaurant, let’s say, and you’re at a table and it’s, you know,

eight people there, four on each side, and you’re looking to talk to the person who’s across the table and down at the end. What are the things that you do in order to make sure that that person hears you and understands what you’re trying to say? You probably lean forward, probably use your hands a little bit more, maybe your facial expressions are a little bit amplified.

Mary (08:06.986)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (08:14.178)
That conceptually is exactly what you want to bring to the table when you’re in front of the camera. And then even if you’re not feeling confident, you will look like you’re confident. I know everybody says, don’t fake it till you make it. This is one of those situations that you do have to fake it until you make it because I’ve known but a handful of people in my 25 years of doing this who are natural performers and can get up in front of the camera and just talk to anybody and be exactly who they are and have all the right

Mary (08:23.02)
Mm.

Mary (08:36.256)
Mm.

Kerry Barrett (08:43.694)
tones in terms of energy and delivery, cetera.

Mary (08:49.672)
Yeah, think that that’s that those are both amazing tips to I mean, number one, to look at the camera and number two, to speak with more energy behind the camera. And those are two things that that I’ve run into as well, just as I’ve been doing this video podcast where it’s like, you know, look into the camera. And then even when I feel like I’m bringing all of this energy to the to the table, I’ll look back and I’ll watch my my episode and I’ll you know, I’ll just

absolutely tear myself apart and be like, my gosh, I’m so monotone. I’m, you know, I’m doing such a terrible job. So it’s like, sometimes when you’re behind the camera, even if you think you’re bringing the energy, you have to almost step into a different persona and step up that energy even more so that the person on the other end of that camera can feel your energy on their side.

Kerry Barrett (09:35.745)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (09:41.826)
love the way that you said that and it’s exactly correct. One of the things I do with people when I first start working with them, depending a little bit on what they need, but I say take 30 seconds and talk into your camera about whatever. don’t care what it is. The topic is irrelevant at this point. It could be your new slippers. It could be the spaghetti bolognese you made. It could be something work related. And then go back and do the same thing again, but do it with a little more energy.

and then do it again and do it with a little, do it five times until you feel like you are completely over the top at the end. And then go back and watch that and nine times out of 10, that last take is gonna be the one that you want. You may even have to amp it up a little bit more. You will feel utterly ridiculous, but you will look perfectly normal. Yes. Yeah, yeah, it does. It really does.

Mary (10:17.515)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (10:30.602)
It’ll help so much though.

Mary (10:38.933)
So why do you think so many people do actually struggle with speaking on camera like that?

Kerry Barrett (10:46.635)
I think for a number of reasons. First of all, still bring a lot of, you know, public, the baggage that we all have, or that many of us have, I should say, about public speaking. We bring the same baggage to anytime we’re speaking in front of a lens. takes one bad experience for our brain to start concocting all sorts of stories about why getting on camera is a bad idea. So there’s that. And then I also think it’s just, it’s an…

unfamiliar, unnatural environment, more so even than getting on a stage and speaking to an audience there because you’ve got, you’ve got lights maybe and you’re talking into like a little dot on your phone and maybe you have a microphone and you’re aware of it and just it’s an, it’s an unnatural environment. And so that adds a layer of complexity to being able to speak well on camera also. And then the other thing is that we know

we can go back and watch it and we know we’ll tear ourselves apart. Like I didn’t have done this for 20 years, 25 now, 20 years though in the broadcast industry where that was my job is to talk on camera for hours and hours and hours a day on live TV. And I never learned to like that part of my job.

I hated it. I should have done it every day. I did it probably once every two weeks because I hated it so much because even the pros do the same thing. We tear ourselves apart. And so knowing that you can go back and watch, I think we put an extra layer of pressure on ourselves as well.

Mary (12:11.326)
Yeah

Mary (12:21.3)
Yeah. You know, I love that you brought up the fact that speaking on camera is so much different than even speaking in front of a group of people. Because at least when you’re in front of a group of people, you can kind of play off of their energy. You can make eye contact. You can engage the audience in different ways. When you’re sitting here staring at a camera, it’s all you and you don’t have any of that feedback. And there’s so much that can go into

one interaction, even with one person in that audience, to really get you amped up and, you know, they’re nodding along so you know that they’re enjoying what you’re saying. You know that they’re in that conversation, whereas when you’re behind the camera, you’re not getting any of that feedback. So everything, you know, it has to kind of live in your head.

Kerry Barrett (13:13.001)
It does. You have to intuitively know when your energy is beginning to drag because you’re not going to see the restless people in the audience. You’re not going to see them checking their phones. You’re not going to see them tapping their feet. So it’s being aware, hyper aware the entire time of the energy that you’re bringing and knowing sort of intuitively like, well, I’ve been talking for a while now. Or I’m talking about something that I’m not.

Mary (13:21.683)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (13:40.051)
as interested in maybe as something else. And so in those moments, you know, have to, in all likelihood, dial it up a little bit and bring your audience back in. One of the easiest ways to do that is through vocal variety. Again, it sounds much easier than it is. Really vocal variety is just using your voice in different ways, different pitch, different pacing, different projection.

And if you are noticing or feeling like your audience might be tuned out a little bit, sometimes just giving a little pause is a way to bring the audience back in because it creates a slight pattern interrupt. There’s just a slight change there and it re-engages the audience. So it’s knowing intuitively when to bring all of those elements in.

Mary (14:29.529)
Could you tell us a little bit more about the idea of vocal variety? love that. So, you know, if we’re behind camera and, you know, we’re trying to really create some engaging content, what are some really creative ways that we could use that concept of vocal variety?

Kerry Barrett (14:34.528)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (14:46.049)
Absolutely. One of the easiest ways, well, there’s two, I focus, I’m going to focus for the purpose of this conversation on two. One is pitch and one is pace. So pacing is how fast or how slow you are speaking. If you are running through, I don’t know, information that’s important for people to know, but it’s kind of boring and it’s not like urgent, then you…

can pick up the pace of your voice. You don’t need to slow down quite as much there. When you are, for example, listing out a couple of items, know, the three ways to get better at yoga is to practice, hydrate, practice again. There you go, see A and B. If you’re listing something out like that, you wanna give a slight pause after each element because it gives your audience a chance to sort of

download what you’ve said. Whereas if you rush through them, practice, hydrate, practice, it’s not, they don’t stand in their own power. So anytime you’re listing something, give just a half a beat so that your audience has a chance to download it. In terms of your pitch, pitch is really how high or how low you’re speaking. I did a post on LinkedIn not too long ago that started with the classic line from Anchorman and Will Smith that said, I’m Ron Burgundy, right?

Mary (16:08.805)
Yeah.

I was thinking about Anchorman earlier. I don’t know what to do with my hands.

Kerry Barrett (16:12.321)
So was a qu- Yeah. Yeah. I live in a glass case of emotion. So now my brain is like going with Will Ferrell quotes. I gotta get back in the game, Carrie. Yeah, there was a question mark at the end. And although you can’t see the question mark as the viewer, you can hear it in his voice. Put anything on a teleprompter, he’ll read it. So.

Mary (16:27.749)
Yeah.

Mary (16:38.716)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (16:40.168)
When your voice kicks up at the end, it generally has a way of making it sound like we’re asking a question. I did it a little bit there. When your voice kicks down at the bottom, it’s a signal to the audience that what you’re saying, your thought, your sentence is getting ready to wrap up. Kind of like I did just there.

And so one of the key ways, you can definitely use those two elements, but I like to try and keep my sentences as powerful at the end as they are in the beginning, which means that I’m keeping the pitch generally the same. I’m just switching up a little bit in terms of how I might be pacing or how I might be projecting through the end of that sentence.

Mary (17:22.535)
Hmm. Yeah, I love that. I gave a speech recently for the Silicon Valley Toastmasters, you know, no pressure at all there. And one of the bits of feedback, you know, when I get really excited about something that I’m talking about, I tend to go really fast and I, you know, I don’t have those breaks. And so it would have been really good for me to think about both pitch and pace.

Kerry Barrett (17:34.065)
Yeah, not at all.

Kerry Barrett (17:43.495)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (17:50.631)
while I was giving that speech because, you know, I just go, go, go, go, go. I get really excited and then I start to talk really fast. I don’t have those breaks. And then, you know, it all just kind of all feels like it melts into one whole run on sentence because I’m just excited about the topic. And yeah.

Kerry Barrett (18:00.231)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (18:09.404)
Yeah.

One of the things you can do, you’re doing Toastmasters or you’re doing a speech or, mean, it could be a video script for that matter as well, or you’re practicing for a job interview, if you’re writing out some things, like I sometimes manuscript what I’m saying and then I’ll break that manuscript down into bullet points, especially if I’m doing something that’s very long. If I’m doing an hour keynote or something, I’ll usually manuscript it. But my point there is,

If there is a spot where you know you’re gonna be listing items or you know you’re gonna get excited and you’re gonna start to speed up, I like to remind myself, excuse me, non-verbally remind myself, visually remind myself by in the body of my script doing an ellipsis that signifies to me visually in that moment, I probably need to take a pause so that I can articulate.

better what I’m saying or that I know I need to slow down. And so when you’re practicing, that’s a great way to visually remind yourself that here’s a moment where you have an opportunity to slow down or you have an opportunity to list a number of items and you want your audience to download them. So visually queuing yourself is not a bad idea either.

Mary (19:26.097)
Mm-mm. Yeah.

Mary (19:31.845)
Yeah, absolutely. I think that that’s a great idea. And I think about your 20 years of experience with some of these major news organizations, I feel like one of the things that probably helps is just practice, right? If you know that you’re not good at speaking on camera, then put yourself behind the camera and start speaking. Because if you don’t step out of your comfort zone and if you don’t put yourself into those

situations and those different positions, you’re just never going to get better.

Kerry Barrett (20:05.107)
100%. And I would say one of the reasons I got as good as quickly as I did, when I say quickly, I mean, it was still, you know, we’re all a work in progress, I still am. But what I mean by that is I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t go to my boss, because I was, even when I started, I was still terrified and I was still terrible also. So I couldn’t go, but I couldn’t go to my boss and be like,

Mary (20:16.966)
yeah.

Mary (20:26.139)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah

Kerry Barrett (20:32.475)
I don’t feel like doing this today. Can I, you know, write my story instead? Well, no, you can’t. This is television. You cannot write your story. I mean, you can, but then you have to deliver it on air. So I had to do this every single day. And while I won’t say there was like sort of one epiphany moment where suddenly I realized I had developed the skills, I will say it was over time through a series of breaking news.

Mary (20:34.352)
Yeah.

Mary (20:39.707)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (20:44.507)
Yeah.

Mary (20:51.697)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (20:59.635)
situations where I didn’t have a script and I had to ad-lib and I finally realized, and again, not in one big moment, but I realized that whatever came my way, I could handle it. I could navigate it and come out on the other side. It may not always be perfectly pretty. In fact, many times it wasn’t, but I knew that I could handle it. And that’s why I always say, if somebody is looking to get good on camera, one of the best ways to do that is through live.

Mary (21:02.161)
Yeah. Oof.

Mary (21:12.945)
Yeah.

Mary (21:19.175)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (21:26.835)
because you’ve got to dig yourself out of whatever hole you put yourself into. I wouldn’t suggest doing it right off the bat. Practice a few times, record some videos for social or your website or whatever it is. But if you have the opportunity to do a LinkedIn live or a Facebook live or an Instagram live or a podcast like this, take it because going live so that you don’t necessarily have always the power of edit, at least not in the moment if you’re going live.

Mary (21:43.495)
Yeah.

Mary (21:54.213)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (21:55.187)
You’ve got to figure your way through it. And each time you do that, you build confidence as well. And it means you don’t overthink shooting the next time. You you do it in three takes and if it’s not perfect, you’re okay with that. And nine times out of 10, it’s good to be okay with that because you’re picking on the little stuff that doesn’t matter anyway.

Mary (22:08.183)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, man, I’m thinking about getting thrown into a live situation like you are in live news. So you said that you just learned how to kind of roll with the punches. You learned how to navigate some of those live scenarios. Can you talk to us about, I mean, what did you learn? How did you learn how to navigate that? What did you do?

Kerry Barrett (22:36.691)
I learned, the first time I learned it was my very first day on air. And we were doing a story. It was in like November-ish. know, blood donations are always down around the holidays and the Red Cross always does a series of blood drives around the holidays. So that’s what I was doing. I was going out and I was covering this mobile blood drive that was taking place in the town that I worked in, which was in Texas at the time. And it was my first day on the job.

And they were like, you’re gonna go live for the noon show. And I was like, my God. Well, then they told me what I was doing and I was like, I could do that. And the only reason I thought that is because I had done a series of internships when I was in college and I had actually done an internship with a reporter who…

covered the exact same story. was also in November. The blood drive was also had a mobile van that was going around town. so I’m like, I mean, I even remember what she said. I’ve got it totally covered. I go out to the parking lot where the mobile blood drive is and I’m ready to talk and the light goes on and I sort of, I freeze for a moment and then I get back into my groove and I say,

I say what the reporter said. I said, look around me, know, the parking lot’s filling up. There’s a line, 50 people deep, getting ready to donate blood. Except there was no one there. The parking lot was empty. There was not one person in line, let alone 50 people in line. Like the only thing in the parking lot, aside from the mobile donation van, was like a rusted out Datsun over in the corner. And I…

Mary (24:21.063)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (24:29.324)
I froze and I couldn’t think of anything else to say. So that was my first sort of observation about what went wrong. what went wrong was I was relying on somebody else’s words and trying to make them my own. So I wasn’t being authentic and it distracted me from the moment. What I should have said was, you know, the Red Cross really needs donations this time of year, blood, you know.

Mary (24:33.552)
Ugh.

Mary (24:40.25)
Yeah.

Mary (24:45.383)
Hmm.

Kerry Barrett (24:55.808)
blood supplies are always low and there’s not a lot of people out here yet. So come on down and know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There’s the information. And so it was honestly just doing it every day and a series of not always quite that egregious, but mistakes nonetheless that happened that taught me how to do it and made me want to improve, you know, because I had to not just get over this fear, but I also had to get

Mary (25:11.793)
Yeah.

Mary (25:15.606)
Yeah.

huh.

Kerry Barrett (25:23.82)
good enough at this skill that somebody would keep paying me to do it. They wouldn’t fire me. They’d first hire me and second keep me. And so that was my compelling, the reason for my drive.

Mary (25:32.359)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (25:38.085)
Yeah, and one thing that you said was that you froze and you couldn’t think of anything else to say. And I can relate to that, and I’m sure a lot of our listeners can as well. So if that happens to you, if that happens to someone, what do you do in that situation? What did you do in that situation?

Kerry Barrett (25:45.162)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (25:57.332)
Well, I said a lot of wrong things.

Mary (25:59.559)
I guess maybe I should say what should you do in that situation?

Kerry Barrett (26:04.972)
Yeah, I said a lot of things that were demonstrably inaccurate. So don’t do what I did. I usually give myself, and this is what I suggest, and I don’t recommend using this as a crutch, but if somebody asks you a question and you don’t know what the answer is, say, that’s a really good question. You may even break gaze with the camera for a second, say, that’s a really good question. Let me think. Here’s how I would do that.

Mary (26:09.57)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (26:31.616)
blah, blah, blah, blah. Just give yourself a second by responding and then saying, give me a second. Okay, I’ve got it. Just give yourself that brief pause to recollect. And then usually what I find is as I start to open my mouth and begin to speak, what I need to say comes to me because I’ve just stopped putting so much pressure on myself about getting the answer exactly right.

and I’ve just started talking. And much like a conversation with some, mean, think about a conversation where somebody asks you a question and you need to give yourself a moment, or you know exactly what the answer is and you’re just able to respond. So think about this on-camera interaction in exactly the same way. What do you do when you talk to somebody if you need you to say, that’s a good question. Yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And as you’re talking,

Generally speaking, the way our brains work, the words begin to come to us. And so sort of giving yourself a little bit of a shove and stepping out into the unknown will usually come to you. Not always, but usually.

Mary (27:46.028)
thinking about your new client that you mentioned earlier in the conversation. So how do you actually work with your clients to help them get better on camera? Could you give us some of your little tricks and secrets that you use?

Kerry Barrett (28:02.662)
Absolutely. So it really depends on what some, I do a diagnostic at the beginning. I have two programs. There’s a two month and a three month, aside from a few, you know, one-off like 90 minute consultancy sessions, et cetera. But generally it’s a two month or a three month package. It depends a little bit on where their skill set is and where they want to go as to which package I recommend. Like that particular person.

really just needs work on their voice. The rest, they understand the gear, they understand the delivery, et cetera. So I said, you don’t need three months, you need two. And I have a digital program that people go through and then we do virtual coaching. But one of the biggest challenges is getting people to actually do the homework in between. So here’s how I usually start. And anybody who’s listening should feel free to start with this.

Mary (28:46.485)
Mm.

Kerry Barrett (28:52.853)
I call it the 30 in challenge and each morning I want you to wake up for 30 seconds and it doesn’t matter if you’re in your pajamas, doesn’t matter if you’re sleepy and your hair’s all crazy. Just riff into your camera for 30 seconds about anything and then go back and watch it and pick one thing that you wanna work on. So let’s say it’s energy or it’s eye contact or it’s, I don’t know, facial expressions, whatever it is, pick messaging.

Speaking in sound bites, right? There’s a whole host of things that I work with people on, but pick one thing and work on only that for the next whatever it is, you four days, five days, till you feel like you understand it a little bit more. You may not have your arms fully around it yet, but you get it. Then pick the next thing to work on. So maybe the next one is, you know, hand gestures or whatever.

Right? And so now you’re working on being able to use your hands in an intentional way when you’re speaking and get your arms around that, literally in this case, and then move on to the next thing. If you try and do all of the things at once, you’ll end up doing none of the things. It’s like trying to run 65 marathons. You don’t make very much progress in any of them. So pick one thing, work on that until you have it again, not mastered, but you get your arms around it and then pick the next thing to move on. And that’s one of the things that I have everybody start with.

Mary (29:55.252)
No.

Mary (30:03.403)
Yeah.

Mary (30:15.797)
Hmm. I love that idea of waking up in the morning and jumping right on camera, recording something, and then really analyzing yourself and working on one thing at a time. Because I agree. It’s like, it’s like a task, right? It’s your task list. If, if you look at your task list and you try to knock everything out all at once, you’re not going to knock anything out. It’s the same thing when you’re practicing something and you’re trying to get better. Focus on one thing at a time. Get really, really good at that one thing.

Kerry Barrett (30:21.89)
Yeah.

Mary (30:44.584)
and then move on to the next thing and practice that and get really, really good at that one thing and then move on from there. So I love that advice.

Kerry Barrett (30:52.689)
It is, and I would say this, know, we, most of us hate to be on camera. We like feel like we have to do all this pre-work with hair and, know, especially for women, makeup and clothing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you take that pressure off and you just jump into the ring first thing in the morning when it doesn’t matter, you’re in your bathrobe, you’re still in your pajamas, you know, heck, you could be in the shower if you wanted to. I, nobody’s got to see this. So.

Mary (31:00.5)
Mm.

Mary (31:17.95)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (31:19.972)
The pressure of appearance is removed because you know you haven’t tried it that and that’s perfectly fine. That way you’re focused on the actual elements of your delivery because appearance is an easy fix. That’s something you can, if you need help with it, it’s very easy to do. It’s just logistics really. The challenging part is the delivery and how you feel about it.

Mary (31:41.502)
Yeah. And I noticed that you also emphasize the importance of authenticity on camera, which is so important. But why is that important? And how can we actually create this sense of authenticity?

Kerry Barrett (31:57.176)
Yeah, mean, authenticity is important because in this day and age of video and media, we want who we are and who our potential clients or potential employers are looking at on video to be the same as the person we are off. We don’t want to be this saccharine sweet person on camera if that’s not how we are off camera. Or we don’t want to be conversely this dry, monotone, very stiff sort of robot if in

real life, we are bubbly and exuberant, right? So there’s a disconnect there if we’re not who we appear to be when we’re on camera. And at the end of the day, we have overcomplicated and sort of bastardized the word authenticity. Really all it means is you’re yourself. It’s honestly that simple.

And so, and I know that’s easier said than done because it’s sometimes very hard to just be yourself on camera because we want to be perfect and we want to do all the things right. We don’t want to be criticized or rejected or do it wrong. But at the end of the day, 100 % just be yourself. The people who are the most successful on camera are pretty much the same on it as they are off.

Mary (32:52.092)
Yeah.

Mary (32:55.967)
Yeah.

Mary (33:16.83)
Yeah. And I think that that goes back to your suggestion of taking 30 seconds in the morning and maybe 30 seconds in the evening to jump behind the camera. Because, know, for me, and part of me stepping out of my own comfort zone was starting this podcast. And I hate being behind the video if I’m being completely honest. And so I was like, that’s a great idea. Why don’t we do a video podcast? And it’s, you know, it’s something that over time, as I’ve

Kerry Barrett (33:26.734)
Yeah.

Mary (33:46.751)
practiced, I’ve gotten a little bit better. I’m definitely not, I wouldn’t consider myself good, but you know, I’m getting better and it’s, you know, it’s something that I want to try to show my personality more and more behind the camera instead of just shutting down and just only thinking about, my gosh, there is a camera on me now. I have to be monotone and you know, actually trying to show a little bit of my personality.

Kerry Barrett (34:01.955)
Yeah.

Mary (34:14.149)
when the camera is on so that I can bring in that authenticity piece.

Kerry Barrett (34:18.628)
And you honestly, I’m being completely honest, you’ve started to, it seems to me anyway, you’ve started to relax and let that personality flow a little bit more as we’ve gone through this podcast. Like the last thing you just said, I could hear the vocal variety in your voice that wasn’t necessarily there to the same degree when you first started. Sometimes it’s, I remember when I was first in the news industry, I had to be very deliberate about.

Mary (34:27.25)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (34:30.959)
Mm.

Kerry Barrett (34:45.43)
everything. You know, when I first started, my hands were glued to the top of the desk and they did not move. And then I remember we did a story about it was like a satellite or I don’t know if it was a moon landing or not a moon landing. I don’t remember. So something that had to do with space. And I remember I was thinking, OK, Carrie, you’re going to pick your hand up and you’re going to do this because you’re talking about a satellite orbiting the Earth. And I had to be that

Mary (34:49.554)
Mm-hmm.

Mary (35:03.24)
Yeah

Mary (35:10.376)
Mm-hmm.

Kerry Barrett (35:15.394)
deliberate about it to pick my hand up and make myself do that because this, this little action right here was totally out of my comfort zone. So sometimes you have to be that deliberate about pushing yourself out. Like make yourself do the thing that you don’t want to do or that you feel is drawing. That’s why I didn’t want to do it. It was like drawing attention to me. And I didn’t, even though I was sitting on a camera talking to people at home, I didn’t want their attention on me. You can see the problem.

Mary (35:33.854)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm.

Mary (35:45.071)
yeah.

Kerry Barrett (35:45.613)
So yeah, be very intentional about trying to do something each time you are on a video, whether it’s a podcast or a live, like do one small thing that takes you out of your comfort zone and it may not work and that’s fine. Nobody’s gonna know that you didn’t pull it off the way that you intended to for the most part.

Mary (36:07.932)
I definitely resonated when you talked about the lizard brain and always looking for danger and that’s how I feel when I’m behind camera. When it’s like, that camera, that’s the threat, that’s the predator. And then you just shrink away and you get nervous and yeah, that definitely resonated with me.

Kerry Barrett (36:11.897)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (36:19.609)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (36:26.122)
We we shrink absolutely getting in front of the camera. We see everybody out there or all the people that we imagine, you know, and if things are done right, hopefully it’s thousands of people that are watching you, but we see all of them as their own wooly mammoth or saber-toothed tiger wrestling in the bushes who’s like ready to pounce out and grab ahold of our jugular. And of course we want to get small and not have them see us, but that’s exactly.

Mary (36:35.782)
Yeah.

Mary (36:44.996)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (36:50.296)
the opposite of what you want to do anytime you’re on a stage, whether it’s an actual physical stage or whether it’s virtual stage like this one.

Mary (37:00.293)
Many of our listeners are job seekers, right? They’re small business owners and many executives as well. So I feel like improving your on-camera skills can, I mean, it can truly benefit anyone, but just for a moment, I want to talk about this from a job seeking perspective. And the job market, it’s so incredibly saturated and competitive right now. So how can leveraging video content really enhance that?

Kerry Barrett (37:18.287)
Yeah.

Mary (37:30.147)
authority and visibility within, you know, maybe a specific industry.

Kerry Barrett (37:34.65)
Absolutely. So number one, LinkedIn has become very video centric. They’ve started, if you’re not aware, they’ve started a new video feed that allows you to scroll through vertical videos much the same way that you would scroll through them on TikTok or Instagram Reels. Some people love it, some people don’t. Regardless, video is absolutely here to stay.

And so understanding how to create effective, compelling video that you can use on LinkedIn to establish your personal brand, your thought leadership, your pieces, your thought leadership and your sort of think pieces, if you will. The other element is because being a great communicator, being a great communicator, my gosh, because being a great communicator on camera is such a rare quality.

If you’re able to do it well during your interview, it will put you above most of the others out there. Now, couple that with the fact that most people who are doing the interviewing are also uncomfortable on camera. And there’s those awkward pauses and silences, then one steps over the other, and suddenly you’re looking anywhere but in the lens. If you’re able to make their job easier because you’re an effective communicator and you can roll with whatever they throw your way,

you will have put yourself above many, if not all, of the other candidates because this is a skill set that the vast majority of people do not have. Yeah.

Mary (39:05.509)
Yeah. Many people I see, especially on LinkedIn, are creating these side hustles and small businesses. I mean, there are so many solopreneurs out there, you myself included. Could you share examples of how your coaching has helped clients increase their revenue or maybe even their visibility through these improved on-camera skills?

Kerry Barrett (39:12.718)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (39:30.836)
Absolutely. So I work with, I work with lawyers and executives and some small business owners. I have a…

Kerry Barrett (39:52.411)
Sorry, it said recording resumed. Did you lose me for a second?

Mary (39:56.59)
It’s- it’s- it’s- it bumped out for a minute, but yeah, you’re- we’re good. Yep.

Kerry Barrett (40:00.603)
Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I’ll start that over again. And the lawyers that I work with, they publish a book each year and they look to generate press. And so we put together a series of media trainings where we coach them on their on-camera skills and created the videos to generate the press for their book. And after

two days of video release. had, I believe, 50 quotes in PR and magazines and Forbes and the Legal Journal and Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. And they also had, I believe, 2,500 hits on their videos after the first 24 hours. So that greatly increased their visibility and it greatly increased people, buying their book and, A, the media that they got for

Mary (40:45.264)
Wow. Wow.

Kerry Barrett (40:56.357)
for putting that book together. Other clients that I’ve worked with, another lawyer who needed to put video together for his website. He had a new offer that he really wanted to talk about, but wasn’t comfortable discussing it. So for his particular case, I didn’t need to put him in a two month package because he just needed this one video. So we rewrote his script so that it was easier for him to deliver in an effective way. And then we recorded his video together.

and edited it and then have it up on his website. So it’s attracting more attention from people who are curious about his new offer for entrepreneurs. Then I have another client who’s a business owner who was working on her podcast presentations. Her podcast appearances, one of her goals for visibility and credibility is getting on a number of podcasts, but she struggled to speak compellingly. She struggled to speak concisely was one of her big issues.

and she struggled to speak effectively. So now that we’ve gone through her training, she’s booked on podcasts at least once a week and they’re increasing her visibility and increasing her credibility as well.

Mary (42:01.403)
Nice.

Mary (42:04.985)
Wow, that’s amazing. You’re doing amazing work. That’s so exciting. And I mean, it just goes to show how incredibly powerful that on-camera video is. mean, really, whether you’re a job seeker, whether you’re an entrepreneur, whether you’re, you know, happily, you know, in an executive role, it can really help take your credibility, your visibility in your career and your life in some cases to the next level. That’s amazing.

Kerry Barrett (42:09.614)
Thank you.

Kerry Barrett (42:33.53)
Absolutely, 100%. The visibility and the credibility are huge. It’s why I also help people with PR because those are two of the biggest stumbling blocks is how do I put myself out there and when I put myself out there, how do I get people to take note of it? And so those two elements are huge. And video is, you it’s been sort of a long time blossoming on LinkedIn, which is really where I spend the majority of my social media time. It’s been a slow burn for a while, but the past

Mary (42:37.177)
Yeah.

Kerry Barrett (43:02.404)
four months, it’s really picked up and I don’t see them changing the way that the algorithm works or the way that they’re prioritizing video content over text content either. So if you want to get discovered or you want to be found under specific hashtags or search terms because you’re looking for a job or you’re looking for the next step, creating video about that thing is huge.

Mary (43:24.846)
Yeah, I agree. So what didn’t I ask you? What else should we know about on-camera presence? Any final words?

Kerry Barrett (43:32.758)
my gosh, you’re a very good interviewer. I don’t know that you missed asking me anything, but what I would sort of just underscore is that the confidence comes after the competence. You may have confidence that you can ultimately do this thing, but you don’t have confidence in your skills and you’ve got to do the thing to…

clear the fears is sort of the expression that I like to use. And so I know it’s, I know it’s painful and I know nobody likes to do it, but open up your camera for 30 seconds in the morning and just riff. You can riff about how much you hate talking to a camera. It doesn’t matter. And you can do it from the comfort of your bed covered up by your, your covers and with your head still on the pillow. But I challenge you to do that thing. Yep.

Mary (44:26.664)
Clear the fears.

Kerry Barrett (44:28.589)
Do the thing, clear the fears. Yeah.

Mary (44:30.136)
Yes. Carrie, where can we find you on social media?

Kerry Barrett (44:33.605)
The best way to find me is on LinkedIn. It’s Keri Barrett. And you can also go to my website. It’s KeriBarrett.com forward slash resources for a bunch of free resources that I have as well. But if you have any questions, you can certainly reach out to me on either place and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

Mary (44:48.674)
Yay! Thank you so much for coming on today.

Kerry Barrett (44:51.065)
Thank you. It was great to be here. You are, you’re a great interviewer and I love this video podcast. Well done.

Mary (44:54.084)
No.