Videotape Your Performance
August 4th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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One of the best pieces of advice for improving at public speaking is to videotape yourself and then watch the video, looking for ways you can improve. This technique is commonly used by the best speakers in the world.
But this idea can work for any kind of performance, not just public speaking.
If you’re a salesperson, tape one of your sales presentations. If you’re a realtor, record yourself showing a piece of property — just bring your own camera and tell people you’re videotaping the property as you show it to them. If you have a desk job, setup a camera in the corner of your office or cubicle, and tape yourself doing your work for 30 minutes or so. Your co-workers may think you’re weird, and they’re right, but that’s OK. Weird is good.
When you watch the video, you’ll probably be surprised by what you see. Take notes.
After you watch the video normally, make two more passes through it. On one pass watch the video without sound, and on another pass listen to the sound without video. By focusing on one channel at a time (visual or auditory), you’ll pick up more detail.
Now if you want even better results, find someone who’s more talented or skilled than you in your particular field, and invite them to watch your video and give you feedback. Have another salesperson watch your sales presentation. Ask another realtor to review your property showing. Have another speaker watch your speech. They’ll be able to point out even more ways you can improve. Even a single minute of footage can reveal volumes. Take their advice.
You can use this technique to improve in any area where visual or auditory feedback is possible. Videotape yourself making dinner, exercising, playing pool, changing a diaper, cleaning a room, mowing the lawn, sewing a dress, doing maintenance on your car, etc.
It may take a bit of courage to show your video to someone you perceive as an expert, but you’ll experience rapid growth by using this technique liberally.
If you manage other people, you can even turn this into a group project. Invite everyone to tape their performance (with their permission of course), and review the tapes together. Then invite round-robin feedback and suggestions to help each participant improve. Five minutes of footage + five minutes of feedback = ten minutes per person. If people care about their careers and possess a modicum of maturity, they should generally welcome this kind of feedback, as they’ll gain many new ideas for improvement and become aware of blind spots that are hurting them. However, if the idea meets with staunch resistance, you’ve got a much bigger problem on your hands as a manager.
Grab a camera and start taping.
August 4th, 2005 at 7:05 am
Previously I’ve used a five minute timer as a reminder to have good posture while coding, with only limited success. Maybe watching a video will provide additional insight. Great idea!
“The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” – Proverbs 12:15
August 4th, 2005 at 8:34 am
You got your point steve, I have been thinking about it before, but it seems like everybody is going to label me weirdo, Im guilty because im striving for excelence
huhehe …
August 4th, 2005 at 10:33 am
Yea one thing I have learned from my glorius career not as a speaker but as an online gamer (doh!) is that analyzing your performance and seeing how the best do it is a great way to improve. It was funny, once we were watching our performance from a demo with a team mate using voice chat, and I had this odd feeling why this seems so much more professional and serious than the ‘professional’ performance reviews and useless meetings at work. Also I don’t find it stupid to watch some rather lousy performances, those help to show what the mistakes are and underline why they are so bad.
It would be great to see from a video how some Nietzsche’s superhuman would act given my life and context. Probably would drink far less pepsi and vacuum the house once in a while. Steve you should do an anti-Big brother reality tv show where you show how really driven/productive/focused people live
Aslan
August 4th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
Absolutely. I record my presentations every chance I get. It helps you see your mannerisms (I used to say “basically” all the time!) and pick out which points worked and which didn’t.
I haven’t yet managed to convince other people to give me feedback, but I hope to do that soon. I’ve even got videos of a couple of simple presentations in Japanese from when I had just started to learn the language. My non-Japanese-speaking friends found it amusing. Not knowing what I was saying made it easier for them to concentrate on my presentation style. <laugh>
My digital camera broke, though, so I’m thinking about either getting a new one or a camcorder…
August 4th, 2005 at 6:27 pm
One enlightening trick to add to this: watch yourself in fast forward! You will see your unconcious body movements and habits become greatly exaggerated and therefore easily observable. You will easily notice things like shifting back and forth from foot to foot, flipping your hair, stroking your beard, pushing up your glasses, tapping your fingers or hands, swinging the pointer/remote around distractedly, and many more. Unless you see yourself broken out of the “spell” of watching in realtime, you may never realize these things about yourself.
August 6th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
If your girlfriend is willing… this can also be a good way to get paid by practicing and then improve, then offer better performance, then get more money, then get more time to practice, to improve more, to get more money, to get more time…
That aside… I am sure I waste a load of time that I can better use to relax, sleep, to eventually be more productive and motivated in everything I do.