Audio, Video, Voice & Movement

On this page you will find tips for audio, video, voice, and body language. Styling tips are their own page and include on-camera tips for: hair, makeup, wardrobe, skin care and men’s grooming.

I have compiled a number of tips to help support you as a media guest, for public speaking and appearances, audio and video conferences, job interviews, and any kind of communication with other human beings. I hope you will think of these as resources to support you and don’t get overwhelmed by trying to take it all in or thinking that you have to do it all. The main thing is to focus on your purpose and be yourself. There is a reason you are being called to share your message.

The tips below, and my coaching style in general, are based on a philosophy of support and fulfillment of your purpose rather than techniques and strategies for manipulating audiences and clients. My approach is also more about taking away distractions than adding to, changing, or covering up who you really are, so that your true self can shine. If having good audio and/or video quality and speaking clearly with intention can help an audience focus on your message, then that’s part of supporting you and your purpose.

I believe that authenticity and congruence are the true keys to a great media interview and any kind of good communication, as well as to a life of deeper contentment and contribution to the greater good. And to me, that is true success. I hope you find these tips helpful, and that they help you convey your message in a way that is true to who you are.

One of the best things you can do to prepare yourself for any kind of media interview or performance is a dress rehearsal.

VIDEO REHEARSAL
Some time ahead of the big day, choose your outfit and do your hair and makeup or grooming as you intend to the day of. One option is to record yourself speaking on camera and play it back to see what you might improve. Don’t be too hard on yourself and remember that many famous actors who are considered to be some of the most beautiful people in the world cannot stand to see themselves on camera or listen to audio of themselves talking. If you don’t want to subject yourself to this (which I totally understand), you can hire someone like me to work with you 1:1 over video conference and give you personal coaching, without ever having to watch yourself. If you are doing a remote interview it’s a really good idea to do a test run with the application your interviewer will be using (Zoom, Skype, etc.) with the microphone and lighting you plan to use for the interview to make sure everything is working, looks and sounds good, and that you know how to assign the audio and video settings for your microphone and camera. It can be very distracting trying to figure out the basic features of a program when your real purpose for being there is to share your knowledge, information, and experience.

LIGHTING
Lighting on camera makes a huge difference in terms of how the overall video looks and how well people can see you and your facial expressions. For remote interviews from your home or office, setting up with the daylight from a window facing you can work well. Overhead lighting can sometimes create odd shadows on the face. If you don’t have a window or it is night time, you can try experimenting with different lamps in different positions to cast light upon you. There are consumer grade lights you can purchase online for just such purposes that are reasonably priced, including ring lights which create a nice even light with no shadows on your face. They make very small ring lights to go around a camera lense and large ones that are set up on a stand. I recommend the larger type if you have the space and budget, and this is what a lot of YouTube video content creators are using today. Otherwise, get out whatever lamps you have and try moving them around until you find a good configuration that is the most flattering.

AUDIO REHEARSAL
Do an audio recording of yourself talking, or better yet ask a friend, colleague or family member to do a pretend interview with you and practice speaking about your subject matter. Then listen back to see what you might improve. Or, if this does not sound like something you would like to do, you can hire a media coach like myself to help you without ever having to listen to a recording of yourself. As with video, getting familiar ahead of time with the platform your interviewer will be using will help immensely. Even if the interview will be conducted by phone it’s great if you can do a test call in advance, or just call a friend and ask them if they hear anything distracting while you are talking. Some of the common things that can happen are breathing too close or directly into the receiver (creating a loud wind sound) and jewelry or clothing rubbing or clanging against the receiver or headset’s microphone. Bring your awareness to the quality of the sound and you will be amazed at what you can improve on your own.

We often feel nervous before something like a media engagement because the subconscious mind perceives the unfamiliar and the unknown as a threat. A dress rehearsal including the gear you will be using (for remote interviews), and practicing speaking out loud about your subject matter to someone asking you questions about it, will establish a certain level of familiarity and comfort so that your subconscious mind will allow you to relax and focus on your message, which is the reason you are there.

For remote interviews, the better your sound quality is the better the audience can hear you and the more likely they are to take in your message. Many people will turn off an audio show if the sound quality is bad, even for one of the people talking. While you can’t control the host’s audio or show production value, you can do your best to make your audio sound as clear as possible. You can also listen to the show you are being asked to guest on before hand to make sure it’s one you want to take part in, not only from an audio quality perspective but from a content and message perspective. That said, when doing a remote interview from home, both audio and video recordings will benefit from setting yourself up to have the best sound quality possible. Also before the interview notice if you have on any jewelry or accessories that make jingling or other sounds as these will pick up on the audio, as will hand movements that bump the table or microphone.

ROOM ACOUSTICS
Choosing a room with carpet and soft furnishings (like a bedroom or living room) over one with nothing but hard surfaces and tile floors (like a kitchen or bathroom) will help the sound greatly. Hard surfaces reflect sound and create an echoey effect.

MICROPHONES
If you have access to some kind of microphone and headphones or earbuds (which are visually less distracting and don’t mess with your hair for video interviews) I highly recommend using them. Unless you have professional equipment, one of the best things I’ve found that works amazingly well with computers and cell phones is a smart phone headset with the built in microphone and earbuds. The sound quality is usually quite good. Clip or pin the microphone in place so that it is not sliding around on your clothing or bumping into hard objects like buttons and zippers, because these types of things can produce unwanted sounds. Wearing earbuds versus using your computer’s speakers will also make it so that your sound doesn’t create an echo effect on the media interviewer’s end. You can tuck the wires behind your ears so they aren’t as visible for video interviews. Wired ear buds usually produce more reliable sound quality than bluetooth since bluetooth signals can cut out (and therefore so can your audio). This is where doing a dress rehearsal, or having a backup pair of earbuds on hand if you really want to use bluetooth, can help you be as prepared as possible.

AUDIO/VIDEO SETTING
Whether you are using earbuds or a high quality microphone and earphones, become familiar with the audio and video settings within the application the interview will take place in. I use Skype to make audio calls for my podcast, and have found that if you plug your audio devices (microphone/headset/earbuds) before opening Skype it is more likely to automatically recognize them and select the correct sound input settings. But it’s not a guarantee. You could have the most top of the line microphone, but if the settings in the program you are using have the computer’s audio selected you will sound like you are on a speaker phone. Speaking of speaker phones…

PHONE SOUND QUALITY
If you ever do a media interview by phone, setting it to speaker phone will make it sound shattered, echoey, and like you are driving through a tunnel. Holding the receiver up to your mouth the old fashioned way, or using earbuds with a built in microphone will sound much better. Landlines are generally better sound quality than cell phones, though each case can vary greatly these days. In general landlines are more reliable and do not cut out like cell phones unless the phone is running on wifi, which is not technically a landline but a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Provider), which can cut out just like a cell phone because they are both operating on radio frequencies. Anything wired is typically more reliable than wireless (i.e. ethernet cables for internet, wired headphones and landlines, vs. wifi, bluetooth, and wireless). Cordless phones that are too far away from the base or running low on battery can cut out as well. If you know your house and you know there are certain areas with better reception, do what you can to conduct the interview from that room.

‘QUIET – ON AIR’, ‘RECORDING IN PROGRESS’ or ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ SIGN
Professional recording studios have a sign outside the room that says ‘ON AIR’ that gets turned on and lights up during recording so people outside the room know to be quiet. I used to hang a sign outside my apartment door that said ‘Do not disturb, recording in progress’ whenever I did a radio interview so that nobody would knock on my door (it was a small place and the living room had the best phone reception).

As a podcast host I have a lot of experience talking to guests using all kinds of audio set ups, and I can tell you that it means a lot to me when they put some effort into having good sound quality. It also makes editing a lot easier. Some hosts might be more likely to invite a guest back for more interviews when these factors make post-production easier and reflect well on the show.

SPEAKING
As described in the ‘Audio Rehearsal’ section above, one of the best ways to prepare for an audio interview is to practice by recording yourself speaking, then play it back and listen. This is an AMAZING tool for self-awareness. Many of us have unconscious speech habits like saying ‘um’ frequently, smacking our lips or tongue, or making long…awkward…pauses when nervous. By listening to a recording you can identify these things and then use conscious awareness to change them. I speak as a podcast producer who also does the editing for my show when I say that these speech habits are much more common than you might ever think! They are not bad or wrong, but communication comes across as more professional and clear when there are less distractions.

VOCAL QUALITY
Another thing you can do to set yourself up for success is to hydrate well ahead of the recording, then take a break from drinking fluids for an hour or two before hand so you don’t have the sudden urge to go to the bathroom during the interview. Dehydration creates something known in the audio profession as ‘mouth clicks’, plus most of us feel better and more energized when we are well-hydrated, which can only help a performance.

VOLUME
I’ve noticed that often when people don’t have a microphone and they are speaking ‘into the air’ using their computer’s microphone it’s as if they subconsciously perceive the interviewer as being so far away that they have to yell. I had to stop listening to a podcast just the other day because the guest was doing just this, and I couldn’t listen to her yelling her answers any more (not to mention the echoey sound created by using the computer’s internal microphone). This is just one more reason to use an external microphone. When you are speaking during an interview, just use a normal tone and volume of voice as if you were talking to a friend sitting right next to you. There is no need to increase your volume. Some people speak louder or more quietly when they are nervous, which is one more reason to get familiar with your speech habits prior to an interview. Preparing and making adjustments ahead of time will help you convey your message in the most clear way possible the day of, and support feelings of confidence.

Up to 93% of communication is non-verbal, and body language is a big part of it. Our movement and gestures are a form of subconscious communication that often say more to the viewer than our actual words. Eye contact is a very important as well. Observing our own body language is another example of where a dress rehearsal on camera can help, but even for audio, you want to make sure that if you talk with your hands you are not bumping the table as the audio will pick up the sound. For an experiment with posture, try walking around or sitting in a slouched position for a bit, then try the same with your body upright, and see how different it feels! The word ‘down’ is more than a metaphor. We use it to describe feeling unhappy, but when we are feeling down our vocal tone tends to slope off, we tend to hold our head down, lower our shoulders forward, look down with our eyes, etc. Even our spoken language reflects the body’s natural expression in the fact that we use the word ‘down’ to convey feelings that make us look and sound and move in a downward direction. On the contrary, our language also reflects the opposite, for example when things are ‘looking up’ we tend to hold our head higher, look up more, hold our bodies more upright, and we might even have a little pep in our step that literally lifts us up off the ground more than when we are feeling down. I have heard that something crisis line operators will do when someone is suicidal is to ask the caller to describe the ceiling because it forces the person to look up, therefore causing a physiological shift in their body and emotional state. Even our handwriting reflects our mood whether overall, or regarding a particular subject. If you give someone an unlined piece of paper and ask them to write, the lines of a depressed person’s writing are more likely to slope down, while someone with a positive outlook will more likely write lines that slope upward. We can do either of these even when writing a single word depending on how we feel about it, for example if something makes us sad we might write that word with a downward slope, but if something (or someone) makes us happy or gives us positive feelings we might write that word (or name) with an upright slope. If you notice your vocal tone or body language tending to have more downward movement than you wish, try changing your voice, movement, and posture in more upward directions. It will likely feel very unnatural at first, but it can have a very positive neurological effect and allow for new states of being.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Don’t expect perfection. As quantum physicist Amit Goswami says “The only perfection lies with God”. A few ‘um’s here and there can be a very natural indication of a deep thought, and part of the flow of a good conversation, for example. And as I’ve been saying, the most important thing is to be yourself and be authentic, despite any of these other things. Authenticity and passion for what you do are what audiences resonate with the most. My wish for you is to let your inner light shine, whether you are in the spotlight or on incubating and generating new ideas and creations on your own.

To view tips for hair, makeup, wardrobe and men’s grooming for on-camera appearances, visit:

For more information, or to book a consultation: