Whether you're a deer in headlights or a natural on camera, it can sometimes be hard to find your own 'red carpet' spark. Erin Brown from Hot Red Carpet is sharing her strategies for stepping into your red carpet confidence so that you can shine on the summit (virtual) stage!

Get Erin's top 5 tips for red carpet confidence!

Want to learn more about booking more summit speaking engagements and making more money from them? Get access to Erin's (hilarious) full presentation - and more! - at https://sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition/

Learn more about Erin at https://www.hotredcarpet.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Summit Speaker Strategy Audio Training

If you want to learn more about summit speaking strategies and how you can use it to grow your business, jump over to virtualsummitspeaking.com. I put together a free audio training that you can take on the go in your regular podcast player!

Speaker Audio Training

Welcome to Virtual Summit Success.

I'm Jenn, founder of Virtual Summit Search, and you're in the right place

if you want to make the most of your virtual summit experience, whether

you're a host or virtual summit speaker.

Let's get going with your next step to virtual summit success.

You're listening to a snippet from a session from Sell With

Speaker Edition.

The hilarious Erin Brown is sharing her strategies for getting

your red carpet confidence on and you're not gonna want to miss this.

Hey there.

Welcome.

My name is Erin Brown.

I am the CEO and founder of Hot Red Carpet.

Today, I'm going to talk about having more red carpet confidence

on video calls and presentations.

My company got its name Hot Red Carpet because many years ago, when I was a

hustler in Hollywood doing comedy and acting and writing and anything else

I can do to try to get myself hired, I had the silly idea to sort of poke

fun at Hollywood and the whole notion of award shows and the red carpet,

because there were so many award shows.

And then there were so many shows talking about the shows, and there were even

shows about the shows about the shows.

So I called my friend who was a videographer and I said, "Hey, Monday

afternoon, let's go to Hollywood Boulevard where they shoot the Oscars" at the time.

And I had my own little red carpet.

Technically it was a bathmat, but it served its purpose because the

thought behind it was don't we all deserve to walk the red carpet?

I mean, do I really have to be an A-list movie star or make a movie or write the

bestselling novel to walk a red carpet?

I mean, I don't know, do novelists get red carpets these days?

Hm I'll have to make a note of that one.

Anyway, this one-note joke kind of took off and it it's been playing a

symphony for years and it parlayed into not only a web series, Hot on

the Red Carpet, but people started to ask me to show up at their events with

my tiny little red carpet as sort of an entertaining welcoming committee.

So I thought, "wow."

At first, I thought they were nuts having me on a red carpet at their wedding.

But then after I did it a few times and they paid me, I thought this

is a really good business idea.

So I would emcee people, welcome them to my red carpet at weddings and

corporations and launches - you name it, we were there - and it was really fun.

It was a great way for people to capture themselves on film in a very fun way,

create memories in a cheeky unique way.

So that's the part of my company.

And when the world closed its doors, so to speak last year during 2020, and we

are still going through that now in 2021, like everybody else, I had to parlay

my business to the virtual space and I began emceeing virtual events, which was

definitely in my wheelhouse, being a host.

And then I started doing a virtual game show virtual game show called

Survey Says, which is basically an online version of the classic game show

on TV, which rhymes with Mamly Mood.

Copyright purposes, you get it.

It's been a wonderful blessing, a really cool way to showcase my gifts to

corporate, mostly and other networking type of organizations, where they get

to play a game together - remotely - they bond with their teammates.

They get to maybe meet coworkers from other parts of the world and

let their guard down and create these new kind of relationships with work

people or professional colleagues, but not centered around business.

So having said all that, you're like, what is this workshop?

How to Have Hot Red Carpet Confidence on video calls and

presentations both live and in person.

Which...

it's kind of one and the same, but I mean, live online and live in-person - in

the same room, breathing the same air.

I have 20 years of improv comedy experience that I'm going to pull from, as

well as my own experience in the business world, and so I'm hoping that after this

talk, which will be probably about 12 more minutes - buckle up - you'll walk

away with a tool or two or three that you can apply to your next video call.

Alright?

Sound good?

Oh, why do I coach confidence?

Right.

Back to that.

Because after I was hosting so many calls, I noticed some people

were uncomfortable on video camera.

I get it.

They weren't trained this isn't really natural or normal.

it is now the new norm, it's not going

anywhere, it's only going to grow.

And rather than being negative about it, why not see the positive of, "wow,

I can reach a whole other audience.

I can reach all these other people," or "I don't have to sit in traffic

and drive to my office or drive to my clients, say, I can do it right

here in the comfort of my home."

But I noticed during a lot of those calls, people didn't want to turn their cameras

on or they just, again were uncomfortable.

Also, professionals I knew who were superstars in their did not

like the video camera option.

When I asked my friend who is in sales what the deal was, she was like, "I'm

so good in person, but once I see that camera, it just, I feel different.

And I'm, I, don't, I don't know what to do and I freeze up."

So I'm here to give you some ways to deal with that, to find your comfort level on

camera and realize that this device that I'm looking at you through - the camera?

It's just a device.

So I like to tell people this little synonym or little

phrase - it's not a synonym....

it's an acronym.

WWYP...

nope.

That's not it.

WWYDIP, WWYDIP!

See, it rolls right off the tongue.

All those years of comedy.

It doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it will stick.

what would you do in person?

Simple as that.

Would you wear the negligee to your meeting in person?

Probably not.

Unless you're in a soap opera.

So why are you doing that on a video call?

So that is definitely number one basic I want to give you is the

"what would you do in person?"

Apply it all to the video space.

Okay.

There's three areas where you can improve the confidence and success rates of

your video calls and presentations, whether they're in front of one person

or 10 people or thousands of people.

Know that you're only really talking to you one person.

Focus on that key person - even when you're in a group of 10, you might be

talking to the group, but like who, who are you making eye contact with?

Try to think of the camera as that.

Know that on the other side of the camera, there's a human being who literally just

wants to - hopefully - hear what you have to say, receive your information,

and bounce something back at you.

It's just another way of connecting.

So I'm going to give you ways to boost your routine, things you can do before the

call, during the call, and after the call.

Or, as I also like to call it, the three P's, which is

Preparation, Presence, and Practice.

I like to keep things really simple and attainable so that you will use it.

You're more prone to do something that seems simple.

It might not always be easy, but I'd like to try to keep it simple.

So Preparation is the first P.

There is so much you can do before you even turn on your camera, before

you turn on Zoom or Google Meets or WebEx - whatever video platform

you're using - to set yourself up for success, lots of success, and to feel

comfortable and confident in your skin.

we're going to talk about the physical prep

of your environment, your space, your physical prep of you, what

you look like, what you're wearing.

And then also I'm going to give you some mental preparation, okay?

I'm going to go relatively quick since I don't have a lot of time.

lights, camera, action!

Don't get all crazy about it.

If you're not a total techie, don't worry about it.

I'm really not either, but because I'm doing it all the time, I had to

invest a little bit of effort into it.

So I have a webcam.

You don't have to have a webcam.

You could just use the camera right off of your computer.

But the placement of the camera is critical.

You want the camera to be placed at eye level or a little bit above

so that you are looking through the camera, looking and connecting with

the person who's watching this video, which would you be you in this case.

Alright, you want to be lit.

Why do you want to be lit?

So you can be seen.

My favorite light is natural light and tonight I am filming after hours.

So I had to actually put artificial light on.

I do have a ring light.

It's 18 inches.

It serves its purpose, but normally I sit right in front of my window and have the

daylight on me and it lights up my face.

So I would recommend finding a window in your house or wherever

you're at, facing the windows so that the light is shining on you.

Why?

When the light shining on you, yes, you can be seen.

And what does that mean?

It seems like you're approachable.

You can have a resting face, a smile.

"Oh, I want to talk to that person."

We've all been in those Zoom meetings where somebody doesn't have their

camera on or they're back lit and you don't really necessarily

want to talk to that person.

For example, if you have the window behind you, that's what's called being backlit.

So you look like a shadow or it looks like you're on one of those

true crime shows as a witness.

And you're like, "it was April, there was blood on the ground, I was driving

a bus," you know, like I don't, I don't really want to converse with that person.

But if they just literally turned their self around and had the light

from the window bouncing on them - voila, I might want to talk to them.

Maybe.

Alright, so lighting.

Sound!

If you want to invest in a microphone, go for it.

If you're on these all the time, I would say, yeah, a good quality sound

always looks better, sounds better and more professional, but again,

you don't have to break the bank.

Everyone is on Zoom, so there is that forgiveness factor, but if you are a

professional speaker, I would highly recommend getting a simple microphone.

Other space-wise, you want to make sure your background is desirable

to look at, meaning it's clean.

It's not distracting.

Pardon me.

You might, that might even happen in a, in a real life situation,

so have some water, be prepared.

A lot of people use virtual backgrounds these days on the video platforms - not

my favorite, personally; I don't like the fact that you can disappear into them.

Sometimes people can get away with it, but for the most

part, I wouldn't recommend it.

Unless you do the blurred version on zoom, which I find fairly attractive.

I would recommend getting a simple screen, which this I got in downtown LA - it

folds up, it's portable, it's super easy.

Because we don't want to see what's behind my screen.

Basically you want to be in front of a neat space.

So even if you're in your office, just something that doesn't have distractions.

We don't want to see your pile of laundry or the pile of dishes, or, you know, the

spaghetti that was thrown against the wall last night because of the drama that

happened that we really don't want to know about, cause this is a professional talk.

So simple fix is the screen or just keep it neat.

Don't have a lot of clutter.

Go in front of just a simple wall.

Paint it.

You can also order like a fake wallpaper online, like it's

just almost like a fake wall.

People have done that too.

keep it clean, keep it neat.

the most important thing you can do is to tap into your

unique red carpet-ness, as I call it - your gifts, your sparkle, we all have it.

We all are worthy of the red carpet because we are humans

and we are here to thrive.

Tap into that.

It's going to look different on a daily basis.

Always do your best, as they say in The Four Agreements - that's a great

book; check it out - your best is going to vary, but as long as you show

up, you're already ahead of the game.

'Cause guess what?

If you don't show up, then someone else might be missing out on something they

needed to experience that only you can give with your red carpet uniqueness.

So please, never underestimate the impact that you could have on someone.

So turn those cameras on, turn those lights on and radiate.

My name is Erin Brown.

It has been a pleasure to be here.

Thank you so much to Jenn and the virtual summit, and I look forward

to seeing you all live soon.

Okay, seriously.

Did you love Erin as much as I did?

I don't think I've ever laughed as much through summit presentation - in

a good way - as I did through hers.

You have to get the rest of Erin's presentation tips, along with the

other two P's, because not only are they super helpful, but she's

just a joy to watch and learn from.

Just try not to fall out of your seat laughing.

Go to sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition to get access to Erin's

full presentation and more.

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