Ten Top Tips for Presenting on TV. -Tim Stackpool

The Speakers Practice has invited Australian Business owners to submit articles on the topic of the Presentation Skills in the workplace. Contributors are experts in their industry , discussing aspects and giving advice concerning presentation skills in their field of expertise.
Introducing Tim Stackpool –
Tim Stackpool is a broadcaster and presenter, providing news and information to radio and TV station around the world on a variety of subjects. He has more than 20 year experience working for various on-air organisations, and now also provides training and workshops to broadcast and corporate individuals wanting to improve their on-air presence.

Tim-Stackpool

Tim’s Top Ten Tips for Presenting on TV are:

1. Expose your personality, don’t change it. Your DNA is unique and it’s what sets you apart from everyone else on the planet. If you stifle it, you will appear contrived and pretentious.
2. Overcome the imposter syndrome. You are on-camera for a purpose and you have a story to tell. Don’t second-guess yourself. People want to hear what you have to say.
3. Know your message. Be very well prepared, so you can talk about the subject in both an authorative and casual manner for a very long time. Knowing all the facts and a good general knowledge will keep the flow of conversation going and avoid running out of words.
4. Mention your key message early. Leaving your important point until the end could be a disaster if you run out of time, or your audience might tune-out before you get to ‘the good bit’.
5. Imagine talking to just one person. TV is a mass medium, but if you can imagine yourself connecting with just one person…someone you know…you’ll connect with all the viewers individually. Avoid phrases like “Hello everyone…” Speak as if you are conversing with just one person.
6. Always look to camera. Darting your eyes around, looking at your feet or to the side will have viewers wondering what is more interesting elsewhere.
7. Be careful not to end all sentences with a rising inflexion, as used when asking a question. Aussies have a frightful habit of doing this.
8. Don’t have shiny skin. Make-up helps (even guys should use powder when ‘on-air’). While there is a tendency to want to appear ‘moisturised’ in real life, on camera it appears as looking oily and sweaty.
9. Avoid wearing stripes, pastels or brilliant white shirts or blouses. TV cameras can cause minute patterns to shimmer and look ‘alive’, distracting the viewer from your message, and wearing bright white clothing can make your face look very, very dark, making you disappear into the background scene.
10. Challenge you skills by doing a dummy practice each day. Pick a topic you might have heard discussed on the radio today, and talk privately, but out loud, about the subject for 1 minute. Pretend you are discussing the subject over the phone, and describe the situation and the facts as you understand them (doing this in the car on the way home from work is a good time to exercise this skill).

Keep these 10 Tips in mind when presenting on TV or to Camera for great results.