A common theme I hear among podcasters is that we chose podcasting as our medium because we don’t have to deal with visuals or video. You can podcast in your pajamas, if you like. We love the virtual space and you don’t even have to bother with your hair if you don’t want to. That’s actually one of my favourite things about it. But more and more, we hear that video is needed as well for anything to be successful. Today’s guest, Suzanne Glover, joins me to explain why we need to embrace video and how we can leverage video alongside our podcasts. 

Suzanne is a professional actress, sales pro and internet marketer with a combined 35 years of experience in those areas. She gained recognition in the TV and film industry with award-winning work and has been in the top percentage of earners in the Screen Actors Guild. She teaches how to connect through the camera and sell successfully in the new virtual world that we’re in as well as how to successfully integrate video into your very busy podcasting life.

Hit play to hear about:

  • How to become more comfortable on camera.
  • Market sophistication – what it is and how to adapt yourself to the different mediums available.
  • What podcasters should be doing to encapsulate video to their advantage.
  • The biggest challenges that podcasters face today and how to overcome the struggles of camera anxiety.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Engage with Suzanne:

Connect with me!

Our Conversation:

Mary

It’s a common theme I hear among podcasters is that we chose podcasting as our medium because we don’t have to deal with visuals or video. You can podcast in your pajamas if you like. We love the virtual space and you don’t even have to bother with your hair if you don’t want to. That’s actually one of my favourite things about it. But more and more, we hear that video is needed as well for anything to be successful. So what does that mean and how much more time do we need to add to our podcasting workflow to leverage video? My guest today explains why we need to embrace video and how we can leverage video alongside our podcasts. 

Suzanne Glover is a professional actress, sales pro and internet marketer with a combined 35 years of experience in those areas. She gained recognition in the TV and film industry with award-winning work and has been in the top percentage of earners in the Screen Actors Guild. She teaches how to connect through the camera and sell successfully in the new virtual world that we’re in. And Suzanne knows how to successfully integrate video into your very busy podcasting life. And life is busy, so we are going to figure out what it is we can do now. So that video can be one of those steps to help create success for our podcast. Suzanne, thank you so much for coming on the show.

You know, today in our day and age, it’s all digital, virtual and I definitely saw that shift as well. I started my podcast, production and consulting company in 2018 before the world shut down and in-person was banned. Today, Zoom is so common video chats are the way to connect with someone visually. So why is it so important now, aside from those things to use video compared to before the pandemic?

Suzanne

Oh well, thank you, Mary, for first having me here. And secondly, that’s a great question. Why is it so important now? Because people are probably thinking, Well, gee it’s going to go back to normal. It’s not. I’ll tell you right now. No, no. And it’s really good. It’s actually really good. What happened to me was I was a model. And what I did was I got too old to be a model, so I had to pivot to being on camera. And we’re talking in my twenties. All right. It was actually a good thing because I was doing work in person as a model. But then when you get into the TV world, you start to get residuals every time you have a certain something, play like a TV, commercial or film or something. So I actually learned how to use video to make money automatically.

So why is it important now when the world has gone virtual to stay virtual and to get good at it? Because two things, obviously, we have to do this because of the pandemic, but there’s a deeper level of why to do it and embrace it. And that’s because it’s a new medium to the bulk of the population, and there are good ways to do it and there are good ways to not do it. So being able to influence and separate yourself from the herd is really important. And I’ll tell you, instead of watching a person who is just clicking on and sitting on their couch and looking like they’re kind of not very professional, I’d like to encourage your listeners to take it seriously. Get off the couch. Do something else like, I know they can’t see us right now, but you look great on video.

Mary

Thank you.

Suzanne

You’ve got a nice framing. You’ve got good lighting. It’s not that hard to do, but you see it’s a new medium to the whole population. So right now, everyone’s on Zoom. Everyone’s learning the medium. But are you familiar with market sophistication, how that works? Have you ever heard that term?

Mary

I have, but maybe you want to explain it as well. In case somebody who’s listening, doesn’t.

Suzanne

So it’s where a market gets more sophisticated as it progresses over time and evolves. Video has evolved over a number of years. I remember when I started back in the 80s, it was huge tapes.

Mary

Yeah. And now, they’re all just in our pockets all the time.

Suzanne

Yeah. And I actually don’t know where my first commercial is, but if I were to show it to you, it’s like a tape that’s eight by ten inches in size. And it’s a 30, like a 30-second to a minute tape.

Suzanne

And now we’ve got gigabytes and terabytes in our pockets. As it has evolved over this time, even when it started in the 50s, you know, people really didn’t know how to act on it and it was a black and white and then they got to be colour. So what I want to share is I want people to think is going to keep going. The evolution is going to keep going. So we’re all on Zoom right now. The masses kind of believe or it’s OK to flip on your phone and talk, but influencing, being able to engage people, that’s going to be the next step. I’ll give you an example of market sophistication. Diet pill. So when it came out back years and years and years ago, the diet pill came out and it was a new concept. Oh, you can lose weight by taking a pill. Revolutionary. People just bought it up. As soon as people got more aware, they had seen that more often they were like, just another pill. It’s just a pill. OK. Pills got to be better, has got to work faster. The pill had to be improved. And so the market sophistication went from new, which is one to being more sophisticated to two. And there are five levels, so it’s one, two, three, four, five. Video, right now, is at a one, in market sophistication. People are just kind of being aware of it more. Yeah, we’ve had it around for years, but now as a business person, we’ve got to figure this thing all out and we have to do it by ourselves.

Mary

Well, when you talk about video is one, like, what I’m thinking of podcasting and video or video podcasts, a lot of the times it’s because we tend to go straight for the audio-only content. How most people would listen to a podcast on their… an app on their phone. But they’ll record the Zoom conversation and use that to repurpose their content, such as posting that conversation on YouTube or having snippets and posting that to social media, is that good enough or is that only just level one?

Suzanne

That’s still level one.

Mary

So then, what is the next level? What should podcasters be doing to really encapsulate and use this video to their advantage?

Suzanne

Now you’re talking two different mediums. Video is one medium where you need to act a certain way. Voice over, where you’re not actually seeing the person, is a whole different scenario. So you know, you’ve done radio. Right now, I’m smiling. It’s making my voice sound differently because I know this is audio, so I’m being a little bit more animated in my voice because you can’t see me. Whereas most people are talking like this. Hi, I’m Suzanne.

Mary

And just looking at you on our Zoom call, everyone’s on Zoom. Like, you’re not smiley. You’re… you’re almost look like you’re frowning there. And it just gives no enthusiasm to your voice. And that really shines that comes through, through the smile and the straight, flat face.

Suzanne

Exactly. And all I did was change my demeanour to, this is how people talk on Zoom. They aren’t aware that there’s a difference in the medium.

Suzanne

So you got to think. Now that brings up a problem. So I’m going to put my smile back on.

Mary

We’re all smiling here, yup.

Suzanne

So you’re talking to different mediums. The thing to remember is, all right, that brings up a problem because I can’t be too animated on video because this camera, it amplifies everything you do. So, for example, you can’t be a speaker like a stage speaker. You can’t do that on camera. I’ll give you an example. Vinnie, who was one of my clients and he was a stage speaker for 30 years, he tried to bring that stage voice to the camera. I mean, the people in the group were like, whoa, I cannot listen to him. I gave him a person to talk to, a certain… I have a way of determining who a person needs to talk to and I softened him up, and it was night and day. So you have to think about the medium. Are you on the stage? Are you in audio? Are you in video? How do you use these together? So there’s a compromise. Like, right now, you and I are talking, we’re smiling. That’s the first thing. You gotta force yourself to do a smile. And I’ll tell you, because this is not being recorded over video for the public. I have got a cheesy smile on right now.

Mary

Is that like your first step to a formula where you can guide us for using video for our advantage? Smiling is key.

Suzanne

Absolutely.

Mary

Yeah. I say so, too.

Suzanne

In my course, I talk about the importance of a smile on video. In fact, oh, I was just at a mastermind last month, and this gal, they had her do her thing in front of the camera because the mastermind was inside a professional studio and we were recording video for ads and stories and things, and that’s what the mastermind was. So this young gal that was new to video, she did her thing. Everybody just pounced on her. Oh, you got to smile more or you have to have more energy. And they were just, sort of, bland type of feedback, wasn’t telling her anything. OK. So they said, go back outside in the hallway and practice and come back in and do your thing a second time after you practice.

Suzanne

Well, I had to go to the bathroom at the same time. So when I came back out, there she was and I found out what happened and I said, oh well, I worked with her for two minutes. I taught her how to smile on camera. I found the right energy for her. I drilled her on it with eye contact and in less than… it was about three minutes, maybe less. She went back in there. She did it and the room, there were about ten people in the room, they were just like their mouths dropped. They said that was startlingly different. And it was because she just had a few tips. So she was real for the camera. But I’ll betcha if they just use the audio for that, I’ll bet you that was good enough. So the moral of the story here is to get good enough on camera, but be realistic enough that it brings that personality out through your voice. When you’re doing the podcast too. You see? That’s my point.

Mary

Yeah, for sure. Like when I worked in radio, we got the training behind the mic and how to do that. So with podcasting, I’m able to help translate as well that knowledge for an everyday podcaster. So with you and your professional acting background, what else do you do to help the everyday person? What do you teach them? What’s the process when they’re just not confident in front of the camera? You know, you get those all the time. You’re like, oh, we’re going to start filming, I got… let’s do a selfie! And they’re like, oh no, no, no, no, no. How do you get out of that feeling?

Suzanne

First, understanding that it’s still this us and them. And what do you mean by that, Suzanne? I mean, back in the 50s, TV was new. When I got into it in the 80s TV was still only 30 years old ish, but it was either you were on TV. It was a very small group of people. When I was first in it, you could not do your own demo reel. I had to take it to a production company, right? There wasn’t any iMovie.

Mary

Right? You could just do it yourself.

Suzanne

No. Are you kidding? I had to pay money and have it produced. So it was a very small group. So it was, are you on TV or are you not on TV? Are you an us or them? I had a commercial that was playing one day. I knew it was going to play. I had just shot it. I didn’t get the tape. You know, the VHS tape that was, you know, I hadn’t gotten it yet. So I was watching TV all day just to see if it would air. You know what I found out? It was really interesting. I saw a bunch of people that I know on TV and I thought, wow, I’m one of them on TV. And that’s when I got this concept in my head that it’s us and them as seen on TV. You know that special?

Mary

Yep!

Suzanne

As Seen on TV. That’s the thing. I think that there’s still, for people who are probably 30 and up or 40 and up, there’s still that stigma that, oh, I can’t be one of them on TV because I’m not seen on TV. I’m not good enough. I don’t like how I look. I have been an actress for 35 years. I still don’t like how I look on TV. Come on.

Mary

It’s all a learning process? It’s a big journey?

Suzanne

So what do I tell people? I say first. I personally have a system that I’ve developed over 35 years, where the first thing to address is understanding that it’s OK that there’s this us and them thing, but that it’s changing because the whole world is on video. So this us and them thing is, kind of, melding together. But the thing to do is to understand that, yes, all these feelings come up. Am I good enough? Oh, I don’t like how I look. Oh, what am I saying? What do I do with my hands? How about my body language?

Mary

Where people don’t even realize that, you know, they have this body language that they’re doing this nervous tic?

Suzanne

I have another story where I signed up for an online software, talked to the owner on the phone. He was a great guy. So I signed up. He did a welcome webinar that was on camera. He was so offensive. He was doing… Excuse me for doing this, but he was doing mouth noises.

Mary

Oh!

Suzanne

And he was so arrogant. All these annoying stuff. I canceled. I’m sorry. I can’t do that.

Mary

Yeah, your voice is so powerful. It’s an extension of who you are. And so if you got annoyed by all those things, imagine other people who also got annoyed.

Suzanne

Exactly. Subconsciously, see, I’m aware of it because I do this.

Mary

Right. But all the people subconsciously are annoyed. Yeah.

Suzanne

Exactly so, so this is where it gets down to the nitty-gritty, where, OK… and I don’t want people to start seeing ghosts like, oh, am I doing it right or wrong or whatever, right? But we all know we don’t want to make mouth noises,

Mary

Especially on a podcast when people are listening with earbuds and headphones on. Those mouth noises are quite loud.

Suzanne

That’s why I warned you.

Mary

Yup! Thank you for that.

Suzanne

There’s things you’ve got to think about, and the public doesn’t think about this because they’re not. They’re still at the first level of awareness. And like I said earlier in our conversation, as an actress, I didn’t have to worry about tech. I just show up. But now we all have to be the writer, the producer, the director, the techie, the grip and the actress and the spokesperson.

Mary

That’s exactly it, too, with a podcaster. You know, we don’t realize we’re wearing a lot of hats when we’re creating our shows. We are the host. Yes, but we’re also the producer, the editor, the marketer, the showrunner, you know, wrangling guests, doing all the back end with the scheduling and all of the stuff. We are creating a show while also either having a full-time job or running a business using the podcast as your marketing platform. There’s so many things that goes on and also, you know, our busy personal lives as well. You know, we’re parents, we’re taking care of family. So then how do we fit in being on video as well? Is it good enough to just do the level one Zoom video that we were talking about?

Suzanne

Well, it is OK right now, but it’s not going to be OK, maybe tomorrow or next month or next year. And you bring up… and this is not a self plug or anything, but I just wrote a book about that. It’s called Be a Video Influencer: Reinvent Your Life & Business as a Midlife Movie Star because it’s aimed at a woman who’s over 40 or maybe over 30. Men can relate to this, too, but it’s really for women because we tend to be the caregivers, tend to be… and I know men are too. But we tend to be doing it all. And what happens… Now, I know you’re pretty young. I’m 62, so I’ve been through all this thing, right?

Mary

My mom, I got the good genes. I’m 41 this year, so you know.

Suzanne

No, you don’t look it. So I know people can’t see what we’re saying here, but you look great.

Mary

Thanks!

Suzanne

Well, when I was your age, OK, it was about 42. I started having pre-menopause. All the success in my life started slowly going away, and then I went into losing my confidence. I started having to take care of my mother. My businesses started suffering. See, so I have addressed that issue with my book, and I’ve talked about the seven steps: overcome camera anxiety, know what to say, how to deliver, how to look good and simplify it, because you’ve got to simplify it. Because this is like the biggest challenge today. Not only if you want to separate these things, the biggest challenge today is getting good on video. That’s a challenge so that you can stay ahead of the curve because we’re going to be moving on to levels three, four and five. As people get more sophisticated in this… in the video market, next thing to do is be good on it. Build trust. Be able to influence and get them to say yes, right? So you’re talking two challenges. One challenge is video. The other challenge is how to fit it into your life. So you’ve got to simplify it. You’ve got to simplify it.

Mary

What do you mean by that? It is so easy to just say, simplify it.

Suzanne

Don’t obsess about it, but take it seriously. Step number one overcome camera anxiety. I don’t like the practice, practice, practice thing because when you practice something, it can be practiced wrong. And practice makes permanent.

Mary

Yeah, you’re just going to keep learning the bad things,

Suzanne

Right. But what I always tell people is overcoming camera anxiety. The first step to that is understanding that you’re not going to have it perfectly. You’re just aware that this is a new medium and you’re a baby in it. I mean, I don’t mean to offend anyone but you’re a baby in it. Even with 35 years in the industry, when I had to start doing this myself, I had to become the director, the producer. I had to direct myself. I had a learning curve of how I wanted to show up on camera because I didn’t have a director. I’ve taught this for 20 years. I had to teach myself. I had enough experience to do that. Most people don’t. So they want to have compassion for themselves. That’s the biggest message I could say here is that you want to have compassion for yourself. And one exercise that I do, I have it in my book. It’s a very simple exercise. It’s so simple. People would go, what? It’s asking yourself, what did I do right? Because our minds go to the critical. We’re built that way. And when I started doing this for myself and my clients, it changes our frequency. Now, I know we’re talking radio, we’re not talking FM 100 or whatever. We’re talking about raising our energetic inside, our feelings. You know, the difference between a smile and talking like this, right? When you can do that with your thoughts. What did I do right? What did I do right? I would ask myself that I would get five things before I go to sleep at night. I would do five things, and I’d say, What did I do right today? Number one, I got out of bed.

Mary

Yes. Sometimes that’s all it takes. I know for me.

Suzanne

Exactly. Number two, what did I do right? I made it through the blankin’ day. I brush my teeth. You know, I fed the dog. Sometimes all we need to do is just say those simple things because what it does is it starts that engagement in our minds. So start looking for the positive. So then when you’re in front of the camera, OK, oh, that was bad. That was bad. Stop. What did I do right? What did I do? And this is, this is a very simple something that anyone can do for themselves. There is obviously way more you can do. So when I say simplify it, I mean, to understand that, do I have to spend an eternity doing camera anxiety? No. Be kind to yourself. Have compassion. The first thing I want you to think about right now is just what did I do, right? That’s the place to start, because what is going to do is lift up your energy to where you start feeling hopeful, like, Oh, I can do this, I can do this. So I hope that helps. When I say simplify, I mean, start with one step. Focus on it, because that’s going to take you to the next step. And that’s how my system works. I take one step. I quickly get it done. Move on to the next step. Quickly get that done. Move on to the next step.

Suzanne

It doesn’t have to take you 35 years when you do it right. So I say, simplify it. Get a whole approach. So you’re not doing, you know, a YouTube type of education where you’re doing it all by yourself. You don’t want to do that. Just take one step at a time and start with what did I do right?

Mary

Yeah. Otherwise, it just gets so overwhelming.

Suzanne

It does.

Mary

Yeah, that’s beautiful. Thank you so much for that. And what if somebody is, you know, just starting their podcast now and they’re thinking about the video aspect? What would you say to them to help them utilize video for their podcast or for, you know, their business because their podcasts might be that marketing platform for their business? How is video important for podcasting?

Suzanne

I think it’s essential because I hear people over and over again say, gosh, you know, in the comments, people are saying, I really like to see you. I want to connect with you. And you know, there’s a reason for that. You know what the reason is? In our brain, there is a section that’s called the face recognition section. It searches out faces. You know how when you’re looking at a painting and there’s faces in it, the artist has hidden faces in there.

Mary

Oh yeah.

Suzanne

Your brain goes straight to that face because we are primally focused on faces. It’s how we communicate.

Mary

When you talked about that, my daughter, like she’s turning six this year, but you know, since she was one or two, she loves smiley faces. She’ll make smiley faces out of her food. We will be doing some art or looking at a book, and she’ll think, oh, those leaves on this twig looks like a smiley face. Like, you’re right, it is so primal in us to look for faces.

Suzanne

Absolutely primal. It is embedded in our brain.

Mary

So where do you see video lining up with podcasting? So for me, I’m always talking about how podcasting traditionally is no visual, no video at all. So do you see video coming in as supplementary support for the podcast in terms of maybe doing more social media lives or YouTube videos where the audience and listeners can get to know you as the host who normally isn’t seen on a podcast?

Suzanne

Yes. So in order to stay ahead of the crowd in market sophistication, you really, in podcast, more and more and more of them are getting on video. There’s a reason for that, and it’s because people want to see them. So if you’re hesitating about, oh gosh, I’ve got into podcasting because I want to do podcasting, I really don’t want to do the video thing because it’s that us and them and I have camera anxiety. I don’t want your people to freak out. But I would like them to be aware that now that the public is doing video, it’s going to be absolutely competitive in podcasting. For example, I did podcasts. Oh, I don’t know, maybe ten years ago. They were all on the phone. No video, nothing. Now all the podcasts I’m doing, half of them, at least half of them have video components. I mean, that’s ten years. But now that the world is on video, I see that accelerating. Like we talked about the evolution of video, it’s all going to be accelerating. So in order to do that, I really feel, again, mindset is the beginning. Understanding that it’s a necessity and embracing it. That’s the thing, because once you start to embrace it, then it starts feeling better. You start saying, hey what did I do right? You become more open to the medium. And that’s when you’re ready to really learn how to do it.

Mary

Awesome. So that’s your first step, right there. Be open to it.

Suzanne

It is.

Mary

Thank you so much, Suzanne. It was a pleasure chatting with you and we are going to see you online because you are giving away a diagnostic call so people will get to meet you. How do we do that?

Suzanne

Yeah, I wanted to do that for your audience to help them figure out where they are. You just go to my website, which is Suzanne Glover, suzanneglover.com/mary.

Mary

Awesome. And I’ll put that in the show notes as well. So with this diagnostic call, you were talking about getting people into their voice, but there’s a video component as well. Can you describe what will be in the diagnostic call?

Suzanne

You’ll be on Zoom. It will be on video.

Mary

Our favourite place.

Suzanne

Favourite place. And I just ask seven questions to help guide you. This is all about you. To guide you to, where are you now? How do you feel about it? Where do you want to go? That’s it. Because once you identify where you are and get clarity about that, you get direction. And that’s my, my mission right now.

Mary

That’s exactly what you were talking about before. The awareness. It’s the first step. So take that first step. Get that diagnostic call with Suzanne. The link will be in the show notes. So thank you again, Suzanne. Thank you so much for coming.

Suzanne

Thank you for having me, Mary.