Practice On Video to Achieve Maximum Impact

Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

Practicing on video and using an iterative process can help you perfect your speaking and storytelling approach.

Quick reference

Practice On Video to Achieve Maximum Impact

If you want to become a confident, compelling storyteller, there's no substitute for one key activity: practicing on video.

Why Great Speakers Look So Natural

  • TED Talk speakers and great presenters seem natural and confident — but that’s not an accident.
  • Their secret? They practice — and watch themselves on video, over and over again.
  • This technique isn’t just for TED speakers. It works for anyone who wants to improve.

Why Most People Get Video Practice Wrong

  • Most people don’t practice on video at all.
  • If they do, they often:
    • Only record once.
    • Watch it once.
    • Focus only on what they don’t like — which hurts confidence.
  • Focusing only on flaws can actually make your performance worse.

The Right Way to Practice on Video

  1. Watch once and focus only on what you like.
    • Note what worked: your voice, gestures, energy, or message delivery.
  2. Watch again and make a list of what you didn’t like.
    • Choose one specific, fixable issue to focus on next time.
  3. Practice again and fix that one thing.
    • Don’t try to fix everything at once — improvement happens one step at a time.

“Confidence sinks in once you see yourself doing it well on video.”

What to Focus On

  • Only focus on things you can actually change (e.g., posture, pace, energy).
  • Ignore things that are unchangeable (e.g., your hairline or eye shape).
  • Practicing 10–30 times (for a 2–3 minute story) leads most people to real improvement — and real confidence.

Why This Works

  • Practicing this way reduces fear of being boring or awkward.
  • Once you've seen yourself tell your story confidently, nervousness fades.
  • You build habits of editing your performance — like a storyteller, not a typist.

Your Assignment

  • Record yourself telling a short story.
  • Choose one of the following:
    • Best or worst childhood experience.
    • Proudest career moment.
    • Biggest professional mistake.
  • Include:
    • Story structure and key elements (setting, characters, emotion, conflict, dialogue).
    • Your takeaway or the lesson you learned.
  • Watch the video, review what worked and what didn’t — and do it again, improving one thing at a time.
Login to download
  • 00:04 Do you ever see someone give a fantastic Ted Talk and you think, wow, what a fantastic story?
  • 00:11 They seem so incredibly confident, comfortable, relaxed even, and the whole world's looking at them and they're on this big stage with this big red dot and this huge audience and millions watching.
  • 00:23 How do they stay composed?
  • 00:24 How can they be confident?
  • 00:27 Well, I'm here to tell you a little secret.
  • 00:29 This is true of almost all Ted talkers, but it's also true of any great communicator, any great storyteller who is alive in the 21st century.
  • 00:40 And here is the secret.
  • 00:43 Practice on video and practice until you like what you see.
  • 00:50 There is a specific technique to practicing on video.
  • 00:54 I have found that if you don't follow this technique, practicing on video will actually make you worse.
  • 01:01 First of all, most people never practice on video.
  • 01:03 If they do, they don't look at their video.
  • 01:05 If they do, they look at it once.
  • 01:08 If they do that, all they do is latch on to what they don't like and they think that was helpful.
  • 01:16 In my experience, that will actually make you worse.
  • 01:19 That will rob you of your confidence.
  • 01:21 If all you do is practice your story on video or your whole speech on video once and you look at it, that will reduce your confidence because you'll be fixated on what you didn't like.
  • 01:35 Oh gosh, I said I'm 10 times.
  • 01:38 Oh, I rushed through this part of the story.
  • 01:40 Oh, I forgot to introduce the character's name.
  • 01:44 You'll fixate on blunders.
  • 01:47 Mistakes. Don't do that.
  • 01:50 Now here's what you need to do.
  • 01:52 And this is what I do when I work with people.
  • 01:54 You practice it once you watch it, the first time you look at it, only focus on what you like.
  • 02:04 What do you like about your story?
  • 02:06 What do you like about your voice, your hand movement, your body movement, your facial expressions?
  • 02:12 Write a list, Use a piece of paper.
  • 02:15 Use a computer screen, a cell phone, but literally write a list of everything you liked about your presentation.
  • 02:27 Then look at it again and focus on the things you don't like.
  • 02:30 Come up with a list.
  • 02:32 Here's the tricky part.
  • 02:34 I want you to then do your story again and focus on just one thing you didn't like and improving that.
  • 02:45 If you notice you stood holding your hands awkwardly the whole time, this time tell the whole story again and just focus on not having your hands held together awkwardly.
  • 02:58 Focus on one thing at a time.
  • 03:00 What I have found in doing this with more than 10,000 people in live face to face trainings around the world is that when people focus on changing one thing that is changeable, they succeed every time.
  • 03:16 If you focus on something that isn't changeable, I can say gosh, this next time I want to look like I don't have narrow beady eyes or I have thicker hair, I can't fix that just by talking on video one more time.
  • 03:29 That's a waste of time.
  • 03:32 I need you to focus on one thing that you can in fact change and do that.
  • 03:40 Look at it again.
  • 03:41 Did you make progress?
  • 03:43 Then pick another thing, Keep doing it again and again and again, each time reducing just one element that you didn't like.
  • 03:54 For most people, if they just practice a two or three minute story or speech, 10/20/30 times, they'll get to the point where they actually like what they see.
  • 04:07 And here's the thing, if you like what you see on video, you like your story, you like how you come across, you like how you move, you like how you sound, at that point, confidence sinks in.
  • 04:17 You actually can't get nervous now because nervousness comes from fear of being boring.
  • 04:24 Well, you've already seen a video of yourself and it's interesting.
  • 04:28 Nervousness comes from a fear of looking stupid or awkward.
  • 04:32 If you've already seen yourself look comfortable, confident, relax.
  • 04:37 It's virtually impossible to feel that you're going to look awkward.
  • 04:41 So it solves so many problems.
  • 04:44 It's not hard to do.
  • 04:47 It's not expensive to do.
  • 04:48 You don't have to hire me or pay me an extra penny.
  • 04:50 You can do it on your own.
  • 04:54 This is the real secret the Ted Talk stars have.
  • 04:58 Most of them practice and watch themselves on video dozens of times, some of them hundreds of times, some of them thousands of times, before they ever step foot on that stage to share their story with you.
  • 05:14 Now it's your turn.
  • 05:15 I'm going to give you a choice in this assignment.
  • 05:18 You get to pick one topic, and then I want you to record yourself telling a story.
  • 05:26 You get to choose.
  • 05:27 I'd like to know anyone of the following What's the worst thing that ever happened to you as a kid?
  • 05:32 As a child, what's the best thing that ever happened to you?
  • 05:37 You don't want to talk about your childhood.
  • 05:38 That's OK.
  • 05:39 Talk about your proudest accomplishment professionally as an adult, or talk about the worst thing you've ever done in your career.
  • 05:49 Your biggest blunder, Your biggest mistake.
  • 05:52 I want you to try to incorporate as many of the story elements from the last section in this story, and I want you to tell us the beginning or the end or both.
  • 06:02 What do you think the point was?
  • 06:04 What did you gain from this?
  • 06:05 What do you think we can gain?
  • 06:06 What lesson?
  • 06:08 I want you to build in yourself this habit of really looking at your video, figuring out what do you like, what do you not like?
  • 06:17 Are you missing some elements?
  • 06:18 Go do it again.
  • 06:20 Are you speaking too quickly?
  • 06:22 Slow it down.
  • 06:24 Are you forgetting to pause?
  • 06:27 Do it again, this time with a pause.
  • 06:29 Are your hands frozen?
  • 06:32 Do it again and unfreeze them.
  • 06:35 So I want you to get used to editing yourself.
  • 06:37 We're used to thinking of editing as typing at a keyboard and clicking with a mouse.
  • 06:43 No, that's not what you're going to do when you're a storyteller.
  • 06:47 You're going to edit by listening and watching yourself, figuring out what works, what doesn't work.
  • 06:54 Go ahead and do that right now.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course