Interactive Keynote: Camera Love

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I will just get my things ready here. Thank you so much and I hope you're doing well in your seats. I've met some nice people already on the other side of the road that I've never met before. So I think you're a nice crowd already. I'm here to share some insights with you on how you can work in front of a camera, but also insights that you can use in all kinds of communication situations where you are maybe a little bit under pressure. Any of you who think that I could be a little bit under pressure standing here right now in front of 400 people? Yes. Would you be under pressure if you were in my shoes here? Yes. And that's actually so superhuman. I will talk more about that, that being a little bit nervous staying here on the stage right now is actually really, really good. I would congratulate everybody who is a bit nervous because evolutionary wise it's very wise to be a bit nervous. Because what I'm doing now is the most stupid thing a human being can do. I'm outing myself of who I am so dependent on, my group. You're not my group, group, but my brain thinks you are. My brain thinks you will invite me. You will invite me for the bonfire tonight and we will have a nice lump of meat and some warmth. And if I'm outing myself, if I'm not doing a good job, you will throw me out and I will lie in the savannah and die later. But that's not how it is. I have done a lot of work to come in here and also I will present myself a little bit more. I was actually on this stage right now. I was right on this stage 20 years ago when I was an active actress. I chose to be at home at 8 o'clock for singing lullabies to my two sons instead of being here waiting for a curtain call at 8 o'clock. So 14 years ago I think I switched with a lot of education on top of the acting skills to do training with leaders and all kind of people who wish to be even better at both content, creating a message, but also what is most important. Also what is most important when you communicate with people, what is that? To connect. Because we want to be approved and we want to connect to other people. That's like the primary thing and that's why video works so super because it's actually people to people. It's human. So that's what I have switched into. But if you are curious on like my main point today, it is this. It's a day. It's true. It is a day where I can share with you. It's a day where you're like the best person on planet earth. So what it's really about is that it's the same thing that our coaches say. actress. I want to prove that. Yeah. It's not for the bridge that is the most like whoa big thing I did. It's this a Nordic Scandinoire series that was I think sent out in 138 countries. That's quite a lot. My boys that I sang lullabies for they were actually not impressed when they heard about that. My career. But they were very impressed when they heard that mom had been in Myth Busters. They thought wow that's something. Why that? Because I was in Myth Busters in order to prove how long can a human being hold a grenade in her hand? And I just wish to share that clip with you. Why that? Because in that little clip you can also see what is an actor's working tools. It's about how you use space. It's about how you use time. It's about how you use your voice in different ways. It's about how you use your breathing, to change that voice and presence and space. And it's about energy. And I believe this clip that I will try to start in a second will actually prove all that. What is it? Didn't you just say, get down? Just listen to me. Get down! Help! Ready? One, two, three. Yeah, so just another day at the office. So, what I will share with you today is, I'm actually not delivering something I've delivered before, because that's boring. So I've tried to put together six insights that I believe capture what you can do in order to be even more connective, shiny when you are on camera, when you're doing video. So I will share those insights with you. But before I will do that, I will just underline that little, very, very important thing about the nervousness and that pressure that we sense. John was also talking about the brain and the hijack, the amygdala hijack. When I'm here in front of you, I could easily become amygdala hijacked. The amygdala is that little receiver station that assesses things are good or dangerous. And standing here, my brain would say, super dangerous, make the fight, flight and the fight. And the flea instinct run. And you would be able to see that in the way that I came across. And I would like to actually just, by entering the stage again, highlight that exact key point. I think I will have a bit more states present if I do it like this. So I will just enter the stage now in two ways. And I would like to ask you if you can see any difference. And if you do see a difference, what is the little sign? It's the little signs that you actually read from the way I come across. Are you ready? Yes. Hi, I'm Phuc Xia Bao and I'm really happy to be here today and that you will spend 30 of your very important lifetime minutes with me. I would like to share some key points with you about how you can come across even better when you do video and it would be really great. Thank you. Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Phuc. And I'm really happy to be here and be able to share some insights with you that I find incredibly important in order to connect with people and succeed with communicating on camera. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So what was the difference? What did you see in version 2? What did person 2 do more? Silence. Excuse me? More silence. More silence. More pauses. Pauses is the key. Many people don't take pauses because they believe they take pauses. And I have to say something. I have to deliver. But pauses is not taking. It's giving. It's giving time for people to actually process what you just said. Maybe even create stories inside, videos inside your own head. Like, whoa, or connect it to something. So time. What else? Body language. Body language. What happened in the body language? More open. Yeah, more open. More expanded. Yes. You are great. You are saying all the right things. So I've just made a little bit of a model here just to make it clear. Just to make it more easy to grasp. Because I believe the first person was so hugely occupied with her ego. How was she coming across? Am I doing well? Is blue correct? What if I don't speak English as well as John, etc.? So there's all this self-talk that takes up actually my presence. So there's very much focus on myself. We need an ego to be on this earth. But not too much. Not too self-centered. It drains energy. It drains energy and focus is turned inwards towards my how am I doing thoughts. And all that means a contraction of time, of space, of energy, of voice, of space, of all these things. So I become this little endangered species. So all that means that I actually disconnect to people because you feel that actually when I communicate our nervous systems, they also communicate. So if I'm calm and grounded and relaxed, you will actually pick that up. Also vocally. If I start to speak a little bit strange, you will actually mimic that strain with your muscles in your throat. So if I'm speaking very relaxed like a hypnotist, I can actually get you to sleep in a moment. So the voice is also a very strong tool. If I want to connect to people, I should have focus on my gift. Why am I so stupid to go into the room? Because I believe truly that I have something of value to share with you, with people. So I have a why. So before I enter here, I should ask myself, why am I doing this? Oh, I have something that is more important than how am I doing. So it's not about me, but it's about something that can bring value to people, hopefully. That builds energy and that also means that I turn my focus outwards towards people. And it means that there's an experience. An expansion of time and space and energy, breath and presence. And all that means that I'm more connected. So that's like the background idea. That of course it's natural that I go into ego because I am setting myself outside the group. But I should try to connect and dare to have that expansion of breath, presence, voice, energy, time, etc. Alright, I will share those six insights. And the first one, I will actually make you work with me. Because the first one is about how can I stay calm? I feel all this nervous energy in my body, so how can I work with that? And very, very basically, it sounds so basic and intuitive, but the key idea is to keep on deep breathing. There's a book, a New York Times bestseller by James Nestor about breathing. And he states that at an office place, 95% of people are doing office breathing. Which means there's a mail, there's a deadline, there's lunch. The whole day people run around and work up here unless you are very conscious about it. And we breathe 22,000 times a day. And just taking one minute or half a minute to actually do some deep breathing can change a lot. We have the longest nerve in our body run from the brain and down to our heart. It's called the vagus nerve. And we stimulate that when we do deep breathing. And we affect the parasympathetic nervous system. I like to say you just need to smell the flower. Because if you pretend that you smell the flower or smell a glass of wine or something, then you actually do that connective breathing that's all the way down here. I use that a lot to take pauses and dare to stay in the silence as you said before. Because if I just pause, because I click the pause button, it's a different way of pausing. You can also use smell the flower to stay present when you get critical questions. Or you can use it if you want to emphasize a key point. Because the pause just before creates that suspense. What will come now? So breathing is key. And I would actually like to invite all of you to stand up. Or you can sit if you like that. But if it's possible to stand up on your two feet with an even balance, I would like all of you to do this very, very basic breathing that I always do before I have to do something important. What we know is if you do a three times three breathing, that's also like research based, then you can actually succeed in changing your nervous system, shifting it a little bit into the more parasympathetic mode. What I just did just before out there, I took my hands, I put them on the lower of my back with a contact. So if I cough, I can actually feel something expands here. Some people call it dancing handles, but I call it opera pockets. If you have to really use your voice, you have to breathe all the way down here. If I breathe in through the nose, I should feel that I can push away my hands here. If you cannot sense that, it's okay. You can at least, very unfashionable, have a kind of a Buddha belly, let the belly expand. It's so super healthy. If you do that three times before you go on video, you will actually transmit more calmness, and you will be more connected body-mind wise. I would like you to actually do this. Can you do it with me right now? First of all, I would like you to sense your feet on the floor. I have a body along with me today. Some people get surprised about that when they are at work, because it's so mind-driven and screen-centered. So first sense your feet on the floor. Then very actor-like, you can imagine that the feet are melting on the floor. They cannot, but they can get heavy and soft. If I was very hectic, I would actually imagine that I send roots from the bottom of my feet and down into the ground here, into the stage. One meter, two meters, three meters. And that's all a way to very fast be more present in my body. So I'm not just babbling. Now I'm ready to breathe. So I will count to three, where you are welcome to take an in-breath through the nose. I will count to three where I will invite you to hold your breath, and then three, just out through an open mouth. I know it's a little strange in a public setting, but why not? It's very much in fashion. So I will count, and you're welcome to follow. So breathing through the nose on one, two, three. Hold, two, three. And release out through your mouth, one, two, three. And through the nose, one, two, three. Hold, two, three. And release out through the mouth, one, two, three. And the last one, no shoulders, only belly. So breathe in, one, two, three. Hold, two, three. And release, one, two, three. Yes, that's a wonderful sound, 400 people breathing. You can stand up. You can stay up. The next little thing is also something where you are very involved, if you like to, because how can we communicate not only with talking and mind work. I like to talk about body setting. How can I set my body to communicate? And what is super important is to connect mind and body. So we'll do a little centering exercise with you. If you imagine a tulip, you have one here, then if you have a tulip, you can put it in a vase without any water. It will be a little bit dull and boring. And as soon as you add water, it becomes crisp and vital. And what is that? It's because if there's any people from India or Japan, China, they have words for life, force, energy, prana, ki, chi. We don't have it in Denmark. That's a lack in our language. But we would like to get our body a little bit more crisp and vital in front of the camera. So how can we do that? Also by breathing, but also just by letting our consciousness run up from the bottom of our feet, up along our legs, our spine, and pretend by the end that we are lifted up in a little string here. And on the out-breath, we just stay uplifted, but let everything melt on top of that uplifted skeleton. Just by letting the thought visit the whole body, you can activate your energy. So you are invited to do that as well. If you will follow me, you just in a moment when I count, you will breathe as if you do it from here, up along here, and then I will talk a little bit more. So breathe in from the bottom of your feet, up along your legs, your spine, get uplifted, stay uplifted, and breathe out, relax your shoulders, your hands, your knees, your jaws. Now do it once more. Let your mind travel up along your legs, your shoulders, your knees, your jaws. Relax your spine as you breathe in. Get the most tall version of yourself and breathe out. Let all that tissue and meat relax on that skeleton. Then you can imagine that the sun shines on the front of your chest. So you like get warm and also speak from your heart and not only from your mind. Then to that you can add to think of something that makes you smile. In a moment I can sit down again, yes. And that will give you that inner glow and not like now I have to be on video and look smiley. So that's more like I like to be in this room, I like to be in this situation. All right, you can sit down. Thank you. All right. So there's also this principle of being present. I believe that presence is really a tool that can help you to be more connective. And I don't know if you saw when I entered the second time, I actually opened up the curtain a little bit wider because I was entering not only as a skin bound entity, but also as a skin bound entity plus what I call my personal space, my bubble. If this was the camera and I was going to communicate to the camera, then I actually have to bubble that camera. Imagine that this bubble is actually tangible. If you can imagine like a jellyfish kind of structure. If I have a camera, I could feel like, oh no, the camera is staring at me. I get a little bit intimidated, but I should actually bubble and connect with the camera. And also I should ideally imagine that my favorite receiver, Pablo, is sitting there in the lens. And I'm actually speaking to him. I can even put a little post-it note face up on the camera next to the lens so I can actually see that person, so I stay human. If you come to the talk on the other side of the road, I will speak again in the lounge, at the lounge stage. I will actually make you work with this bubble with your presence. That's what actors are really good at doing. We work with different concentration circles, and you work more tangible with our bubble. And I will teach you how to bubble other people. It's the same as bubbling the camera. And it creates that sense of connection. Because when I say connection is the key to great communication, sometimes we don't dare to connect, and we should not either over-connect. We should take responsibility of 50% of the connection, also when on camera, so we don't become too intense or too diminished. But exactly at the right level of connectivity. Does it make sense? Yes. Otherwise, shout out and ask questions. You are very welcome to do that. So you will learn about the bubble in the other talk, but this is the main idea. Imagine that you bubble the camera, because that creates that corridor of attention. You can experiment with it. I do it when I do training, video training. I record people with and without the bubble, and you can see an immense difference. We cannot measure what this presence is, but we for sure can feel when it's there. So this is a way to talk about it in a little bit more tangible way. So another thing is eye contact, of course. But there is this thing with eye contact that you need to stay present with your eyes, also in the pause. Like in the echo. Do you remember the echo of what you just said? Because I see a lot of people who, when they're silent, they look away or over at the person with the script or something like that. But you have to stay there in that pause as the echo rings out. Otherwise, it's like you cut the idea that you have just presented. Eye contact is so important. Eye contact is so important. Did you see the difference? Yeah. So it's like I back up, I support with the pause. There's this saying that a statement's importance is equivalent to the following pause. I borrowed John's watch, but not his English. So this about English or Danish, it doesn't really matter. Actually, we talked about it backstage that maybe I have a... ... an advantage because I speak a little bit delayed already because I'm at work with my mind translating. And that makes it hopefully easier for you to follow. But when you speak, I see a lot of people who goes both on Teams and on video who starts to shout a little bit like they want to reach the people that they're talking to. Hello out in China, it's really happy to be here today. And it's like, especially if you have something at your ears. You should, says Michael Caine in a fantastic book about film acting. Old book, but fantastic book. He states that you have to speak as if you speak to a little creature that sits here on your shoulder. Hello China, how are you doing today? Hi China, how are you doing today? Because that will be that personal approach, connection. Because mostly people are seeing something on the screen that has to be there. Something on the screen that has that distance. So it would be like speaking into their ear. Hello, hello China, hello China, hello China! So that's just a very nice little idea. Speak to the little creature on your shoulder. Then we have, of course, maybe you know this gentleman, Simon Sinek. It says somewhere here. I think he's a fantastic communicator also on video. And he is really, really good at expressing energy and enthusiasm. And also clarity with his voice. In rhetorics, there's a lot about how you can use your voice to create clarity and structure. We are doing one thing, we are doing two things, and we are doing three things. We're not doing one, two, and three things. So you can use your tonality to create a structure. You can use your articulation to make something sound more important. And take pace out. And you can also use intonation to make an invitation. Do you have any questions? Do you have any questions? So there's a huge difference in how you use your tonality, your articulation, and also, of course, your volume. So all these things are, we could like have at the other workshop, we'll have a long list of things you can do with your voice. Because the voice becomes so important when we are on video. It's a big part of our business card, how we sound. And I'm not into changing people's voices, but a voice is a biological construct, but also a social construct. So if I had a mother who had spoken like this, I would maybe have picked that up and speak like that, very naturally cook. But I can also like be more like this, or I can be more like this. But it's, and it's all my voice. It's not like now I'm trying to be a male's voice or something like that. I'm just, I know from research that if, for example, you look into Fortune 500 companies in the US, then the average CEO will have a lower pitched voice than the average citizen. And I've questioned myself, is that because they had the voice, then they got the seat, or did they, when they had the seat, then they lowered their voice. You don't know. And so the fact that we like to listen to voices that lives in a body, and not only in the cranium and throat and comes up here and becomes very peaky. We like to have a voice that has this resonance in the chest. So you can rehearse it. That could actually be the last, I promise, interactiveness today. But I could invite you to try to say that little, see if you can feel a little vibration in your chest. And then I could invite you to say a nice statement because isn't it a wonderful day? What a wonderful day today. And say it like, from that vibration, from that part of your voice. It's not like I would invite people to be speaking like that on camera. But it's a very nice way to open your physical energy. And it's a very nice way to know where to retreat to. If you start to go peaky and like a little bit under pressure, then I have actually trained where my voice should be anchored. So in a moment I will count to three. You can smell the flower. Then we say, ahh. And then go into what a wonderful day today. And everybody who is open to that are welcome to join. So I will count. Smell the flower. One, two, three. Ahh. Ahh. Ahh. What a wonderful day today. Yes. And we will do it one more. And now also with articulation. What a... I will do it first. What a wonderful day today. We can make something sound very important and beautiful just by the way we articulate. So last time. I promise. So... Smell the flower. One, two, three. Ahh. What a wonderful day today. Yes. This is a Shakespeare company. Beautiful. I believe that when we talk about delivering something, we can talk about how to shine with all these things, our body language, our voice, our presence, how we govern time, space, and breathing. But so important is also to think about you're not here to sell anything. I'm not here to sell anything. The idea of that you are in front of a camera in order to share something that can create value. So that's my last key point today, that you should always share and don't sell, but focus on your gift. My last gift to you is a super-duper exercise. That I will do, because it's so silly, so I cannot ask anyone else to do it, but I will give it to you, and you can use it. It's in order to link all this with breathing, with space, with presence, with the bubble, with the voice, with smelling the flower, and it goes like this. I'm a big, round, juicy watermelon. It is really silly, but I promise you, the brain picks up. It's not that you are suddenly big, that you're using your voice, that you're using your breathing. Don't do it in front of anyone like I do it now. Do it in secret. But I promise you, it works. I hope that I was able to share a little of my gift with you today, and thank you so much for being attentive.