Being on camera can make even the most accomplished executives nervous. Rachel shares how she helps guests relax before and during a video podcast, from setting expectations and checking their audio and lighting to making small talk and sharing a run of show ahead of time. Her approach is simple: make guests feel supported, give them room to make mistakes, and remind them that the host is there to help them shine. Because a great interview starts with making someone feel comfortable enough to have a real conversation.
00:00 Why Comfort Matters
00:50 Camera Anxiety Explained
01:59 Set Expectations Early
02:41 Tech Check Confidence Boost
03:49 Housekeeping And Retakes
06:39 Small Talk Warm Up
08:00 Share A Run Of Show
08:50 When Guests Stay Stiff
09:22 Surveys And Social Proof
10:02 Host Humility Mindset
11:02 Wrap Up And Next Steps
Why Comfort Matters
[00:00:00] How do you make a guest feel comfortable on a video podcast? Great question, and I’m Rachel Moore, and I’ve been doing this for several years now. And I’m gonna tell you how I approach this and why it matters for helping a guest feel comfortable.
[00:00:19] First things first, it’s vital that you make your guest feel comfortable because, listen, not everybody wants to go flip on a camera and be recorded, let alone be live-streamed or something like that. But being recorded on camera is uncomfortable for most people. All right? If you’re comfortable with it, congratulations, you are my people where we are just unabashedly like, “Let’s get on camera.” And even today, I’ve got kind of my game face on, not my full one that I would use for, like, you know, an actual hosting for a B2B podcast. But I’m done, you know, I’m done up here.
Camera Anxiety Explained
[00:00:55] But it’s really uncomfortable because, if you think about it like public speaking, I always think of a line from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s like that’s public speaking, and nobody’s good at that. Some people are, but very few, again. So, if you think about just your average person, and it could be anyone off the street, putting them on camera, instantly they’re like, “Ah, what if I get caught saying something stupid or sounding stupid?” It’s a big fear for people, even if they’re incredibly intelligent and well-versed in whatever you’re about to talk to them about.
[00:01:25] And then, let’s talk about not even the average person off the street. Let’s talk about the average person who is a C-level at a company. They’re an executive. That doesn’t necessarily mean that is not a given that they’re really good or comfortable on camera. Okay? They probably got there the way, you know, where they are and at the level they are and the title that they’re at through knowing how to do whatever it is they were hired to do, right? That’s what they’re good at. That does not automatically convey that they’re a good spokesperson or a public speaker or have media training.
Set Expectations Early
[00:02:00] So that’s why you have to approach any new guest. I just kind of try to even the playing field, and my goal when I engage a new guest is I’m like, “I’m gonna make you feel like I’m your best friend, and my goal is to make you forget that camera is recording.” So once I get my guest into a studio, I say, “Okay, I’m gonna start recording, but remember, all of this is able to be edited later, so none of this is gonna be in here, but it’s the most important thing I need to do, so I need to hit record,” right? Now, that’s the first hurdle, ’cause it’s like, “Oh, okay, we’re recording.”
[00:02:33] It’s like, “Yeah, but we’re gonna talk right now.” And that instantly, even as I’m saying it, gives them that, “Oh yeah, you’re gonna edit this later. That’s right. You know, you’ve got that power. Great, because you just said we’re recording.
Tech Check Confidence Boost
[00:02:45] I’m sure you’re not gonna keep that in the final episode, right?” So, then I start going through, like, you know, “Hey, well, great, I’ve got… You look fabulous. I can see you.” And of course, I do any tech support if I need to. I’m like, “Okay, maybe we can tilt your camera a certain way. How’s that lighting? Maybe we can fix something. Do you hear me okay? You sound really good.
[00:03:04] Or if you don’t sound good, let’s fix that a little bit. Let’s tweak that. Oh, my gosh, you sound great.” I’m very effusive in trying to make sure that they feel good about how they look and how they sound. They’re gonna care more about how they look. That is just human nature. I care more about how they sound as a podcaster because if the video somehow goes awry, we will always have the audio, and that’s the most important thing.
[00:03:30] Because if I lose the audio but still have the video, unless the person can, you know, lip-read the person watching, we’re out of luck. The content is so that’s why I’m very effusive about them looking and sounding wonderful, okay? And I try to do everything I can to help them do that. I don’t lie to them. I don’t like… Like, if they’ve got shadows on their face and I can’t see them, we’re gonna fix that. I’m not gonna lie to them and say, “Oh, yeah, you look great.’
Housekeeping And Retakes
[00:03:54] So I start with that, and then we go through some of the housekeeping stuff. I always tell them, you know, I usually go over three things. First, I always say, please, you’re encouraged to hydrate throughout this discussion. I’m gonna be taking a sip here of whatever beverage you prefer.” I leave that open. I don’t know if they have, like, whiskey in a teacup or not. Whatever. As long as they’re not, you know, passing out or something and, you know, speaking with slurs or, you know, slurred speech on the podcast, I’m fine.
[00:04:20] But I just encourage that, and I demonstrate. I’m like, “Hmm,” take a drink myself, and then I say, “Okay, and here’s how Riverside, the studio, works.” I’m like, “As we go, you know, it’s gonna be recording locally and then to the cloud.” I get a pristine recording, so I always tell them, I’m like, “If you see anything freeze, don’t worry about that.” I’m like, “This isn’t like Zoom. I get a great recording at the end. Just do what we all do when we’re on a Zoom call when someone freezes. If you’re talking, just kinda keep talking, and if you’re not talking, just…” And I always, like, make, like, some joke, like, “Do the Helen Hunt look where she’s like, ‘Oh, my eyebrows are up,’ you know, or the active listening look.”
[00:04:54] That’s inevitable; they usually laugh at that ’cause I make a face. “And also remember, as we record, we can do retakes.” And I said, “And I inevitably demonstrate this at some point in the intro or something. I’m going to mess up, and you’ll hear me say something over again.” And I say, “So that means if for some reason you lose your train of thought, don’t worry about that.
[00:05:12] If you want me to ask you a question in a different way to kinda load you up and, you know, tee it up for you, that’s great. Or if you just wanna say, ‘Hey, can I say that a little differently or say that again?’ that is completely fine. We can do that at any point, and as, like I said, I’ll demonstrate it.” And y’all, I don’t do this on purpose, but inevitably I do demonstrate that. Like, I’ll be reading their bio or a consonant or something, blah, blah, blah, you know?
Speaker 2: Doing The Intro
[00:05:34] And I’m like, “Well, there you go. I told you I would demonstrate it,” and I do it again. And I find that setup, this usually takes in a space of four minutes or less that I’m doing this. That is usually enough to help the person feel like, “Okay, I’m in good hands. I’m not gonna sound stupid, or have my chances of sounding or looking stupid have decreased, and she’s got this covered. She knows the platform. She knows her stuff.
[00:06:00] She feels very comfortable while she’s saying this. That’s the other aspect too, and maybe I know this is largely due to the fact that I’ve talked to so many people of a variety of titles and probably incomes that are way more than mine and whatever. Any of that inhibition is gone. I don’t have it, and I hope that for you too. There are times, there have been a couple of guests where I’m like, “Ooh, I’m a little nervous right now,” or I know that, okay, what I’m about to do, this is gonna be, like, maybe six people in one recording. This is gonna be challenging. But I always remember, I’m like, well, we’re not, you know, solving the history of the world or anything right here. We’re recording a podcast, right? And I always think of the magic of post-production.
Small Talk Warm Up
[00:06:44] So, if you can exude that level of confidence but also comfort, like, “Hey, man, we’re just here.” And I take every opportunity I can too to ask about something innocuous. Like, if there’s an opportunity, if they ask me, “Well, where are you from right now?” I’ll be like, “Oh, I’m in Denver, you know, and, you know, I’m really enjoying the weather right now, and though I wish this, that, or the other. How about you?” And then they’re like, “Oh, I live here.” And, you know, inevitably there’s something I can say about where they live, like, “Oh, I’ve never been there. Oh my gosh.”
[00:07:14] You know, get them talking about something they’re comfortable with. The weather is fine. Where they live is fine. Awesome if you get them talking about family or a pet, oh my goodness, or their weekend plans. Sometimes if we’re trying to troubleshoot their audio, I’ll even ask them, say, “Hey, why don’t you tell me what you had for breakfast?” “Oh, well, all I drank was a coffee. I mean, I do like that pumpkin spice cream,” you know, whatever they’re saying, but that’s, oh my gosh, well, I’m a little jealous or whatever.
[00:07:42] You can always turn that into a conversation. You are just establishing friendship. Remember, my goal as a podcast host is to be their BFF. Preferably by the first five minutes. So they’re like, “Oh, I feel comfortable. You are not gonna put me on the spot,” even though I might, and they will be fine with it later.
Share A Run Of Show
[00:08:05] ‘Cause nobody wants to be like, “Oh God, you’re gonna ask me something I’m not ready for.” Which is also why, by the way, I do provide a run of show to all my guests before we record. And for those of you who are out there who are podcasters and don’t do that, please start doing that. Even if it’s a bullet list of, like, your normal questions that you ask, that’s fine. Give the person some kind of heads-up. I’m someone who’s okay with, like, when I’m a guest on a show where they’re like, “I’m gonna spring a question on you.”
[00:08:28] I’m like, “All right.” Again, they’re recording, so I know it’ll probably be fine. They can edit out any dead space later. I try not to do that with my guests. Or if I say, “Hey, I’m gonna ask you…” Like, I include it all in the run of show. Do my guests all look at the run of show? No, they do not. But I provided it to them, so at least I’m giving them every opportunity to be prepared for this rather fraught experience of being recorded on video, okay? So that’s really… That’s how I set people at ease.
When Guests Stay Stiff
[00:08:55] I will tell you it’s not foolproof. I’ve had maybe, I wanna say maybe two guests in the last three and a half years where they just were, like, bent on not being comfortable, and I think part of it was they, there was an ego there, and they were just like, “Well, I need to be very straight-laced and staunch about this, and I’m not laughing, and I don’t know why you’re laughing so much and whatever.” It’s like, okay. And again, I can do a lot in post-production. My goal at the end of the day is to have a good episode that is helpful to the audience. Okay? And so I will fix that stuff where I can in post-production.
Surveys And Social Proof
[00:09:27] But for the most part, and one other thing I’ll say, you should have a means to survey your guests afterward ’cause that’ll tell you, too. Not all of them are gonna fill out the survey, but some of them will, and then you get that kind of reaffirmation. You’re like, “Okay, good. They did enjoy this.” They can tell you to your face, “This was a really fun discussion. Thank you. I didn’t think I’d have so much fun being a guest on a podcast.”
[00:09:49] Best compliment ever. Oh my gosh. But that survey later, those are receipts, and I get to talk about those to other people when I’m like, “Oh, do you wanna know how well… what people actually said about being a guest on my podcast? Ha!” So your goal is to make them feel comfortable, even at your own expense.
Host Humility Mindset
[00:10:06] And the last thing I’ll say in this video is it’s okay to be self-deprecating, and sometimes that can really help. You are in a position of power as a podcast host. You know the tech that they’re sitting in. You’ve probably got a better podcast setup than they do. You’ve been doing this a while, and you get on camera and mic all the time, and they don’t.
[00:10:26] Even if they do, they still might not be as good as you are. What you can do, though, is to try to level set and be like, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m better than you.” And I always tell my guests that as well. I’m like, “My job here is to be the least important person in the room. I’m gonna make you feel like you are the most important person in the room, and you’re the smartest here, and that’s what I wanna get out of you, is how smart you are.”
[00:10:46] And I will, and I do. So with that, I know on a future video I’ll probably talk about the art of the segue ’cause I think that really contributes a lot to helping a guest feel like, “Oh, we’re just having a discussion here. This is not super straight-laced, formal recording, you know, of a very official interview.” It really is a discussion, and that can help them as well.
Wrap Up And Next Steps
[00:11:07] But hopefully, this was helpful to you for your approach to when you are trying to make someone feel comfortable with you on a podcast interview. This also goes well for guests, so flip the script, as you were, and it would totally help you be comfortable as a guest as well.
[00:11:22] Thank you so much for watching or listening to this video. If you found it even a little bit helpful, please like the video. That would be so awesome. If you think that there might be some more helpfulness coming your way from this channel, subscribe. I promise you will find that, as evidenced by comments on my videos, ’cause people are like, “Tell me more.
[00:11:40] How does this work?” And of course, please share this out with anyone who you think would find it helpful. If you’re a webinar host, this is really helpful, too. This is how I approach webinars as well. But yeah. Hopefully this was good for you. It was good for me. And I will talk to you on a future episode or a future video about podcasting here on the channel. Thanks so much, everyone.
[00:12:03] You’re still here. It’s over, but you should hit like on this video before you head out and subscribe if you wanna get “moore” videos that’ll help you realize how much “moore” there is to marketing.
[00:12:13] See what I did there?