teleprompters can be great but sounding like a stunned robot
not so much watch on to find out how to avoid that effect [Music]
hello I'm Lauren Sergi and welcome to communication q a where I tackle your
pressing communication and public speaking questions now before we dig in please do hit
that like And subscribe button so that you can stay on top of your communication skills with
all of the great content that I've got coming your way today's question is from Fatima who
writes hello Lauren my company's been doing a lot of virtual and pre-recorded sessions for our
advisors and clients I'm usually brought into MC to introduce other speakers and to give updates we
use teleprompters for both our recorded and live sessions my company likes to keep the messaging
very tight and we need to record so many of these that we really can't memorize everything in
advance hence the teleprompters I find that I come across as very stiff and unnatural when using the
teleprompter it comes across as though I'm reading from a screen which isn't the image I want to cast
can you advise me on how to seem more natural when using these teleprompters thank you very
much I really enjoy your videos Fatima well thank you Fatima I really enjoy making these videos now
teleprompters can be very useful tools especially if you need to record a lot of presentations or
segments like your introduction nmc work in a short period of time there's a knack to using
them though and to sounding natural instead of as though you're using a teleprompter there are
two things that tend to create that teleprompter robot effect number one it's a stiff formal script
and number two a flattened tone and expression let's look at those script issues first written
and spoken language are often very different in tone and in style most people tend to write more
formally than they speak unless they're used to writing a lot of spoken content this means that
many teleprompter Scripts end up using language that we would never use in normal conversation it
uses written instead of spoken language so you get lots of complex words or terms of phrases
that are really awkward when you say them out loud formal written scripts also tend to use
whole words instead of contractions saying we are instead of we're let us instead of let's
do not instead of don't you end up sounding like Commander Data from Star Trek you need to correct
these script issues before you record or go live if the scripts have been written by someone else
like your company's communication or marketing team get the files a few days before you need to
be on camera read through the scripts out loud it must be out loud and see if they sound like
you when you come across words or Expressions that you would never normally use or just can't
say comfortably strike them out and replace them with something that works better next look for
all of those words that we would normally say as contractions like they would and replace
them with the contraction vade you'll want to run through the script several times so you can
find those contractions and catch all of those unnatural or awkward phrases then update your
teleprompter files or submit the changes to the person in charge of them if the scripts
were written by someone else you might get some pushback from the writer but stand your ground
on these changes as long as you aren't messing about with the substance of what you're saying
your adjustments should be just fine now let's look at that flat tone and expression you want
lots of variety in your voice when reading from a teleprompter lots of up and down dragging out some
words and seeing others more quickly this imitates how we naturally speak when we go to read though
we use a different area of our brain than when we're speaking naturally So reading takes a lot
of focus and often we basically forget to read with expression because the reading area of our
brain is activated not the talking area reading out loud with expression is a learned skill and
takes some practice so grab those scripts and read them out loud once you become a little
familiar with what you're saying adjust your focus from the what you're saying onto the how you're
saying it practice reading the script out loud several different ways playing around with your
pitch your tone and your speed mark down what you want to do on your practice script you can
underline words that you want to emphasize make notations where you want to speak quickly or slow
down and so on then run through it again you'll become familiar with the script and how you want
to sound that's going to make it easier to speak with a lot of expression come Showtime I know this
sounds like a lot of work and that it might be time consuming but unless you're preparing a very
long talk making adjustments to the script and practicing different Expressions doesn't really
take as much time as you're afraid it's going to plus it doubles as practice this process will
help you become familiar with the scripts before you take your place in front of the teleprompter
and that will make it much easier for you to feel comfortable and sound natural
I hope this helps you liven up those teleprompter talks Fatima and to everyone watching I hope this
gives you some insight on how you can sound like yourself in front of that teleprompter
now before we sign off please remember to click that like button and subscribe to my channel
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joining me on communication q a I look forward to seeing you again soon [Music] thank you