Many of my clients had a successful career, but are now looking for help with their public speaking careers.
Some are looking for opportunities to get on live TV to talk about their companies or their story.
Do you know how to prepare so you look your best?
I’m going to show you how you can look better on TV or on stage. The lights really alter our appearance.
I always suggest that my clients hire a makeup artist — but if you have to do it yourself, here are a few things you can do to make yourself look better under all those lights.
If you’re going to present on stage soon, here are three things to ask before you show up.
Video Transcription
There are a lot of things that happen when we’re live with a lot of lights. It changes us completely and I wanted to give you some things that you can do when it comes to hair and makeup to make you look the best, so you feel better, more confident. If we feel more confident, if we feel those things are dealt with, we can be more confident in our message, right? I want you to focus on the content, the things that you’re saying and not this other junk.
So, I thought I would make this video to give you a couple tips. Again, these are things you don’t have to do, I’d just like to offer them up in case you would like to do them to make yourself feel better.
The biggest thing is when there are lights on us that are normally not on us. We actually look very different. Our regular use of makeup is all of a sudden nonexistent. It disappears when we’re onstage or live on television. You may look great in person, but what happens is, these lights go on and certain features of ours disappear.
Let’s talk about hair. Hair is important. I’ll talk about men first. Men…there’s that something men do. They tend to get a haircut right before their wedding. They get a haircut right before something super important. And what happens is, our hair tends to look a little shorter. It appears that we have less hair on camera, whether you’re getting still pictures or you’re live on television. Be careful, men, before you decide to run out and get your hair cut real short. Please consider letting your hair grow out.
Some anchors that you see, they look like they have a regular haircut. But if you saw them in person, they have quite thick hair. So for men especially, tell your hairdresser or your barber to let your hair grow thicker around the sides because on camera or in pictures our hair looks a little thinner on the sides. Plus, our ears look smaller when we let our hair grow out a little bit on the sides. Also, men, if you’re balding, make sure to use a little powder on the top of your head or right where you’re balding. What happens is someone might be staring at the light reflecting off of your head instead of paying attention to your content.
For women, it’s just making sure that your hair is not distracting. If your hair is constantly in your eyes and you’re always adjusting it or you’re pushing it away, you have big thick bangs and you’re pushing it away, it’s very distracting. I’m not saying to always put a ponytail in and to keep it pulled back, when you blow dry it you want to blow dry it away from your face, your bangs are swooped away so they’re not in your eyes. You want to avoid an issue where you’re constantly touching your face or move your hair away from your face or constantly tucking. Because what happens is, people will be looking at that and noticing that instead of listening to what you’re talking about. So that’s really important.
For makeup, for everybody, a little under eye concealer. Whether you’re sleep deprived, you’re not drinking enough water, you don’t have a good skincare regimen, maybe you don’t wear SPF everyday, you’re not hydrating enough, you’re not wearing night cream…your face will show it. Your skin will definitely show it. It’s important to cover up those dark circles and bags because you want to look rested. When you look rested, you look trustworthy. When you look like you take care of yourself, you look like you can be trusted. So using a little eye coverup for men and women is really important.
Another thing, women: as we get older, our eyebrows kind of disappear. We get less hairs there. And when you put lights on us, our eyebrows really disappear. So, consider using eyeshadow. Eyeshadow’s not a big deal. Use whatever color is appropriate for you, if it’s a light brown, dark brown. Color in those eyebrows and make sure they’re defined. If they’re really thin you might want to thicken them up a little bit because the eyes are really framed by the eyebrows and we really want people to connect with you with your eyes. When you’re talking and you’re describing something that’s going on, whether you’re on TV or onstage, it’s really important that your eyes are defined.
Wear a little more eyeliner than you’re used to. I can only talk about my eyes and right now, I’m not wearing enough eyeliner. I’m just going to make that clear. I’m wearing what I’ve been wearing all day, since 6am this morning. So make sure you’re lining your eyes. For me, I would make sure I’m going all the way across to make sure they’re defined. I have very small eyes so I want to make sure I don’t overly line them up because they’ll actually look smaller. You just have to know your eyes. You might have to elongate a little bit out here so they look bigger. And I’m not going to go through a whole makeup tutorial here because I’m not a makeup artist, I’m just pointing out what you may need to do.
A little eyeshadow – because we’re talking about defining things, right? We want to define in here with a different color eyeshadow so we can see the definition of where your eyelids start and where your eyebrows start. That’s the whole thing about these lights, they kind of make everything disappear.
The other thing is mascara. I have mascara on and I have pretty darn good eyelashes but they disappear in front of these lights so you can’t even see my eyelashes right now. Some people wear fake eyelashes…I’m not suggesting that for everyone but definitely double up on that mascara. I use a regular old grocery store mascara, I use Falsies. I always go back to that. I’m tried natural because I don’t like a lot of chemicals, I’ve tried all this stuff. But I like the old Falsies because it really thickens them up and it lengthens them, so that’s what I go to and I think it’s like, 8 bucks at Walgreens or CVS. But really try to put two coats of that on. You really want your eyes to pop. Your eyes disappear completely when you’re in front of those lights.
If you’re not a big lipstick person, I don’t put lipstick on all day, I’m just not a big fan. But you need to define your lips, so definitely put on some lipstick so we can see where your lips end and your skin starts. It’s really important to define these features. I’m not saying to go all glammed out, but just define the things that you have.
And then a big thing, if you’re fair-skinned like me, I already put some blush and some bronzer on, you really want to show the definition between your chin and your neck. So, I put on a bronzer here, bronzer here. I definitely try to highlight where my cheeks are. And then I go up here because what happens is we look like one white circle as fair as I am. So just go in one big circle to show where your features start and end.
I hope that’s helpful. If you ever need me to show you specifically for your skin, or maybe for me to hook you up with a makeup artist, let me know. Those are just a couple tips that I have that I suggest to people. Also, with that bronzer, I go down the neck because I like to show where this is and where this starts. I know there’s a bazillion other things to do but those are just a couple things to get you through. I hope that’s helpful!

Kathryn Janicek is a three-time Emmy Award-winning television producer with 20 years of experience working in newsrooms across the country. Kathryn coached talent, producers, and writers before switching her focus on helping entrepreneurs and corporate executives. Now, based in her home city of Chicago, she is a much sought-after media coach and public speaking trainer who will help you produce the best YOU. Click HERE now to book a complimentary consultation with Kathryn.