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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Camera Coaches For Virtual Talks

With Zoom meetings and conference calls occupying the pandemic workday, communication has become a major issue for executives. Sherman Oaks native Suzanne Sena recognizes this problem better than most. With more than 30 years of experience on camera at E! Entertainment and Fox News Channel, and 10 years as a communication coach, she has found a niche educating people for the new normal economy. “Everybody has to be a broadcaster now. Everyone needs to learn how to be powerful and effective now in a shorter time frame, and to be doing it to an inanimate object — your camera, your computer,” explained Sena. “As a person who has been on television and anyone who has worked in the television industry successfully will tell you, you have to project a lot of things through the lens of a camera to be good at it.” Tips for a shopping network host, Sena said, can also help a Zoom presenter provide a sensory-rich experience for listeners or watchers. Teaching presenters to talk in sound bites helps attendees take something away from a Zoom call when there are seven other virtual calls lined up for the day. The Zoom presenter now has to have the likeability and relatability of a morning talk show host, Sena added. “There are methods for speaking using colorful and dynamic language that helps the listener have better retention but also holds their interest, and also just to be more impactful overall,” she explained. In response to the pandemic, Sena’s coaching company Sena Series Virtual Training has incorporated a new platform called Confidence Catalyst, a series of exercises for clients to develop confidence in front of others, either virtually or in person. Sena had been working toward the launch of her Confidence Catalyst platform since August of last year. The original business idea included a book, keynote speaker series, and podcast. With the pandemic, “the Confidence Catalyst is still part of what I’m doing, but the idea of the book and the keynote has been pushed aside and is on the backburner,” she told the Business Journal. Another Valley company, Vetta in Northridge, also coaches executives in better communication and other soft skills, but it tends to work from the inside out to help the overall marketing image of the company. Michele D’Amico, Vetta founder and psychologist, has coached company teams for 11 years with clients across the globe via virtual platforms. Now she too has switched to coaching them specifically to improve communications on virtual platforms. “The business is done virtually anyway — Zoom, FaceTime, Skype,” D’Amico said. “I don’t know that it has made a big impact now, except that maybe people are a little bit more receptive to showing their faces using the technology. It’s the way I’ve been doing business for a long time.”

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