How to Be Charming

Go Off Script

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You can spend weeks translating your brand identity into a script that will successfully deliver your desired message. You can rehearse and organize locations, contributors, and activities, and it all may go exactly according to plan. But inevitably, the most charming moments —the ones that delight the viewer and endear them to your message—will be the unplanned, offhand, serendipitous ones.

No matter how it happens, it’s critical to show the viewer who you really are as your unguarded self. It can be a tough place to go if you’re not used to being vulnerable on camera. It may mean that you will need to deliver your entire polished script and every canned statement you have prepared, in order to get it out of your system, before you can set it aside and be yourself.

During Karen’s shoot, nothing turned out more authentically than our diversion to check out the giant aluminum water droplet at Vanier Park. It certainly wasn’t planned or scripted, but it brought out the artist in this local jewelry designer, and showed her endearing playful side. It’s better to let go than to hang on to some preconceived notion of what the end result should be.