If your B2B videos feel stiff, awkward, or painfully corporate, there’s a good chance you’re committing the most common—and most destructive—mistake in expert-led content: scripting the expert.
On paper, scripts feel responsible. Controlled. Safe.
In reality, they’re the fastest way to strip the life out of someone who was chosen specifically because they know what they’re talking about.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: subject matter experts don’t sound bad on camera because they’re “not good on video.” They sound bad because you’ve put them in an unnatural situation and then made it worse by asking them to read words they didn’t write.
Learn more by watching "The #1 Mistake in Expert Driven Content" on the Content Wars Podcast.
The Script Fallacy
Marketing teams usually justify scripts with some version of:
-
“We need to control the message.”
-
“They’ll forget something important.”
-
“We can’t risk them saying the wrong thing.”
That fear is understandable. It’s also backwards.
The moment an expert starts reading, or trying to remember a script, a few things happen immediately:
-
Emotion drops.
-
Inflection flattens.
-
Eye contact disappears.
-
Confidence erodes.
And your audience can feel it. Even if they can’t articulate why the video feels off, they know something’s wrong. Humans are remarkably good at detecting when someone doesn’t sound natural.
Experts Aren’t Actors—and That’s the Point
Most subject matter experts already feel slightly uncomfortable on camera. Lights, microphones, and a lens pointed directly at them aren’t normal parts of their job. Now layer in a script, often written by someone else, using language they’d never use, and you’ve turned discomfort into performance anxiety.
They aren’t thinking about the point of the message anymore. They’re thinking about:
-
Saying the words correctly
-
Not missing a line
-
Whether they sound stupid
-
Whether they’re about to mess up the take
None of that produces good content.
Ironically, the information in the script almost always came from the expert in the first place. Marketing extracted it, polished it, formatted it… then asked the expert to repeat it back like a trained parrot.
That’s not authentic thought; it's corporate theater and the audience knows it.
What Actually Works Instead
Experts don’t need scripts. They need context.
The shift is simple but profound:
Instead of telling an expert what to say, tell them what world they’re stepping into:
High-level talking points, not word-for-word direction. Give experts enough structure to feel prepared without boxing them in.
When experts understand the topic and the direction, they relax. And when they relax, they sound like themselves. That’s where credibility lives.
They know the information. It's your job to create the environment where it can naturally flow out.
The Editing Safety Net Everyone Forgets
One of the biggest reasons experts cling to scripts is fear. Fear of messing up, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of being permanently captured on camera saying something imperfect.
This is where marketing teams need to do some coaching.
Remind them:
When experts realize they’re not being judged on a single perfect take, the pressure drops. And when pressure drops, quality rises.
The Real Cost of Scripting
Scripted expert content doesn’t just look bad—it wastes the very asset you’re trying to leverage.
You’re not paying engineers, operators, or executives for their ability to read. You’re paying them for judgment, experience, and perspective. Scripts flatten all of that into sanitized, forgettable noise.
If you want content that actually builds trust, sounds human, and differentiates your company, you have to let experts speak like experts.
The script isn’t protecting the message.
It’s suffocating it.
