Video IQ Mastery for Business Owners: From Overcoming Objections to On-Camera Performance

1. Introduction: Have you ever felt those on camera jitters? When you're getting ready to, let's say, share your passion. Lack of confidence on camera can hinder your reach. It can hinder your impact, and it can definitely hinder your opportunities. But imagine if you could turn those jitters into confidence every single time you hit record or go live. Introducing the V IQ Academy for individuals, that means the small business owner or perhaps the employee in a corporate environment who wants to get better on camera for zoom calls, client pictures and presentations, even social media. This is your transformational guide to dominating the video world. From building presence to strategizing content, to harnessing those media opportunities. We are guiding you at every single step. It's not just about the camera. It's about the powerful voice behind it, and that's your voice. So I look forward to getting started and seeing you in the next video. 2. Defeat Objections: Starting with module one, which is why video matters. And my guess is you have a pretty good understanding of why it matters, otherwise you wouldn't be here. But what you may not have as good of a grasp on is how to overcome the objections that you have and allow yourself to be in front of your audience. Lesson one. Jumping right into it, let's defeat those objections. Everyone has the same excuses when it comes to why they're not creating video, why they're not putting the time and energy into it that they should now. Because you're here, you obviously know the power of video. You want to use it to grow your business, your brand. But that doesn't mean that those excuses aren't going to come creeping back into your head. We're going to take a minute right now or so talk about those excuses and then debunk them so that you can move past all of those when they show up and they will show up. The first common objection is that there's too much video out there and that you're just adding to the noise. You're right, There's a ton of video. Reason there's a ton of it is because it's what people want. There have been so many surveys about what clients and customers, and potential clients and customers want to see in video is always right at the top of that, people want to hear from you. If you're not creating video, you're leaving a void, a space that your competitors who are making video gives an additional advantage to. Right. If people aren't hearing from you, they don't really know that you're a person. Yes, they do, but they don't see you. You may not be adding to the noise, but your silence is deafening and it is damaging to your business. Your customers and your potential customers are going to appreciate any effort you make when you create and use great video. For example, a video sales letter on a landing page. One that has story and emotion, One that agitates a little bit of pain. That is an interaction that cannot be duplicated. Video is so personal. This is an opportunity for your clients to hear directly from you. Videos that have relevant, helpful information that are presented in an engaging way. Gives your audience an opportunity to be involved in what to them feels like a real conversation if you're doing it right, and we'll get to that, that video allows you to create some insight that informs and influences the decisions that that person or that business is making about working with you. I'm going to move on to everybody's second favorite excuse, which is, I don't have the time. The truth is that's just not true. You do have time, You just don't want to spend it making videos for whatever reason, and there's a ton of them. And likely it's because video is pretty unfamiliar. You'd like to use that time on things that feel safe. Then perhaps it's also because you really don't have a strategy for use or a process for creation. You don't really know how to repurpose that. It seems like a much bigger task than it actually is. If you've got a blog, this is a bit of an analogy. Each blog post probably takes you, what, close to 3 hours to prepare, create post. Then you've got info graphics and supporting visuals if you're doing it right that you have to create as well. You're factoring research design and a bunch of other creative aspects. It's a lot of time. A video, though, when you do it correctly, can be completed in a couple of minutes. A two minute video should take 2 minutes to shoot. Once you know what you're doing, you have a good strategy and a distribution plan in place. Then creating and posting a basic video will take you maybe 30 minutes. That's a lunch break. If you even take one of those, you do have time. When you get really proficient, it'll take you even less because it's video, you're going to get better results when you look at it. That way it hopefully becomes clear where you should be spending your time. Now for some folks it is not about the time but the feeling that they don't have the skills, they don't know how to show up, and that's why you're here. We're going to walk you through all of the skills that you will need to create professional looking video, from Idea, all the way through to optimization and distribution. I think that you'll find that those skills, the ones that you didn't think you had, we're actually with you all along. It's just understanding how to bring them out and gaining the confidence to do it. All right. We're going to talk now about the excuses that everybody makes. This falls a little bit, there's a little bit of an overlap with what I just said, But the excuse that nobody wants to talk about is I don't like how I look or sound on camera. In fact, I hate it and I'm not natural. This is something that every single person I know struggles with. Great performers, and I use that word with air quotes because you're not being performative, but you do have to understand the challenges of a camera and how to overcome it. Great performers are not born 9.9 9999 times out of ten. You have to learn how to do it. I've been on camera for more than two decades. I was really bad, by the way, when I first started. And I still cringe when I watch video playback. I hate it. It is totally normal to feel strange about being on camera, to not like your appearance, not like your voice. And that's because being on camera is not normal. It is, as I mentioned, somewhat of a performance. You may be scripted, you may be speaking in a more pronounced way. Your body language may be more formal or more exaggerated, or you're trying to use humor and you don't really know how to do it. When you're reviewing your videos, I want you to keep all of this in mind. Take a breath. Nobody is seeing your face or hearing your voice through the same harsh lens that you filter it through. Those who are watching don't know you as well as you do. They're not here to criticize. They're here to learn. If you put your audience at the front instead of yourself, all of the other things begin to improve organically. All your audience cares about is if they're getting something out of the video, information, entertainment, maybe a little bit of both. Keep in mind that your performance is going to improve the more you're on camera. It's like writing a bike, right? The more you do it, the easier it gets. I will tell you this, if you have not created videos before or you're very new to it, you the first dozen or more that you do. Heck, it took me a couple of years to really get comfortable with it. It's not going to take you that long because I'm going to guide you through it. I learned it on my own. But as you begin to produce, you're going to have opportunities to critique, to refine, to learn about your speaking patterns, your mannerism so that you do appear more of yourself and also more professional mortise on the lens. Also, remember you're not live, at least not yet. We'll jump into that in one of the later modules. But because you're not at this stage, you can do another take. You can start over, you can fix the flubs. Sometimes, especially as you're learning, it's actually better to do that than to power through. Because a single mistake will snowball into a whole series of them if you need to stop, review what went wrong and then go back at it again. Now that advice right there will change as you get more proficient. We'll talk about that in the later modules though. The excuse that's not top of mind but that does stop a lot of video creation in its tracks is I'm just not getting results. There's a lot of people that expect to post a video somewhere and it'll go viral. The money will start rolling in. It doesn't work like that, nothing works like that. It's going to take some time. It's going to take effort. You'll find your rhythm, you'll learn how to engage your audience and who they are, and you'll do some trial and error before you reach your full potential. And the truth of the matter is, as you get really comfortable on camera, you'll start to learn where to push the boundaries and where you can explore and experiment. And that's when it actually begins to get really fun. If you're exploring and pushing the boundaries, you will never quite reach your full potential because you'll always be learning. And I think that's one of the really cool things about this. You also need to know that a lot of the time when you're not getting the results that you want. The problem isn't that the video doesn't work. There's a lot of people that make great videos, but don't make them frequently enough or with enough consistency that they actually catch on and they find an audience. Or maybe they don't know how to leverage them on all of their marketing and sales assets, on all of the different stages of their funnel or their customers buying journey. There are a couple of really big name brands out there who saw their Youtube follower count just because they weren't regularly putting out clips. Other video creators may have issues with finding the right delivery system for their videos. You can't create videos that are great for Tiktok and expect them to do as well on Facebook necessarily, or as a video e mail, or a log for that matter. Then there are other creators who struggle with finding the right voice for their audience. There's a lot of people out there who don't think about who they're speaking to when they make a video. And that's probably the trickiest issue, and it may be the one that causes most people to quit. But if you keep trying, if you keep making videos, I promise you you'll find your voice and you'll get the engagement that you want. The bottom line here is don't get frustrated. Don't give up, because let's face it, if you want to quit doing something, you can always find an excuse to quit doing something. It's why all the gyms are empty by March 1, or maybe before that. But I hope that now that you have an idea of what some of those internal excuses and objections are that are waiting to suck you in and get in your head space, that you can avoid them, that you can move forward, that you can making great videos because I promise your confidence and your business Well, thank you. 3. Dealing with Trolls: Dealing with trolls. If you're going to make videos, if you are going to post them, you are going to deal with criticism, you are going to deal with trolls. And dealing with those two things is one of the two of the reason I can count two of the reasons that people give up on making videos. To be honest, there's times when I don't blame them. Throughout my career on camera, I worked at Fox and NBC Equal Opportunity Hate. I have endured an onslaught of comments of criticism of misogyny, of hate. The things that people would send to me in the mail, or say to me behind the anonymity of a keyboard would make you blush, cry, scream, bang your head against a wall, all of the above at the same time. Let me tell you, when I first started, I had a very thin skin. I still do sometimes to these days, I'm shy, I'm an introvert, and I wasn't good. But there's a reason I didn't give up. There's a reason that I kept growing in the news industry and now in my business. First of all, I like what I do. Second of all, letting criticism, letting trolls silence me, would be allowing these Randos to sit on my shoulder and dictate my choices. And dictate me losing. I don't want to let that happen. If I didn't have the ability to create videos, I wouldn't have been able to start in the news industry on camera or grow my business. When I first started doing my own thing, literally all I knew how to do was to be on camera. That is it. I had no strategy. I had nothing. Now I get the vast majority of my leads through social media video. In fact, I just closed a multi six digit client based on content that I put on linked in and they reached out to me. They, even if they don't become clients immediately from my social media video, they're warmer. I can convert a lot of those warmer clients who haven't fully committed yet by using videos in the rest of my funnel logs, video, podcast, live streams, webinars, digital ads, videos, sales letters, or videos on your landing page. There's not a troll that's going to stand between me and my revenue and my growth goals in the way I want to support my family. You are going to have negative interactions. You are going to deal with negative comments. When you start making videos and you start posting them online, prepare for it now. Because you can't control it happening, but you can control how you respond to it. There are some people who say the very best solution is not to read the comments. That's not an option for you. The whole point of creating these things is to drive engagement. And you can't do that if you're not engaging with the comments. I want you to strap in. Why did you get ready when you're dealing with any comment, whether it's positive or negative, whether it's constructive, totally ridiculous. There are certain things that you need to keep in mind and certain things that you need to do no matter what the circumstances. First, I want you to remember everything is heightened online. We're a little bit bolder when we're sitting at the keyboard or we're tapping on a screen. That's why Lizzo is willing to thirst after Chris Evans on Twitter when she those things to him in person. If you don't know what I'm talking about, do a quick Google search. I freak and love both of them and it is hysterical and amazing. Now, all of that, to say that I want you to take everything that's said, even the positive things with a grain of salt. Never believe your own PR, good or bad. I do want you to read those comments though. I do want you to respond to them, good or bad. But take a moment, especially for the bad ones, between reading it and then responding to it, because it's really easy in the heat of the moment to respond without a thought. Read it, walk away, take a breath, strategize. Take a couple of breaths. If it's on social instead of a DM or an E mail, or if it's a bad review and it's public, you need to be very specific, formulating what you want to say, how it's going to help further your goals, and how it could potentially help or hurt your business. You don't want to say thanks so much. That's really sweet of you off the cuff to a positive commenter. When you could say, thanks so much, that's so sweet of you. Take 10% off when you buy this $100 program or this $100 item. Alternatively, you don't want to say, why don't you jump off a cliff or something else to somebody that's posting a negative comment when really what you need to do is look like the bigger person, Even if you're not feeling that way and appeal to your audience in a positive way. You can actually endear yourself to your clients and create stands by responding to negative comments in a constructive or humorous way. From this point on, I'm going to focus on dealing with those negative ones, because there's not a single person out there, and I'm sure you're the same who says. I'm done with the Internet because people are too nice to me. So I'm going to start with the most important rule of all, and that is do not take any comment personally. Every time you step in front of the camera or you post a video online, you are putting part of yourself out there. It's not really you though, It's a part that you're playing. The people that are making comments don't actually know you and you don't know them. You have no idea what could have caused them to make that comment. There's no context. That's one of the challenges of being on camera. Just like people say, it's hard to read the tone in a text. There's no context in video. Don't try and guess. Just take a breath and move on. If I took every single comment personally, I would have actually burnt into flames many, many years ago. Do not obsess over negative comments. It is really easy to let one person's opinion or negativity get in your head and then live there rent free. We could have 200 comments that are singing our praises to the moon. One that is irrelevant and just mean. And that's the one that we let you may need a couple of days. It may take me a day or two to let a devastating comment on a social media post, or a response to a virtual sales letter, or a video sales letter go. But I know that it will eventually go and I will still be standing and they know who I am, but I don't know who they are. Let that sink in. The people who are commenting anonymously know your name, you do not know theirs. If you let that negative comment move into your head and live their rent free, going to take up time and it's going to give it power. You are going to give it power. Let me give you an example. This is an extreme case, but it proves the point. I had a client who had a customer post a rebuttal video on Youtube because my client was tagged. They were notified about the video and they watch the video views climb up. They got more and more alarmed. All video view though were his. He was obsessively watching it and asking others to watch it and give their opinions. Not only was he giving this one person's opinion a home, he was then also providing it with a seven course meal on the good China. Don't follow his example. Now, another mistake that you don't want to make is overcompensating. If somebody makes a comment that is constructive criticism, take it, consider it. Do not change your whole life over it. A key noteworthy moment is when you were able to look the good and the bad, bring in the changes that make sense. Or incorporate suggestions that make sense for both of them and blow off the things that don't. Here's an example. When I was anchoring the news in Utah, I had people E mailing me all the time telling me that my shirts were too low cut and I had to cover up. Now, I had never received that complaint anywhere that I had ever anchored or reported before. To be clear, I was not a risque dresser. We're talking like Banana Republic sweater sets. I considered some of those suggestions even though I liked what I wore. I recognized that I needed to meet my audience which was conservative, where they were. I changed how I dressed on camera in order to better appeal to that audience, to again meet them where they were. I didn't show up under turtleneck and long sleeves. I still were things that were me. I like bright colors, but I recognize that in order for them to see me, as long as they can still be myself, I can change to make it more likely that they'll follow me and trust my authority and confidence from beginning to end. Now if I would have changed entirely, turtle neck, long sleeves would have sent a message that I was manipulated. Maybe would have been a little bit snarky and I can live with the snarky stuff, but the easily manipulated stuff wasn't going to happen. Whenever you get a negative comment, I want you to take a moment and determine if it's an actual criticism or if you are being trolled. And you need to address the two in very different ways. Because it's very easy to dismiss every single criticism as trolling. But that's not a good idea. It keeps you from growing it hampers real interaction with your audience, and frankly, it's just like a little bit immature. How do you separate trolls from comments of critique that actually have substance and value? Trolls are not the ones who are commenting on a single post. And it's generally not a thoughtful comment. They'll comment on multiple posts with the very same thing. It will not be constructed in any single way, but it will be an obnoxious observation. For example, before I had my lysyc surgery, I had to wear glasses on air instead of my contacts. And I would get this one person who would e mail me every day and ask me if management was trying to make me look smart with the glasses. Okay, thank you very much. Trolls are very obvious in their intent, right? And their intent is to get you angry and to make you respond, and they're hoping that it'll be a response that you make in the spur of the moment and one that will make you look bad and underscore their point. Now some will say that the shore sign of a troll or even a bot bad spelling, bad grammar, obscene language over use of emojis. That can be a tell. But people also type really quickly, they're not precise. People like to swear. I include myself in that group. When you're trying to figure out if a comment is from a troll, I want you to look at the substance, not the style. If it's not clear that somebody is a troll, take a moment and ask some clarifying questions. Why are they unhappy? Are they a customer? The answers to those questions will let you know how to proceed. Now, once you've figured out you've got a real live troll on your hands, the best thing to do is to ignore them. Trolls live for engagement, you need to cut off the air. It's going to be hard, will think of 1 million things to say back to them. You will want to engage so badly, it'll make your typing fingers hurt. But try not to do it right. My grandmother had this saying, when you wrestle a pig, all you get is dirty and the pig is the one that has all the fun. Substitute the word troll for pig and move on. Now, there are some cases that it's going to be necessary to hide troll comments, to block individual users. I suggest not doing this lightly. Yes, somebody is coming on your page or on your feed and they're bad mouthing you, they don't have a right to do that, this is your house. But I also don't suggest indiscriminate blocking. I think you should have a clear policy about comment moderation that you can point to. Otherwise, trolls will use that hiding and blocking to try and engage you again by painting you as oversensitive as somebody who's censoring as a snowflake. What's the other word we hear, but hurt? Excuse my language. When it comes to dealing with critical or negative comments that are from non trolls, you need to do really two things. Kind and be direct. Thank them for their feedback, look for ways to mitigate their issue. If the issue is something that is ongoing, I would suggest taking it offline via e mail or direct messages. But keep it cool, calm, keep it collected. Screenshots can come back and haunt you. I have been there. I have done that as a news not as a business owner. Take your own screenshots too. By the way, now there are times that there's not going to be a real issue, if you will. Maybe it's going to be something like, your voice is weird, or shoes grandpa. In those cases, you're not dealing with a stereotypical troll, but somebody who has something to say that's not constructive. In those cases, I like to use humor. You can plan out something that's pithy, not rude, and then post that you might end up getting a fan. Sometimes those little personality moments are what can endear you to your audience. Or at the very least, you're showing people who are your fans already, that you're not afraid of an insult and that you can have a sense of humor about yourself. It's all about how you handle it. Part of getting camera ready is putting on an invisible suit to repel all of the negativity that'll come your way. It's Beyonce and her Sasha Fierce alter ego. You do what you need to, but if you're up for it and if you're prepared to deal with it, that suit will slip on really easily and you can wear it with pride. Remember, in your worksheets, you have action items, quizzes, key takeaways, and perhaps a video assessment. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you back here for module two. Who are you and your business on video in 321, Boundaries and where somebody else is going to do it. Do it that as long as the facts aren't bad or you don't wrong, I'm going to have to redo that. I don't want to say that we're going to take that or I can't, even presentation style. You are giving yourself the time to discover what works and what doesn't. If you want to do slides, you do need to learn some better options to play with, don't. I'm going to redo this six digit client. Let that sink in. Stories are, but you know what, I want to just take this whole part out. 4. The Importance of Showing Up Every Day: The importance of showing up. Nothing in this life comes about effort. If you want to learn or improve a skill, really the only way that you can do that is to practice. It's the reps you've got to put in the work until you get the result you want. If you want to create top notch video content, be the kind of presence on camera that people cannot wait to watch. You are going to have to take the time and make the effort in the media landscape that we're in right now. It's really easy to buy into that delusion that anyone can make a video, have a viral hit. You're going to move to LA, you're going to live in a mansion with all the other viral hit makers. Although most of them don't live in mansions and be set for life. I think of this as the myth of Charlie Mello. If you're not familiar with who she is, she's the teen who started videos on Tiktok dancing in her bedroom and she is a worldwide phenom. If you don't know her, ask your teenage son or daughter. I guarantee he or she does. Most of the people who believe that are in fact teenagers or maybe even my 11 year old and her friends. These are not the people that you're going to be asking for advice. The truth is in the old joke, how do you get to Carnegie Hall practice? That's a truism that's been around for decades because it speaks to the fact that nothing is perfected without a lot of work. One of the most important parts of your practice is consistency cells. Don't go over sonata once and then call it good. They rehearse every single day, hours the day, in order to get every single note perfect. Sometimes they still mess up, but you're going to have to do the same. You don't have to buy a musical instrument. That's something else. I mean that you need to work on your video creation and your presence in that video. Every single day. Yes, I did say every single day. Every single day. And that's how I got better when I was in the news industry. Even if it was just a few minutes a day, I had to show up and then I watched. You don't need to go all out and do a huge production every day, but opening up your camera lens and talking into it for 30 seconds and then going back and watching that is enough to improve. We'll talk a little bit more about how to practice and give you some action items in the later modules. But improving your performance is one of the reasons only to practice daily. The other is a little bit more basic. It's if you're not doing it, somebody else is going to do it. Video is the way that people are reaching their peers. They're reaching their potential customers, they're reaching the media the longer you put off joining them, making better videos than they do letting your impact be felt and seen on the video landscape. The more opportunities are passing you by. No one, as I mentioned before, is a natural when it comes to appearing on camera. That is a myth. Those who are instinctively relaxed in front of the camera, those that have a great voice, those that look sensational in any light, they all have some work to do or did some work hard work. There's not a single person that I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them that walks into a studio, turns on a camera, and instantly knows perfect angles, vocal variety, and then there's a bunch of other technical issues that they have to face as well. Post production, maybe how to get their video seen by the people they want to see it. It's not just about making the videos, honestly. The time that you spend in front of the camera, that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to envisioning, creating, perfecting, distributing all of this video, I'm going to go back to that musician example that I brought up a minute or two ago. There's not a single musician out there that just plays their instrument, opens up the case or sits down at the bench and just starts to play. Most of them, the good ones, the ones with a thorough knowledge, take time to tune that instrument. Maybe they learn a little bit about its history, learn techniques, and from the people who have mastered it before, then they take music theory, maybe they learn about complementary instruments. All of that work makes the moments when they start playing that much better. And your work off the camera will make your time on camera that much easier as well. Right now is the time to make a commitment to show up every single day. To create your video persona claim your online presence, build your video library, take your spot as a video superstar. While no one's a natural on camera, there is one group that comes pretty close and that's kids. Especially the kids that are alive today because they have been on camera their entire lives. Put aside the thoughts of child Youtube stars though, and talk about why you should approach appearing on camera and creating videos with a kid's eye and a kid's attitude. There are two things that the majority of kids don't have that adults have tons of. They are fear and ego. In order to appear on camera to make videos, put them out into the world, you have got to lose both. If you're worried, if you're scared, it will likely come through in your performance. And it will also influence every decision you make from concept development to post production, because fear is the enemy of creativity. If you want to make an excellent, intelligent, groundbreaking video, you've got to let go of that fear and embrace every single idea. Like it's the most amazing one ever. While you are saying goodbye to fear, you should tell your ego to take a hike as well. Because we all think the same thing when we see ourselves on camera. Really look like that. If you've been in any zoom meetings in the past few months, years, and I know that you have, you can see this feeling on the faces of some of the people present, Sometimes a lot of them. To create good video content, you've got to move past your ego. First of all, because ego is boring, everybody experiences self doubt. They do not need your videos to understand it or watch it. Secondly, it is really important to remember that your ego is designed to keep you in check. You want full agency to try new things to fall in your face to sort of new heights. Learn from all of it. Tell your ego to take a hike and come back when you're involved in creation. Thinking like a kid isn't though just about letting go of fear of ego. But it's also about rethinking your basic means of communication for kids. Everything's about visual mediums. They don't make phone calls, they face time, you don't send E mails, they send DMs. You've got to get into the mindset, where visual is your go to communication method. Think in terms of storyboards instead of sentences. Get into that headspace and start living in technicolor, not newsprint. Getting into the video headspace will help you find more ease in being on camera, relaying things visually as well. Because if this is where you live, how can you not feel at ease? It is your home to keep content creation on track and make sure that you're working toward your goal every day. It is important to create and maintain a good editorial calendar. Because a calendar not only helps you plan, but it also helps you set up and achieve objectives, develop and assess different strategies. Align your content with social influences. Maybe create networking opportunities with other creators by collaborating. How do you create an editorial calendar? You start big, and then you work down to small. You start with your overall objective, right, which is your big goal. What is it that you really want to accomplish? Identify it. Be as specific as possible, because this will inform every other decision that you make on your editorial calendar. Once you have your main objective, that big idea, then you've got to decide how you want to create the content, the video content that is related to it. The objective is for you to be doing the work to become an excellent video creator every day. But it doesn't mean that you're producing a video every single day because that would be a lot. You can do it, I do it, but I have a process down and I'm comfortable on camera, so I don't overthink it as much. Instead of five takes, it takes me maybe two. Decide how often you actually want to be putting out new content as you're learning it, right. And this will change. Hopefully you'll be able to step it up as you get more proficient, But maybe to start it once or twice. If you're feeling really confident, maybe three times a week, you decide on a frequency. And then you get those deadlines on the calendar and you get them in black and white. You write them or type them in, anything that makes them difficult for you to ignore or reschedule. Once you have your post scheduled, you can start filling in plans for the work that's going to have to go into making them topics, research, maybe scripts. Maybe you want to do an interview, so you have to invite a guest. Then you want to make sure everything is ready to go. Schedule that work just like you're scheduling your content release date. All the stuff that's happening behind the scenes, organization is everything. When it comes to making your plan a reality, I'm going to be honest. Sometimes the hardest part of maintaining a content calendar is coming up with ideas. Make sure you have some built in time to brainstorm so that you have ideas to film. Maybe that's making pillars, but the first thing is to start with dates. And that's going to allow you to piggyback or reverse engineer your planning. For example, if you have a business that caters to decorating or social affairs, you obviously want to plan content to go with all of the celebrations that are out there. Christmas, Arbor Day, Hashana. Are you working in a field that's related to health? Right? There are awareness days for diseases, conditions, every single day of the year. Learn how to use those. It doesn't matter what your industry is. There is a calendar out there to help you. It's always a good idea to check out the calendars of events that are related to your industry. You probably can't attend nor would you want to every single conference. But you can create content and share it using hash tag. You can create your content calendar digitally. You can do it on a whiteboard, you can do it on a paper calendar. Any system that works best for you. I happen to like Monday.com and I'm not being paid to say that. I just think they're very easy to use and they're very intuitive and I'm not a techie person. But if you feel like you need help with creation organization reminders, there are a lot of platforms that offer solutions. Most of them have at least one free one. But the bells and whistles are great only if you use them correctly. Though, start with a free platform and then move on as you gain awareness and proficiency. If you get the same results as you would using a day planner, then stick to the day planner. There's no need to spend money that you don't have to. Now, style, voice, and tone are three things that you're going to have to establish and refine as you come into your own. As a video content creator. Following your editorial calendar and showing up every single day to build that online presence will make it easy to find and develop them. When you think of your video presentation style, think about the overall impression that you want to make on your audience. How do you want them thinking and feeling about you after they've watched your clips? This isn't about the content itself, it's not about the substance. That's a different conversation. This is about the delivery. Your delivery specifically about how you present the content, how you make it your own so that it's not commoditized. It's not something that can simply be Googled that makes it so that you are inextricably tied to this value video, et cetera, in the minds of your viewers and your potential clients and customers. Do you want them to look at you as an expert? Do you want to be seen as an innovator? Right? How about being perceived as an insider who's giving behind the scenes information that you can only get if you know the right people. Your presentation style is what informs those perceptions. Now the style includes everything from your location, your wardrobe, your language, your delivery. It is the total package. It's not something that you're going to create in one fell swoop. It took me a while to figure out who I was on camera, but it is something that you can perfect through trial and error and over time with practice. Now you've got to get that practice in by putting in the work every day. When you're thinking about content, consider how your style will play into it and how you can best display it. When you're doing research, for example, look at a bunch of presentation styles and then compare and contrast them to what you want to project in your own content. Now, you could use inspiration from people that are within your industry, but don't allow yourself to get pigeonholed. Look at creators that you like that are outside of your niche and see what they are doing. And I'm going to give you a little aside here. One of the biggest mistakes in B to B your business video is that it is bore ring. It is so bad look to entertainers. To create some interesting value in your videos, I like to call it infotainment. It's an old news term. It's information and entertainment. And it usually has story, which we'll talk about, and you guide your viewer along, holding their hand from beginning to end. But again, that's for another module. Your voice and your tone are two of the most important aspects that you've got to think about when you're forming. Your presentation style may be the most important. I want to talk about voice before we really dive in and address the elephant in the room, which is nobody likes the sound of their own voice. It never sounds the same as it does in our heads. That's because when we're listening to ourselves speak in real time, We're hearing our voice through the filters of our muscles and our jaw and our tendons and everything else that's in our skull. It sounds different, but your audience doesn't have that disconnect. Don't think about it, get over it and move on. That you do have to get used to the sound of your own voice in order to make it into the voice that you want on video. And I'm not talking about dropping your voice or putting on a news broadcaster voice. You're a person, you're not a cartoon, you're not playing a role. But it is likely that you're going to want to adjust your voice for speaking on video. Most people, those that are savvy, speak in a bit of a lower register when they're on camera. It's because it sounds more authoritative, but it's not just about the register. You may notice that ordinarily you speak in a more nasal tone or that you speak more quickly. Then you should for your audience to grasp those concepts. Now your tone is another aspect where you might want to make some tweaks to about the mood that you're trying to project. Is it serious? Are you pumping up a crowd are soothing nerves. You can have a script that says all the right words, but if your tone is off, that message is not going to come through or certainly not going to come through as intended. Now, tone also involves your speech patterns and your vocabulary. And it's a lot more than just cutting out the obscenities that you or I may use on a regular basis off camera. We speak a lot less formally. Even if you're using that more informal style in your videos. You will likely need to step it up a little bit. You'll need to make sure that you're speaking in full sentences, that you're enunciating that your language is understandable as well as fitting right. For example, you wouldn't use the same language speaking to lawyers as you would to scrap bookers, even if you were talking to them about the same subject. Your choice of words is another thing that contributes to your tone. Practicing your voice and your tone along with your styles, got to be part of all of the work that you're doing. But by putting in that work every day, you are giving yourself the time to figure out what works and what doesn't. Part of showing up every day is not only figuring out who you are on camera, but also how to use the tools of the trade so that you can make really great videos and achieve your best appearance. Yes, I am telling you to take time and figure out the best way to hide the flaws that drive you crazy. Do not use the time to put your camera up on a high tripod, so you're always looking like somebody who's trying to hide their jowls. I'm guilty of this one on Instagram. I don't mean that you're trying to cover up the things that make you unique, your idiosyncrasies, But what I am saying is that you want to expand on the things that are great you're But amplified and try and reduce the things that you don't like or that may be off putting to your ideal client. You're going to use that time every day to get accustomed to looking at yourself on camera. It takes a minute, maybe a little bit longer than that, Actually, something that you do have to do though, you can hate the sight of yourself on camera and really be truly successful. If you're worried about your hair, your chin, or your eyebrows or your body, it's going to distract you from focusing on your content and that's what really matters. Take the time. Get that factor out of the way. The liking yourself on camera to begin now. That's not to say that you shouldn't attempt to make your appearance on camera the best that it can be. If you've looked at my Instagram stories, there are lengths that I go to in order to show you my face when I'm making videos. And they may include filters and a bunch of other stuff. But I also took the time to learn what makeup looks best, what hairstyles play well, angles of my face to present to the camera, how to position my body so that it's more aesthetically pleasing or that it conveys more authority or competence. And those things are things that you need to and can do and will do as well. It's not about vanity, it's about professionalism and competence. You are not the only visual aspect of your video that you've got to take the time to perfect. You're not in a void. You're not doing this in a vacuum. Your background matters as well. If you're shooting in your home, take the time to make sure that what you're showing your audience is on brand, that it's appropriate, that it's not distracting. Don't think that just looking at it once is enough. You're not going to really know what it looks like and more importantly, how it comes across to your audience. Until you, and they see it on video many, many times. Now, if you're working with a backdrop or green screen, that will likely require a little bit of extra work. It's essential to take the time to work out the best lighting, that you don't look two dimensional. You're going to have to work with the shadows and the framing so that you look normal sized, normal looking in relation to your background. People are so distracted if one thing is off and they are not paying attention to what you're saying, they're done once all of those visuals are good. What kind of videos do you want to make? In my videos, I spend a lot of time on camera. I'm comfortable with it. I think one of the best ways for me to connect with my audience, that may not be the case for you. You may be presenting material that's more technical and it needs explanation and visual support and info graphics or demos or maybe I just don't want to be on camera. That's fine. Part of working through video creation is taking the time to figure out what kinds of video you want to create and what kind of video connect with your audience. Now my best practices is that you should always be on camera. If you are a coach, or a consultant, or a service provider, or business owner and your client is going to be interacting with you, your face, you're the one walking them through the service or the product. You are going to have a much better response. You're going to shorten your sales cycle. Your audience will be much warmer if they can see your face, likely there's a really good chance that you're going to be on video if it's just a video call with a lot of your clients as well. If you want to do slides, you are going to learn what slides look best on video. Create them so they're tied to your band. It's probably not going to be Powerpoint. If you want to do demonstrations, if you want to display products, you're going to have to make sure that they shine and look as beautiful and professional as you do something. That I learned after years of doing show and tell on TV is that every single thing, everything, even a block of cheese, has a bad side. And I don't mean bad isn't spoiled, I mean bad ready. I want you to go through the same or similar steps that you're going to use to find the best on camera look for you. To find the best on camera look for your products and demos. And don't get overwhelmed. I'm giving you an overview right here. We're going to dive into all of this in much greater detail. Now, another area for trial and error is the timing and the length of the videos that you release. It depends a little bit on the platform. I wish that I could tell you. There's like this perfect mathematical formula that's going to get UP views that is lying, I would be lying. And anybody else who tells you they have that formula is lying as well. It's not totally about the algorithm. Yes, algorithms working them are great. But at the end of the day, even if you work the algorithm, if your content is not good or nobody's watching your video sales letter, then it doesn't matter. The best algorithms, the best analytics only give you part of the picture. There's a lot of footwork that you still need to do and you cannot get a good snapshot until you have the data from all of this. I want you to start with your best guess for when you think your audience is going to be tuning in. You'll likely know their habits because you probably share some of them. See if you get any more views when you post according to that gut instinct. And more importantly than that engagement. From there, you're going to start scheduling your videos and doing AB testing to see where you're getting a response when things are being released. The idea is to get viewers excited enough about your content that when you release a new video, they consider it appointment viewing. At the very least, it sure as heck shows up in their feed. And if you send them a video, an e mail, or a log, or a BSL, they're going to watch it. If you take the time and you learn their patterns and habits, their likes and dislikes, this can and it will happen. Now you could find the perfect time to release the video. But if your audience only has 5 minutes to watch and your videos are 15 minutes, you're wasting a lot of time and effort for stuff that's not going to be seen. Take the time to play with the length and the depth of your subject in order to find that sweet spot where your audience will be involved for the entire time and leave them wanting more. Make them ready, make them anxious. For the most part, shorter is better. Most videos over 5 minutes see views that drop off right after that five minute or 302nd mark. Now that's not to say that longer videos don't find viewers. They do, but they're definitely not on Instagram or Tiktok. They're probably maybe linked in. Definitely Youtube. Certainly on a log or on a video sales letter, or on a video podcast. Do the time the work, find the length. It's perfect for you, perfect for your audience. We've gone over a ton of the points to think about and the stuff that you need to work on in the time that you put aside every day to actually work on it. I know it feels like a lot and it is. But you're not the first person ever to make a video. You're not even the first person to want to use video to promote your business or grow a brand or a career. Take some time and learn from the people who have. Start with the people who are big in their industry. I'm sure you know their names. Look up their videos. If they're leaders in your sector, they will have them. If they don't, there's a place that you could scoot into, watch them, and figure out what makes them interesting, figure out what makes them engaging, and conversely, what you don't like. And then borrow inspiration that could work for you and that you can use to make them your own. Don't copy, don't take videos from someone else and not credit them or ask permission. You are just borrowing inspiration, much like you would if you were learning to paint and you were studying painters and techniques. And learning from them. Aside from looking at the leaders that are in your industry. As I mentioned, check out people who are doing something different. Here's an example for you. Marriott Marriott is the king of the hotel industry, but they are not the ones that are making the innovations that have people talking. That is work that's being done by smaller brands trying to make a splash. And that is probably true for you. What are smaller brands or maybe lesser known professionals doing That's interesting. When are they posting? Are they getting views? Engagement. Do you see opportunities for a partnership, or collaboration, or workshop together on Cam? Don't pass up this opportunity to learn something new and use it for professional growth. No matter what the sources, I want you to take time to look at videos outside of your industry because inspiration can come from anywhere. Another example is if you're doing a lot of demonstration videos and you're using one static camera, take a little bit of time to look at, I don't know, some of the millions of cooking videos that are online. There are cooking video creators that know how to make that single static shot look Oscar Worthy. There are others that will actually make you lose your appetite. And there, same goes for those who have multi camera shoots. Some will look great, some will not. You should be watching both so that you can understand what works and also the things that you should avoid because they don't or you don't personally like them, even if they do get a lot of engagement. If you're watching videos that are outside of your wheel house, if you will. It will also give you access to other ideas that are maybe not prevalent in your industry. Something you would have never considered, but something that will work fantastic. It'll expose you to some of those video trends that you can also take inspiration from and then assimilate into your content. I'll give you another example here. Do you think everybody independently came up with that idea to make grade schoolers try crazy foods and then put it on camera? Couldn't see their facial expressions? No, there was one person who started that and they all stole it from that person. I like to say took inspiration and then they changed it enough to make it their own learning the ropes of video creation doesn't mean that every single time you're on camera, it's going to be a full blown production with lighting and blocking and makeup, and bells and whistles. And I would say the bulk of your video creation needs to be much smaller. Shorter clips that don't require a lot of pre or post production. Social videos though, are usually pretty easy to produce. They're a great place to start and they can also help you find, grow, and then maintain relationships with your viewers in between those higher production value videos that require more planning, that require more production. Making those short little social clips will also help you home the skills that you need for those more involved videos. Now, Instagram is one of my favorites when it comes to making and posting daily clips for my followers. Tiktok is another one. The conversion rates not as high there depending on your audience and your offer. However, it's great for brand awareness. It tends to be at the top of your social media funnel, if you will. People will find something on Tiktok and then they'll go look at your Instagram or your Linked in or your Youtube, et cetera. But anyway, Instagram and Tiktok have ton of options for video creation. You can do short serial clips, you can make a story, you can post longer clips. Reels and Tiktoks are great for when you want to have a little more fun with your audience as well. They both give you a ton of editing functions. And filters add ons that improve your video, maybe help further conversation with your viewers. Right? There's a poll function on reels that I love to get opinions on content. I love to use gifts. Is it gifts or gifts? I've heard it's gifts. However you say it. I love to use them to give stories a little bit more personality. Now, Instagrams, obviously in Tiktok are not the only places that use video, not the only place that you should go to test out video and potentially reach an audience. Facebook, not as much reach a little bit more of a dinosaur in terms of video, but it does have an audience of millions of people every single hour of every single day. Both Instagram and Facebook have live functions. In fact, Instagram has one in which you can practice going live. There is a tutorial on that, on my Youtube channel. Put the link here and you can go check it out. If you are going to take the time to go live, you want to test out what's going to get the most engagement. And you've got to do that where the deck is stacked in your favor. You definitely want to test out what works best with live. That means trying it. It doesn't have to be a long live. If you want to let a few people know and I don't know, add a little bit of color or analysis to a blog post or something that's trending in your industry alive is a great place to do it. You don't need to do it on the platform in which you have the most followers. But I would try and do it on the platform in which you have the most engagement. Because it'll give you some more options to test out in terms of live Q and A, immediate audience feedback. And you should know that live video often receives the most engagement after the live portion is over and the now recorded version is living on your platform as opposed even if you don't think you're ever going to need it or that you will always have time to perfect every single aspect of your video before your post. It is always a good idea to be ready for just about anything you're not going to want to miss out on a potentially viral clip because you're not comfortable being off the cuff depending on your audience. As I mentioned before, you may also choose to use for short social clips if you are pushing a product that users on that site like you could reach out to them by wetting their clips or responding to them. In other ways, you can introduce new products, you can introduce events. It really doesn't matter where you post your videos on social media as long as you're taking time to create them and to learn from them and you are going to be shocked by how much you will learn. I tend to be on Instagram more than Tiktok. I know I got to do that. But from my Instagram stories, I can tell which topics attract a larger audience. If I turn them into fully produced pieces, right, which ones should not be pursued because nobody interacted with them. I can also get a better idea of what looks good on camera, what I need to change, and what outfits never to wear. Again, I want you to think of social as your video laboratory. Now, perfecting your technique, your appearance, your messaging, all the other aspects of your video production doesn't happen in a vacuum. You're going to have to get feedback. And a lot of that feedback will come in the form of video views, engagement analytics, comments. You're not going to get all the data you need. From the numbers though, you do need some different sets of eyes to tell you what they see and what they think works. I want you to set aside a little bit of your time, your video production time, to use it for strategy. To bring in people that you trust, ideally, that are your target audience to get their thoughts and opinions. I don't want you to wait until you have a finished product to do this, but I want you to do it at every step from concept to final cut. You never know when somebody will have an idea that's going to improve your product or keep you from making a horrible mistake. I bet that whoever came up with that Kylie Jenner Pepsi commercial, have you seen it? Here it is. In April 2017, Pepsi introduced the world to a new TV ad campaign called Live For Now, Pepsi aimed to be woke in a world that was divided by politics, racial tension, and global protests. The centerpiece of the ad was the idea that a young woman could diffuse a tense situation by giving an armed police officer a can of Pepsi. The woman featured in the ad was none other than Kendall Jenner. Trying to include such heavy topics in an ad campaign is never easy. And in this situation, Pepsi clearly missed the mark. The backlash from the ad was so swift and severe that they pulled it within one day. I bet they wish that they had gotten more feedback before the cameras rolled and before millions of dollars had been spent. That's a bit of an extreme example, but you get the idea if you are taking all this time to make the best impactful videos possible. If you're taking the process seriously enough that you're making a daily effort every other day, I'll give you a little bit of slack here to do it. It is worth taking the time to get the feedback to make your results that much better. 5. Find Your Identity and Voice: Finding your identity and your voice. If I were to ask you who are you, you'd probably give me an answer pretty quickly, right? Maybe a little bit about your work or your family, your background, your interests, maybe a little bit about your political or religious beliefs if they're relevant. Now, that though, is not who you are when you are making a video. At least it's not the version of yourself that you're putting in front of the camera, right? That version, the one that you present to the audience, the one that's linked to your brand and to your products, is one that you need to take time to consider and to develop. It's the one that's got to be consistent. And if it's not specifically message driven, then at least linked very strongly to a central message. And of course your on camera persona will have aspects of your off camera self. We talked a little bit about that in the previous module. You're not garrod letto, and you shouldn't be if you don't start with your authentic personality when you're building your on camera persona, then it's not going to read as true and it's going to cause problems when you are actually trying to connect with your audience in a one on one or live environment. I want you to start with your off camera authentic self. When you're deciding who you'll be when the camera is on. All right, that's the person that I asked you about 30 seconds ago. Take a little bit of time and consider what makes you you. We're not talking about who you are in relation to your brand or your message. We will, but we're not there just yet. We're talking about the traits that somebody may notice when they first meet you or the way that a friend or colleague may describe you. And we're also talking about what traits are the most important to you as a person? Are you proud of your sense of humor? Do you like that people think of you as an honest person? Are you happy when somebody says you're well spoken or you're really knowledgeable in a certain subject? I want you to go back to grade school and think about what you would put on one of those all about me posters to really impress the other kids with things that are true. While you do want to think about your favorite or your most impactful or the things that you consider the most impressive about your personality, you do have to remain relatable. In other words, if you love talking about your Porsche a lot and your videos are not about porches, you probably don't want to bring that up because you don't want to be the person who talks about the Porsche all the time. Anyway, nobody likes that person. I may like you, I'm joking, You get what I'm saying, though. It's not an opportunity to be braggadocious, especially if it's a cold audience and they don't know you. It's very easy to take something the wrong way. Remember, with every choice that you make, people watching, you need to believe that what you are saying is true and they need to want to hear more from you. That means that at least a little bit, they've got to identify you, they've got to like you, you must be relatable to them, you must meet them where they are. It's the reason that people vote for politicians that they can see themselves having a beer with. Or why so many people love Tom Hanks because they can relate to them. You want to be in that same category, even if you're talking about nuclear physics or some other topic, that's not particularly relatable to the normal person. I know nothing about nuclear physics or physics in general. A kernel of personal relatability at the core of that message is going to improve your relationship with your audience. When you're deciding on your on camera persona, be sure that you're creating one that you like, one that's so that it's something that you can maintain. Because staying consistent with that is going to be one of the keys to your long term video strategy. And there are Youtube stars out there who have had popular channels for years and they know this. It is one of the core tenets of their video creation. Because their fans tune in, because they know what to expect. It's like visiting a friend and you want your video to operate this way, not just on social, but on all of the channels and distribution platforms that you use it, right? We're taking an omni channel approach. It needs to work on your landing pages. It needs to work in your e mails, et cetera. So like all other aspects of your life, when you are building this on camera persona, it is a good idea to do a little bit of research. And maybe that means in this case, and it likely does that you're watching a lot of Youtube. We touched on this in some of the prior module. But to go a little bit further in depth, look at the videos that are made by other people in your industry and see what impressions they're trying to make. Is there a certain tone, or an aesthetic perhaps that they all seem to be using? What about you want to hear more? What makes you want to tune them out? What about their personality makes you trust them or not trust them? And how similar or different are you to them? Now, I'm not saying that you need to model your personality on the videos of others. You should not do that because people can probably replicate a lot of your strategy and your process and your results, but they can never replicate you. Your video needs to show you off. What I am saying is that you should look at how others are presenting themselves and find out what resonates with you, what maybe resonates with viewers. And then draw from it and improve upon it, and turn it into your own. And I promise you you can improve upon it. Right. And that's really what happens when you are you. Not everybody will love who you are, but the right people will. Once you have a general idea of who you want to be on camera, it's time to start bringing that person to life. It's like building Frankenstein's Monster, but without all the grave diffing part. I want you to start by practicing removing the parts of your personality that you use every day. But maybe won't be quite palatable in a professional video or even on a Tiktok video, if you have a habit of mispronouncing words or slurring your language or using a bunch of acronyms or maybe even colorful language, although that works in some cases as well. You want to practice removing those elements from your vocabulary or the way that you enunciate. Again, as you grow with your audience and your audience grows with you, you can start perhaps to slip in some of those areas. But if you have a cold audience, for example, if they are meeting you or are establishing awareness of you and your business on social, for example, then you don't want anything to distract them. Be yourself but yourself amplified. Now you're probably thinking, okay, no, not to swear on camera. And yes everybody does, but those who don't practice not using it will eventually let an F on slip and you will be known for another kind of video. Now, this is not as important on something that is recorded, but you do want to get in the habit because eventually, hopefully you'll be doing live videos and you'll be doing podcasts with a host, et cetera. And you want to have it baked into your best operating practices or standard operating procedures that when you're sitting in front of a camera or a microphone, you don't swear unless that's what your business is about, that's something else entirely. But I do want you to focus on the aspects of your personality that are going to play well on camera. And those are the ones that I want you to work on, amplifying, on making them bigger. There is some truth to this, saying that everything needs to be exaggerated on camera, or it won't read. The reason for that. One of them anyway, is that the camera takes a three D person you, and puts you into a two D environment with no contact. And while the camera itself mutes things because your transmission is going through a whole series of technological and software things, it also has a tendency to mute your performance. Like actually, physically, your vocal range becomes less pronounced, your facial expressions become less animated, you have less energy. It also includes personality traits like your humor, your compassion, your enthusiasm, your concern. You can't simply be something on camera. You have to perform it. And I hate to use that word because it sounds fake. But perform, or performative performance, What I mean by that though, is you have to recognize that much like standing on a stadium, on a stage, in a stadium with, you know, 100,000 people and a lot of noise and a lot of distraction. And the person in the back row being like half a mile away from you. The way that you would talk and deliver in that environment should be if you know what you're doing different than the way that you would talk if you were sitting in a quiet small conference room with one person who is three feet in front of you and whom you know, All right? You have to mitigate your delivery or change your delivery to meet your medium, your venue. So an example of this, when I was a news anchor, this is going back a number of years. I got an e mail asking how I could be so callous and so unfeeling when I was reporting on a story about a missing woman and her child. Now I had no idea what this person was talking about. So like I mentioned in module one, I took a moment, I went back and I pulled the tape, and I pulled that story, and this person was right. I wasn't purposely trying to be disengaged from the story, but I also hadn't actively and intentionally telegraphed my concern for the people about whom I was talking. You've got to do the same when you're showcasing your personality on camera. Know who you're trying to be and then actively show your audience that you're that person. Otherwise, your message will have no personality behind it. And the biggest problem with business videos are that they are boring and they are bland. The bigger your personality, the more memorable you would be. That doesn't mean to say that you've got to be goofy or crazy, but it means that you know how to handle the camera and you're not afraid of it. You can take risks, You can be bombastic if you want to and if it's appropriate. Not always you want to, you've got to be memorable. That's how you build, That's how you maintain an audience. That's how you create fans who are willing to go forth and witness for you out in the digital landscape. It is tempting when you're building your on camera persona to try and let others do it for you. Especially when you're just starting out because you read a couple of mean or snarky comments. You start second guessing who you are and everything that you are, what you're doing. You wonder if you need to make different choices so that you can make everybody happy. I'm here to tell you that that will never work. Do not do that, because there will always be someone with something to say. They're usually more than willing to say it as well, especially if it's rude or if it's demeaning, or if it makes them feel superior. But just because they say it doesn't mean that you have to do something about it. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. You're in charge of who you want to be and of the image that you're portraying for your audience. So you know what works, you know what doesn't. Don't let some Rando in his parents basement or her parents basement, sorry, I didn't mean to be sexist, typing away anonymously on a keyboard. Take away your agency. Now, while you shouldn't let the haters dictate your persona, and I'm going to give you the opposite side of the coin here. You also can't live in an echo chamber. When you're building your persona, you've got to take into consideration the type of person that your audience wants to hear from. Do they need somebody who's a cheerleader? Did they need somebody to get them excited? Give them reinsurance. Be a friend. Be a straight shooter, hardcore. Make them laugh. Determine what your ideal audience wants and needs and then figure out how you can use the parts of you that are authentically you to be that person and meet them where they are. Take a moment to objectively view the persona you're building. How does that person fit into the grand scheme of things? Where is their place in the world? Who are the people to whom they are similar? Who would they be comfortable with and who would be comfortable with them, right? So the goal here is not to be like real housewife in, you know, pioneer woman world. It's a bit of an extreme example, but you get the idea. You don't want to take time to build a persona that is out of place in the setting and among the people to whom you are trying to reach. So you want to take a moment and look from the outside in to make sure that you are hitting the mark. To make sure that you are giving your audience what they want. And then maybe down the road you tell them what you need. So while you're on camera persona, it's got to be rooted in that authentic personality and your personal experiences. You also need to be willing to move outside of your comfort zone and explore some of the personality traits that you don't necessarily immediately have or that you have to dig deep down to draw on. But ones that will resonate with your audience. If your audience, your ideal audience needs somebody who will make them smile, maybe it's time to figure out how to incorporate jokes, and that's a whole other thing. You don't need to be overtly funny. Knock, knock, who's there? Sometimes it's just the diming. Or maybe you're not the kind of presenter who includes information about their personal life and their speaking. Now is the time that you need to do it. One of my stories is that I was bullied when I was younger, and I was extremely clinically depressed, very low self esteem, shy, introverted, and I overcame that by being on camera. That is a story about my personal life that is relevant to my audience, Right? Relevant to you. Think there's other examples I could give you. But you know the things that other people do in your industry or your business that you may be shy away from. So now is the time to try them out. And as you get better, as you get more proficient, you will begin to explore the space. Naturally, I mentioned this in the last module. You will begin to push the boundaries and that's when it gets really fun. That's when you realize there are elements of yourself that you can bring out on camera. You were just too scared to do them before. Again, it's going to take time to get there, but I want you to know that it's there, it's in you, I promise you. It is. Now, as you're developing all of this on camera stuff, your persona, your identity, you also should consider developing your message alongside of it because one cannot exist without the other. All right? You probably already know to some degree, anyway, the basis of your message because you want to make videos and that message is part of the reason of it. But now is the time that you're going to refine that and make it work as the basis of your videos. So your central message will inform every decision that you make, at least in terms of content creation, for sure as you go forward, it'll determine the topics that you discuss, the tone you take, the production value, a whole host of other choices that you're going to have to make as you grow your video library. So for example, there's lots of people out there, lots of businesses that do video production. And all of their videos are super slick and highly polished. And I can do that as well. But my goal is to teach you to make video with your cell phone or your computer. How would it make sense for me to add a bench of really slick production value when that's not what I'm teaching? Again, meet your audience where you are and where they are, rather, and use every single asset, visual tone message, et cetera, to underscore that. It can't be amorphous, it cannot be undefined. You've got to have one or two sentences combined as a statement that you can refer to when you need it. Sometimes you might consider that to be an elevator pitch, right? For me one of the things that I like to say is, you know how you go to shoot a two minute video on your phone, except it takes 2 hours. You hate what you look and sound like and you don't know what to do with it. My program fixes all of start by defining your message and by looking at why you're doing what you're doing. What is it that excites you about it? Why are you the one that needs to do this? Why is it so important that you need to share it with the world? Look at your life and think about how your personal experiences inform your message. What you're talking about, the events, the decisions, commonalities. There has to be some sort of personal reason for wanting to share the message, for the message to have impact and finding that will make forming your message that much easier. I like to say if you're a coach or a consultant, your client needs to know as much about you as, let's say your neighbor next door does in order to purchase from you. What are your hobbies? What do you like to do in the afternoon? Do you have kids? Right. All of those sorts of things. Now, I'm painting with a very broad brush and there's certainly some wiggle room in there. And part of it has to do with your own comfort level, and part of it has to do with what would resonate with your audience. But realize there's room to grow when you're starting to put your central message into words. One of the best ways to do that is to take a little bit of time and do some free writing. You probably already have a fairly decent idea of what your message is, how you want to express it. But I say it's always a good idea to try and improve upon it a little bit. Right? Because that mission or that vision is going to be central to everything else that you do. There's something about writing down typing, but I actually think writing helps it sink in a little bit more. Yes, I'm old school. Despite the fact that I sit on a camera, it's proof that if you're older and watching this, you can do it as well. All right, So writing what that message is and structuring it in your mind to give yourself an opportunity to process what that is a little bit more thoroughly. You may be able to make some connections that you didn't before, that you hadn't thought of before when all of those words were just like floating around in your head and not in front of you in black and white. There may be aspects of your message that you didn't necessarily think were important, but as you structure your thoughts and get feedback from your audience, now feel are central to what you're doing. This message may change as your business changes and your services and products change, and maybe your audience as well. As a result of that, this may change, there will be some iterations of it. Don't worry about having something in concrete that will last you the next 15 years. There's nothing in business that lasts 15 years, I don't think so. Take your time. When you're developing. This is, I guess what I'm getting to. This is not something that you're going to be rushed. You're free writing, maybe you take a walk, you think a little bit about it. Come back, you look at the writing, See if what you were excited about before still excites you. Now, don't second guess yourself too much. If you're going for absolute perfection, again, like in everything that has to do with video, you'll never get there. But you want to think about who you want to hear, your message, how that person would best receive it. Because it doesn't matter how perfect quote it is. It's not going to matter if it falls on ears that are not willing or open to hearing it. Picture your ideal audience member. And then imagine explaining your message to them. What questions do they have that you haven't answered? What might intrigue them? Make them head for the door. On the opposite side of the spectrum, are there words or are there terms that would resonate with them that you should include as a signal or a touchstone, if you will. Your message should be as memorable as your persona. The two, again, go hand in hand. It's something that you can remember. You can certainly recite off the top of your head, but others will remember as well. It needs to be memorable, not just because you're great at delivering it, but because it means something to the people who remember it, right? Most of us can remember a fast food slogan for example. Doesn't mean we want to listen to Ronald Mcdonald expound on it at length. Find somebody in your life whom you can use as a sounding board and then you're going to bounce those ideas around. You know the feeling when you have a word that's right on the tip of your tongue, but you can't say it, something's not quite right, but you can't put your finger on it. They may be able to help you find it. They can also help you figure out if your message is saying what you want it to say, or if it's possible that it may be misunderstood. Ask them, what is the key takeaway here? And if they say something to you, that's not what the key takeaway is. In your own mind, you have a pretty good idea that you need to revamp once you know what that message is, or you have a fairly solid idea of what it is, figure out the simplest, clearest, and most concise way to say it. Don't use 50 words if you can say it in 25. The other thing is staying away from technical jargon unless it's absolutely necessary. If your video is going out to somebody who is not well versed in what it is that you are going to be talking about, then you want to make sure that the words that you're choosing are definable. And that the most common definition is the one that you would want, because this is your message, right? Again, you don't want any part of it to be misconstrued, misunderstood, lost in translation. Now, if your audience is very educated, then you may be able to bring in some of that more technical language. But if you're ever in doubt, keep it on the simple side. Once you've got that message, once you've got that persona, it's time to start putting your voice to both of them. In essence, you've built the car, now you've got to drive it. What voice or what gas are you going to use to drive it? The work that you've done, deciding on your persona, your central message, all of that, will help inform your choice of voice. You are not going to have the persona of an expert in coin collecting and the voice of wrestling commentator. You want to start with the choices that you've already made and build on those. When we're talking about building a voice, there's really two main components. It's language and it's mechanics. Language is how you say it, Mechanics is how it sounds. Both of them are combined to give you a voice or a digital presence, along with some other elements online. So we're going to start with language. There's so many ways to say the exact same thing. How are you going to say it so that it has a desired and memorable impact on your audience? And you are going to use the language that speaks to them. I touched on this just a minute ago. I want you to begin with a very basic vocabulary. Are there words that serve as touchstones in the population that you're trying to reach? Are others that are red flags? And I'm not talking just about industry specific terms or jargon. If I'll use an example that's easy for me to understand. If you go into a news room, they're going to be using different vocabulary than people in a high school will be using. It's not that the two groups wouldn't understand each other, but it's enough that you notice a difference. The same thing is true if you compare different groups of people based on location. A bunch of moms in Texas are going to say things quite differently than a group of moms in California. Pay attention to the vocabulary that's used by your perfect audience and then incorporate it into your voice, your language choices. They should always skew to the more professional side of the spectrum. Now I'm not saying that you always need to be formal and always speaking in AP or not using contractions. I'm saying that there are word choices that wouldn't work in a business meeting. You probably shouldn't use them when you're on video either, right? And that goes for colloquialisms, unless that's what you're teaching or they work for your brand. If you're saying, let me think, fixing to go to the wa, wa, or going up to a store, those things likely won't appeal to your broad audience. They're colloquial and you want to strike them for the most part from your on camera vernacular. That doesn't mean that you can't include things that are unique to you, but if your audience may not know what fixing to do something means you're going to lose them, It's really not about changing who you are, It's about making sure that the message that you want to deliver has the best chance of being picked up in the way that you wanted to, being understood in the way that you wanted to. Now, another thing about words. Try and say goodbye to crutches that you use on a regular basis. We all have them. Okay? Those sorts of things. Okay, is one that I fall into the habit of using. The thing is when you're doing a recorded video, you do have the option to cut those out. One or two is not a deal breaker, but when it becomes distracting, it is then if you have to do additional post production listening to the whole video, especially if it's a longer format one for Youtube or something else, then it requires a lot of additional post production. Make it easier on yourself by trying to keep things as clean as you can. When you are recording, getting rid of crutch words I say, does that make sense almost all the time. That makes those are the words that we use when we need a moment to think but we're still talking. They do not play well on camera. They take up time that your audience could be learning something from you and they wear out there. Welcome very quickly. It's not just vocabulary, but it's sometimes phrasing. How you put the words that you're using together. Are you using a speech pattern that's inviting that, it helps relay your message? Or is it getting in the way of you communicating? Are you using sentence structures that loop that run on? Don't do that. Make sure that you're using phrasing that's really easy to follow and doesn't change the meaning of what you're trying to say. Moving on to the mechanics of your voice. We're going to talk a lot about vocal variety and how to practice. When we get into the on camera portion of this course, MVP, your VIQ voice is important. That's where a lot of people find that there are issues or an area in which they want to make improvement. You probably don't need to make major changes though. There are probably three things that you need to focus on. That is your rate of speech, your enunciation, and your vocal modulation. There's something about being on camera that makes a lot of people speak a little more quickly than they normally would. I don't know, Maybe it's because they think if they go faster it's going to be over. What actually happens though is that the audience doesn't get all of the information that they're being given or just sort of gives up. Train to follow along when you're on camera or you're recording a video, try and take a breath and relax and slow down a little bit so that every word you say is understood. Now, that doesn't mean that you should slow down to the point that your audience is bored listening to you and their mind wanders. Our minds can process words much more quickly than we can spit them out. The key is to use vocal varieties. Slow down when it's important. Speed up when it's something that you can rattle through fairly quickly. Not speed up to the point that it can't be understood, but that vocal variety, each time you change, it creates what's called a pattern intra. And it invites your audience to once again pay closer attention, again, more on that in just a moment. Enunciation is the second thing. It's so important when you're speaking, and it's even more important when you're speaking on camera. You need to try and make sure that every syllable is clear and that it's understandable. Because it's very easy for words to get lost when you're speaking and when you're not concentrating on enunciating. And I know that when I'm tired or dehydrated, my go to flaw weakness is that my words slur together. When that happens I sound sloppy. I sound like I sound lazy. Sound like I'm not paying attention to detail. Then oftentimes the meaning is lost as well. Vocal modulation may be the most important mechanical aspect. Your voice, your words can be perfect, your pronunciation perfect. But if you are monotone, then your audience is going to be asleep before they hear any of it. The way you modulate your voice is how you energize your words. It's how you let your audience know what points are the most important when you're taking them on a journey, when you've arrived at the destination. And it's how you let them know when there are questions that need to be asked. Then how you let them know that you had the answers to them. To use a musical analogy. If your words are the lyrics, your vocal mechanics are the music, your modulation, the audience know the kind of song that it is. Does that make sense? I'm teasing. There's one of those scratches. When you're working on vocabulary and vocal mechanics, you've got to take time to record yourself and then listen back to it. It's really the only way that you're going to get better. And yes, it is cringe inducing. At least it is for me, and I know it is for most people. But it's better that you cringe while you're workshopping than have your audience cringe later. The best way to make sure that your voice is as perfect as it can be is to start talking until you like what sound is coming out of your mouth, and you find that other people like it as well. It's a little bit like that free writing that I was talking about a couple of minutes ago. Pick a topic that's related to your message and then start talking and record the results. When you listen back to it, pay attention to your word and phrase choices. And then listen for when you sound are the most engaged or when you seem uninterested. Find the points that stick with you and determine if there are points that you would want other listeners to take away as well. Then pay attention to the modulation where your voice wants to go. At the end of the sentence, listen for the crutch words or when you may not be speaking as clearly, keep practicing, keep recording, keep reworking until you're speaking in a way that's in line with your on camera persona. Make sure that your speech delivers your central message in an effective manner and keeps your audience interested and engaged. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Liston to the heart of your brand and what's your thing. 6. Who is Your Audience: Who is your audience? Let's take a moment to talk about finding your audience. We've talked a lot about finding your voice, your message, your brand. But unless you know who your audience is, it could all fall on deaf ears and you cannot be everything to everyone. If you try to do that, you will end up being nothing to no one. That's a double negative, but you get the idea. So you need to decide who you're trying to reach. And once you know that you will have a much better idea of the best way to reach them, I want you to start with the idea of a single person, the ideal person that you're trying to reach with this particular message. I know it seems limiting. It's a starting point. A little story about the news room. We had an target demographic for our 05:00 P.M. news. This is at one particular station. We realized in focus groups that we were not talking to this person in language that would resonate with them. Our news director made a cardboard cutout of a person that fit all of these key targets. She's 37, her name is Jennifer, she lives in the suburbs. She's got a college degree, she has two kids, she's married, whatever, right? We put a picture up, big cardboard cut out of that person. If we were writing a story, no matter whether it was about a new health food or a drive by shooting in another town, we were confused about how to make that story relate to her to Jennifer. We were to look at her and write something that we knew would resonate with her. A lot of places will tell you to name your ideal person. I've done that. I don't think it's completely necessary. But if it does make it easier for you to identify, for you to relate to that person, go ahead. Right now, let's call our ideal viewer client customer, Leo. What about Leo would make him a customer. Why would he be interested in your products or services? What is he trying to achieve or what is he trying to remedy that has him looking around in the marketplace in which you are. I want you to really think about this. What are the issues? The pain points. There's surface pain, there's financial pain, there's emotional pain. Are you helping somebody with their health, their wealth, productivity? What are the issues that Leo may experiencing that your business or brand can provide a transformation within something that you uniquely can help with or fix. And I want you to get very specific. It's not just about reading your product or your service description, but how it will be used by Leo in whatever capacity he needs to use at home or office. How he will use it will frame how you will talk about it. Why should he choose your product or service over one that's being offered by somebody else, especially if yours is more expensive for that, you need to look a little bit closer at who Leo is. Where does he live? Yes, the geographic location is important if you're targeting a certain area. But that's not all that I'm talking about. Is it a house? Is it an apartment? Does he own or rent? Does he have a lot of space to himselves. Is a tiny space a premium? Is he living in New York City? Is it noisy? All of those answers, all of those questions could impact whether someone is your ideal customer. And then how you talk to them, how you decide to talk to them. If you're selling products for home chefs, you need to know are you selling to people that have a lot of pantry space or that have two micro cabinets under the sink? Because it changes how you talk to them and it changes your value proposition and lets them know if your product or service is optimal for them. Let's, let's think about social economic status, socioeconomic status. If one of the selling points of your product or your service or your brand is affordability, then your customers got to value that. There are some people who will choose the more expensive option because they like the status. It's why they choose a Louis Ton versus something from Target, although Target has some good stuff, all right? But you want to make sure that affordability is the key, right? And you can't assume that your customers have exactly the same. Values as you do. You want Leo to be somebody who's following a budget or maybe somebody who is worried about making it from paycheck to paycheck depending on your service. At the other end of the spectrum, if your product or service is luxury, you want Leo to be able to afford it. And the ability to appreciate the quality, just like that example I gave you, age can also be an important factor. You need to use completely different language and maybe appeal to totally different needs depending on whether Leo's 25 or 65. And maybe Leo's a woman, maybe he is Leona. And maybe whatever you're selling works for any gender or however anybody identifies, but beyond the basics, Right? Age, money, location, et cetera, gender. Think about Leo's life. Does his employment? Does his career have an impact on the decision that he's making an impact on? Informing him or her about why he or she is your ideal customer. Does where Leo work impact his decision? The number of brands that are now directly pitching to people who work from home especially recently shows you just how important it is to answer that particular question. Outside of work, think about interests. Is there a certain lifestyle that your brand caters to? Are you looking for people who have a certain hobby? All of these things are factors when you're deciding on your ideal customer. When you're finding your Leo or whoever it is, you've got to get as specific as possible because you want to make this person and anybody like them feel seen. You're using language that resonates with them. Maybe you know them so well, you're using their own words. When you are targeting a specific audience, you are trying to make sure that they feel seen and understood, that you are their trusted advisor or product provider, or service provider. You're telling them that their problems and their needs are not unusual, that they're not unwarranted, and that you can help them. You can provide the transformation. For instance, one of the audiences that I target when it comes to video creation are business owners who know the importance of video, but they're not sure how to use it. Some of them think it's too complicated, think they don't have the skill set that they need. I let them know that neither of those is true and that making good videos possible. It's also easy with a little bit of help, for example, and there are some outliers. But when I created this course and I knew I was going to be creating other videos and digital ads and social media, and hosting webinars and stuff to promote it, that my audience had to be usually old enough that they didn't grow up on a camera, but not so old that the idea of a digital course was lost on them or they didn't see the value. I had to straddle that, those two age demographics if you will, and figure out where exactly that sweet spot is. Now targeting your audience isn't just about finding the people that you want to work with, but with finding people that want to work with you. It's not just important that they want to work with you. You've got to work with them back and forth. Who do you want them to be? Who do you want to work with? For instance? I don't want to work with somebody who I'm going to have to constantly sell or convince on the power of video. It's clear to me and to a lot of people about the value. I don't need to constantly be educating somebody who's a complete newbie. And I also don't want to work with somebody who just wants one viral clip. I know that that's not a result that is going to be lasting or meaningful. And I'm not going to turn either of those people into raving fans, and we're both going to likely be left feeling defeated. I want people who understand that it's work, that it's worthwhile, and that they're willing to do it. I'll give you another example. I mentioned this in one of my prior modules. I landed a multi six digit client by putting video content out on linked in. Honestly was the first big corporate client that I worked with. And I thought that my content was not anywhere near sophisticated enough. They're not professional videos, they are things I've shot myself. I thought my content wasn't nearly sophisticated enough to land a client like that. What they told me was our huge message, our tent pole, if you will, in our corporation, is a authenticity and relatability. We don't want to be super slick and polished. We want to be real. And guess what? My video content drew them to me and as scared as I was about working with them, they're an amazing client and they were already worn. Because the type of video that I put out, every post I put out to potential customers are going to try and reach them. Lets them know those elements of who I am and how I work there. Reaching people that I'm not even aware that they're reaching. You can do the same. Identifying your audience makes it so much easier to form and clarify your messaging because after all, they are the reason you're doing this. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next. 7. Writing your Mission Statement: Writing your mission statement. Yes. It is time to get cracking. I know it sounds serious, but you can do this. It is not like your will, I promise you. It might even be fun. You've already identified all of the elements of your mission statement, right, in the last couple of lessons. You know who you are, you know what you do, why you do it, who you do it. For now, you have to figure out how specifically to phrase it. Your mission statement should not be that long. The suggested length is actually in the title statement. It is not a mission pamphlet or a mission encyclopedia. Start with the basic mission statement structure. I do this because of this for these people. In this way, for example, I help business leaders understand and optimize the power of video to effectively speak to their customers and enhance their interactions. Simple, straightforward, not a lot of Pina. A couple of ways to spice it up without a lot of effort. Answer a couple of questions, keeping in mind the four parts of your mission statement. Which is who you are, what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for. Here's some of those questions that you should be thinking about. How do you do what you do? Why do you do it? What benefit do you give customers? What problem do you help them solve? What sets you apart from others? How are you different from others? The answers to all of those questions will be the same, but they'll help you find the language that you want to use to form that mission statement. Take a little bit of time to think outside of the box. The mission statement for Starbucks is to inspire and nurture the human spirit. One person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time. You may think, well, I don't like Starbucks, or that's a little bit weird for a mission statement, but it has all the parts and clearly it's working for them. Who are they? Starbucks. What do they do? They sell things in cups. Coffee. Why do they do it? To make people happy. Make them feel nurtured and inspired. Who do they do it for? They do it for everyone. Everywhere, one neighborhood at a time. Now, you don't have to be Starbucks, but I am saying that you can incorporate that creativity when it comes to your mission statement. Your mission statement is how you start to build trust with your customers and your potential customers. It should also inform every message you send and how you send them. As a reminder, in your client portal, you will find key takeaways, action items, quizzes, and maybe a video assessment. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next module. 8. Writing for the Ear: Writing for the ear, The tricky thing about video is that as humans, we are really bad listeners. That fact should dictate every part of what you write and how you write. Especially if you're putting together longer format content. It's pretty easy for someone to maintain their attention for 9 seconds or 15 minutes. It's verbose and confusing. There is not a chance in, you know what, that somebody is sticking around to the end. This video is longer form. You can probably expect your audience to remember about a quarter of what you've said. Frankly, probably a little bit less than that. So how do you make sure that they retain the most important parts, right? This is structuring your content so that it's memorable. And I use something that I call the rule of three. It's not just me that calls it that. It's pretty much every professional in the content creation space or in the creative space. It's a pattern that gives your audience a mental framework if you want to get meta for a moment. It's showcased in this particular expression about content. One, tell them what you're going to tell them. Two, tell them, and then three, tell them what you told them. It operates off the idea that we as humans are hard wired to remember patterns. Three is the smallest number that you can have and create a pattern. How do you apply this on camera? Again, it's not as applicable for short format videos, but it is applicable for webinars and maybe digital ads, and certainly for landing pages and video sales letters, et cetera. The way that you apply this is by knowing your core message and then your three main points. Your core message is the one thing that your audience has to remember above and beyond anything else. We talked about this in the last module. The core message is where you begin any preparation, but the rule of three template is a tool that you can use to craft just about any message, whether it's on camera or off. And it looks a little bit like this. You've got your core message and then you've got supporting 0.1 Maybe you have three subpoints down here, and then you have supporting 0.2 and you may have another three sub points down there. And then at the most, you have supporting 0.3 and you maybe have another three sub points down there. Using that template allows you to expand or cut based on the time that you have and the content that you want to talk about. 9. Why You Need to Read Out Loud: Why do you need to read whatever it is that you are preparing out loud? Anytime that you write something that you are going to be delivering by speaking a speech, a presentation, something on camera, you must read it out loud. It is the only way to know where those trouble spots, those unintended tongue twisters and those weak spots are. I'll give you a little bit of an example. I proved a new script without reading it out loud. It was about the car, the Nissan Rogue. As I read the script in my head, it all looked great. And you can read much quicker in your head than you can when you're speaking out loud. You miss a lot of stuff. But when I read the script out loud on the air, I realized too late that there was a typo. The writer had written Nissan Rouge, two letters simply that had been transposed. But it changed the meaning of the sentence and it talked about a make of car rather that didn't exist. Looking at the script, I didn't see the error. Reading out loud is where I did. Let me give you another example. The word integral, or integral, is a great example of unexpected challenges. You probably know what it means. The issue that I just highlighted, that there are two pronunciations of it, integral and integral. When you're reading out loud, let's say on a prompter, your brain's got to make a split second decision about how to say it and that causes errors, A botched pronunciation, or an awkward not powerful pause. A couple of tips on how to write that you are writing for the ear, and we're going to dive a little bit into what exactly that means. Write short sentences if they're too long your audience can't follow if you have more than one and you've probably got two sentences, one thought per sentence, tip two, right in the active tense, avoid the surgery was performed by the Dr. make it the Dr. performed the surgery instead. Use contractions. Tip four, if you're not sure how you would say something in a conversational way ad lib, speaking the information into a voice recorder. And then use what you hear to guide you. 10. Finding the Right Messages and Content: Finding the right messages and content at the heart of every piece of video or any content, really are two questions. Who are you talking to? What do you want them to know? It sounds really easy, I promise you. It's not. Both of those questions are bigger than they seem. I'll give you an example. If you are a woman's shoe store, you can't simply answer women and tell them that you sell shoes. You need to know exactly the kind of woman that you're wanting to reach. How much money does she have? Are the athletic shoes, are they stilettos? Are the birkenstocks, Tory Burch and exactly what it is that she's looking to get out of them, so you know what to say to make her buy them. So it's simple, but not really. How do you do all that and how do you do it over and over again for every single piece of content that you're making, video or otherwise, how do you come up with that message? We're going to start with some basics on messaging and go into strategy. First of all, the brand persona. Who are you? How do you want to appear to your customers? How do you want them to feel when they think about you or your company? Are you classy, fun, professional educated, sporty? We talked about building your brand persona around those feelings. You're on camera persona around feelings When you're developing messaging, whether it's a video script, a Facebook ad, print ad, whatever it is, it needs to align with your brand persona, with its mission, and with its aims. When you're doing all of that, remembering that consistency as it goes to building this is important. And I know we've touched on this before, but it's worth touching on. Again, your audience should never wonder if something's coming from you or your business. It should be obvious from the very first glance, it's your image, your, the words that you use, your tone, your overall look. And not only will that help your audience recognize posts when they're on social, but anywhere else that they come across them as well. Additionally, it'll help create a framework for you to work within. When you're creating all of this video, you won't have to recreate the wheel or reinvent the wheel every time you get in front of the camera. All of your messaging needs to be direct. Needs to be to the point. You don't want your audience to guess what you're trying to tell them. You're not Selena's name, right? Think it did. You're not schimelen. There's not going to be, nor should there be, very often. Anyway, a surprise twist, unless you're diving into a story. And the surprise is the element that resonates with your audience. And I also want you to be as specific as possible. Every piece of content doesn't need to cover your entire business plan and your mission statement. In fact, I would say those two things down. Put me to sleep. Focus on one aspect or one item per piece that you're writing. That way your audience doesn't get confused, doesn't get overwhelmed. Because when either of those things happen, they are tuning out. And it does not matter whether you offer to give $1 million to the first person who DMs you at the back end of that video. By the way, little tes like that's a great way to keep people sticking around. We all like to think that our business or our products are the very best or the most original out there. And we like to think that maybe there's a little bit of imposture syndrome that creeps in that prevents us from feeling that way. But you should be bringing the hype. You have to buy into the hype. We love the hype, but don't overdo it. There is a boundary between truth and not truth, and it's very tempting to cross it, but you are going to spend all of your time answering customer complaints and dealing with crappy reviews. And you should be spending that time making video. So don't make promises in your videos that you know you're not going to be able to keep. I've joined more than one Facebook group where I was promised a very engaging community and a lot of direct feedback from the coach. And the last post was like five months ago. And if I ask a question, it takes another five months for somebody to answer me. And by the way, it's not the coach, it's just somebody else who's a client, who happens to be in there, which is fine, that it's good to have community. But you get my point, right? That's irritating. You want to grab your audience's attention early and quickly. So that goes back to being direct. And to the point within a couple of seconds of viewing your video, your audience should know why you're talking to them and what you want them to do. Take time to make sure that your message is creative. That it's eye and, or ear catching. And that sounds like a, you may be rolling your eyes. I roll my eyes when I see the exact same content presented the same way by different companies. You're basically commoditizing yourself when you do that. One of the biggest mistakes, and I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again, is that you blend in to the crowd business. Video is usually so dreadfully boring. Product video is often more about the producer's ego than it is about the audience. So stand out, don't be boring. And lastly, always include a call to action. You want to tell your audience what you want them to do, because without that, your content is pointless. I like to say it and display it. The words come out of my mouth. The caption is on the screens, for example. For example, watch this segment to the end to get tips on writing calls to action that never lose. See what I did there now. Hopefully will stick around to the end unless I lied, which will take that part out. Now that we've talked about how to message, I want to talk about what to message. You probably already have plenty of sources of topics and content around you. Products you've developed, maybe services you offer, awards you've won testimonials and social proof. All of those are content sources. So a previous advertising that you've done, publications you've produced or been in sales, you have made, then beyond all of that is everything that you're dying to still produce. Before you do it though, let's organize all of that stuff into an understandable way that will help you optimize and reach your business goals. Strategy, which is what this come downs to, which is what this comes down to, excuse me, depends on organization. One of the most common ways to organize what you're doing is with content pillars or buckets. I talked a little bit about that at the beginning of the course. I want to talk about pillars here. Pillars are broad, overarching themes in which you organize your topics around creating these pillars. Organizing those pieces around them will help you stay organized and focus on creation. That way you know how much content am I doing that is inspirational? How much is overcoming a doubt? How much is selling? How much is storytelling? Should all be storytelling, but you get the idea. If you don't have this structure, it's super easy to get scattered and then you're doing things over and over again or chasing your tail. And then eventually you lose steam. Thinking of content pillars is like what your kids do when they sort out their Halloween candy. Makes it easier to see what you have. Makes it easier to see what you need or what you wish you would have picked up more of. Ideally, you're coming up with four or five content pillars. And again, they're really broadly based, you will create sub pillars beneath them. But for example, I talk about competence, I talk about entrepreneurship, I talk about being on camera, I talk about live. Those are my four main content pillars. And then underneath them, I talk about the sub pillars that I've created for them. So let's say you have a couple of really distinct customer bases. Each one of those audiences could potentially be a pillar. Or you could create a pillar for all of your product lines or your services or your motivation or inspiration. Maybe it's frequently asked questions or company basics and those would usually fall into something along the lines of facts or value or doubt racing posts, It doesn't matter exactly how you organize them, as long as they make sense to you and as long as they help you move forward. Now, this applies almost exclusively to social. Yes, you will use your content pillars if you are creating a video podcast and you may talk about some of your pain points on a video sales letter. But they're likely not going to be what you create a log about, or not all of them anyway. When I do a log, I'm usually doing very tactical tutorials and demonstration. 11. Every Day in Small Quantity: Every day in small quantity. You know the expression about Rome not being built in a day. Either's your video, presence or your strategy. It takes time, it takes work. There will be a little bit of tweaking and learning as you go. But the very best way to do that is to work little by little every single day. I did say every day. I said it before, and I'll probably say it again before this course is over. Doing those reps is how you improve. Think of the things that you do on a daily basis. You're probably really good at them. Now think of what you do when you're learning a new skill you practice. The more you practice, the faster you improve. It's why you did math homework every night or why your kid does math homework every night. And why apps, like a lingo, send users push notifications every day, reminding them to spend 10 minutes once a day learning. Because that practice is the key to learning any new skill. Just like ride and bike. And yes, video creation and being on camera is a skill some may take to it quicker than others. Some may get lucky and have a video that takes soft as part of one of their very early efforts. But for most of us, success comes from learning the craft and putting in the work. Even people who look like they're naturals from the very beginning benefit from practice. The late great Kobe Bryant once said that Shaquille O'neal could have been the greatest basketball player of all time. He said he wasn't though because although Shaq was naturally gifted, Kobe said he didn't have the work ethic to live up to full potential that he had always put in the work to be the best. Yes, Shaq was still good. But now I'm sure that you're probably stuck, or there's a good chance anyway, that you're probably stuck on that whole every day thing. I want to talk about that for a second. What do you think that working on your video skills daily can do for you? That working on them every other day or every three days won't. First of all, it makes it a little bit easier to commit because if you're doing something for a couple of minutes a day, it's a lot less daunting than doing something for an hour every three days. Yes, it is the exact amount of time overall, but breaking it up into those smaller segments makes it feel a little more doable. Plus there is less backslide between sessions. That type of regimen a little each day makes burnout less likely. If you're practicing more often for shorter lengths of time, you're going to keep your enthusiasm up and you're not going to hit the wall day after day helps prevent the feeling of drudgery. Why do you think doctors tell people to do shorter exercise sessions, but do them more often for that exact same reason? Additionally, if you break your work into shorter segments, make it more likely that you'll remember what you learned during that time. There's some psychology behind that. It's called distributed practice. Researchers find that people who do that, researchers find that people are more likely to remember what they're learning if the lessons are broken into shorter segments, rather than if they are taught all at once. Since you're new to video creation and being on camera and just figuring out the ropes, you don't want those Aha moments to get lost. If you're doing it daily, you will make sure that they do not. And it will also, as I mentioned, make it a little bit easier to build on them, how the more you perform a skill, the easier it gets. We're going to go back to that exercise example. When you first start running or lifting or whatever, it takes your body longer to warm up your muscles. Maybe they don't do all the things you want them to. They can't do them, they don't know how to do them. But that changes as you continue. Your skills as a video creator will change as the time goes on as well. You'll master the basics, you'll see how they support more advanced skills that you can use. Then those basic skills will also become easier. You can put flourishes on them and experiment and make them their own daily work will help you improve your skills. It will decrease the likelihood of you burning out. It'll make it easier for you to use what you learn. It will also do something else, very important. It will help you build up your video library. Yes, I said video library. What is that? Let me give you an example. Unlike learning Spanish or training for a marathon, when you're creating videos, you actually end up with a tangible product that you can use to promote yourself, your brand, your business, whatever it is that you want to set like a thing, you have something to use. Yes, a lot of them will be trash, especially the early ones, and you're going to delete them right away, but some of them will be usable. Even if you just on social media or in a presentation later on, you are creating products that help you build every single day. I don't know if you're familiar with Austin Cleon. He's an artist. He is a bestselling author. He wrote the book Steel Like an Artist, wrote a couple of other books as well. But his advice to artists wanting to be discovered is always the way to get found out is to make yourself findable. It sounds simple, right? You're creating video every day to make yourself more findable and to nurture your audience and your clients or potential clients through all stages of your funnel and in all parts of their buying journey, you're increasing your presence, your authority. You're setting up yourself as the go to expert, broadening your footprint. All of that makes it more likely that people will find you and that you will be able to nurture them effectively. It's not about being more findable for people that are looking for stuff that you're making, but also being discoverable for people who are not necessarily looking for it or have no idea what they're looking for. We live in a time when media, it is consumed at a furious pace. That's understating it dramatically. People are always looking for new stuff to inform and entertain them. For the most part, they're looking for a video and you should be the video that they find. There's no rule that says your video is only for the audience that you made it for, for whom you specifically designed it. And you never know when somebody is going to stumble across it, enjoy it, and then share it with somebody else. Now, that chance is not what dictates what you say or how you say it, it is just letting you know. I'm letting you know that when you're creating for social media, you are basically opening the door to the party that is your business and you are bringing people in. It is always written for somebody who is your ideal client, but somebody may stumble across it, who had no idea that this was a thing and now they're interested in what you do and they see that it could help them. It's not just about getting notice though, it's or it can be also about building partnerships and then expanding your network. If you're putting out videos, you're telling other people that are in your field. I'm here in a way that updating your work history on linked in or your resume or attending a conference probably can, certainly not in the first two. And depending on the conference, maybe it gives that person a better idea of what you're about and what you have to offer. And it can also give them ideas about how working together could be beneficial for everybody. Because creator crossover videos or affiliate marketing are usually a hit. There's no downside to putting this out. Putting out new video and putting out new video is more likely to happen when you're working on creating it every single day. I'm going to give you an idea of how this played out for me. When I first started with Instagram stories, I was unsure. I was used to shooting long form, fully produced videos came from a news background. I had zero idea what would work. I questioned every decision I made and I did not know if it was going to succeed. Aside from the fact that most of my followers on Instagram, especially in the early stages of my business, where people who were following me because they saw me on TV, not likely. An ideal customer engagement was low with that audience. Especially when I first started. I didn't know if it was going to work. I did wanted to, so I started working at that. Specifically, every day, no matter if I looked awful, had nothing to say, my kids were driving me crazy. I took a couple of minutes, I shot something, and then every day that I did that, I got a little bit better at it. And I figured out what angles were best for me or what topics we're getting the most feedback. And then I started playing with some of the bells and whistles like polls and questions and live segments. And using that and what people were saying to me to inform other things that I would create. Again, not just social media, but video sales, letters, webinars, et cetera, I started doing single videos. Then I began to make multi installment or series instructional pieces. And then I archived those pieces to my home page, pin them or. Put them into highlights and I use those to give people examples of my work when they ask about other things, courses or other services. Heck, I turn myself into a gift or a jiff. We had that discussion before soon making Instagram stories became an easy, super regular part of my routine and now a huge part of promoting my business. And then I was able to meet other people in my field or who are in my target audience who saw my stories and reach out about either a purchase or a partnership. And all of that happened because I made a point to work at it every day. I made it a habit, I built my skills, I put myself out there. And yes, it's daunting to think about creating a new video every day. Even if you're making a couple of short clips, how do you come up with enough things to say? Again, we're going back to the planning part. You're going to start with the reason that you want to make these videos. There's got to be a reason. What are you trying to let people know about that message? What aspects related to it are most important for them? And then you're going to go through your business basics and make them more accessible by turning them into videos. You're not giving away company secrets, but you are giving people a sense of what you do, the approach to your industry, some of the best practices that you think your audience needs to know. Think about the first thing you tell a new client to get them interested in hiring you. And then you are saying those things in an appropriate way on camera. When it comes to shorter videos, specifically for social media, you're going to reach into that bag of tricks. You're going to pull out some of the one liners that you use when you explain what you do, why you love it. Interesting facts about it, the transformation, that thing. If you're worried that plain fact is too boring to use in a video, remember that there's a guy on Tiktok who built an entire channel showing how he mixes various colors of paint at the hardware store. Right now, facts data, statistics, not usually the greatest content for social media posts, but you may have an FAQ on your website where you answer people's FAQ's with a video. Once you've exhausted the things that you think people should know, move on to what people usually ask you and answer those things on camera. And maybe you can include a demo or a tutorial, because action is helpful, creates visual interest. Then you can expand the scope of those questions that you answer by researching really commonly search terms that are related to your field. If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, Google the name of your field and the word questions, you will be amazed at the things that come up. Especially if you're brave enough to go to the second page of search results. Don't go to page though, You're going to rethink your life choices if you do that. Another place to find video fighters in the things that annoy you. Nobody working in any business or industry doesn't have at least a short list of things that bother them. And you want to find a way to capitalize on that stuff. Because chances are your annoyances are shared by others and would probably strike a chord with some of the people in your audience. So for example, maybe I make a video about how every sweeps promo in television makes it sound like your entire family is about to die a horrible death. Unless you tune in at 11, I could parody that, I could talk about the reasoning behind it. I could compare and contrast the claims in the promos with the actual stories they're promoting. All three of them actually would make interesting videos. Maybe I'll do all three of them and do need some stuff add to my calendar. Anyway, now that you've thought up a whole bunch of content, you're going to plug that into your editorial calendar. Using your pillars, you're going to decide which topics are fully produced pieces, which would be better suited as smaller clips, which are appropriate for ads. Or can you expand on topics for a live workshop or webinar or Livestream? Can you do an interview about one of those topics with the collaborator that would make a great video podcast, Then look to see if any of those things would be good building blocks for a series. Or if there's a couple of topics that play really well together and you should produce them one after the other. So you're leading people down a path or through an experience, right? Your videos are an experience for people. It's not a virtual white paper. It is an experience that you have to build for them. Then you're going to look for videos that you can build upon as time goes on and refer back to because I don't know, maybe there's some changes in your industry or there are some new trends. And you can do a compare and contrast. As you put all of those video ideas in your calendar, you're going to start to see patterns that are emerging and you want to build on those. If you find yourself making a whole string of clips about turning mistakes into opportunities, then schedule those, all of them on a specific day of the week, at a specific time, on a specific platform. Because you're going to turn them into appointment viewing, let your content be the thing that helps you build your video schedule. Now, there are going to be days when you have zero ideas. And there are going to be days when you look at the idea that you've penciled in and think, oh my gosh, Gary, what in the heck were you thinking? Neither of those reactions is a reason not to make a video, at least while you're building your library in your audience. Because sometimes making a video is just about the fact that you took the effort to make it that you care enough about your audience, their interest in you, to check in and interact with them. And that is especially true on social media. It's called social for a reason. A ten second clip talking about projects that you're working on, current events, he showing them your dog will keep them engaged. It'll keep your account showing up in their feeds. Because if you're not doing it for your followers, do it for the Algo. It's the algorithm. Yes. There are some hacks and tactics you can use to try and play the algorithm. If you're posting daily, for example, you're keeping your account active. The algorithms on social, if your content is being watched the like that, they'll make sure that your followers know that you've posted something. But at the end of the day, it's really just about putting good stuff out there. It's not about hacking the algorithm. If your stuff is good, the algorithm will work for you regardless. Now yes, there is something to be said about where and when to post, and we'll talk about distribution in one of the later modules. The more people that interact with whatever you've put out there, the higher it's pushed up in the algorithm, the more the site is probably going to serve it up to other people. There's recommended functions on some platforms for you. Functions. When you don't publish anything that happen and if you don't publish regularly, the algorithm may drop everything you do altogether. Followers don't even know if you're there anymore. You have to stay relevant. And the way to do that is to create and post often. Because if you do not, somebody else will. What about all the times you've done all of those things? Absolutely positively. No doubt about it. Don't ask again. You don't have anything to say. You can still create a video. Sometimes. That's the moment when some of the best videos are made. Remember your first take? Never your final take. You're going to turn on your camera, you're just going to start talking. I like to call this wading into the stream of consciousness. It sounds a little more zen than talking to yourself until you come up with an idea. Walk around your house, see what's going on. Pull a Jimmy Kimmel, see what's in the headlines. Go through your apps. There are things that are trending, I'm sure memes or hashtags. Even if you're posting something that's only marginally adjacent to your topic, you are still posting and you may find an audience. I don't suggest doing this all the time. If it's something that's really bad, then the algorithm is going to notice that as well. The key thing is though, you're not going to know the answer until you start. You never know when a video strikes a chord. Sometimes I'll put tons of effort into something and it falls flat. Other times it'll be a random selfie. I don't know, A bad conversation I just had with somebody and it'll get tens of thousands of views or likes. You remember that skateboarder? He was a commercial skateboarding down the street in Idaho, I think it was. You're looking at it right here listening to Fleetwood Mac drinking cranberry juice. Not at all fascinating. That guy though, turn that little moment of his life into a video that has more than 71 million views as of this recording. I'm sure it's gone up at this point. The only opportunities you miss are the ones that you don't create. While you do want to capitalize on a lot of them, there's sometimes you should set out right, Fashion Nova the day after the 2022 Oscars, right? The infamous, you remember Will Smith, Chris Rock Fashion Nova, sent out a link to a sale saying it slapped and that customers should rock their clothes. It did not get them the O that's so clever vibe that they were going for. There was a Maryland based pizza chain who posted an American flag pizza with the never forget hashtag on 911. Also a bad choice. When you're considering jumping on a meme or a trend, make sure that you are not actually jumping on a grenade. Remember, people who are finding you on social media are likely to be a colder audience. If they are just discovering you or becoming aware of you, it is very easy. Lose them much harder to keep them Tread lightly when you're thinking of putting something out there that could be misconstrued by somebody who doesn't know you. Taken as sarcasm or being snarky. By the way, sarcasm very rarely works in video. I happen to be a sarcastic person in real life, I can be anyway. It doesn't work on video. Trust me, one of the best things about how quickly media is created and consumed is the wide variety of platforms that are available to share. That was variety of platforms that are available to share it. Because of that, you can use so much stuff without looking like you're repeating yourself. Use the same thing on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Linked. In any platform where you have an audience now, yes, Some prioritize vertical over horizontal. That's changing. If you're on Linked in, you'll see a lot of videos that are now vertical. It wasn't all that long ago that that was a noo, you never did that. It was not professional. Now the rules are changing. People are looking at entertainment like videos for social in order to build awareness. There are platforms like Twitter that the shelf life of something you put out there is so fast, you can share it multiple times in one day, often without it feeling like overkill by sharing the same stuff on different platforms. Not always and not every platform. But if it's appropriate and the audience message is similar, you're getting more bang for your buck. And you're also expanding your reach by targeting different audiences. Take that into account when you're posting the headline. And the hashtags that you use on Instagram may not be the same headline and hashtag that you use on Twitter. Think about the people that you know are in that particular audience and then change up the language in a way that will speak most effectively to them. The only thing that I would advise is that you do not share the same videos across all platforms on the same day unless it's something very specific, like a lunch or an event. People switch back and forth because they like to see new stuff. They feel let down when the same stuff is on Facebook, is on Instagram, is on Youtube. And why should they follow you on all of those platforms if it's just the same stuff all at the same time? We've talked about recycling content, but I want you to know that you can also recycle ideas. This helps you create new content without reinventing the wheel every single time you post. Now, a lot of podcasts are built on this model. And by the way, podcasts are fantastic. They don't rely on an algorithm at all. We'll talk more about podcasting later, but they do the exact same stick week after week, and then they swap out the central topic. Not a podcast, but I used to have an Instagram series called that Sucks. Get back Up. And in each video I tell a story when I took a really tough blow in my career. But instead of being knocked down, walking away, I turned it into a learning experience and a move on. And then I started interviewing other people about their own. That sucks, get back up moment. It's the same type of stuff every time I do it. But it's a different story then even if I'm not doing an interview with somebody specifically for that. There may be a story that I share from somebody who DMed me in the audience. I tell you this not only so you'll check out all my videos, but as an example of how I have made the concept of recycling an idea work for me. Because it reduces a lot of that pressure that you feel by having to post and feeding the beast, if you will, coming up with new content. But it also gives my audience and we'll give your audience a familiar feature to anticipate, right? Maybe they'll head to my page and see if there's installment. I don't do it anymore. But video content creation is the key to building your video library, right? You also improve your skills as a creator. You can start conversations with others in your industry, your field. You grow and engage your audience. You can network. Yes, the bulk of the heavy lifting will be achieved with, no, I don't want to use this. There will be some wonderful, fully produced, very well planned videos, for example, ones that you need to have some durability. A brand video, for example, that lives above the fold on your website. But the importance of these smaller videos that you can create on the fly, again, for all of the different stages of your customer buying journey, do not underestimate them. Those are the things that lead to growth that help you become an expert and also endear your self in your business, to your audience. And all it takes, honestly, once you get it down a couple of minutes a day. 12. Scripted or Unscripted: Scripted or unscripted to script, or not to script. That is the question. It's the question for this video. Anyway, the answer is not always as clear as you think. Before we jump into all of that, I want to highlight a key concept that will dictate how you write it, whether you write it, how you say it. It'll help you inform what topics make good videos and what topics. Here is the key concept. Write the way you speak. It is the first and foremost tenant of broadcast writing. And that is what, in essence, you're doing with video. It's a broadcast, whether it's social webinar, podcast, virtual event, a webcast, a live stream, whatever it is. Here's what I mean, a long sentence, even it goes back and forth that's designed to be read. Meaning it's written for the eye, it's oftentimes fine. But take that same sentence and try and speak it out loud. It usually doesn't work. One of the reasons is if it's really long, the speaker is out of breath at the end. Business language is often just like that. Second example. It is written without any idea or concept of it being delivered orally. Think about every time you hear somebody introduce somebody on a podcast or stage, or an event, they basically read their bio, Something that's taken right from the company website nine times out of ten. It is lengthy and it is awkward. It's the same concept. Here's a quick hack. If you're having trouble figuring out how to write something conversationally, add lib, talking about it as if you were speaking to a friend into a voice recorder. And then listen and let that guide you. All right, let's talk about why you would write a script, why you wouldn't write a script, how you figure out if you need one for your video. There's a couple of types of videos where a script is recommended. All right? How to videos? Commercials. Certainly digital ads, maybe a webinar, or the main points of a webinar. But what if your video is not one of those? There are questions that you can ask. Is it a video where details are important? Do you need to leave the audience with a very specific message? If that's the case, you probably want to write a script. The same is true if you're shooting a video where you're trying to capture a moment or you're trying to use humor. A script allows you to choreograph those moments and that dialogue, you get the set up, the reaction that you want. Obviously, you're also going to write a script. If you have another person involved who you need to say something specifically, that way you know what that speaker, or maybe you have a few of them will say. And you don't have to worry about stuff being repeated or accidentally being left out. And it'll stop people from talking over one another as well. I'm thinking here about interviews, virtual events, that sort of thing. You're also going to want to use the script if you're looking at a really high level of production, If there's multiple cameras, if you're shooting multiple scenes, if you've got a crew, a script is going to make sure that everybody's on the same page and everybody is working on creating the same vision. Now, time is another factor when you're figuring it out. If you need or want to script. If you're on a super tight timetable, you don't have time to improvise and find what works, you just need to get your video shot and move on. We're going to cover the steps to writing a good script in another video. If you do have time to improvise and work through issues. You do have time to improvise and work through issues and you want a more authentic feeling clip. Maybe it's better for you to do something that's unscripted. Going unscripted is a really good option as well, if you're dealing with somebody who has trouble reading scripts. And maybe that troubles you or somebody who's already really nervous about being on camera. There's a couple of types of video that should pretty much always be unscripted. Client testimonials. I want you to think like late night infomercials where you know it's a paid actor and it's very clear that the testimonial is a script. All credibility is lost. Other things that are unscripted, behind the scenes videos, videos that are introducing, maybe members of your team. Community outreach videos, if you're scripting any of those, they come off as stilted or canned or fake. Now, that doesn't mean that there's not specific things. For example, when you're introducing a member of your team that you want them to hit on or that you want to ask, but you're not reading word for word. However, unscripted in all of those cases, testimonials, behind the scenes video introducing your team, unscripted does not mean you're not planning it. There's a couple of ways that you can plan a video and still basically leave it scripted. The first and the most common is an interview, and I mentioned that just a couple of seconds ago, We're all pretty familiar with that. I think one person asks a question, the other person answers them. The questions, they're probably prepared at least a little bit beforehand. The person who's answering has maybe done a little bit of preparation as well. I'm going to redo that. The first and most common is an interview, and you're probably familiar with that. One person is asking questions, another person is answering them, and the questions have probably been prepared in advance. Once you have that interview footage, you can use it just like it is with the questions and the answers. You can string together soundbites from the answers so you can get like a first person story from the subject. This is something I like to do with business owners who have a story, but they're nervous about reading off a script, or they're new to being in front of a camera. Once they start talking and once they start answering questions, it begins to get very easy for them to tell the stories that they need to and want to to promote their business. It does take a little post production. You basically take the footage, edit the words together into what becomes a cohesive narrative. Now, bullet points are another way to set up an unscripted video. Before you actually begin the shooting, you should be writing out the most important bullet points that you want to hit. In that video, you're thinking about it as preparing for an interview where nobody's really asking you any questions. You can put them on cards, the bullet points. You can write them on a piece of paper. You could put them in a prompter if you have access to it. So you hit them all and you hit them basically in the order that you want to. There are times when you will want to go with even less of a script and bullet points or interview questions, and that's fine, but you still need to have a little bit of direction. You never want to turn the camera on and just shoot. I mean, you can do it for fun or for practice. Usually until you get very good at ad living and you understand your audience, you're probably going to be wasting some time and energy. Let me give you some examples. Let's say you're going to walk through factory floor or your salon floor. Or you're going to walk through your employees office space and get a look at a typical work day. You want to have an idea of what you want to capture. You should know what you need to show your audience. The message, obviously, that you're trying to convey. You will get all of the authenticity that you want, but you also get the video footage that you need to make it really tight. One note about unscripted video. You should plan for longer than you think it's going to take. You should budget more time than you would when you're using a script. Because you're going to need it, it's going to take likely a little bit longer for you to warm up. You may run into some inconsistencies with the content that have to be fixed before you move forward. It doesn't matter what happens though. As long as you can rely on a little bit of extra time, don't crunch yourself. You'll get nervous and flustered and you will give up. Also with any unscripted video, you will probably need some B role role is the visual footage that's not you and your mug, talking to the lens and appearing on camera. Maybe there's, I don't know, a jump cut or something, that doesn't make sense. I want to take that, um, cut story out. Maybe you need to cover a spot where there was a mistake that needed to be edited out, but the rest of the take was fine, that B role is an insurance policy, that your video will look professional and still natural, whether your video is scripted or unscripted. There's a really important element that you cannot forget to include and that is your call to action. How do you want your audience to feel at the end of the clip and what do you want them to do with that feeling? A call to action can be really direct. Buy this product now. Or it can be really subtle, an invitation to reach out. It doesn't matter if your video is scripted or unscripted. It has to have the CTA without it. Your video is just pretty pictures. Other parts that you need to plan. Titles, intro, blurbs, text, closed, captions. Without those elements, your video will look incomplete and it'll be out of context wherever you're posting it to. Take some time, put a little thought into those elements. We're going to talk about optimizing your video on different social media channels in another module. If it feels like a video is going to go a little bit long, you may want to consider cutting it into smaller clips and then writing separate scripts for each of them. A good rule of thumb, the average rate of speech is about three words per second. An average minute of delivered video content is about 180 words. Let's move on from outlining and get into the actual scripting process. In some cases, the outline is actually where that scripting stops. If you don't think that you need to write a dialogue, then a really good, well fleshed out important outline is probably all you need. This works most often in the cases of videos where you're doing an interview or a demo. Or you want a video to feel a little bit more free form or slice of life. But if you're shooting a video where the information needs to be exact or there are multiple elements that are coming into play. You will probably want to make that script a little more in depth, a little bit longer. Before you write a single word, make sure you're speaking the language of your audience. Do not let your message get lost in translation. You've got to use words they understand, Recognize their knowledge and experience level. If you're getting technical or you're using jargon that they don't know, they're out. Nobody wants to feel stupid, like they don't understand something that you're saying. Make every word that you say accessible. Do not write long, drawn out sentences. If you're the only person on camera, you're still not a one man show. Your audience is there with you. And what you're saying needs to feel like a conversation, not a lecture. What tone do you want to take? Is it an instructional video? Is it something more lighthearted? Are you speaking as an expert, as an insider? Who are you going to be in this video to? Your audience? And how does that person speak? Think about specifically who you're speaking to in that video. Remember that avatar that I told you we used to use in the newsroom when we couldn't figure out how to write a script that was appropriate to that particular audience. Sometimes now even I'll do a rough sketch of who my target viewer is so that I can picture who I'm talking to. And I can tailor my language in a way that makes sense to them and resonates with them. What words would they use? I'll use those words back to them. Maybe I change the jokes that I make. Maybe I change some of the references that I use. All of that work is worth it to make sure that I'm as best a possible connection as I can with whomever is watching. Now it's time to write. Yes, you've already been writing. But it's time to actually do the serious writing, flesh out exactly what it is that you're going to say. And no, not every word is going to be perfect. You basically just want to start getting words onto the page that you're expanding, that you're explaining the points in your outline, every idea that you put down on that page. Well, I hate to say never, ever, and always, because usually that makes a liar out of me. But rough guideline is no idea is a bad idea right now. You'll discover the bad ones later, You'll edit them out. For now, you are doing a brain dump as you are writing. Try reading it out loud. You are going to be saying these things on camera. Start saying them now, do they flow? Are there places where you stumble, where the meaning is getting lost? Do you understand what you're saying? If you are having trouble, don't go further down the path, back up and start over again. Pay close attention to your transitions so you feel clunky as you're moving from step to step idea to idea. Or are you moving your viewer through point, from point, step by step idea to idea? While the words of your script are important, they're definitely not the only element. You can use visual elements to increase the visual intrigue or to help smooth out those, perhaps clunky transitions. Maybe it's an animation or a little bit of sound or some music. In the news business, we call it a stinger. It's how you go from one story to the next when there's not a lot of room for transitions. Most script templates are broken into two columns. There's one on the right hand side, that's the words that are being spoken. Then the one on the left goes through the visuals that are going to go along with them. You don't have to write your script out that way, unless you have a news application or a broadcast writing application on your computer, you're probably not even going to have that option. At least in a way that makes sense, especially on a teleprompter. But the visuals that you're going to use for the script, there should be some ideation of that. Maybe you want to include scene descriptions, especially if you're going to be handing this script over to somebody else to edit. Or maybe somebody else, maybe you want to include scene descriptions, especially if somebody else is going to be editing this for you. And by the way, if you're ever looking to outsource a portion of your video creation, editing is where you should spend your money. In short, your script is a complete blueprint of your finished video. You should be able to give it to five different people with no additional instruction. And all five of them should understand what it is that you're doing. And edit, or create basically the same video or get the same message out of it. You'll also be better prepared going into post production because you know you will have gotten all the shots that you need. This is something called storyboarding. You'll know the shots, you'll know the elements that you're not going to be able to get video of and that you need to create, and basically how you want to put it all together. Now this is getting a little bit fancy in terms of editing. This is not where you need to start. This is basically laying the foundation for what goes in. I don't like any of that. I'm going to take all of that out. Maybe you don't want to script everything, and as you shoot more videos, you may find that you develop a style and a workflow that makes really precise scripting entirely unnecessary. When you're starting out though, I really recommend in depth scripting to take the guesswork out of your video production and to help you streamline this process as much as you can. There is another great reason to script as much as possible and it's to identify any potentially viral clips or how you want to cut down your video for use on social media platforms. If you have a complete script, you're making sure that you're going to get all the right stuff there. You're not going to be left wishing that you had gotten something else or that you moved in a different way or that you missed an element. Remember a couple of minutes ago when I said that it doesn't have to be perfect as you start writing. Once you have this rough script though, it is time to start perfecting it. So as I mentioned, you're going to start by reading it out loud from beginning to end. You should have been reading as you wrote each section, I told you that. But now is the time to make sure that it really flows out loud from beginning to end, and it's also the time to make sure that you're not repeating or contradicting yourself. A Austin Powers allow myself to introduce myself as you read. You'll probably find spots where the script seems to drag or where the language is wrong, and I want you to be merciless with your edits. I know it's your baby, but I'll tell you what, If that baby isn't working for you, you got to cut him or her out. If it's not working, it's out if it's a point that absolutely needs to be included, rework it. Most likely though, it needs to be shorter and it needs to be more to the point. That's where people make the majority of their mistakes. Reading your script out loud makes it very clear if the language and the tone that you're using will connect with your audience. And that if it's lengthy, you can cut it if the word sounds strange coming out of your mouth on the first read through, they're probably not going to sound better on the 20th. Take the time and rework it. One read through is not enough though when it comes to editing your script. Read through it, make the edits walk away, come back, read it again. That time away actually is probably more beneficial than the time that you're spending at the keyboard. It gives your brain a little bit of time to knock it around. Work out some of the issues that you may be facing, right? I hate that cursor blinking in my face stresses me out. After you feel like you've made as many edits as you can, you are almost entirely sick of looking at your script. Pass it on to someone else to read a second set of eyes will help you in ways like nothing else can I always have at least one other person look over my scripts and take feedback and advice? Sometimes they see things I've missed, sometimes they figure out ways to tighten up sections that drag that I didn't see. Because I'm particularly enamored with a point that I made or something along those lines. They also let me know if humor that I try and use isn't working. If nothing else, that person will confirm that you have created a script perfectly and that you are now filming and moving on to post production. Script writing can feel daunting, especially if you haven't done it before. But you do know your subject matter, you know your core tenets, you know your audience and the message you want to get across. That's the root of a great script. You just need to get it to blossom by putting pen to paper or sitting down at the computer. Follow the process of taking that idea through planning, through outlining, through writing, through editing. And you will be amazed at how quickly your script comes to life. Don't forget quizzes, action items, key takeaways, and video assessment module. After that, I'll see you in the next video, that types of video to master. 13. Script Writing: Script writing, okay? You figured out that you need some script for this particular video. Maybe it's a longer format something or other, and you want to make sure that you don't ramble or go on a tangent. When you decide to film a video, start with a plan. Have I said that before? Maybe once or twice. You can't expect to simply turn on the camera and have something absolutely brilliant come out of your mouth. The longer and the more in depth that video is, the more detailed of a plan that you need. Oftentimes nine times out of ten, or ten times out of ten. A big part of that plan is the script word that scares people. They hear scripts and they think of something that has hundreds of pages, 1000000 revisions, a lot of work. Yes, that is one type of script, but it's not the kind you need. You are going to need a basic blueprint of what you want to say, how you're going to say it, and think about how your audience will receive it. Now, you may not be explicitly writing that last part into your script, but it dictates what you need to be thinking about. The first thing that you need to do when you're starting that scripting process is figure out what your goals are. Why are you making this video? What are you hoping to achieve? Is it education is getting more clients. Is it entertainment? Is it conversion? Is it, you know, a sales webinar or training webinar? What do you need to get out out of it? At the end of the day, is it live, is it recorded? This is going to help you figure out what kind of script you need and then how you're going to put it all together. Now the basics of script writing, Keep it conversational, keep it short, keep it active. Those apply no matter where you are posting content, no matter what you are talking about, no matter what the format is. Those basics are standard operating procedures on every single platform and every single channel. Once you figure out what that broad goal is, then it's time to discover the story. Every script has to have a story period. That's the story is that through line that people are going to be able to follow, to connect to, and to remember later. I don't care if you're doing a video on how to replace the oil in a car. There's got to be a story there. Even if the story is simply, this is when you need to replace the oil in your car, this is how you do it, and this is what will happen if you don't do it properly. That's a story. There's the beginning, a middle, and an end. It takes the viewer from point A to point B. And the part in between those is the story part. It's got to set up action consequences, not going to win an Oscar for screenwriting. But it does have the elements of a story in the basis of a solid script. Lay that story out. What is the beginning? What is the middle? What is the end? What is the driving action and emotion that moves that story along? What details need to be included for everything to make sense, for everything to come together as a narrative? We'll dive a little bit more into storytelling, but right now, you just want to find the best way for you to work out the story for any video. And it's laying out all of the different elements. The aspects, the emotions, the action. Then taking a step back before you are putting it into its final form. Sometimes I find that part of the story that I thought could go later in the script actually needed to be placed a little earlier in order for things to make sense. Whatever that process is, work out the story before you do anything else. And I'm going to give you a little hack here. Something I like to do. Not always, but if it's longer format, I manuscript my entire speech. I do that because when I write something out word for word, I am more able to organize my thoughts. I can see where the flow doesn't work, et cetera. If I can organize my thoughts, it helps me organize the audience's thoughts. Once you have that story, take a second to think about the characters that are involved. Even if you are the only person on the screen, you're probably not the only character. Maybe you want to talk about customers who benefited from A product that you're introducing. Or maybe you want to talk about the person that taught you how to do this thing that you're demonstrating. Or maybe you even discovered that you want to add characters that you didn't know you needed. The customer that you wanted to reference may be better. Talking about the product in the first person, little interplay between you and your mentor. Maybe that adds to the backstory. Find the characters that are involved and figure out do they work together? And can you bring all of those elements together? While you're finding the story and you're identifying the characters, think about the different angles that you could tell that story From which perspective is the most interesting? Remember, just because it's your favorite story doesn't mean it's the best story for your audience. Which perspective is the most interesting and valuable to your audience? To use an example, think about fairy tales. We all know the classics, but we also love it when someone turns those classics on their heads and tells the story from the perspective of the evil stepsister or the bad witch or the fairy godmother. When changing the perspective of your story, make it more interesting. One thing to note here, while changing the perspective, could make something more interesting, could give you a little bit of attention. For being innovative, you do not want to do it. Do not be tempted to do it if the story or the objective suffers because of it. Sometimes you got to be the straight guy or the straight Gal and tell that story straight in order for it to be completely understood over clever. After you've figured out all those objectives, the characters, the angle, put it down on paper and start with an outline or full manuscript. If you want to like something you would do for a book report in school, if you can remember those days, outline how that video is going to flow. Maybe you start with the point of your video. Let the viewers know right at the beginning what you're going to tell them, why they're going to want to pay attention. It's called a hook. Ten ways you can use video to leverage awareness beyond social or something like that. Here's 19 great hooks for your video. What's the one word you need to say in the first 5 seconds to double your reach. Those sorts of things are great hooks. That's the point of the video. You're not going to wait 3 minutes in to let somebody know what your video is all about because they're likely not going to be there that long anyway. If they're confused, write out the topics that you want to cover, the steps that you want to take, and make sure that they flow together, the story moves forward. You don't have to go back and forth and make your viewer or audience do mental gymnastics to keep up with it. Mental gymnastics, they're out, nobody wants to work out a lesson. Maybe recess. Yes. A workout. No. At some point in your script, try to include a call to action. Now, I always talk about putting that call to action or that direct to action at the end. It's the thing that you want your audience to do, the thing that you want them to take away from this. Sometimes you make it obvious, you say it. Hit subscribe, click on the free download. You put the text up on the screen, so it's reiterated that way. But it doesn't have to be that obvious. It doesn't have to be a call now for your free trial, it should be something that your audience can act on, right? Maybe at the end of the video, I want you to be able to write a script. In fact, yes, that is. For instance, at the end of this video, I want you to be able to write a script. And there will be some action items at the end of this lesson as well. Every script needs a good finish. I wish that I could tell you exactly how to do that. Every video is different. All I can tell you is to try and finish on a positive note and leave your audience wanting to come back for more. Once you have the road map, basically of the shape that your video is going to take, then you can start filling in the details and some of the dialogue. Now, there's an important thing to note here as you're outlining that script. Do a little bit of research or take some time to do sometimes a lot of research. Look at other similar clips, see what other creators did, look at how you can improve upon it. What points are they missing that you want to make? What aspects of your story or your expertise are different? And therefore make you stand out what things could be cut for time. What things could cause the forward momentum to leg. Also, if everybody is doing their videos in exactly the same way, how do you make yours stand out? One thing that's going to become obvious as you outline your script is the length that your video will likely be. This is the time to start cutting, because generally speaking, shorter videos are better now, Yes, if somebody is sitting down to watch a demonstration or a tutorial or alive on Youtube, they're usually in for the long haul. Outside of that though, vid yard marketing says videos need to be 2 minutes or less. Only 2% of all business videos are 10-20 minutes long. There's a reason that almost none of them are ten or 20 minutes long. Shorter is better. Less leave them wanting more. And oh, by the way, shorter videos mean that you don't have to maintain your on camera persona or deliver with energy for quite as long. Now, if you're doing a webinar or a live stream or a video sales letter, you're probably going to be, I'm going to cut that out. If it feels like a video is going to go a little bit long, you may want to consider cutting it into smaller clips and then writing separate scripts for each of them. A good rule of thumb, the average rate of speech is about three words per second. Minute of delivered video content is about 180 words. Let's move on from outlining and get into the actual scripting process. In some cases, the outline is actually where that scripting stops. If you don't think that you need to write a dialogue, then a really good, well fleshed out important outline is probably all you need. This works most often in the cases of videos where you're doing an interview or a demo. Or you want a video to feel a little bit more free form or slice of life. But if you're shooting a video where the information needs to be exact or there are multiple elements that are coming into play, You will probably want to make that script a little more in depth, a little bit longer. Before you write a single word, make sure you're speaking the language of your audience. Do not let your message get lost in translation. You've got to use words they understand, Recognize their knowledge and experience level. If you're getting technical or you're using jargon that they don't know, they're out. Nobody wants to feel stupid, like they don't understand something that you're saying. Make every word that you say accessible. Do not write long, drawn out sentences. If you're the only person on camera, you're still not a one man show. Your audience is there with you and what you're saying needs to feel like a conversation, not a lecture. What tone do you want to take? Is it an instructional video? Is it something more lighthearted? Are you speaking as an expert, as an insider? Who are you going to be in this video to? Your audience? And how does that person speak? Think about specifically who you're speaking to in that video. Remember that avatar that I told you we used to use in the newsroom when we couldn't figure out how to write a script that was appropriate to that particular audience. Sometimes now even I'll do a rough sketch of who my target viewer is so that I can picture who I'm talking to. And I can tailor my language in a way that makes sense to them and resonates with them. What words would they use? I'll use those words back to them. Maybe I change the jokes that I make. Maybe I change some of the references that I use. All of that work is worth it to make sure that I'm as best a possible connection as I can with whomever is watching. Now it's time to write. Yes, you've already been writing. But it's time to actually do the serious writing, flesh out exactly what it is that you're going to say. And no, not every word is going to be perfect. You basically just want to start getting words onto the page that you're expanding, that you're explaining the points in your outline, every idea that you put down on that page. Well, I hate to say never, ever, and always, because usually that makes a liar out of me. But rough guideline is no idea is a bad idea right now, you'll discover the bad ones later, you'll edit them out. For now, you are doing a brain dump as you are writing. Try reading it out loud. You are going to be saying these things on camera. Start saying them now, do they flow? Are there places where you stumble, where the meaning is getting lost? Do you understand what you're saying? If you are having trouble, don't go further down the path, back up and start over again. Pay close attention to your transitions. You feel clunky as you're moving from step to step idea to idea. Or are you moving your viewer through point, from point, step by step idea to idea? While the words of your script are important, they're definitely not the only element. You can use visual elements to increase the visual intrigue or to help smooth out those, perhaps clunky transitions. Maybe it's an animation or a little bit of sound or some music. In the news business, we call it a stinger. It's how you go from one story to the next when there's not a lot of room for transitions. Most script templates are broken into two columns. There's one on the right hand side, that's the words that are being spoken. Then the one on the left goes through the visuals that are going to go along with them. You don't have to write your script out that way, unless you have a news application or a broadcast writing application on your computer, you're probably not even going to have that option. At least in a way that makes sense, especially on a teleprompter. But the visuals that you're going to use for the script, there should be some ideation of that. Maybe you want to include scene descriptions, especially if you're going to be handing this script over to somebody else to edit. Or maybe somebody else, maybe you want to include scene descriptions, especially if somebody else is going to be editing this for you. And by the way, if you're ever looking to outsource a portion of your video creation, editing is where you should spend your money. In short, your script is a complete blueprint of your finished video. You should be able to give it to five different people with no additional instruction. And all five of them should understand what it is that you're doing. And edit, or create basically the same video or get the same message out of it. You'll also be better prepared going into post production because you know you will have gotten all the shots that you need. This is something called storyboarding. You'll know the shots, you'll know the elements that you're not going to be able to get video of and that you need to create, and basically how you want to put it all together. Now this is getting a little bit fancy in terms of editing. This is not where you need to start. This is basically laying the foundation for what goes in. I don't like any of that. I'm going to take all of that out. Maybe you don't want to script everything, and as you shoot more videos, you may find that you develop a style and a workflow that makes really precise scripting entirely unnecessary. When you're starting out though, I really recommend in depth scripting to take the guesswork out of your video production and to help you streamline this process as much as you can. There is another great reason to script as much as possible and it's to identify any potentially viral clips or how you want to cut down your video for use on social media platforms. If you have a complete script, you're making sure that you're going to get all the right stuff there. You're not going to be left wishing that you had gotten something else or that you moved in a different way or that you missed an element. Remember a couple of minutes ago when I said that it doesn't have to be perfect as you start writing. Once you have this rough script though, it is time to start perfecting it. So as I mentioned, you're going to start by reading it out loud from beginning to end. You should have been reading as you wrote each section, I told you that. But now is the time to make sure that it really flows out loud from beginning to end, and it's also the time to make sure that you're not repeating or contradicting yourself. A Austin Powers allow myself to introduce myself as you read. You'll probably find spots where the script seems to drag or where the language is wrong, and I want you to be merciless with your edits. I know it's your baby, but I'll tell you what, If that baby isn't working for you, you got to cut him or her out. If it's not working, it's out if it's a point that absolutely needs to be included, rework it. Most likely though, it needs to be shorter and it needs to be more to the point. That's where people make the majority of their mistakes. Reading your script out loud makes it very clear if the language and the tone that you're using will connect with your audience. And that if it's lengthy, you can cut it if the word sounds strange coming out of your mouth on the first read through, they're probably not going to sound better on the 20th. Take the time and rework it. One read through is not enough though when it comes to editing your script. Read through it, make the edits walk away, come back, read it again. That time away actually is probably more beneficial than the time that you're spending at the keyboard. It gives your brain a little bit of time to knock it around. Work out some of the issues that you may be facing, right? I hate that cursor blinking in my face stresses me out. After you feel like you've made as many edits as you can, you are almost entirely sick of looking at your script. Pass it on to someone else to read a second set of eyes will help you in ways like nothing else can. I always have at least one other person look over my scripts and take feedback and advice. Sometimes they see things I've missed, Sometimes they figure out ways to tighten up sections that drag that I didn't see because I'm particularly enamored with a point that I made or something along those lines. They also let me know if humor that I try and use isn't working. If nothing else, that person will confirm that you have created a script perfectly and that you're now filming and moving on to post production. Script writing can feel daunting, especially if you haven't done it before. But you do know your subject matter, you know your core tenets, you know your audience and the message you want to get across. That's the root of a great script. You just need to get it to blossom by putting pen to paper or sitting down at the computer. Follow the process of taking that idea through planning, through outlining, through writing, through editing. And you will be amazed at how quickly your script comes to life. Don't forget quizzes, action items, key takeaways, and video assessments are next up for this module. After that, I'll see you in the next video. 14. Introduction & Mindset: Introduction and mindset before we jump into that MVP. Your VIQ stands for your video IQ, and the essential elements of your successful and compelling on camera delivery. That is the MVP portion. It's your mindset, your vocal variety, and your physical movement or performance. We're going to jump into all of those, but for starters, lesson one is introduction. And the M of the MVP, which is mindset. There's nothing natural about being on camera, but in order to make it work, you need to seem like it is the most natural thing in the world. As I mentioned, there's three main elements that work together to create your on camera persona and delivery mindset, vocal variety, and physical performance. And the easy way to remember that is MVP. In this module, we're talking how to MVP your VQ, your Video IQ. I'm going to give you a quick analogy that frames why delivery is important. Video content is sure it is about substance, but it's also about delivery. And that's about, that has to do with pretty much any other form of media or information that you are consuming. An easy story or analogy I should say, that makes this interesting or understandable is this. Imagine a website that is black text on a white background. There are no visuals. And it is just word after word after word after word after word after word after word. There's no punctuation. There's no clear sentence or paragraph. There's no way to tell visually what the most important information is if you're like me, that monotonous delivery in the form of the visuals of that website is enough to make me move on very quickly. Now imagine you come up to another website and the words are exactly the same verbatim, one after the other. The words are structured identically, however, instead of just word after word after word, there are clearly delineated sentences. And those sentences are grouped in two paragraphs that have to do with individual topics. And maybe the main point is in bold. And if there are listed items, they may be bulleted. And then you may have visuals that include pictures or info graphics or a little bit of video. Which website are you going to stick around and look at? Which one has made the information digestible, easy to understand, and perhaps entertaining. It's website number two. This is exactly the same thing when it comes to your delivery. The words can be exactly the same, but the other elements of your delivery that go along with it, facial expressions, vocal variety, body language, energy, eye contact, all of that, All those physical performances, those are the equivalent of the sentence structure and the paragraph structure, and the bold, and the visuals, and the bulleted items. We went over mindset in module one, and we talked about showing up. We talked about dealing with trolls. We talked about understanding videos importance, but mindset also has to do with you being comfortable, being you, being authentic, being memorable, being relatable. I know authentic is a word that is thrown around all the time, but really what it comes down to is it means that you appear natural, you appear maybe even spontaneous, and you are being your real self. And if you're not comfortable in camera, you're not going to be able to be your real self. Generally speaking, when you're speaking into the camera, it doesn't matter if it's ten people or 10 million. If it's recorded or if it's live, you are always talking to an audience of one. It can be a fairly intimate conversation. You need your viewer to feel as if you're talking directly and only to them. That concept helps shape pretty much everything that you do. Imagine speaking to somebody across an intimate dinner table the same way that you would from a podium on a large stage and vice versa. Neither one is going to work. One would be obnoxious and off putting, the other would have you questioning the speaker's ability and confidence. After you stop straining to hear them, you need to understand both the closeness, the mic is your audience's ear, the lens rather is your audience's eye. And their distance, not just physically, but through the dampening effect from the camera, removing context and turning you a three D person. Into a two D image. If you talk at your audience, you're going to turn them off, you've got to talk with them instead. Now that you understand the psychology behind speaking to the camera, let's use it. You know, the audience is not literally the camera, but it's the person on the other side of the lens and that is the person that you can't see. One of the best ways to bridge that is to visualize one person and talk to that person when you're in front of the camera. Either somebody you know who fits your ideal target audience, maybe it's a member of your team. Maybe if it's an individual, ideal client, a group of potential clients. If you don't know or you don't like anybody in that particular area, think of somebody that you just totally trust, that you totally like somebody you are as free as you can be with and talk to that person. Now if you're in a formal studio setting, let's say it's perhaps a TV appearance, or you're doing some sort of webcast or something like that. You have a couple of additional options because you can talk to the camera operator, you can talk to the host of the show, you could talk to a panelist whoever is in the studio. When I used to anchor newscasts, I would focus on speaking to the producer in the production booth. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her. And we might banter sort of back and forth about the weekend or whatever, before the newscast. And even though I couldn't see that person, I would banter with him or her while I was looking into the camera. And by doing that, I was creating on camera eye contact. And you should do the same thing when you practice. It gets you used to talking to a lens and staying out of your head when you do. We're going to talk more about the importance of energy when we get down to the portion which is physical performance. But for a moment, let's talk more about the importance of mindset when it comes to your energy. Your video and your on camera delivery need to hold your audience with energy and with emotion. When you're talking to a camera and there's not another person there to play off of, it can be difficult to maintain that energy. It can be difficult to stay out of your head because you don't have an audience to play off of. For example, I came out of a 20 year on camera career. And when I started my business and I did my first live webinar, and I couldn't see any of the audience I got in my own head, my lips started to get numb. I didn't know if anybody was listening to me. I didn't know what they were doing. And so if it can happen to me, I know it can happen to you. It doesn't mean that your audience is having a bad experience or that you are having or doing a bad job. It just means that it's very easy to get sucked into that particular head space. So remember that energy needs to be regardless of who's watching you, even if you think nobody is. And if it's a recorded video for social media or something else, again, a video sales letter or a digital ad, you won't see anybody else. Most people overestimate their energy on camera though, and when you combine that with the sort of flattening effect of a camera, meaning your vocal range shrinks, People tend or they can begin to slow down. Your facial expressions become less animated. You move your body, your whole body less. It's sort of that deer in the headlights effect, right? If I don't move, maybe they won't see me. Which is what you're subconscious, that sort of reptilian survival motivated brain is thinking, right? Big energy, big movements. They draw the predators that are watching you on the horizon. You're putting the caveman clam in danger, they're going to throw you out of the pack. None of that is true, but that is part of our caveman brain survival instincts, if you will. And that's why public speaking is so hated. Public speaking on camera, that is the utmost of the perfect storm, aside from the fact that study show performing a task on camera versus alone, or not performing it on camera immediately lowers not only the self esteem, but the happiness that most of us feel. So this particular issue is related to the fact that when we are confronted with images or audio of ourselves in black and white, gosh, even worse, HD color, There's no more lying to ourselves about the reality of the way that we look. And sound. We may have created an idea in our head the way we imagine ourselves, the way we sort of idealize ourselves as looking and sounding. And then we see it in the cold light of day and it's nothing at all like we hoped it would be. So basically, we're putting what we consider the worst of ourselves on display for predators to then come and mock and eat us. Is it any wonder that most of us are fearful of public speaking and of being on camera? And heaven forbid, the two of them combined. Your nerves, though, can be your secret weapon. Don't suppress them when you're practicing them. Acknowledge them. High their nerves or high their anxiety. I see you, but you're not going to make my choices for me today. And that gives you a little bit of agency over them rather than suppressing acknowledge. And you can do something, a little bit of extra nervous energy, though a couple of butterflies in your stomach, that can give you an extra edge. My very worst newscasts were the one in which there was no breaking news. The scripts were written, they were prooved, read them multiple times, maybe even a couple of hours before the newscast. I never won any Emmys for those newscasts. My Emmys were for breaking news, reporting from Iraq, and from a community service series that I was super passionate about. And I had to be on my feet and at my best for all three of those. If you don't care what you're talking about, even if you do it may not look like it. And if your audience thinks that you don't care what you're talking about, your audience is not going to care either. Use your energy to bring out that game. You can be the IP MBP. Let's talk about passion. There are certain topics that are easy wins for most of us, at least when we're writing, if we're not comfortable on camera, but we can write with passion. We're knowledgeable, we're interested in it, we feel very strongly about it. How do you get excited though when you're recording, let's say a compliance training video, or you're dealing with a topic on social that you should talk about, but you just don't really care about or something that you're timid about sharing. They are certainly content challenges, but you've got to grab your audience's attention regardless and maintain it. Don't fake it. Try to think of something that you're interested in. Maybe it's not the topic itself, maybe it's that after the videos over, it's happy hour. Or you're grateful for the technology that helped us navigate the pandemic. Or maybe even more importantly, you're able to connect with why the message is important to your audience. What do they need to know? That's your mission. Deliver that element and make sure that they remember it. Because you are asking a lot from the people who are watching, we've touched on this before. You're asking them to stop everything that they're doing, stop looking at anything else, and watch you. And if you're bored, like I said, they're going to be bored as well. And then they stop listening, and once that happens, they are gone, and they are very unlikely to be seen again. When you're presenting to the camera, there can be a whole bunch of distractions, lights, there's a time crunch. You're worried about what you look and sound like, maybe you're live, you get stuck in your own head. Dogs are barking, doorbell, ringing. Your child's walking in. It is super easy to lose your train of thought and this is part of the mindset element as well, and the reason. Well, let me show you this first, we've got an example of former Texas Governor Rick Perry A moment. What's in fact, maybe getting distracted. He knew what he was supposed to say inside and out. I mean, he campaigned on this for weeks or months. The platform was built on it. His anyway, but it wasn't enough. Look at this. Two things to note as you work on mindset and getting comfortable on camera. One is to be a master of whatever it is that you're saying. And two, practice through the errors for a live or recorded but unedited piece. And here's why. If you don't practice through the errors, if you start over every time you make a mistake, you will never develop the skills or the muscle memory to dig yourself out of whatever hole you put yourself in. One of the ways that I was able to overcome my fear of being on camera, which was very, very great when I first started, I was terrified and terrible. I've shared that story a number of times, is that each day I had to go on air. And so each day I got a little bit of practice. I realized as each error unfolded, and yes, some of them were mine. I misread a script and I had to fix it on the fly because we were alive, or someone's mic went out or the teleprompter crashed or I had to cough or my co anchor was getting sick or whatever it was, whatever came my way, I eventually found out that I was going to be able to handle it and I was going to get on the other side on my two feet. And maybe it wouldn't look pretty, but I would get through and I would still have my job. And if I handled it right, I may have even endeared myself to my audience. Now, this doesn't apply to 15 seconds of social media, at least not directly or 15 second clips. But if you are able to get very good at digging yourself out of those holes, figuring out the mistakes. Number one, not only are you less likely to make them, but number two, when you are going live, you will know how to handle it. So if you're doing a podcast, or you're doing a live stream, or you're doing an interview, or you have a media appearance and you're on camera and an error happens, you'll know that you can pull yourself out and you'll begin to develop additional confidence. You will begin to develop the ability to step outside of your boundaries with that confidence. And once all of that gets easier, all of your recorded video gets easier as well. You stop overthinking it. Once you know how to handle it. It all gets much, much easier. The bottom line though, is that your video, your live stream, your social media, post your video, sales letter, whatever it is, it is not about you as much as we're focusing on your performance. It's not as important as your audience, right? When we get in our heads, on camera or on a stage for that matter, speaking live, it's because we're thinking about ourselves. We're thinking about what we look like, we're thinking about what we sound like. We're thinking about the mistakes that we are making. And so we're very self focused. If you can put your focus on the audience, all of that other performance stuff will begin to elevate naturally. You're an entertainer or a performer when you have an audience. But you're also an educator and you are an informer. And as I've mentioned in some of the previous modules in the news business, we called it infotainment. You have to inform and you have to entertain. You have a job here. You are critical in whatever information it is that you're transferring. Again, to underscore that, if you focus on your audience, all of that performance stuff will elevate naturally. Right now, we're going to jump into using your voice. 15. Vocal Variety: Vocal variety. If you remember the movie, Thearrisueller's Day Off, you will probably remember this Bueller. Bueller. Ben Stein played a teacher that was so boring, had such little vocal inflection, and spoke in such a monotone that his students could not help but fall asleep or skip school. His character was so boring, his character didn't even have a name. He was just economics teacher. His voice and his speech pattern became a meme for the meaning of the word boring. And this was before memes ever even existed. Don't be the economics teacher. When you're on camera, you want your voice to be interesting and welcoming. You want it to catch the attention of your audience. You want to make sure it doesn't let them go until the very last syllable. Some of that can be created with editing or at least polished up with editing. But as with other aspects of your personality or the physicality of your delivery, your voice needs to be bigger and it needs to be more exaggerated on camera in order for you to connect with your audience and continually create vocal oral, not oral but oral. Auditory pattern interrupts. Each time you create one of those, you have an opportunity to connect with your audience. Your voice is bigger, your voice is more exaggerated on camera in order for you to connect with your audience. Likely unless you're doing a live something or rather for a corporate environment or a client pitch, anytime that you're on camera. And that doesn't apply to you because you're probably taking this as a small business owner. You may have a pitch that you're giving to a client that is live and done virtually. But anything that's recorded, you're speaking quickly and your voice is bigger and more exaggerated. A couple of aspects to consider when you're thinking about how to use your voice to help with your message. Think of them as the four P's. You've got pitch, you've got pace, we've got projection, and you've got pronunciation. Now, I just did a little thing there with pace by putting little pauses between each of those items. We'll talk about that in a moment. We're going to start though with pitch. Pitch is the frequency at which your voice is registering. You can have a high pitched voice, or you can have a low pitched voice. I'm sorry. When it comes to video. Generally speaking, a lower pitch is better. And here's why. It is something that goes back to, again, our caveman brains. And it really is that higher voices are associated with panic or emergency. Think of an alarm. It's shrill and it's high pitched, generally speaking, and that is what alerts you to danger. Lower pitched voices in the mind's eye are more authoritative. They're a little more comforting. They're a little more reassuring, and they're always assumed, for whatever reason, to be more trustworthy. Think about how many times Morgan Freeman has been asked to narrate something. It's because his voice is resonant and authoritative, while also being warm. I'm not saying that you need to speak in a voice that isn't yours. When I started in the news industry, I always put on my broadcast voice. And it didn't work because it's not real. You should speak in your voice, but you should try and speak if you can in the lower part of your register. Part of allowing yourself to do that is creating sentences if you're using a script that are short and if you're gasping for breath at the end of your sentence, you're going to start to speak in a higher register. Because your breath is shallow, your scripting and writing can help with this element as well. Now when you're trying to speak in that lower part of your register, what this will most likely look like is you presenting your normal speaking voice to the audience. Because when you are on camera, again, especially if it's alive, live stream, live podcast, whatever, many of us have the tendency to raise the pitch of our voices a little bit because we're nervous. Again, it's that caveman thing. We're signaling that there is an alarm, even if we're signaling it to ourselves. So if you concentrate on speaking at a lower pitch, you'll be able to bring it back into that normal range. Now if you're speaking in the lower part of your register, you're also less likely to talk through your nose. And an overly nasally voice is usually not one that's pleasant to hear. And I do that just so that you can hear the difference between the two. Some people naturally speak in a nasal tone, and I want to underscore that. I'm not telling you that you need to go into vocal training. To put a video together. What I'm saying is that you want to expand on the parts of your voice that are awesome and you want to try and reduce the parts that are not. Pitch refers to the frequency of your voice where you're speaking in that vocal register. Tone is part of that, but it refers to the emotional undercurrent that's in it. There's a reason your mother said or never said, I should say. Don't use that pitch with me. Your tone of voice can change from excited to angry to sad without the pitch of your voice changing at all. It's all about the inflection to real impact your audience. To really impact audience, to really impact your audience, to really impact your audience. You want to be changing pitch, tone, and emphasis throughout in order to keep them interested, order to draw attention to those key points. For instance, we all know that vocal tone and pitch, they usually go up at the end of a sentence when we're asking a question. They can go down When we're making a point, we're trying to convey an issue or a problem. Usually your voice will naturally adjust its pitch and its tone depending on what you're talking about and who you're talking to. When you're speaking on camera, the thing you need to do is make sure that those patterns are a little bit exaggerated. There is a dampening effect. Again, when we are on camera, or even on a microphone, we are making loud noises. We are moving in exaggerated ways. We are bringing the predators to us. Look at us standing on the horizon, jumping up and down and yelling like we're drawing the attention to us. And again, this whole thing goes back to the cave membrane. This is why our vocal range begins to decrease when we are on camera. And when you are thinking about delivering a sentence from beginning to end. I want you to think about maintaining the energy from the beginning all the way down to the end. What people will generally do when they're going down in register when they're making a point or they're conveying an issue or a problem, is that it generally means they slow down. I'm making a verbal cue, not in the words, but in the energy that whatever thought I'm saying is about to wrap up. If somebody thinks you're about to wrap up, they usually tune out. It's just natural. It's not that they don't like what you're saying, it's just that cues them that whatever it is is about to be over and you want to deliver from beginning to end the same amount of energy. It doesn't mean that you are not using vocal variety, it just means that you are not slowing down and climbing up like that. You want your pitch, you want your tonal variation, but you also want to watch out for repeating pattern. This doesn't necessarily, again, apply to very short social media clips. But if you're doing something that is a longer tutorial demo blog, I keep saying video sales letter, but video sales letter, anything to that end. You don't want to be going back and forth with a sing songy or a ping pongy type of cadence. Think about somebody who ends every sentence by going up at the end. You don't want to listen to them. First of all, they sound unsure of themselves and like there's a question there, but the audience isn't going to want to listen to that as well. Don't be that person next up. Now there is some caveat with pace. Oftentimes, nerves make people speed up in front of a camera. I think the idea that if I talk quicker, I will be done sooner, right? The faster you talk sometimes, the louder you're telling your audience though, that you don't want to be there, you want to get through this and you want to go home. And this applies to speaking from a stage as well, where things begin to have some gray area. Is that oftentimes when somebody is reading from a script or reading from a teleprompter, they become disconnected to you become disconnected to what you're actually saying. And you become focused on the words that are scrolling in front of you. And you get focused instead on getting them exactly right. And what that generally means is when we're focused on getting the words exactly right rather than connecting with them and just talking, we begin to slow down because it's taking us time to get them exactly right. The other element is that when people open up their foam or their computer and they go to shoot a business video, they fall into that arena as well. They slow down because they are used to a client pitch that needs speech to be a little bit slower so they can understand things. Longer format videos if you are doing a live stream, although not always, but you can do some post production in the back end. But if you're doing a longer format video that is geared towards, let's say a client, you can slow down a little bit. You want to make sure that they are seeing and understanding every single thing that you're saying. A great analogy or example of where you would need to slow down is if you are doing a video proposal, sometimes I'll do a video proposal or I will create a video to go along with a proposal. If all the decision makers weren't in the room when they asked me to put this proposal together, I generally know what the objections are going to be and I want to make sure that my audience and all the decision makers hear my squashing of those objections in my words, rather than having another party who maybe doesn't fully understand what I do and translate. In that case, they're engaged. You can speak at a slower rate if you're on social, specifically something like Youtube or Tiktok or Instagram, your rate of speech needs to be sped up. And that's why I mentioned the importance in prior modules of doing jump cuts. It's why I talked about even speeding up the pace of your audio to 1.5 times what it normally is and making your edits very tight so that the words are coming out of your mouth as soon as that video auto plays or they hit play. If you're worried about the fact that some people may listen faster than others, that's why they can adjust playback speed. And by that I mean your viewer here is another thing. To underscore this, remember that your brain, your audience's brain, the member of your audience to whom you speak, their brain can process language quite a bit quicker, then you can spit it out. If you speak too slowly, not only are you going to lose their attention, but their brain is going to start going in additional directions as well because they're bored. And not necessarily because they're not interested in the information, they're bored. Because you're delivering it at a pace that is much slower than their brain can process, and their brain is going to look for something else to do. Having a steady pace is important and I want to underscore that, but you do want to change it up. There will be times when varying your pace is a non verbal verbal cue, for lack of a better word about when a certain element is important and when another is less So for example, if you are listing out an item, maybe there's a key element in this video. And you're going to say these three things make a video interesting. There's compassion, there's fun, there's energy. A slight pause between each of those elements allows the audience to digest, download what it is that you're saying. Then if I want to, I can speed up at the end and that sort of cues that this is something I need to say, but it's not that important. Burying your pace tells them what something's important when it's not. It can help signal humor when you're using humor. If you're not great with jokes, timing is as funny as you need to get on camera. It tells your audience when a punch line is about to land, like tell a joke and you give a pause and then you drop a punch line. That's significantly different than what your audience might expect. That's great use of timing and cheesy. It's not a knock knock joke and you don't have to be a comedian in order to deliver it's timing again, it's pace. Pauses can also help give a moment a little more emotional heft, or create some additional suspense, if you will, if you're building up to some sort of reveal. Pauses have so much power that I suggest using them sparingly, especially on social media. You don't want to confuse your audience, you don't want them to focus on what you're saying. And you don't want to look like you're losing your train of thought constantly either. Moving on to projection. Projection is not about volume. If projection were about volume, we would call it yelling. Projection is about getting the words out of your mouth with force and conviction, and communicating your message so it lands. If you want to experience the difference, if you want to understand the difference, say the same sentence twice. One of them as loud as you can, and the next one convincingly as you can, record them. Don't just say them out loud, record them, and watch back, and you'll understand immediately what I'm talking about. Projection is one of those vocal characteristics that stays fairly steady when you're presenting on camera. You don't see a lot of people or hear a lot of people, I should say, changing up the volume or the intensity. They start a sentence with strength. They end it with strength. They want to get the words out there. Now, that doesn't mean that there are times that you can't use variations. But it's not always about getting louder to make a point. Sometimes if you're delivering a video or you're delivering an on camera, you're creating an on camera video. Talking softly can get people to lean in to hear what you're saying. It means making them a little more interested enough that they don't want to miss a word. And it can also give a little bit of color if you're delivering a story and you want to create an aside that's not necessarily about the story directly, but showcases a little bit of the thought bubble you had is this particular element we're unfolding in real time. Or you want to add a little bit of color or analysis. Or you want to feel like you're giving your audience a sneak peek or behind the scenes look. It could be a behind the scenes look or a sneak peek into what was going on in your brain. That's when you want to do an aside. Whatever the volume of your voice, try to project from the back of your throat. Keep your chest open so you have the breath to push out those words. We talked about writing being a key component if you are scripting, keeping those sentences short so that you're not gasping for breath at the end. It's very hard to finish a sentence with power and authority. If you're gasping for breath at the end, don't let your vocal chords become stressed or become tight. It's going to lead to a strangled sound projection and could also lead to something called Lol fry. Have you ever heard somebody do that? I do it sometimes. I know I do it when I'm tired. I know I do it when I am dehydrated. But it's where you get so low in your voice, but it's still coming from your throat yet it sounds like popping. Sometimes they call it vocal popping. The technical term is vocal fry, F, R, Y, E. Take a couple of deep breaths to relax those vocal chords. Drink some tea if you're doing a lot of video. Throat coat is a great one. It'll soothe your throat and your vocal chords. Moving now to pronunciation. If you don't pronounce your words well, none of the rest of the vocal work will matter. Your pitch can go high and low. Your projection can change, you can change your speed. Slow it down. All of that stuff, none of it will matter because people will not understand what you're saying. It's like listening to static back when we had static. I'm completely dating myself right now, on the radio or on the TV. It doesn't matter if that static was louder or softer, or there were spaces where there was no static and it was just silence. It still doesn't convey a message. Pronunciation is the same, so the work that goes into pronunciation works when you or starts, I should say, when you first look at and create your script. So you're hosting a podcast, It certainly means knowing how to pronounce your guests name. You need to know how to accurately pronounce the words and the names in it. I'm not talking about regional dialects for the most part. Those are absolutely fine. They give you personality. There may be people who want to work with you because of that. But what I am talking about is saying a word completely incorrectly because you didn't take the time to learn it or you didn't bother to check the pronunciation of your podcast or live streams, guests name before you introduce them. That's mortifying. All of this is especially true if you're using a term that is perhaps foreign to you, but is perhaps not foreign to the audience that you're hoping to talk to about it. Or maybe it is a technical term and you need to make sure that you are saying it accurately. Or maybe it's a word that has two different pronunciations, Integral versus integral. Make sure that you know how you want to say it and it doesn't cause that last minute hiccup. As you're recording or you're on camera live, real time, take 5 seconds, learn it up. Write it in your script phonetically if you need to. And we talked about how to do that in some of the prior modules when it came to scripting. And you will save yourself a lot of embarrassment and a lot of hassle. Once you know what you're saying, then you need to make sure that you're saying it correctly and clearly. As with all of these other aspects of speech, your pronunciation needs to be exaggerated. You can't be sloppy, you can't mumble when you're speaking. Every word has to be crisp and it will feel like you are chewing your words or that you're over articulating. But it will play on camera and it'll make it a lot easier for your audience to understand. One of the things that can help with pronunciation is to make sure that you are hydrated. And I'll share a short story with you. I was on my way to an interview at a new station and I had a very late night at work the night before, very little sleep. And I had a long drive to the airport and I had a long flight. It was going from coast to coast. I was dehydrated and I went in and I did the interview. And the general manager at that station asked me if I had a lisp. Nobody in my life had ever asked me if I had a lisp before. And I said to him, I don't think so. I've never been told that I am dehydrated. And then I was very focused on the way that I was speaking. And I don't think that I have a list. But I do know that I have a tendency to slur my words together, especially when I'm tired. So for example, if I am going to name a website and I'll use mine for an example, you may say in person to somebody. Yeah, it's www.bert.com or www.ybarrett.com You're not pronouncing the S, you're not pronouncing the T's What you actually want to say on camera, especially if it is a more formal video, is Hold on a minute. Were Barrett.com do you see the difference there? Okay. When you're speaking, as I mentioned before, you're going to try and keep those sentences short. You're going to try and keep them to the point. Now that sentence, and I'm going to show you how it was originally created. When you are speaking, try and keep sentences short and to the point there's an end in there. And anytime that you have an end, you usually have the ability to create another sentence. And that pause, that period between the sentences, is what gives you a chance to take another breath and to articulate. Instead of when you're speaking, try and keep sentences short and to the point. You can say something like this when you're speaking. Try and keep sentences short. Try and keep them to the point. It's a little bit easier for the audience to understand because you have verbal cue them that there's two elements there. Rather than bringing both of those elements into one sentence, one thought, one sentence. Don't use run ons. They're super hard for your audience to understand and they can make it really difficult when you're editing, if you're trying to create sound bites. There's another example. They're hard for your audience to understand and can make it difficult in the editing process. If you're trying to cut sound bites, you could take that sentence, there's an there, and you could turn it into two. They're hard for your audience to understand. They make it difficult to edit. That is, two sentences there and you see the other second sounded a little bit more forceful. And again, I created basically two bullet points in my audience's ear. And so it makes it hopefully easier for you to understand unos. Also make it a lot more likely that you'll use filler words, you know. Okay, So, right, and I fall into the same trap. I do the same thing and I have to be mindful of it. You want to avoid those speech fillers like the plague. It's not that having one or two is a deal breaker. They are a natural part of speech, most of us anyway. Where it gets or two in almost every sentence, I have been there and listened to that, not wondering how many times are you going to say does that make sense? Or Well, or, or you know, it's a phrase that you use as a crutch. A quick tip to break that audio recording in your phone and just narrate something spur of the moment without any planning or additional thoughts. And then go back and listen and see how many times you use a crutch word. As you get more adept at this particular form of practice, you will also begin to notice if there is a particular circumstance that you use them in more often. Do you find that they happen when you are ad libbing? Do you find that they happen more often when you're reading a script and you're trying to find your place as the words are scrolling by or as you're going down that script. Those are key, or that is key. Rather, in figuring out how to eliminate them, getting aware of how often where you say them. I like to create a physical sensation or reminder. When I hear myself saying a filler word or when I am tempted to fill silence with a filler word, I swallow the word back down when I can, recognizing that my audience is going to appreciate what to them may just appear like some deliberate thought for half a second or a second, but I create some physical movement. I may look away from the camera, break gaze. I may turn my body slightly, or one of the easiest things to do is as I feel the crutch word or the filler word coming out of my mouth. I tap my leg. Usually, I'm not on a wide shot, and so I can do that and the audience doesn't see it, but I've created a physical sensation anytime that that's coming out of my mouth. And so I become more aware of it. And then I start doing the same thing as I listen to my videos or I watch them back. Even though I'm not speaking. As I hear myself use a crutch word. I tap my leg, I often use write or so as I'm beginning a sentence. In fact, I've edited these course modules a couple of times to take out some of them that were particularly egregious. Please forgive me. Your voice is your instrument. There are so many different ways that you can use it to make amazing and compelling sounds. Words that will capture your audience or you can put them to sleep with a single tone. I think you know what to do. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. 16. Physical Performance and Factors: We are talking about. The portion of this which is physical performance and physical factors is mindset. V is vocal variety. Physical performance and physical factors, just like performing in the halftime show during Super Bowl, is different than doing a dance recital in your basement. Your delivery on camera is different than it would be on a stage or at a small office with another person. Your delivery on camera is different for a longer format video than it may be for a short 15 second clip on social media. But the elements of physical performance and physical factors stay the same. These are standard best practices across the board. The goal with physical performance and physical factors, and when I say performance, I want to make it clear, I'm not talking about being performative, but recognizing that delivering on camera, just like standing on stage in the middle of the Super Bowl Stadium and talking to whatever it is, 100,000 people that are both there in person, and more so that are watching on TV. The way that you would say the words, even if the words are exactly the same, are different, your goal is to take whatever format, or place, or venue, or camera situation that you're in and replicate what the conversation or the communication would most likely be in person. But with some moderations that are made for the lens to help you better connect. A big part of that connection is eye contact. When we're speaking to somebody in person, one of the most natural things in the world is to look them in the eye and maintain comfortable eye contact during the duration of the conversation. And it's really true, when you're speaking to somebody in a business or professional setting, you want the person you're speaking to to know, you're paying attention that you're listening, that you're relating to them. That is really hard to do when they're not there and they're replaced by a camera lens or a phone shooting video. And it's even harder because the only time this circumstance exists is when we are filming ourselves. Even when we're alone and we're talking to ourselves. We don't stare in one direction and talk only to the spot on the wall. And trust me, I talk to myself quite a bit. It's actually one of the best ways to write scripts. That's another lesson. It's not just having that single point of focus that makes things difficult. It's the fact that there's nobody there to give you any sort of response or any sort of feedback. When we're having a conversation with a person, most of us know how to proceed and we want to proceed based on their reactions. But the camera is not going to do that for you. It's not going to smile, it's not going to no, it's not going to tap its foot and irritation that you're taking so long, there's nothing for you to work with. So it can make it really hard to keep going and keep your energy up and to keep your eye contact consistent and inviting. I've seen so many videos where the speaker sort of just deflates as they go on because they're not getting any energy coming back to them from the camera. And so they're not playing with the audience and they're not creating their own energy. That's what it's all about. When you're not getting energy coming back from the camera, you must create your own energy. And you do that using these physical performance factors. If you quit on yourself, you're quitting on your audience. With in person conversations, we don't maintain eye contact the entire time because it makes people somewhat uncomfortable. It looks like you're staring at them, looks like you're getting into a staring contest, or maybe even moving into their personal space. You're expecting them to try and escape at any moment in a normal conversation, we look away, we look at other things we take in our surroundings. You can't do that to a certain extent when you're speaking on camera, but not to the extent that you would speaking one on one to somebody in person. The universal rule is that you don't break eye contact with the camera for more than 3 seconds. I know it doesn't seem like a lot of time, but on video it's going to seem like a long time to your audience. And if you break eye contact with the camera for more than 3 seconds, you'll look disinterested. You'll look like you are trying to find another cooler person in the room to talk to. Have you ever been to a party and had somebody like that? They're talking to you but they're looking all around the room. If you look disinterested, your audience is disinterested and your energy is going to lag. The other thing about being on camera is that your audience's field of vision is very precise. Meaning, it's small, it's very focused, that's the right word to use. Your audience's field of vision is very focused if you were standing. 50 feet away from somebody and you were talking to a crowd at a venue, you could look at different parts of the room and people know that you're looking at other parts of the audience and oh, by the way, they can't really see your eyes unless they're in the front row anyway. Something like that will very quickly wear out its welcome on camera because the field of vision is so small and so focused. When your energy lags, the minute that happens, the minute that energy is gone or starts to drop, you risk losing the audience. People mirror what they see. It's why in normal conversations we keep going based on the feedback that we receive. If countless studies have shown, if you are sitting across a table with somebody and they lean forward, you lean forward. If you lean back, they lean back. And it has a little bit to do somewhat with the status of the two people in the room and how the status relates to one another. But mirroring is what we naturally do. It makes us want to be part of the pack. It makes us feel like we're part of the pack. So if your audience is seeing somebody who's not looking at them, somebody who looks disinterested, somebody who looks distracted or they're low energy and they're not interested. Your audience is going to do all of those things. Keeping eye contact is going to help you keep your audience. There's a couple of ways to make that eye contact easier. The first and most basic is to position your camera correctly. We talked about that before. It's got to be in a comfortable place so it doesn't feel unnatural to look at or like you're going to have to maintain a difficult posture to keep your eye contact. The best placement is usually right at your eye line or slightly below it. And you can use a tripod to make sure that it stays in the right spot if you're on your phone throughout the chute. If you are on your phone, another potential option is to use the front facing camera to make sure that your shot stays framed and you can monitor the video as you're shooting, which is absolutely fine. It is a great tool. What you shouldn't do is look at yourself on the screen. Keep looking at the camera. If you look yourself in the eye on the screen, you are looking directly to the chests of your audience. And their eyes are up here. My friends, they are not down there. One of the ways to practice avoiding looking at the screen and getting comfortable with that is to either cover up the video box on your monitor, either by reducing it or changing the settings in your video platform. Zoom, for example, or to just minimize it on your phone. You can practice shooting into the rear facing or the back lens, your main camera, if you will, which actually tends to be a better shot. But if you don't have the monitor right below you, you're not going to be tempted to look at it now. I wouldn't shoot that way all the time. But as you're getting used to using eye contact, it's a great way to break the habit of looking at the monitor. Eyes up here don't make them feel like you're trying to get fresh before you bought them a drink. If you're not going to cover up your monitor or turn your phone around, there are some other tricks that you can use to remind yourself to look at the lens and not the video feed. Maybe it is a post it note or a sign next to the lens to draw your eye to it. Sometimes I will advise clients to stick a pair of big googly eyes on either side of their camera lens to remind them that that's where their audiences eye is as well. You will get to the point where you don't need any of this stuff, but it's not a bad reminder when you're starting out. Another way to keep yourself looking at the lens and making it easier to interact is to place pictures of people that you love or pictures of people that you respect near the lens. So I used to put a picture of my husband because he's usually the easiest person for me to talk to, depending on you. And maybe it's your parent or your best friend or co worker, or a mentor, whoever that person is, that is the person for you. Maybe it's not a person at all. Maybe it's an inspirational saying or a phrase, or a word that you'll use as a mantra. But whatever it is, keep it in your eye line to help you keep going. When the shoot starts to feel like it's gone on just a little bit too long. While it's good to have an item or two in your eye line to hold your attention, you don't want to have too many things around your camera that can distract you. So removing clutter, removing any possible distractions that could cause your eyes to shift away from the camera. You can also mentally prepare yourself by picturing your audience in your mind, you're picking one person that you're speaking to in the audience that you're actually talking to. It's not your husband maybe, or your mentor or friend or whatever. But get very as specific as you can because the clearer you are, the better you can see them. The more clearly you can talk to that individual. Remember when I said you're always talking to an audience of one, that's who you're talking to, While you want to maintain eye contact with the camera, with your audience, the individual who's watching it, you're not going to overdo it. You can't overdo it. I mentioned feeling like you're staring somebody down. Don't do that. How do you keep eye contact without making it feel like it's all about the eye contact? I move my head and my body instead. Head tilts, nodding, moving your shoulders, all of them go a really long way in making your eye contact feel a little more natural and friendly. So when we're talking to somebody in person and we're looking at them in the eye, we don't stand stock still in that environment. So we might shift from 1 Ft or the other. We may, you know, I don't know, move our hand up or use hand gestures or lean in when we're excited about something. Put that movement into your body and it's a great way to make that eye contact a little less intense like it would be in person. Right? Replicating that in person feel while also maintaining it. One other key note and I'm going to give you a little trick to the teleprompter. And I know we talked about teleprompters previously and we'll talk a little bit about them again. But one of the trickiest things with a teleprompter for most people is that it's great. You've got the words, they're scrolling right over the lens. You can look at your audience and you can deliver whatever it is that you're going to deliver. Your audience though, usually can see your eyes moving from one side to the next and so they know that you are reading one way that you can camouflage that or that you can cover it up is incorporating the exact same technique that I went over just a second ago. Moving your head, moving your body language, tilting your head, nodding, moving your shoulders, looking over and off to the side. All of those things can help camouflage the fact that you are reading from a prompter. We're going to talk a lot more about body movement and other non verbals in just a second, stick around for that. But I want to mention blinking. It helps with making eye contact feel a little more welcoming. When we get in front of a camera or in front of a screen, we are less likely to blink. It's been proven by one study after another. You want to make sure that you're not doing what I call the prompter stare. Which is you are afraid to blink your eyes because you are afraid everything is going to disappear or fall away in front of you. Blink, blink naturally, Don't start blinking like you're sending an SOS message or you're trying to get something out of your eye. But I know it sounds very basic, but people don't do it. Remember to keep your blinking going and in a normal human range in terms of frequency. After gotten your eyesight and your eye contact together, let's move on to your body. Now I realize that this is a fairly elaborate warm up process for a 15 second video. I would suggest thinking about what I'm telling you here as something that would be more appropriate, again for a live for media opportunity on camera or for a longer presentation or a virtual or video client pitch that you may be nervous about. And you really want to be able to deliver effectively in a calm and authoritative way when you're on camera, starting with your body, taking some time to limber up and get energy into it. It might mean stretches. It might mean exercises, shaking out your arms and legs, jumping up and down, heck, it could mean screaming at the top of your lungs if you wanted to, or belting out a song at the top of your lungs. But you're feeling the movement and you're letting it create energy. Breathing exercises, both to calm you down and to center yourself. Take a deep breath. Hold it for a count of five, let it out for a count of seven or more. I love something called the wheel method. It was created by a psychiatrist and it's called the 478. It means you breathe in for a count of four. You hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight. The trick is if you're using breath to calm yourself, you need to breathe out for a longer count, then you're Breathing in. Breathing in is what speeds things up. Breathing out is what slows them down. Once your body's warm, move onto your eyes and your face. Now, we talked about eye contact. I don't mean I'm talking about warming up your eyeballs themselves, but the stuff around them relaxing your forehead. I mean my head is Botox into oblivion so you can't see if I'm stressed out anyway. But if that doesn't apply to for you, if you touch or lightly tap your brows and your forehead, it'll help you get rid of some of the tension that you may be holding there, whether it's conscious or unconscious. Rubbing the bridge of your nose, the space between your eyes, it does the same thing. Just don't mess up your makeup or your browse warming up your eyes themselves. By taking a minute to focus on, let's say the prompter, if that's what you're going to be reading. Looking at things far away, looking at things that are close to you. Changing your focus multiple times, and letting your eyes move and just get active. Softening your face, giving your eyes a minute to wander around will reduce the likelihood of you squinting. Squinting makes it look like you're either frustrated, you're not quite sure what you're saying, you're skeptical of what it is that you're saying, or you're trying to read answers or whatever. It makes it look like you're not just talking. Squinting can be an issue. You're likely recording this in front of some sort of additional lighting. And if it's bright, it can cause you to squint Now that you've done all this work on eye contact and softening your face while you're on camera, I don't wanted to get ruined by glasses. I wear glasses. I need to wear them even though I have Las, because I need to use them to read the screen. The thing about glasses is it doesn't matter if you have nonreflective lenses. If you are using a ring light or you have a particularly bright screen, it's basically the same as putting a blindfold on yourself. And then asking your audience to look into your eyes and trust you. They can't see your eyes with those ring light glares in them, in your glasses. That is. In addition, make sure that your camera and your lighting are positioned so your glasses aren't casting any shadow over your eyes or on your face. All you really need to do is check in the view finder or on your camera display before you start shooting. I mentioned this in the module on setting up your studio. But if you do need light and you are wearing glasses, two ring lights are better than one position to either side of your camera, above face level, and tilted down at about a 45 degree reflection. Whether it's from a ring light or a monitor is really all about geometry. If you can create light that's not a direct reflection into your glasses, you will mitigate or eliminate that eyeglass glare entirely. Your eyes are going to say a lot for you in your video. Take time to perfect the message that they're going to be conveying. I'll see you in the next video. 17. Non Verbal: Now I realize there's a lot of threes here. And they all have to do with your physical performance and your physical factors and movements. These are non verbals, which are part of your physical performance. Your expressions and your hand gestures, and they all sort of overlap, all do and facilitate the same understanding and communication. But you obviously don't use every single one in the same way. What you say is important, but what you don't say is also saying a whole lot that you may not want said, you know what I'm saying? Non verbal communication is important. Non verbal communication often makes up more than 75% of the meaning that people take away from whatever it is you're saying. Your non verbals, that means, are more important than what you're actually saying. Non verbal communication, punches up, verbal communication, punches down. That non verbal stuff is often the way people decide if they like you. And it's almost on a cellular level, we've all met people, they're saying all the right things. But something about the way that they say them just feels off, or it makes us feel uncomfortable if you are saying one thing but acting another. If there is some incongruitce between those two things, people are going to believe the way that you're saying it versus the actual words. So an example of that may be, I'm really excited to be here, right? I'm slouched down in my chair, or I'm looking away or picking my fingernails or whatever. I mean, I'm saying the right thing, but my non verbals convey a different meaning. And which one are you going to believe? The non verbals are especially true when you are on a camera for anything for that matter. The camera is a magnifier, it's an amplifier. Small things that normally wouldn't be noticed become central and they become distracting. When we're on camera, most people get self conscious. Some people fixate on their hands, or others forget how to smile, or they can't stop smiling. It's like when somebody can't stop smiling or laughing at a funeral, it's just nerves. Some people completely freeze up. Like they want to blend into the background. And again, that's that cave man brain kicking into high gear. I've worked with all of those types and you know it when you see them on camera. But you can learn how to make non verbal communication work for you and use it to enhance whatever it is that you're saying. I've given you a bunch of examples that might stress you out and now I have to tell you this stress is the worst thing when you're trying to project good non verbal communication. A little bit of nerves can boost your energy. But full fledged stress that makes your body stiffen up and it, you shut down. You grab on with a death grip to the podium. If you're speaking from a stage, you don't move and you hold on with a death grip to the arm, rest of the chair you're sitting in. When you are in front of a camera, you stop moving. You hold your muscles in weird positions, like your shoulders are up around your ears. That's why your neck feels like iron after you've had a long stressful day, in order to get into a good space to communicate non verbally, you've got to relax. You really need to do this. That probably stressed you out just a little bit more, didn't it? Stretch your body out in order to un, stress your body out and then get a little bit of movement into it as well. Circle your head, rub your shoulders, swing your arms, run in place, loosening up your muscles and your joints. Even though it's going to sound and feel so hokey and you're going to feel probably dumb and like it's not helping you, but it will start tricking your body into believing it's relaxed, even when it's not. Focus on your breath. When we're stressed out, our breathing gets more shallow. Use that 478 method that I talked about in the last lesson. Slow it down, make it a little bit more deliberate because when you slow that down, the rest of the systems in your body will follow suit. They'll slow down as well. It doesn't mean that you won't have nerves. It doesn't mean that you can't use those nerves and that energy to your benefit. But what it does mean is that your heart is not going to be pounding out of your chest so much so that the microphone you're wearing can pick it up. Stress is something that can be handled through some of those physical means that I just mentioned, but it can be handled by mental means as well. Before you go on camera, make sure that you're practicing some positive self talk. My mother used to say, and I know she's not the only one. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. In fact, I believe that was a message to the little engine that could as well. A little self confidence goes a very long way. Take time before you go on that camera or open up that live stream to suck the methods or the myths I should say, that you're telling yourself in your head, the stories that you're making up, and deliberately replace them with something that is self affirming. Don't go on to camera expecting something to be perfect or to have a perfect performance because it doesn't exist. Perfect doesn't exist, and all it does is bring you additional stress that's going to impact all of your communication, verbal and non verbal. Cut yourself a little bit of slack and realize it really doesn't matter how bad you mess up, nobody's going to die. It really is that simple. You may look like a fool. You may make a mistake if it's live and it didn't go through an edit process. But at the end of the day, it really, by the time you close down for the night, that video is going to be halfway to Pluto and nobody is going to remember it the next day. And maybe nobody even saw it, especially if it's something that's recorded. You don't have to have your shoulders squared to the camera, but you shouldn't really be angling, you shouldn't be totally looking over your shoulder. It's not a glamour shot situation. You do want to be in front of the camera. You do want to be standing or sitting up straight for the most part, with your shoulders back, and your chin up. It doesn't always have to be formal. There may be a reason that you are sitting very casually, but recognize for a form, video training webinar for example, or a sales webinar. Having good posture will help you maintain your energy and convey authority and confidence to the crowd. Don't crowd the camera. You don't want your audience feel like you're standing or feeling rather like you're standing too close. You know how you have a close talker at a party. Remember this clip. You want your face and your body, if you're showing it intentionally, to be the focal point on the screen but not completely eclipse your surroundings. Ever seen those videos where it's basically just somebody's head from the top of the screen to the bottom? That's not a good look no matter where the video is going. I usually think standing is better than sitting when you're shooting a video. If it's longer, sitting makes it really easy to slouch. And every slouch is exaggerated on camera. If you are going to sit and you're going to be there for a long time, I would use one of those metal folding chairs like you might use at a card table or a bridge table. Probably dating myself again, if you're young, ask your parents what bridges. Well, one of those folding metal chairs, I'm sure they're in auditoriums. There you go. There's another use that you might be more familiar with. They're not terrible, but they're not comfortable enough that you're going to lean back and slouch because you'll be very aware of it when you are also bonus, they don't swivel, so you can't swivel if you are getting nervous. Sometimes we find ourselves swiveling or if we're standing up or rocking from foot to foot and we're making our audience sea sick. Using one of those types of chairs will eliminate that. Aside from swaying from side to side, there are some other things that people sometimes do when they're standing, bouncing on the balls of your feet, bobbing from your knees. All of those are things people do when they're nervous or when they're trying to pump themselves up a little bit and they don't look good on camera. In most cases, your audience is only going to see you from the shoulders up. Any small movement like a sway or a bounce can actually look and feel like an earthquake to your audience. You do have to sit when you're shooting. Don't sit back in the chair. Perch on the edge. It's going to force you to use proper posture. If you're sitting back, it moves your pelvis forward and it makes your back curve. If you're perching and you're leaning forward on your sits bones, it makes you sit up. I usually sit no further back than 13 into my chair. And I lean forward at about a 15 degree angle because again, it helps me breathe better, it helps me maintain energy. And leaning into the audience is an intimate, non verbal. That lets them know you're interested in them and what you're saying is important. Put your legs right in front of you. You'll sit up and you'll get the posture that you want there as well. Make sure your body is open to the camera. Putting your shoulders back partially does this, but keeping your hands apart and your arms open opens you up a little bit more. If you're clasping your hands in front of you, or if you're keeping your arms glued to your sides, it looks like you're trying to pull yourself inward. Or take up less space that is not welcoming to your audience. That is the equivalent of hiding behind the podium when you are on a stage. This is your video. This is your little rectangle, if you will. So you need to own the frame by filling it and taking up space. Well, you need to keep your chest up and your chin up and open your body to take up the space you need. You also need to avoid looking like you are hostile or that you are ready and spring loaded to count on anybody who may disagree with you. Yes, it's your video. Yes, you're in charge, but you don't want the audience to be afraid that you are going to take their lunch money. This is not the place where you're practicing those power stances. I also think it's fair to say you should avoid keeping your hands balled up in fists. But what do you do with them, especially if you talk with them regularly? Using your hands is a very natural thing to do. And even if you're not feeling energetic, if you use them deliberately, because you know that you need to add a little bit of extra pizzazz to your video, it can infuse your video with energy even if you're not feeling it. Movement begets movement begets energy. Hand gestures, aside from giving you a little bit of extra energy, we also know from research that hand gestures humanize you. They help you make points, they help you highlight issues. People who use hand gestures are generally viewed as smarter by the audience than ones who do not. There are rules as with anything that you need to follow. If you're going to use your hands in a video, they should be visible almost all the time. And you need to make sure that your complete hand gesture is visible. Hands that are moving in and out of the frame and up and down and back and forth. It's okay every now and again, but remember what I said about that field of vision? It's so shrunken that gestures like that very quickly wear out. They're welcome, they look like earthquakes. Don't put your hands behind your back. Your audience isn't going to trust you as much, even subconsciously for that. The same for your hands in your pocket. And both of those, by the way, also make you look smaller. Try not to put your hands too far out from your body. The further your hands, the bigger the motion, the more over the top. You want to use your hand gestures deliberately. You also want to keep them in mid body range. Again, it depends on why you're using this video, why you're creating it, where you're using it, excuse me, and also how wide or how tight it is when you put your hands really close to your face, they can interfere with your eye line. They can come between you and your viewers. Don't fidget, don't ring your hands. Don't pick your cuticles. Don't play with your jewelry. All of that is going to draw the viewer away from your message. Use your hands, but use them deliberately. When we talk about eye contact a minute ago, we went over how to soften your face and relax it so that it appears welcoming on camera. But I want to talk a little bit more about facial expressions. Remember that every expression on your face is going to read less on camera than it will in person. Goes back to that three D to two D situation. You need to go a little more exaggerated, a little broader with your facial expressions to really get them to come across. But not so over the top that you're going to look cartoonish. I'm going to say this, it is very hard to over the top on camera for most people. Most people that are over the top know exactly how the camera works and they're doing it intentionally. For the average Joe or Jane, it's going to be very hard for you to go over the top when I think about facial expressions, When I think about body language and energy, one of the easiest ways to understand it is to recognize that. Speaking to a camera can be very similar to the way that you would speak to somebody who was seated at a table with you at a crowded, noisy restaurant. Let's say you're seated on the same side of the table and you're looking to talk to somebody who is four people down still at your table and it's loud. What would you do to make sure that your message was being received or what you're saying was understood? You'd probably lean in. You would exaggerate your facial expressions. You may project, you may use additional vocal variety and hand gestures, all underscore what it is that you're saying. Talking on camera is similar. For most people, it's about a 25% uptick in facial expressions, hand gestures, vocal projection, all that other stuff. Sometimes we get stuck into a comfort zone and we have the same facial expression for the entire time, or we make the same facial expression over and over again. You don't want to be that creepy person who keeps randomly winking or licking his or her lips or cucking his or her eyebrow. It just begins to wear out. It's welcome. The presenter or the person on camera, you, in this case look unsure of themselves. So, be aware of the facial expressions that you make on the regular and try and limit them if they look distracting. And you're going to have to record yourself and watch in order to do that. It's especially true when it comes to your mouth. You may not know that you lick your lips constantly or that you bite your tongue. But you and your audience will know it the second it happens on camera. They'll know it as you're watching. You'll know as you watch on repeat or replay, the best facial expression Is a smile. Not always the most appropriate, but it is always the most welcoming. And it's y news tankers will have some semblance of a smile on their faces, certainly at the start of a newscast or throughout. Unless they're talking about something that is incredibly dire or tragic, The smile doesn't just have to be sort of on the lips. It can be on your face or just in your eyes or conveyed in your overall demeanor. Really, all you need to do is sort of think about smiling, even if you're talking about a really serious subject. The thought of a smile will show your viewers that you're engaged and that you're interested in whatever it is that you are saying. I used to think that I was smiling on camera when I was in the news business. I never realized that due to the challenges of the lens, I actually wasn't. I only found out at some point when I was in the studio and I was moving from one teleprompter to the other as I was getting ready to send it over to the weathercaster, and I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the monitors that was up in the audience or up in the studio rather. And I ticked off I wasn't at all, even a tiny bit, but I realized that unless I have just the slightest upturn of my lips, I'm going to look irritated. A slight upturn in person may look like a smile or even a smirk, but on camera, for me, it made my face look neutral. I have RBF, I guess, apparently, if you don't know what that is, Google it, it is somewhat of a sexist turn, but I do have it. Smile with your eyes. Use your non verbal communication in general, and doing both of them effectively can add so much to your performance no matter where it is going to be shown. You just need to know the best way to use all of those to amplify the parts of your delivery that are awesome and make them better and grow your persona and reduce or cut back on the things that are not optimized. Thanks for watching. I will see you in the next video. 18. Energy: Yes, we are. Also, and still under physical performance, we're talking about energy. And yes, energy is a bit of an abstract when we're talking about physicalities. But it is an important part of your physical performance. So important when it comes to shooting a video. If you don't have it, you're going to look disinterested. You're going to look bored, and your audience is going to wonder why they're watching you at all. That is, until they stop watching altogether. Energy as sort of amorphous of an idea as that is, is what captures the attention of your audience and keeps them with you as you're speaking. It tells them that there's somebody on the screen who's dynamic, who's exciting, who is worth watching. Energy is always what people are talking about when they say a speaker had a certain quality that made them unable to look away. And it may be shown in their charisma. It may be shown in the magnetism. It's often shown in their energy specifically, and the way that they can command an audience using it. It is elusive though, especially if you're on camera. The camera can pull energy from you in 1 second flat and make you seem flat, make you seem boring. Even when you're operating at a normal energy level, like emotions, you need to make energy, your energy, a little bit bigger on camera. Now, part of that is about delivery. Part of that can also be about editing. We talked about how to speed up your voice and how to create short snippets that are then edited together to give vitality to perhaps maybe something that is slightly boring. Energy can be really hard to funnel directly into your performance because there's so many other aspects of production that may be taking it from you. Maybe it's the camera, maybe it's the script, maybe there's props. Maybe you're concerned about putting yourself out there if it's something for social media and you make yourself small, and if you're small, there's no energy. It's got to be up and it's got to be maintained. There are some practical considerations when it comes to making sure that you have energy on camera. The first is, if you're feeling energetic, we all have times of the day when we're at our peak energy wise. And that is when you should try and shoot your video, whether it is first thing in the morning, 1030 at night, after the kids have finally decided to sleep, whatever it is, for example, you might think that mid afternoon would be a good time to shoot video. The lights are good, the kids are at school, the brain is working. But mid afternoon, that's when I'm reaching for another cup of coffee and wishing that I could take a nap in the sun next to my dog. Now, I could still shoot a video then, and sometimes I have to. And I know enough about performance that I know exactly what I need to do. Come off on that video as if I actually am energetic. I know exactly how to manage that. You probably are not quite at that stage yet, and that's why you're here. You're getting used to being on camera. Once you can put all of this stuff on autopilot and you know that you can handle whatever comes your way. All this concern will begin to go away and you'll be able to use what we're talking about here, Skills, tactics, strategy, to make sure that you are in a larger, broader understanding. You are relatable, memorable and personable. Relatable, I think in my opinion, being the most important. And you're able to put your audience at the front of whatever it is that you are doing. But until you get comfortable, you're going to have to fake it until you make it. That's where taking these particular steps before you shoot, during your shoot, as you practice, will become helpful for somebody who's new, perhaps you, to being on camera. Make sure you're feeling good. If you're hungry or you're not feeling great or your throat is scratchy or dry, it's going to be a lot harder to harness the energy that you need. And if you are really not feeling it, what I would do is just open your phone and try and deliver into that for 30 seconds. Don't use it, use it as practice. But if you try and go into a lengthy recording session when you're actually feeling bad and run down and you don't yet have the strategies to mitigate that, You're going to end up spending a lot of time recording a video that's not very good and then you're going to get frustrated and you're not going to keep at it. And that's the last thing that I want for you. I want you to get so good at this and really. Get into your sort of zone that it actually becomes fun. I love doing videos now. Whether it's something like this or it's something that I'm recording for social, or a log or whatever it is. I like getting into that creative mode. And I'm confident to the point where I can try wacky things or try to pull something off and it doesn't affect me. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And that's okay if you are not feeling great, but you are up to shooting. Have a snack couple of minutes before you're going to film. Maybe something that has a little bit of sugar in it, like a piece of fruit. And make sure you're drinking enough water to stay hydrated. If you're even a little bit dehydrated, your energy drops. And unless you're very aware of that as you will, you get more comfortable and you begin to understand your natural patterns of delivery. That dehydration can show up on camera. The location where you're shooting can impact your energy as well. If you feel like you're in a space where you have to be quiet or you're trying not to disturb anybody else, your energy is going to be impacted. I rented some office space for a while a couple of summers ago. I wanted to rent the space because it had a great background, hadn't fully fleshed out my home studio yet. It was going to take me away from the noises of my home in the summer. My dogs, the yard being cut, my kids specifically. What I found though was that the acoustics were bad and everybody could hear anything else. So anything I ended up recording in that space, I ended up doing quietly because I didn't want to bother them. They were in the office next door talking to a client or whatever, and I was loud. And you get the point. I don't need to beat a dead horse with this particular notion. But recognize that the space and your self awareness in that space can impact your energy. Pick something or a spot where you can shoot, like nobody's watching. And then you can just let your energy fly out and jump out of your body and land into the lap of the person watching on the other side of the screen. Now, speaking of space, how much space is in your frame can impact your energy? And here's what I mean by that. This is a wide shot. If your movements are very subtle, you're going to not be seen. You need to have energy to fill this space and fill this frame. It's the same thing again, that you have to use grander energy when you are speaking on a stage to a large audience. At a stadium for example. Everybody in that audience has a wide shot. There's not a camera in their mind's eye that's focused on you from torso up, usually unless there's a jumbotron and even that might be a wide shot in that particular element, you need to use big gestures. You need to talk to the person in the back of the room. It's why when people are on stage, they have very heavy makeup, they use very grand gestures. Everybody in the theater has a wide shot and they need to bring their energy. If you have a smaller shot, a tighter or closer shot, you don't have to use or bring quite as much to the frame in order to fill it with energy aside from just being a cleaner shot. That's one of the reasons I also recommend using a head and shoulders shot most commonly, or something that is perhaps mid body, waist up, torso up. If you're using props or you're doing some sort of demonstration, a full body shot should really only be used if you are doing a demonstration where somebody would have to see you from head to toe. And that might be an exercise demo, or a dance demo, or a, something along those lines. Something that takes up a lot of space and something that naturally brings with it a lot of energy that you can use to fill up the frame. The best way to get your energy for a video shoot up is to do a little warm up. We talked about breathing exercises. We talked about moving your body and circling your head and rubbing your shoulders. I mentioned might be that you need to jump up and down and belt out a song at the top of your lungs. Maybe you need to punch the air, Rocky style. Do some push ups, whatever it is. Get the blood pumping in your body doesn't mean that you're tying yourself out. You don't want to be all. Breathless as you hit record. Like you've just run a marathon, but you do want to get that energy going. And then literally I would have the camera rolling. You're out of frame. You're going crazy getting that energy up. And then you jump in front of that camera and you begin to talk at the same level, and go back and watch. It's going to feel over the top, I promise you it is. But I guarantee if you go back and watch, it won't look anywhere near as energetic as what it felt like to you. There's a visceral response to music that amps up those energy levels. Pick a song that gets you in a good mood, that gets you ready to go. Something that feels like a shot in the arm. The minute you hear the opening chords or chorus. I know, man, somebody who listens to Tub Thumper by Chuma every time that they have a video shoot and no judgment, it works for that person. The minute they hear that song, their energy spikes. And even if they did get knocked down, they would definitely get back up again. You know, that song, you should get up when you, if you can, until you know how to bring it every time. Standing is the optimal position when it comes to shooting. We've talked about how it's best for your posture. It's also best for energy. Your blood flow is less restricted. It's easier to breathe. It's harder to completely relax all of those different elements that you need to keep going. Posture, For example, Abs. It's one of the things that will help you keep your energy level up and it's a reason that people use standing desks in their offices. It is not just to annoy their coworkers, move your body. Tony Ramins has a saying that motion becomes emotion. He does sometimes often fly around the stage like he's leading a jazzercise class. You don't have to go that big, but being deliberate by leaning in or adding a hand gesture or moving your head intentionally, even though you might not in that particular area of your on camera delivery. But that can help you when you need to bring your energy levels up because they're lagging. I know when I anchored the morning show and I woke up at one in the morning for almost two decades, straight Key, you better bet I was exhausted, especially after a six hour morning show. I mean, I felt like I had just run a marathon and that's when I had to put those performance skills on autopilot. And I would just know that every so often, more often than not, I'm going to have to lean forward or move my hand, move my head, vary my vocal tones and pitch and pace intentionally. Because tactics bring energy into your delivery, even if you're not feeling about it. We've talked a practical, we've talked about physical aspects of upping your energy. We should also talk about some of the more mental and behavioral ways to give an energetic performance. We always have more energy when we're interested in a topic. It's your passion, it's your purpose. Think about a child telling you about seeing a fire truck or something else that's exciting to them. They have so much energy, they are bursting out of their skin. You need to find a way to be excited about your topic, even if you're talking about something like bookkeeping. And if any bookkeepers are watching this. I'm not saying that you are boring, I'm just saying that bookkeeping can be a topic that is not necessarily one inherently visual or two inherently emotional. But you do have something to say to your audience. And you can say it in a way that drives some sort of emotion and that is entertaining. If you go onto Youtube and you look up videos on finance, or insurance, or bookkeeping or whatever it is, I promise you will find some videos that are absolutely dreadful, and then you will find others that are influencers in that space. Not even because they necessarily know what they're talking about, but because their delivery is so compelling and they've done all the other things, right? They've optimized their consistent et cetera, et cetera. But if they can find a way to be excited about bookkeeping to the point that they have 4 million followers on Youtube, you can as well. If you're filming or shooting a video, keep saying filming. I use them interchangeably. I'm also dating myself here. But if you're shooting a video about something that doesn't interest you, that will naturally lower your energy level as we've talked about it. Your audience is going to be bored. If you look awkward, your audience is going to feel awkward. They're going to stop watching. You can fake enthusiasm. But it is quite a bit harder than you think. Audiences especially now are pretty good at spotting stuff that's fake. It is better if you can find anything that which you are speaking to get excited about. It may simply be the fact that your audience is going to learn something that is important to them, no matter how boring your topic is. If it's something that your audience has a direct interest in, if it's something they are seeking out, it is going to be interesting to them. You may not think it is because you do it every day. But somebody who's trying to learn about it, it's interesting to them, there are no boring topics, they're just boring deliveries. The other way that you may be able to mitigate lack of enthusiasm is to include a story in your video. It's a great way to increase your interest level. It's a great way to help your energy as well. We'll talk a little bit about developing stories. When people tell a story though, when a person, when you tell a story, your audience is much more invested in what you are saying. We are primed to be listening to stories. It's going way back the way that we communicated before. Verbal language, we would write or draw pictures on the inside of a cave. And it's how we might tell somebody where the buffalo were or where the saber tooth tigers were or who in the Klan was being a real **** and needed to be kicked out or whatever it was. That's how we communicated. Stories sit with people for much longer than facts. Stories are the things that bring facts to life and humanize them and make them interested. If it's a story that you're interested in, your audience will likely be interested in it as well, because they want to see where it's going. It doesn't have to be one story. You can be multiple stories in your video. It doesn't even have to be one that happened to you. It can be a parable that you're relating, or an analogy as well to give that video periodic bursts of energy. Just know this and we'll talk about it more when we talk about storytelling. Just because you love the story doesn't mean it's the right story for the audience to whom you're speaking. Your favorite story might not be the story for your audience. Think about them. Again, always putting them at the front of whatever it is that you are doing. Let's talk now about a couple of mental tricks to help your energy levels. And the first is to think about who you are speaking to, whom you are speaking to use proper grammar. By the way, don't worry about using proper grammar. In short, social media posts, oftentimes proper grammar is way too convoluted for conversational grammar police, you're out of here, but think about who you're talking to. It's so much easier to be energetic. You're talking to a specific person about a specific topic. This little trick is helpful not just with energy, but in so many other ways. When you're shooting a video, when you have a person in your mind as your audience, everything snaps into focus. Your energy focused on them and not everything else, especially yourself, that's going into this video. Production focused energy is always higher energy. It's actually a physical property, right, Maybe not. But it is true when it comes to making a video. When you're picturing your audience, remember that they're rooting for you. Nobody's watching this and waiting for you to fail. Even if it's live. They are there, maybe because it's live and you never know what's going to happen. But they want you to succeed, and they want to learn from you. So take that knowledge, let it empower you. They're excited to see you, so you should be excited to be there. You're amping things up, you're showing your excitement. Your voice is so powerful when it comes to not just conveying your message, but to also keeping energy in your video and directing that energy as well. If you're speaking softly and with no variation, you're telling people basically that you have nothing worth saying. It's all the same. Like when you emphasize every word then none of the words are emphasized. It's like that. Pump up the volume. Use your vocal modulation to help make those points, Keep the audience interested. And help highlight the points that you want to make. Check, check in 321. Pump the volume up and use your vocal modulation to help you make points, Keep the audience interested, and help highlights the points that you want to make. We're going to talk about how to really use your voice in just a second, but for now, just remember that you need to speak up. You need to put personality into your voice. Personality is energy, and energy is personality. When one lags, the other one does as well. People need to feel like they're seeing the real you, but the one that's really excited, it's you, but better. This is your on camera persona. I don't know how many times by this point in the course that I've told you to smile. And I'll probably tell you again further along, but I am going to tell you once again to smile. It is so powerful in so many ways. One of those ways is that instantly it helps you bring up your energy when you smile, you're showing you're happy. Or that you're at least interested enough in what's going on to have a positive expression on your face. And that translates into increased energy and your audience's perception of it. Because remember, perception is truth. Smile. There are going to be times in your video when your energy will lag. It's going to happen to everybody. It happens to me, It'll happen to you, especially if it's longer format. Again, energy is important no matter what you're shooting. But 15 seconds on Instagram or Tiktok or Facebook that you can edit and very easily do some cool stuff with in the shot platform. It's much easier to not only sustain but edit energy into your on camera performance if you will. Oftentimes with business videos, meaning the ones that you might see on linked in or somewhere else like that, they get very stodgy, they get very buttoned up, and they get very boring. I would say hands down. That is the biggest mistake of any business video, it's that it is absolutely boring. It is a Powerpoint presentation that has been converted to something in front of a lens video, even if it's a business video, should not be a virtual white paper. That energy thing is something that you're going to run into much more often when you're shooting longer videos. Again, important, no matter where you are, especially in social media, even if you're doing short videos, because social media is really the door that opens up the party to whatever it is your business is and then, or whoever you are. And then video in all of these other areas is how you continue to nurture and provide insight to your potential clients. And bring them from the door all the way back into the backyard where they're now doing cannon balls into the pool. And they're talking about how fantastic you are and they're probably buying a drink. So if you start to feel that energy lag on those longer format videos, which have just as important of a place within your customer journey. Social media videos, take a minute to reset, take a breath and then start again. It can help not only you, but your audience. If you're feeling like you need to take a break, they probably feel like they need to take a break as well. Give them a second catch up. Give them a second to digest what they heard and then they can get ready to hear a little bit more. While you're not actually delivering it in pieces like that, what taking a break will do is virtually give them that opportunity. You're taking a break by your delivery or taking a break and then re, editing that edit or that process is created for your audience in a way that allows them to basically do the same thing. It is so tempting to start dropping your energy levels as you reach the end of shooting something, no matter how long it is. Don't do that. You've got to keep that inner marathon runner going and finish strong. Keep your energy up through the very last syllable. If you had good energy throughout the entire video, your audience is going to be right there with you. Don't do them dirty. Do not let them down. Energy is the power source of your video when it comes to you and your delivery. You have to know how to create it techniques to harness it, and then keep it flowing throughout. Now you have the tools to do, hopefully all of that, although you also need to practice. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video. 19. Props: Props. Props can be a welcome addition to pretty much any video. They add personality, they add drama. They illustrate concepts. They can distract though, and they can potentially derail whatever it is you're doing. It depends on how you use them. I'm going to give you this one. Underscore though. Anytime that you can use a prop, no matter how small, to make a concept tangible, you want to use it. I talked in some of the earlier modules that came with shooting and editing about if you're talking about finance, using $1 bill or using a credit card, or using hand gestures and sound effects. You know, banging your fist on the table to imitate a bad boss or a toxic work environment that you're trying to figure out how to navigate, or that you're trying to help people navigate. Your body can be a prop if you know what you're doing. It's not just about using visuals or slides or whiteboards. Frankly, most people don't know how to do them well and they're not incredibly visual. So there's two primary types of props or visuals to use in this case. And I'm not going to talk a lot about Powerpoint. I see people do Powerpoint videos, and oftentimes, the Powerpoint is used as a crutch or used as something to hide behind Powerpoint videos. Anything you're going to use to talk to a client with is not something that's going to go on social media or on your website, or for a video sales letter. If you're doing a sales webinar or a training webinar or you're putting together a course, you will generally have slides like this. This course is hours and hours and hours long. Use a combination of visuals, video clips on camera stuff, met face to camera, talking head videos. And it's to create some visual difference. Also because I may have a set up for a light or a camera that I need to be able to display to you on a slide. So that you can look at how I'm suggesting you set your studio up, for example. But if somebody is doing a 30 minute sales or training webinar, and they're behind slides the entire time those slides are being used, A, as a crutch and B, as something to hide behind. I suggest trying to keep your slides unless you absolutely need them if you're doing a sales or training webinar to 10% or less of your on camera delivery. Now after that, a couple of kinds of props. Two primary ones really, hand props and atmospheric props. Hand props are the things that you handle, the things you pick up or use to do a demonstration. Atmospheric props are the things that are simply there that add to atmosphere. Everything that you see in the background of a video can be considered an atmospheric prop. You will often see me shooting a video for Linked in or for a landing page. Where I'm at my desk and you see some of my awards in the background. Those are atmospheric props, and they're there to showcase some credibility. They're a credibility marker. You don't want to load your background with them, but they're atmospheric. They underscore credibility usually, or mood, or vibe. No matter if a prop is a hand prop or if it's there for the atmosphere, make sure that it's relevant. If you're talking about beauty products and it's a serious video and you've got a rubber chicken in the shot. There better be a reason that that rubber chicken is there. Every prop should feel like it is natural to your location and your topic. It shouldn't feel like you're trying to force a square peg into a round hole, jarring off, putting comical unless your intention is comedy. But if that prop pulls focus and it doesn't add to what you're saying, it's not a good idea to use it. I mentioned trying to make things tangible as you're showcasing them. One of the great things about video is that it does offer you the opportunity to show, not just tell, you can show your expertise, rather than just tell somebody you're really good at what you do the way in the news industry, I know I keep referencing them, but being on camera so much and telling stories live and recorded gives news the opportunity to learn and use all of these strategies and tactics and knowledge if a reporter is outside after a snowstorm and is You know, there's a bunch of down trees or whatever and they're sort of touching the tree or placing their hand into the snow and pulling it up and showing whether the snow is wet and sticky or whether it's soft and powdery. All of those things help bring your audience sort of into the scene and they underscore and highlight elements of what you're talking about. Don't use a prop though, just to use one. If you're talking about some sort of global movement, don't pull out a globe. Your point is made without that particular prop in that particular moment. So it's irrelevant, no matter how clever you think it might be. Now, I want you to get creative. There's all sorts of things that you can do. For example, if you're talking about finance like I was showcasing in this particular video on Youtube, I was showing how the squeeze on the housing market made the bubble. And then as the pressure is released, the bubble is dropped. And so I took this balloon and I blew it up. And I used it to demonstrate an abstract, a concept that's not one that you can physically put your hands on, but that balloon made it tangible. You do want to limit the number of props that you're using. There is such a thing as too many of them. You're supposed to be the main attraction in your video. And your prop, or your props are there to support what you're saying. They're not the main event. You're not carrot top, every line doesn't need to be punctuated by you pulling something out of the box. One of the most compelling uses of a prop that I have ever seen was when Steve Jobs used an envelope to describe just how thin and lightweight their new Mac laptop was. Check this one out. Don't let your props get in the way of you in the camera. They can't obscure your face, They can't cover up your mouth. They can't cover up your microphone and make it hard for people to hear you. They can't be moving around at a wild pace. You can't just bring them up into the camera frame and then bring them down again. They need to be held there so that your audience can see what it is and it doesn't become frustrating for them. Same thing if you're going to be holding up something that perhaps has a bit of a sheen to it, I don't know. Maybe you're holding up a paper where you are showcasing your process for creating a logo and there's a bit of a sheen on the paper. Again, it's a prop, it's visual. You're making your process tangible. All of that is great, but if you have a light in front of you and you don't have that piece of paper angled in the appropriate way, they're not going to see your audience isn't going to see a single thing on that paper, they're just going to see a glare. Again, You are the main event when you're using a prop, it needs to be fully visible. And like I said, read for everybody in the audience. If you're using something that is large, then you need to have a shot that's wide enough that they can see the whole thing. If it's very small, if you are showing a roll of the dice for example, you need to make sure that you can display the device or what the dice rather landed on in a way that's visible to the camera and everybody watching. And then bringing it up into the shot and taking it out very quickly without some explanation. There's nothing worse than somebody holding up a prop and the audience or someone in having to think what the heck is and then having to listen to this full lengthy description of what it is in order to simply get a visual in their mind of what the visual is supposed to be showing. Give your audience enough time to see it and take it in is what I'm getting at. Never a blanket mist thing. If you took the time to bring it in and plan to use it, give it it's time to shine. When you're preparing for a video, make sure to check your props and make sure that they're in working order and you know how to use them. This is not as applicable to something that's going to be recorded and edited. But if you are doing a live stream or a live podcast, you're doing a live QNA or a webcast or something along those lines. Or you're doing a heck, you're doing something on camera for TV. You don't want to waste your time and you don't want to waste the audience's time futzing around with something that's broken or that you were pretty sure you knew how to operate. Again, that is applicable to something that is taking place live. Otherwise your audience won't see you futzing around with it because it can be edited out. You also should look so natural with that prop that people will wonder if you invented it. Before you use it on camera for real take time to practice with it. Again, this is more applicable to a live, but if it doesn't work when you're on camera, even if it's recorded, you're going to have to do several takes. And not only does that take long in the actual shooting, it takes longer, but it will take longer in the editing as well. Test it and know how to troubleshoot if something happens, especially if live. If the prop is something that's going to need to be charged before you're using it, make sure it's plugged in, make sure it's ready to go. If it needs batteries, they should be fresh and you should have a replacement just in case if you're alive especially, I would try and have a backup for every prop that you're using. Especially true if you have a prop that breaks easily or you've had problems working properly in the past. That balloon video that I shot, it took a couple of takes because I couldn't get the balloon to pop at the end and then then it popped early a couple of times. So I needed to have a bunch of balloons that we're ready to go. You don't want to have to go to the store even if it's a recorded shoot in the middle of it because something broke, right? And if you have a spare and you don't need it, you can either return it later or use it in another way. On another video, whether you're using one prop or more than that, you do want to keep them organized. You do want to keep them within reach. This goes for recorded and live recorded video. If you have them close by you, it's going to be much easier to grab them and use them. While your prop needs to be visible when you're on camera, they shouldn't be seen before you need them. Think of it sort of as preserving an element of surprise. Now, if you're on the Today show and you're doing a makeup demonstration, clearly the audience is going to see the make up before you're talking. And maybe you're doing a video about the housing bubble and you're moving that balloon back and forth and you're drawing suspense that way. But something that's big and distracting. You want to keep that preserved for the moment. What you're really doing in that case is keeping the attention of the audience on you. If they can see your props before you're using them. Generally speaking, there's a real good chance that they're going to spend at least part of your video wondering what is that and why is it there before you use that prop, build some anticipation. Especially true if you're doing a video for a product launch or you're doing some sort of reveal. You want to make people wait for it, you want to make them watch for it. Especially true if you're using a prop. That's not expected. I told you before that you shouldn't use props that aren't relevant. But it doesn't mean that you can't be creative or think outside the box when you're choosing your props. For instance, there's a Ted Talk where the neurologist brings out an actual human brain to illustrate her point. She could have done the same thing with a model. She could have done the same thing with slides or pictures. But bringing out an actual brain had an impact that none of those would have had. That's what you're looking at here. Now, I'm not saying in the middle of your presentation, you need to bring out an organ. It needs to be relevant. But think about props that can add value to your presence in your presentation and your on camera persona. And that add a wow factor or have a surprise twist, make something tangible. When you're done with it, put it away, especially if you're alive. You need the attention to be on you again. And you don't want your audience looking at it, wishing that they could play with it, put it out of camera view, or have someone off camera ready to take it from you. Rather are great. You should use them every time you can to make an abstract concept tangible. They add depth. They add excitement, but they have to compliment what you're saying, not overwhelm it. I mean, you can have a brain on the table with you, but you need to be the brains of the operation. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. O 20. Using a Teleprompter: Using a teleprompter. It used to be that teleprompters were only used by professional crews. And that's because they used to cost thousands of dollars. They had super special accessory equipment and they needed a dedicated crew person to run it. All right, and then, well, maybe you had to send your video off and wait three days to discover it. The great thing is that teleprompters can now be used by pretty much anybody. Whether you're doing a three camera shoot at a network studio or you're shooting in your house, on your office, you can have a teleprompter. Do you need a teleprompter? I would say in some cases it's a really good idea. Not for everything, certainly not for 15 second videos. But for example, a live video where you may be doing a virtual call with a client. Or you are doing something that requires a lot of script, maybe a video sales letter. Having a teleprompter can be really helpful. Now reading a script on a teleprompter, it takes a second to figure that out. It's not a bad idea to start practicing on that. Making a video, especially a longer format, one can be pretty stressful. A teleprompter can help take away from that. It's not an excuse to turn your brain on an autopilot. It's not a crutch, but you don't have to worry about forgetting everything or anything really because it's all going to be right in front of you. Again, it does mean that you need to be prepared, even if you're alive and that script goes sideways, you know what you're talking about thoroughly enough that you can keep moving on. Removing that barrier by taking away that stress, hopefully means it should mean that you can create a script that is a little more in depth for let's say a sales webinar or a training webinar. And you can make sure that you're adding details or examples that maybe you would have forgotten before. It's not that you have to have every single thing scripted out, but you also don't have to fly by the seat of your pants either. You can write a long script, you don't have to cut it up into shorter segments that have to be shot one at a time while you look at your language for the next part. As you know, I'm a big fan of jump cut editing for social media and other forms of video. That's not going to help you if you're doing a live stream or if you are doing some sort of, again, sales webinar or training webinar. Teleprompter can also be a really big help if you're shooting a script that has a lot of words in it that are necessary but difficult. Or if it's got a lot of terms that you may forget because you don't use them regularly. I'm using in teleprompter, that's why you haven't heard me refer to this as a camera reader. I mean, yes, I make mistakes and you'll see some of them in the bloopers, But I'm making sure that every single thing that I want to make sure I talk to you about or that we bring up in this course is not forgotten and then it's not out of order either. Yes. Sometimes I create an additional ad libbed aside, but I know the structure of what it is that I'm talking about. Your non verbal communication can really improve when you use one because your mind's not occupied trying to remember what word comes next. You can focus on your body a little bit more On the flip side of that, we talked about this in one of the modules prior, is that sometimes when you're reading a prompter, you can get so focused on the words coming out correctly that you disconnect from them. And it sounds like you're reading. And you slow down a little bit and it sounds a little more scripted for that matter. You don't want to fall into that pattern. And so marking your scripts and writing in a way that's very conversational is key. It's a great way to write for the ear, meaning for people to hear, rather than write for the eye for people to read. Using a teleprompter can save you a ton of time. Don't have to memorize the script, don't have to think about the words. It's not that you don't have to understand the script and know it thoroughly. Though we're going to talk about that in a moment. Also, if this is something that you are going to be editing, it can cut some time off of that because there's a really good chance that you're not going to forget what it is that you need to say or. Say something out of order in a way that's crucial that it's corrected or leave a part out and not realize it. And then go back and watch for editing and realize there's a key element that you have to fix. And since you shot that video, you've cut your hair and lost ten pounds and it's going to be clear that there is a lack of continuity. There are so many prompters that you can use at every single price point on the spectrum. At the lowest end, there are apps that will display your text over the screen on your phone. Not my favorite. They can be pretty tricky to read and they can make you fairly self conscious because you're looking at the video as it records and you're looking at the words that you're trying to read as well. I like to use apps that display only the text as you record. One of the greatest ones for your laptop is Power Prompter Express. It is a paid app. It's about $19 a month, which I know sounds somewhat expensive for an app. If you're going to shoot videos that are strictly less than 5 minutes at a stretch, you can use the free version, but it'll only give you 5 minutes time at a time if you are using the free version at a higher price point. Are apps that require some special hardware in order to use them. I'll use an app on my computer or on my phone, and then I will use a physical teleprompter that fits over my camera and reflects the text that's running in the app, the teleprompter app. Up in front of the screen, you can see how that's working right here. The highest end are the teleprompters that you know about from TV and from film. They cover the entire front of a camera. They take up a lot of space. There's the person in the back rolling the text at the right speed. You don't need anything expensive though. No matter what the teleprompter you use, the only thing you need to do is make sure that you know how to use it. I mean, not just the technical aspects of it, but also being natural and conversational when it comes to reading a prompter. Broadcast journalism schools teach entire semester long courses on it. You should give it a couple of hours. Learn how to control the rate that the text scrolls. Maybe you buy an app that has a voice scroller on it so it keeps up with you. Those are not 100% reliable. If you change something on the fly or you mess up a word or you say something differently, or you bring one sentence in front of the other, it's not going to be able to follow you. So you need to speak loudly. You need to speak close to the mice. And you need to speak the words exactly as they're written in front of you in order for that to happen. I have one of those. I don't love it for those reasons Exactly. You also need to consider practicing with a teleprompter not just to understand the technology and reading scrolling words, but to get to a point where you can use one without looking like you are using one. There are two things that are a dead giveaway. Somebody is using a prompter, it's their eye movement and their speech patterns. When somebody is reading from a prompter, you can see their eyes going back and forth. We talked about that in the eye contact of NVP, your VIQ. Sometimes it happens because the prompter isn't set up correctly. Sometimes it's because the prompter screen is wider than the frame that's captured by your camera lens. The way to fix that is to make sure that your prompter screen is right over your camera. And then adjust the text so that it's not so wide that your eyes really have to shift dramatically in order to read it. You're probably looking at, depending on font size, maybe three words rather, per line of text on that prompter. You can also use mannerisms, head tilts, nods, those sorts of things to create other movement on the screen and cover up the fact that your eyes are going back and forth. Find out what works best for you by practicing with that prompter rather and recording the session so that you can critique them. And then you can improve your set up until it's perfect. If you don't have a prompter just yet and you want to begin to practice with one, and you don't want to have to go through the hassle of writing out a script. One of the easiest ways to do that is to put the closed captioning on on your TV or on Youtube. Turn the sound off and then read the captions as they come up. If you're watching a TV show, the screen writing that you're going to see is written for the ear and not the I. So it's written in a way that is conversational for most of us. So it's a great way to practice and practice speaking conversationally. The more difficult hurdle is to overcome sounding like you're not speaking naturally and you are not speaking spontaneously when you're using a teleprompter. Right? So it sounds like you're reading a script. The best way to do that is to never read your script from a teleprompter cold. In fact, never read a script on camera without having read it out loud many times before. Teleprompter is a crutch, it is not your legs, it's why they call it a teleprompter and not a tele teller. If you rely only on that prompter for every word that you're saying, it's not going to go well before you shoot. Take time to go over your script multiple times. Work it through. Read it out loud so you know how it sounds. There are no spots that are tricky or have unintentional tongue twisters. Know the points that you want to emphasize. Where you want to add pauses and place pronunciations there. You know what you're going to say. If for a moment your brain goes blank. If that sounds like over kill. If you're think I'll remember all the words. Let me tell you about a news anchor, and I mentioned this before. Who pronounced Kim Jong? El. As Kim Jong Second. Because the IL looked like the Roman numeral two in the prompter. It wasn't that this person was dumb or that this person didn't know the name of the leader in North Korea. It's just that in the moment, sometimes your brain has a hard time reconciling what it sees with what you want to say. Something else entirely comes out of your mouth, much like this. Don't make the same mistake. If you need a phonetic pronunciation, put it in and put it in your pronunciation. It doesn't matter if it's correct. It doesn't matter if it's the phonetic spelling or pronunciation that you would see in the dictionary. It only matters that you understand it. Preparations for using a prompter start though, not when the script is up there on the screen, but when you're writing it using language that's familiar to you, language that you use in an everyday conversation, if you're not sure about how you would say whatever it is that you're talking about in an everyday conversation, dictate that conversation into a voice recorder, as you would explain it to a friend, and use that as a guide. If you're the one or not the one I should say, who's writing that script, make sure that you have time to read it again out loud so you avoid those unintentional tongue twisters and whatnot. And you figure out what areas need some tweaking before you're ready to say them on camera. You need to own the words that are coming out of your mouth. Once the script is loaded into the prompter, then you practice some more. Take some time to work with it, figure out how the text needs to flow. Maybe even how you need to edit it a little bit further so that it reads smoothly, that it reads naturally. Shorter sentences, one thought per sentence if you're using a Prompter app that scrolls automatically, and I talked about those just a few minutes ago. If you're using a prompter app that scrolls automatically, meaning it's not following your voice and you're not manually rolling the prompter. Adjust the speed so that you can keep up with it and not feel lost. There's no metal for reading a prompter really quickly. Nobody's going to see how fast it scrolls, except you don't worry about that. If an auto scrolling app isn't working for you, you can look into one that's voice activated or uses a remote. Again, my personal preference, and I've used all three of them, is to have one that uses a remote. It costs a hair more, but you control the speed yourself, which means if you want to stop and add live a bit or if you want to speed up and move through something more quickly, you can take a little bit of time to figure out what's easiest for you to read. Now the default is white text on a black background when you're on a prompter. That is, it didn't work for everybody that didn't work for Brian Williams. He uses black text on a white background. He likes his text rather to be in sentence, upper case and lower case. Most every other anchor, everyone that I've worked with anyway, preferred the words to be all caps and that is the standard default. It makes it a little bit easier for most people to read. You're picking the background, you're picking the text color combo, that's easiest for you to see, easiest for you to read clearly. Decide if if you need the prompter to be a little bit brighter or the script to be a little bit brighter and then go from there. It is a wonderful, wonderful tool. But it is that it is just a tool, how well it works, the final outcomes, all of that depend on how well you use it. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. 21. How to Dress on Camera: How to dress for the camera. Clothing tells us so much about a person even before we know anything about them. There are moments when clothing is irreversibly linked to a person or a place, or a moment in time, and sometimes that's fantastic and sometimes it is very, very bad. What I'm saying is your appearance matters, especially when you're on camera. We've all heard the saying that the camera adds ten pounds. That's not a hard and fast rule. But what is absolutely true in every environment is that the camera can magnify problem areas and then erase some of your best features. Makes you look bigger, makes you look smaller. In other words, it is an art form to properly dress to be on camera, and it can take a while to master it. Now, that doesn't mean that you need to be in a suit or even a dress every time you're on camera. If it's appropriate, you can be in a T shirt or sweater. Heck, you see me on camera, especially in my flogs, wearing all sorts of stuff. But it has to be something that works for what you're talking about and in the environment in which you're talking. If you are shooting a video for let's say H back installers. Who are generally going to be wearing work boots and a T shirt and maybe a hard hat and some rugged pants. Showing up in your three piece Brooks Brothers suit and your gucci loafers for a head to toe shot is not going to appeal to your audience. It's not just about wearing a suit or doing this or the other thing. It's understanding what you're talking about, the level of formality that your audience expects from you, and also where you're going to be using it. That can vary and change up what you're wearing and how as well, there are people who spend their entire careers in front of a lens and they never exactly figure out how to incorporate their wardrobe into their persona. That shouldn't be you, unless you're Andy Rooney, don't do it. We're going to talk about how to look your best on camera. So your message is the focal point, not your clothing, hair, or makeup. The appearance that you put out there tells the world all about who you are. Before you have the chance to open your mouth, parameters or the boundaries for professional dress have changed. You know, it used to be that if you were a professional, you would never show a tag to if you had one. Now that's okay now. It's okay to most people, maybe it's not okay to your audience. And then you need to think about whether that's something you want to show or if that's something that's just for you. The main point here though, is that the clothing that you wear should emphasize great things, negate negative things. Even if it's just your perception, it'll help you feel more confident, recognize what looks good in your shot, what colors work, what patterns don't, and how to bring who you are and what your business is, and make your image part of your brand as well. To start with the message, because the message is the basis for you being on camera. It's the reason you're doing these videos. And you don't want to have this cognitive dissonance in your audience when they see you and then they hear what you're speaking about. So think about the persona that you've built to be on camera. You may have some really specific ideas about what that person would or would not wear, what they would like or what they would not like. And if you don't know, I would take a little bit of time to do a little more research and I would look at people who are on camera on the regular, people who are comfortable with it. Do you need to dress the way that a TV anchor does? Absolutely not. But what they do know, for the most part, not always. I certainly have had some big Mrs. in my wardrobe. But most of them know generally what looks good and what does not look good. And that means colors and fit. Generally speaking, a brighter color and something that is tailored is usually going to look better, especially if you're a woman. Jewel tones are amazing if you're going to be in front of a green screen. One color you do want to avoid is green. The colors can vary, hairstyles can vary, but for the most part, people on camera are following the same rules. Every single day. And there's a reason they know what works. They can properly tell the story. Their appearance doesn't hijack whatever it is that they're saying. So you're doing the same thing. Again, it doesn't mean that you need to show up in a suit. If you're teaching yoga, when you're getting ready to be on camera, generally think of this one word and it's polished, even if you're wearing a polo or workout clothing. Now I'm not talking about getting on a virtual happy hour and talking with your colleagues. What I am talking about is being in a video that is going to live indefinitely on the Internet, even if eventually you take it down. You want everything to be part of your brand, part of your persona and make you look your best. You feel you're most comfortable and you feel your most confident. I have a hair salon client that I do content for, and she always says, when your outer looks good, your inner feels better. And that's one of the things that I'd like you to think about here if what you're wearing is something that makes you self conscious, if it's low cut, if you are going to be standing up and walking around and your skirt keeps riding up, or you're not comfortable wearing the heels or whatever it is, Address it so that you're not so self aware. Self aware is the antithesis of being good on camera. If you become overly self aware, or even really self aware at all for that point, for that matter, I guess is the right word to say. If you become self aware overly so it will kill you're on camera delivery, you get in your head and everything gets messed up. Soon as you start worrying about that stuff, what your hands are doing, what you're wearing, you're screwed. Let's start with fit. We all have different ways that we like our clothing to fit, different fits that make us feel comfortable. If you're the person though who likes things to be oversized on camera is probably the time to consider making a change with that. Clothes that are just too big don't read well. If the camera were to add ten pounds, wearing something too big for you adds 30. And there's nothing inherently wrong with being heavy, that's fine. You can be heavy and still be on camera, but you have to think about it this way. When somebody sees you in the street, no matter what size or shape your body is, if you're wearing an oversized sweatshirt or sweat pants, that person can see because they're in three D, your body is sort of moving underneath. Right. They know that the outline of that sweatshirts, not your actual arm. That's not the case with video. When you're on camera, you are not three dimensional. Instead of the clothing being on your body, your clothing is your body. I'm going to go back to the reporters and anchors that I mentioned a second ago. Every single one of them is usually wearing clothing that's properly fitted from the cuffs to the sleeves, to the waist. It's fitted to their body. Doesn't mean it's skin tight, but it means that there's no mistaking that there is a human that is in that clothing. Depending on the shape of the human that you are, maybe you want to do undergarments or he thanks, big fan of those. All it is, is really about making sure that you feel your best and you look your best so that what you're wearing is not a distraction. You've heard of the clothes wearing a person rather than the person wearing the clothes. It's not a good thing. And that's what can happen here as well. Don't think, because you're a guy, that you don't need to consider investing in this stuff as well. Everybody needs a little bit of help, sometimes even guys, by giving yourself a tighter base. You're helping your clothes fit closer, you're helping them look better. They don't lie in weird lumps, they help things lie cleanly. When you're dressing for the camera, make sure that you're fully dressed. And that means from your head to your toes. And that may seem fairly obvious, but there's a rumor going around that if you're on video, you're only going to be seen from the waist up, and therefore, that's the only part that needs to be dressed and that is short sighted thinking, Yes, if you're just shooting a selfie or a handheld video for Social of course. But if you're doing a live stream and spontaneity hits and you want to get up and demonstrate something, if you're not wearing something that can be seen, you're not going to be able to do it. So don't be short sighted. If you're dressing half your body, it really does limit what you can do on camera. Now oftentimes a suit is a great place to start. But especially in the age of the pandemic, people are dressing in a more casual light. That means maybe they wear a button down, but the sleeves are rolled up and they probably don't wear a tie. The last thing that I want you to do is get on camera and shoot a video with a suit on and use as a welcome to the party post on linked in. If it's boring and you look boring, it's not going to have the effect that you wanted to a video with some durability that is going to be used perhaps above the fold on your website. Which by the way, is something you should not shoot yourself. Maybe that's the place to wear a suit in at least some of the shots. Or if you are doing a video bio for your website, that could be the place that you may consider wearing something that's a little bit more formal. Generally speaking though, suits are not the place to be. Now if you are doing a webcast or some virtual event or panel discussion, get a feel for the formality of the event. If everybody else is dressed to the nines, you don't want to be the odd duck again. You also don't want to look over dressed. Because if you look over dressed, it can look a little bit desperate. Two colors that you should avoid, and we'll go into y in just a moment. Black and white. Suffice it to say that black and white can make bad lighting even worse. It does crazy things to skin tone and the number of other things that don't work. If you are going to think about a suit, blue or gray, not navy blue or gray are usually the best colors. Blue is universally flattering. There's not a shade of blue that doesn't look good on everybody if you're not sure about what to wear, branding colors or blue is a great way to go. Brown usually looks a little too informal on camera, even if you're wearing a suit. Do you remember Barack Obama taking grief for wearing that tan suit on the podium when he was president? And that is a nice suit, an expensive tailored suit, But people lost their minds. It was because brown or tan can tend to look a little bit too casual. If you're thinking about fabric, we want to stay away from anything that is shiny. That usually means things that have a little elastic to them, not a sweater. But if you're wearing some blouse or tightly fitted top, it will usually have some lycra or elastic that allows it to be stretchy, great. It may lay wonderfully on you, but if it's stretched because it's too tight or it's stretched out for whatever reason, it's going to look shiny and it's going to look out of place. I'm going to take a quick second to talk about TV and media exposure. Now we're not talking about that expressly here, but what works on a video for social also usually will work for being on camera. If you are going to be in a media environment, look for a suit men double breasted, stay away from them. You want to go single breasted style. When you're spending money on clothes to be on camera, you want to choose things that are going to give you the most for your money. Unless your business is hot trending fashion or something that is deep into the entertainment industry, your best bet is to go with classics that you can wear over and over again, and then you can update them with smaller wardrobe pieces. Again, you don't really have to worry about wearing a suit on Social. You're going to look out of place or even on your video sales letter, unless maybe you're a stylist. But recognize that if you are considering being on camera for TV and media, these are things that you will want to consider. So let's take a moment to talk about patterns. They are not your friends, Stay away from them, especially the little ones. And yes, they look fantastic on the rack and they're calling to you with all their shapes and textures, look at them, appreciate them, and then move on to the solid colors. Because you never know what a pattern is going to do on camera, it is a mystery. Some will make you look shorter, some will make you look whiter, Some are worse. If it's a small check or a line, it creates that magic eye effect. When they're on camera, it's called more. And it means that it looks like they're moving right. I had a form of producer who used to call them tet pattern clothing. The patterns are headache conducing, they're not a good look. Solid colors, put the attention on where it needs to be, which is on you. There's a reason. For example, they don't display jewels. Precious jewels. Anyway, on snakeskin, the jewels shine when they're on plain dark velvet. So think about your clothing as the palette or the base that allows you to shine in a similar way, even more than patterns. Avoid logos, including your own. The moment you put words and pictures on your clothing, your viewer's eye will be drawn to them and that draws the eye away. Now like a small monogram or something like that is fine, but I see people posing or creating videos on social, making sure that logos are everywhere as a way to bring status. What they don't realize is that for a business audience, most of them, anyway, that is not appealing. Again, you want to meet your audience where they are. And unless your audience is also decked out in Gucci and Armani, you shouldn't be either, aside from it being distracting. Now let's talk about black and white. I mentioned staying away from them because they'll make bad lighting worse. Both of them can make you look washed out, and both of them can make you look tired. Unless you have somebody that's doing professional lighting, or you know your lighting really well, or you have somebody who's helping with makeup to balance it out. Bright red is another one that you should think about avoiding. It's not very easy to carry off on camera unless you have professional help. And if you have ruddy skin, wearing red will highlight that and not in a good way. I have rudy skin, and I very rarely will wear red on camera unless I'm putting a heavy filter on my face or I have professional makeup. I mentioned jewel tones. If you want bolder colors, those are the tones you should consider, especially around your face. Cobalt, emerald, ruby, those sorts of things. Sapphire, They work on almost every skin tone. You can do a little contrast. You may love pastels, but unless you have very dark skin and there is contrast there that are going to make you look washed out. There's a premium, as we all know, that's put on looking young in our society, globally, and in the United States. When it comes to dressing for the camera, though, this is the time to dress your age. Yes, teens are the ones that are often influencers on Tiktok. But when it comes to conducting business, customers usually want to deal with the adult in the room. And it's not just about looking respectable, it's about not looking desperate as well. We've seen that before and it's not a good look. Your clothes shouldn't pull focus. I talk about that a lot as it relates to background and lighting, and voice and props. But nothing should be pulling focus at any time, especially if that pulling makes people feel bad for you or feel awkward. Most of these tips for dressing for the camera can be used by anybody, but there are some that are gender specific women. If you're going to be seen from head to toe, decide whether it's pants or dresses. It really depends on what you are most comfortable with. Dresses are usually flattering. You don't have to think about the top going with the bottom, especially if you're going to be appearing head to toe. Pants can cut you off at the waist, Pockets in them can give you a little bit of extra bulk. I think dresses are easier, but again, it comes down to you wearing the clothing and not the clothing wearing you. Be aware that if your dress is knee length and you're going to be doing a live stream that's taking place in a studio, Let's say you're a guest on somebody else's live stream or podcast, and you're going to be sitting at a high top or at a stool. Getting up on that stool can be difficult with a dress on. And then of course, sitting shortens the dress length as well. You'll be worrying about it, writing up how it's going to look, constantly pulling it down. That sort of stuff. In addition to clothing, hair caar, and styling, every woman I know who has regularly appeared on camera at some point in her career has won at least one. Hairstyle horror story. And most of them begin with this phrase. I wanted to try something new. And it ends with a hairstyle that looks horrible on camera, gets very dated after a short time and will never be fully forgotten. Because it exists on Youtube clips of bad hair days, hair can be really distracting. It can be intriguing, but also distracting. Your goal when it comes to your appearance is to keep it professional and to keep it pleasing. Now if you're a hairstylist, you have obviously a little bit of room to move. And it doesn't mean that you can't put your hair in a bun, or that you can't put your hair in a ponytail, or that you can't wear it half up, half down. But try and keep it simple for a professional setting, you can pick a style that highlights your face and doesn't overpower it. I like to have bangs because I think my forehead looks huge on camera. Again, it comes down to 3d22d rather, and what the angles do, but if they don't work with your forehead when you're on camera, they're going to just not work with it, but they're going to actively work against it. Now that we've talked about hair, let's talk a little bit about makeup. Simplicity is important when it comes to make up. It doesn't mean that you only need a touch of lip gloss and you're good to go. Cameras and lights will all but erase the features that you have before you go on. I would make sure that they read on camera. Does that mean look like you've lost your eyebrows or lost your lips or your cheek bones? And usually that means that you need to line your eyes, put on a little bit of lipstick and maybe some brows add a little bit of blush. I like to use contour as I'm putting makeup on, but one of the other things is shine. And I would say this is even a bigger issue. Lights on camera reflect off any sort of oil on our face, and you want your skin moisturized absolutely. But even a little bit of oil can look like an oil slick and the lights pick it up. When you're looking at colors, neutral is better. Usually, especially for a business video, it's not the time to try out green or yellow or pink eye shadow unless you really are adept at applying it. And you know how to use those colors to define and emphasize your features. Not audition for some crazy video somewhere. Mm. If you decide to go with a little color, stay away from cooler tones. They get exaggerated on camera and can end up making you look a little ghostly. I used to love there was a period in time when purple shadow, dark plum was really in style. But when I put it on, I ended up looking like I had a black eye and maybe it was my application technique. Regardless, it didn't work. It may work on darker skin tones. The only way you'll know if you haven't tried it before, is to try it again. But if you're not sure warmer, neutral colors are much better, glittery, shiny, shiny lip products. Especially shiny lip products. And it's not that you want your lips or skin to be entirely matt, but know that some of those foundations or lipsticks and gloss that feature that dewy look can look great in person. But again, on camera look like an oil slick. Because you are underneath bigger, stronger lights, men, there's a real good chance you're going to want to wear a little bit of makeup as well. Now is not the time to say, I don't do that. There's not a single guy that you've seen on TV, I promise you, that doesn't have a face full of makeup. You don't have to do that. But a little bit to reduce shine is going to help. You don't have to go beyond any of that. You're going to make sure your complexion is even, that blemishes are covered. If they're not covered, the camera will find them and essentially put a neon sign around them with flashing lights that says, look so and so Kerry has a pimple here. Next, a little bit of powder to make sure you're not shiny if you're bald. That includes your head as well as your face. Your head is not shiny or your face is not shiny, but your head is. If you don't use that powder or foundation. From the top of your head all the way down through where your neck and chest is seen on your shirt, there's going to be what I call a line of demarcation. You will clearly see a difference in the color on somebody's face versus their head versus their neck. Once the blemishes are covered, once you've reduced the shine, then you take a look in the mirror and decide if your features need a little more delineation. Matt lip gloss, light, neutral blush, if you brows are light or thin, are a great thing to include. Makeup isn't the only consideration. When you're getting your face camera ready, a little bit of grooming. Sometimes eyebrows, you don't want them too heavy, you don't want them too wild. You're not Eugene Levy who is now known for these things and has a warm audience. You are creating your space in the digital world. You want your facial features to be such that they're not. Again, drawing attention from you. Before we wrap up on your on camera appearance, let's talk about accessories. Now this likely appears or applies more to women who may be wearing dangly earrings or bracelets, or necklaces. And while that's not necessarily inherently a bad thing if you're doing alive and your necklaces bump against your microphone, or every time you move your arm or your hand, your bracelets rattle together and make noise. It can be distracting. So if you're wearing jewelry, make sure it's quiet. I won't even say that it has to be small, as long as it doesn't reflect back into the audience's eyes. But quiet, you don't have to be afraid of how you look on camera. Once you know how to put your best foot forward. Once you know that you don't need to change your wardrobe in order to create a professional vibe for yourself. You can present something that's polished, no matter what your persona, no matter what you do, that's going to appeal to viewers. Meet them where they are, welcome them in, and get them ready to listen to every single word you say. One final note. If you are shooting a video for Social, be aware that black and navy blue will blend in a bright color is much more likely to catch someone's eye and get them to stop the scroll. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. 22. Practice Tips: Practice tips. Now, there's no perfection without practice. There's no perfection period really. But maybe that's a discussion for another time. There's no improvement without practice. You'll never get to a point where you feel really confident on camera unless you practice a lot. And a lot of that practice needs to happen in front of the camera. You're going to make a lot of videos. Here's the thing, you're not going to like the first ones, you're not going to like the first dozen or maybe two dozen even. But it's quantity at this stage. It's getting in those reps and getting comfortable. It's practicing through the errors so that you stop overthinking things and you've made yourself now an expert for handling whatever goes down on a live stream or some sort of other live video, which as we mentioned, is having a moment. So use any opportunity that you can to make a video, even if it's just for practice. If you're going to create a blog, make it a log. If you're thinking about sending a text or an e mail, make it a video. If you have a little downtime while you're waiting for a client or you're about to pick up your kids from school, film an Instagram reel or a Tiktok. Get used to being in front of the camera. Make it second nature. You don't have to show anybody any of these. They're just practice, or they can be anyway. But at some point after you hit record, you're also going to have to hit Publish or Post. And this is where you get comfortable with it. You've got to watch the videos that you make. You need to get used to seeing yourself on camera. You need to get used to hearing your voice. And even though you want to run from the room screaming, resisting doing so. It takes a little bit of time, but you're not going to know what you need to fix. You're not going to know what works for you, what you like, what you don't like until you watch them. And I got to tell you 20 years in the news industry and I still hate watching myself. I still hate listening to myself. But it is the easiest and best way to get really good, really fast that, and live. So don't watch your videos and delete them. Keep them, and then watch them again a little bit later after you've made additional videos. And you can compare and contrast what you used to do with what you're doing. Now, you may find that you really like some of the changes you've made, or maybe there are some things that you want to revert to doing. For instance, I recently discovered that I liked the way I look on camera with bangs. After I watched some old clips of myself from years ago, I brought the bangs back. We'll probably grow them out again, but for now they're here. You're not the only one though who should be watching and critiquing. Find somebody that you trust and send them your clips as well to give you feedback. You can send them to me. You also will have an opportunity in later iterations of this program to shoot videos into the platform and get feedback as well, which is the most important part. Even if you think a suggestion isn't useful or helpful, maybe try it out. Make a video with them and see what you think. You might be surprised, you don't have to use your camera to practice. You can do it anytime of the day or night, anywhere you want to be. It's basically called talking to yourself. And it is really helpful when you're working through a script. When you're planning or blocking, or pretty much at any point in the video creation process, you can work it out by talking it out. Even talking into a lens that's not open or operating. It gets you used to looking at that camera lens as if it were a person. Really helpful if you're trying to work out what you want to say for a series of bullets or work on a script. The more you say it, the clear it becomes. Here's one thing that I want you to know though. Yes, the more you do this, the more familiar and less scary it becomes. Practicing critiquing, watching, getting feedback, all of that is going to help you become better. One of the easiest things to do though, is to open up your camera and narrate 30 seconds of your day, gush about something over the top with a ton of energy. And then narrate it in a regular cadence and just get used to talking into the lens. It doesn't have to be business based, it can be anything you could be gushing about the new spatula that you got from William Sonoma or the new coffee that you absolutely love, that you can't wait to try whatever it is. Get used to talking with excess energy. Excess in your mind, with crazy energy gushing about this fabulous thing. And then go back and watch. Then instead of working on trying to fix everything all at once, pick one thing and work on that. Maybe you want to get better at your eye contact every day. You open up your phone and you shoot 30 seconds of video and you just work on eye contact. And then once you feel like you have your arms around that element, then you work on whatever it is that you want to work on next. Maybe it is vocal varieties, specifically pauses. Then you work specifically on pauses and you get better at that, that way. You can see the change from beginning to end. If you work on all the things you will get better at none of the things. Practice is where it's at and you're going to get so good that the nerves that you feel will only help you energize. Right before you press record, thanks for watching. Remember that there are resources, action items, key takeaways, quizzes, and a video assessment in the resources in your client portal. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. 23. Closing Notes: Congratulations, you have power through this course, and now it's time to shine on screen and elevate your brand. Your business story deserves to be told with confidence. So keep practicing, stay connected with our community. And then remember, every video is a chance to make an impact.