In this 9‑minute instructional video, entrepreneur and YouTube creator Evan Carmichael answers a viewer’s question about how he became effective on camera and shares a step‑by‑step strategy for building trust with an audience. He emphasizes the need to passionately believe in the message, practice speaking to the camera, and model successful creators. Carmichael rejects scripted delivery, advocating for spontaneous, energetic communication that feels authentic. He outlines his low‑budget equipment evolution—from a Flip camera to a Sony Handycam with an external microphone and a simple tripod—highlighting cost‑effective choices and the importance of natural lighting. The video also covers his editing workflow, starting with Windows Movie Maker, moving to Camtasia, and eventually outsourcing editing once revenue allows, stressing the principle of not spending money until you’re making money. Throughout, he encourages viewers to submit their own videos for feedback, engage via likes and comments, and reminds them that each video is a single chance to impact one person’s life.
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If you want to have success on YouTube making videos and have people really relate to them and showcase yourself as an expert, then you have to believe passionately in what you're talking about and share things that are important to you. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, and I believe that hungry entrepreneurs deserve help. So today I'm answering a question from one of my readers, Nick, who wrote in to say— he was asking about my videos. Hi Evan, I'm in the process of improving my video communications, and I think yours are really good. What's the secret other than your incredible talent? Thank you, Nick. And he wrote in with specific questions that I'm going to get into. So first one is, how did you get so good? Was it natural talent, lots of practice, did you get coached, did you do training? I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I've done some speaking before, so that may have helped a little bit, but I don't think I have natural talent for it. It did take a lot of practice. If you go back and look at my earlier videos, they were really bad. Some of them I'm so embarrassed about that I want to take down, but people keep watching them and leaving comments on them that are positive, so I keep them up. But I really want to take them down. Anyway, so it has taken a lot of practice. I have a couple hundred videos now up on YouTube, and I think the biggest thing with practice is just getting used to talking to the camera. I found when I was getting started, I was a little nervous when I pressed record. I was fine before, it sounded great, but then you stand in front of the camera, you look right into it, and you press record, and I don't know, I got shaky, my heart was beating, started sweating a little bit. So as you do more of those, it gets easier. I also found that when people were around me watching or even just working on their own thing, I got more nervous and I didn't create a good quality video. So as you do more, you do get more comfortable in front of the camera. So I think that's helped. I also did try to model success, something obviously I believe in, modeling success. Just like you're doing where you're watching my videos and saying, hey, I like what Evan's doing, I'm going to try to model that. I did the same thing when I was starting and looked at other channels that I liked and tried to model what they were doing. And still do now. I still try to see, you know, what pieces I can pull from what other people are doing and apply it to my own videos as well. And then third, I work with an agent in New York and they have given me some feedback and tips on my videos and I try to apply those as well. But the most important thing from all of that is really— you have to strongly believe in the message of each video. It's so important, and I think in my earlier videos I was passionate about them, but I didn't raise the stakes enough. I didn't make it important enough. And what I try to think about now is when somebody asks me a question, that my answer can help make the difference between them giving up or keeping going. I have to convince them to follow the advice. I have to make it important for them. And so you should try to apply that to your videos as well. You have great advice, but if you deliver it in a bland or boring way, or it sounds like you're reading something, it's not going to hit them. You know, you can say the same thing with a lot of excitement and importance and urgency, or really boring and I'm trying to memorize my script and it doesn't come out very cleanly, and that'll make all the difference. So I try to make it important. I try to think of that person and having an impact on them. And that one video, I have that one chance every time I do a video to be able to have an impact on that one person's life. And if they don't change, part of that is on me. That's my responsibility because I didn't do enough to really convince them through the video that this is the correct path that they should take. So that's helped a lot. Second question: When you talk to the camera, do you have a script behind the camera? I never use a script. I find that if you're trying to memorize something or if you're trying to read something, people can tell. Right? You see people looking off to the side like this or trying to read in and see what the words are so they say it exactly right. The problem is it's always boring. You never say things with the right amount of passion if you're reading it off a script. And it's way more important to get your point across. It's way more important to have the feeling and energy and passion to convince somebody that what you're saying is really the path they should take. That comes not from reading the script. It's not so much what you say, it's how you say it. So don't worry about getting every single word right. Because it's going to stress you out. And I did that at the beginning too. You know, I didn't read from a script, but I memorized things and I tried to get everything out exactly and would do lots of cuts and takes, and it never looked good. So now when a message comes in, I'll look at it on my phone really quickly. I might come up with a couple points in my head, and then I'll just get in front of the camera and talk. And again, try to think about talking to that person and having an impact with each video that I make. And if I make mistakes along the way, I've already made a few in this video, I just keep rolling, keep going with it, because that's part of the process of making videos. And I think it makes people think you're more human and are more willing to listen to the things that you're saying. What equipment do you use? Number 3 question. So I don't believe in spending money until I'm making money. And so I didn't want to go out and spend tons of money on all the equipment because I didn't know if it would make money, but also I didn't know if I would stick with it. You know, a lot of entrepreneurs get excited about new projects, go out, buy all the equipment, buy tons of inventory for their new idea, and then a couple months later get bored of it and move on to something else. And meanwhile, you spent all this money on this equipment that you're not using. So I started off really simple, really dead easy. It was with my own flip camera, and if you watch some of the earlier videos, you might see it shaking a little bit. Very embarrassing, but again, people liked them. The production quality is really poor. The lighting sucks. The audio is really bad. And then slowly, as I learned the techniques behind video production, as well as making a little bit of money, I poured it back into the videos. So now I use a Sony Handycam. I bought it from Costco. I bought all my stuff from Costco because they have a 90-day return policy compared to other stores that were 7 or 14. So it gives you the chance to really test out the products, make sure you like it before you really commit to it. Sony Handycam, the reason why I got it is because it has an external mic jack. So people were complaining earlier about my videos that they couldn't hear me properly, the audio quality wasn't great. So I needed a camera with an external microphone. And then I went to the Sony store and bought this microphone, $80 or $90, that you just clip in and it works from there. And then the other thing I use is a tripod. I just picked it up from my local camera store, and that's all I use. I don't really use much lighting now. I'm doing this video in my office. There's a window in front of me, so I get the light hitting my face, and that's it. I use my phone to kind of give me the clues as to what to talk about next, and that's the equipment that I use. So it's still pretty low budget, but enough to get everything going. I didn't want super high production quality as well because, I don't know, sometimes that, that makes it look not very authentic. So that's what I'm using right now. And last, do you edit the videos? So again, I don't like spending money till I'm making money. So at the beginning, I learned everything myself. I started with Windows Movie Maker that comes default with every Windows computer that you buy, and then I moved up to Camtasia and learned how to do the video editing. And it was really poor, you know, I wasn't great at it, but it was enough to put it up and get it up on the website. And then again, as I started making money, I quickly looked at, okay, how can I delegate this? Because if I look at what I'm doing with the videos, the best use of my time is getting in front of the camera and doing more videos and answering questions and helping people. It's not trying to figure out how to be a video editor because I'm not really good at it, and it's really not the best use of my time ongoing. So as soon as I started making money, I quickly found somebody who who could edit and produce and do all the fancy stuff with my videos. Again, it's not crazy. We have the intro, extro, a couple touch-ups, removing me at the beginning, testing the microphone, all that kind of stuff, picking my nose, whatever it is. But yeah, I started off doing everything myself and then slowly expanded and brought on people to help me with it. So that's it. Hopefully, Nick, that helped. Good luck with your videos. If you want to send me your first couple that you do, I'd love to be able to take a look at it and give you some advice. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I always love seeing those come in. And if you have a comment about this video or a question for your business, I want to try to help answer it for you. Please leave it in the comment section below. It's really one of the best parts of my day is watching those YouTube comments come in. So thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode.
