#195: How to Get Started Creating Videos

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Video is still one of the best ways to market your books and sell more books, and yet so many authors are resistant to do so. So in today's training, I'm going to share with you a simple strategy to really get comfortable on video. Hi, my name is Shelley Hitz. I am the owner of TrainingAuthors.com and the founder and the creator of AuthorAudienceAcademy.com and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. And recently I was speaking at a conference and I was talking to someone that said, you know, she wanted to start creating videos and really grow her YouTube channel. And so I shared with her some tips and ideas. And they're very simple ideas. It's a very simple process of going from no experience on video to really feeling comfortable on video and even going live. And she just came to life. She was like, oh, wow, I think I can do this. And so I wanted to share this process with you today. The first thing I want to say about video is that it does not have to be in a professional video studio. Right now, I'm recording on my MacBook Pro with a yeti microphone and a diva ring light. Now, you don't even need all of those things. If you're standing in front of a window with light, you'll have the light. And you can even use your iPhone or your smartphone. Use what you have. You don't have to be in a fancy studio. I have some of my artwork behind me, my author audience Academy logo. But start with what you have. Don't let those things stop you. And to be honest, people really connect with authenticity, not with perfection self. So don't worry about being perfect or having the perfect studio or the perfect equipment. Because if you wait for perfection, guess what? You'll never record that video. You'll never press publish on that video. And so the first thing to really getting comfortable recording video is just to practice speaking into a camera by yourself. It's kind of like you're talking to yourself. But I want you to imagine that your best friend is on the other side of that camera. And I just want you to imagine you're talking to a friend. Now, right now, I'm being very intentional of looking into the video camera right there on my Webcam, on my MacBook Pro. When I'm on my iPhone. I'm always very intentional to look right into the camera there. And if you don't know where it is, just stick your finger up and when it starts covering, you'll know exactly where the camera is. But make sure just to get comfortable looking directly into that camera, wherever it is on the device you're using. And talk. Now, when you're creating a video, it's not a conversation, it's a one way conversation. So you have to get comfortable talking for a period of time. Even one to two minute videos are really, really effective because people don't have a ton of time. So don't feel like you have to talk forever. But the first step is just to get out your camera or your phone, whatever you're going to be using, get it out. Practice looking into that camera. Go ahead and record yourself. Get used to looking into the camera you're and talking. That's it. I don't want you to rewatch the videos, I want you just to delete them immediately. But I just want you to get in the habit of what it takes and just stumble on your words. You're not gonna be publishing this, so just let yourself stumble, let yourself look weird, get all that stuff out. Like just get in the habit. And do that every day for at least seven days. Just to get used to looking into the right place in the camera. Get used to talking for one to two minutes, maybe five minutes and just get used to what it's like. And then once you've done that for at least seven days now I want you to start recording yourself, actually sharing like stories and things from your life. I like to pick out stories that will relate to something that I want to teach. So think about some different stories from your childhood. Maybe like me, you dropped your baton in a parade and it was the one time that the paper took your picture and you, you were mortified and you vowed you would never make a mistake and it led you to trying to achieve and accomplish things because you didn't want to fail again. That's a story that I often tell. So you can take any story from your life. Maybe you failed your driver's test like I did. Maybe you've had an experience overseas or maybe there was something that happened that was funny. I showed up to school one day with two different shoes on. I mean, just different things. Whatever. It doesn't have to be anything that you're planning to publish, just a story that you can tell without thinking about it. That's the key. You don't want to have to have notes. You don't want to have to be thinking about it. I just want you to get used to have your little phone and a tripod if you can, and just be looking into the lens and tell that story for that one to two minutes. Record yourself and get used to talking and recording yourself as you share a story. Do that for 30 days and some of those videos you might actually end up using. But don't worry about it, don't plan on using any of them, just plan on making it more practice. So then the next step is now you're ready to start creating pre recorded videos that you can edit and you can publish online. So there's a difference between having a pre recorded video you can edit versus going live. And I'm not talking yet about going live, I'm just talking about having a video that you pre record and then afterwards you get out some editing software. I use Camtasia. You know, you can use any kind of video editing software and you edit out all the blips, all the ums, all the mistakes and you can have a polished finished product. Now a pro tip. I had someone, an artist that was having trouble just recording her videos for a skillshare class and I gave her this tip and she then was able to like, she's been recording classes like crazy. I think she already has three classes out. But what I told her was when you make a mistake in your video, don't start all over again. Just stop where you were, have a pause so that then you can see in the video where the mistake was and start that last sentence again, start over again and then just keep going. So instead of starting at the beginning, you're just starting the last sentence over again. And what this does is it helps you to keep going. And maybe you have to do that five times. I've had to do that before where I'm just stumbling over my words in a recorded video. But then I go back in and I just edit it out. It's not a big deal. So that way it takes some pressure off of you. You don't have to get it perfect the first time. You're just going to do your best that you can. And if there's something that doesn't come out right, just stop, start that sentence again and edit it out later. That will save you so much time. This is literally what I do for any of my recorded videos, for my trainings, for my courses, my skillshare classes, my art classes, any types of recorded videos that I'M creating, that's what I do. And it really helps me to get it done a lot faster without as much pressure. And the editing does take maybe a little bit longer, but, but not that much. I mean, you just, you have to listen through and you know, just make sure everything gets edited out. That needs to. But it really helps to get over the hump of recording your videos. And I mean, I still do it to this day, but that's. The next step is to create those pre recorded videos again. You're looking into your camera. Whatever content you want to share with the world, whatever content relates to your book, whatever content would be helpful, you know, or interesting, you're going to be sharing that content. You're going to be engaging, like you're talking to your friend, you're across the table, the coffee shop with your friend, and you're going to record those videos one to two minutes, up to five minutes. And these are videos that I really encourage you to pick topics that you could actually publish so that you start to publish these and maybe make it a goal for publishing one of these videos per week for a month. So the first seven days you're just getting all the kinks out. You're just getting used to looking at the camera and talking to it. The next 30 days you're going to start telling stories and things that you don't have to have notes or think about or, you know, anything. You just start talking and recording these videos one every day for 30 days just to get used to the process. And these you can go back and watch and just, you know, see where you might do things a little bit differently or where you got stuck in a certain area. And then start recording these prerecorded videos on topics that you can then edit and share with your audience. Now if you want to go the next step and if you want to go to do live videos, which live videos are really powerful right now in social media, then I recommend creating a private Facebook group. So you would create a private Facebook group with one or two other people, you know, maybe your accountability partner or somebody that is really close to you. You know, I usually put my husband in these groups, but you could have, you know, your sister or your best friend or someone just say, hey, I'm going to create this group. I'm putting you in there just because I need to practice my videos and then go in there and practice going live in the group and then just practice and practice going live for one to two minutes every day for 30 days. You know, you can until you start to feel comfortable with the technology and how it works and the process of going live. And you know, I recommend creating a short outline and you know, something that you can go from like I have one right now just on my post it notes. This is my short outline for this video and using that short outline to then go live and do it. You can always delete the video afterwards if it does work out. But I have a free training. It's a five day challenge to help you do your first live video. And I want to invite you to join this challenge. You can join@trainingauthors.com live video and this is just an example of what you could do. You can alter this to you. You can alter the dates, you can alter the times, but just start, get started. Just start talking and recording these videos. Start getting used to making recorded video by sharing stories for 30 days. One a day. And then start creating pre recorded videos. You can edit. If you make a mistake, just stop and start over the last sentence. And then if you want to go live, create a private Facebook group and add one of your best friends or your husband or someone in it. That can just be a safe place that you can practice and then go live. Do it. I am so excited for you. Whatever you do, you could stop at the pre recorded videos and that could be all that you do. Maybe you'll never feel comfortable going live and that's fine. But I remember I challenged myself to do a video a day. I think it was in 2015. I did a 40 day video challenge where I did 40 pre recorded videos every day. They were just a few minutes each for 40 days in a row. It was the year that I turned 40 and so I decided to do that 40 day video challenge. And then after that I really started to get into doing live videos because I started to get comfortable even more. I mean I'm a speaker, but doing that 40 day challenge of pre recorded videos really got me into being more comfortable on camera. Well then after that I did 100 days in a row of live videos. And at that time it was Periscope. Now I do Facebook and Instagram, but at that time it was periscope. I did 100 days in a row of live videos. Do you think I got better at doing video in 2015? Absolutely, yes.

Doing those challenges and the daily creation of a new video every day really helped me and I still use those skills today. So it really just takes practice. So I encourage you, get out there, do it. And if you want some additional resources and additional tips to help you with video, especially live video. I encourage you to take my free 5 day live video challenge@trainingauthors.com live video. Again, my name is Shelli Hitz and I encourage you just to go for it. Do it. Afraid. Fear is what we feel. Brave is what we do. Go ahead and be brave. Get out your video camera and start the process and I'll see you next time. Bye Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Author Audience. I would like to invite you to attend one of free trainings all about how to sell more books without being pushy or self promotional. It's called Amplify your Message. Plus I will give you two free gifts just for attending. No credit card required. First you'll get my best selling book 9 Strategies to Build and grow your Author Platform. And you'll also get my ebook titled List Vend 5 powerful emails you can use immediately to grow your business. These are basically fill in the blank style templates and they are yours at no charge when you join us for the training. You can sign up for my free training by going to shellyhitz.com/ that's shellyhitz.coms-h e l l e y h I t z.com amplify this training and the two bonus ebooks are free and I would love to help you sell more books.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.