Ep 107 How to Create Daily Audio and Video Content for the Web April 16, 2016

So how can an organization create high quantities of quality video, audio and online content?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public, to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

So folks, in this episode I want to take you behind the scenes of how I do some things here. I apologize in advance, some of what I say might sound self serving, but I want to be just completely transparent with you with the idea that it might help some of you in your own plans for creating content and speaking out in various social media platforms, YouTube and iTunes. A question I often get from my clients is tj, how do you do it? How do you do. And I realize this sounds like a humble brag or something. How do you do it? How do you create seven TV shows, videos a week, seven audio podcasts every day of the week, not Monday through Friday, but Sunday through Saturday at the same time traveling all over the world? Because my clients know if they're seeing me and they find out where I've just been. You know, for example, in the last 11 days I will have been training in Bangkok, rural North Carolina and Budapest, Hungary. So it is a busy travel schedule combined with that. I recently had an almost two week vacation in Thailand at the same time with my wife. So how do I do those things and create a lot of content? Because many of you work for larger organizations and I mean, I was speaking to head of communications for a large telecommunication company the other day that had dozens and dozens and dozens of staff members in the communications department and they were putting out fewer video and audio pieces of content in a month than I do. And they thought it was a lot. So how do I do it? Believe me, it's not some superhuman feat of strength. It's not the most incredibly diligent work ethic. Although I do think I work pretty hard. It is a system and a simplified way of doing it. Let me start off by pointing out that when it comes to text, all of us have a sense that there's now a continuum of text. You could write for two years a big fancy coffee table book with all sorts of fancy pictures and fancy paper, polish it and refine it for two years, publish it. Every word is edited, refined numerous times. Graphic artists. There's a highly, highly produced way of making text. And yet we also can just do four sentences for a blog, one sentence is a Twitter update. And that's communication too. Unfortunately, I think most organizations, whether they're big, huge, multi billion dollar corporations or one person organizations, consultants, authors, experts, still have in their own mind that video has to be like 60 Minutes or the local news. There has to be B roll, there has to be a script, it has to be a mini movie. And you could do all those things in the same way that every time you write, you could write a coffee book and spend two years on it, but then you wouldn't be able to do any quick emails or any text or any tweets. So it's simply different. And that's what I want to get across when it comes to video and audio. And for some of us, our audio role model is npr, where everything is edited, scripted, refined, and viewed through a lens of almost perfection. Again, you could do it that way. That's obviously not what I do. What I try to do is look at my content from the standpoint of if I'm face to face with a client and they're simply asking me a question and I'm answering them and they think, oh, that's helpful, that's useful, great, and they move on. How could I package that, bottle that and share it with other people around the world? That's really all I'm doing with my daily video podcast, which some of you are watching now on YouTube and Facebook, and the audio version of that, which the rest of you are listening to on itunes or Stitcher or any of the other podcasting platforms. So it's not heavily refined. And there's nothing wrong with heavily refined, edited packaged program. I'm not against it, I just don't have the time or budget for it. In a perfect world. Can I do both? Sure. But I am, in full disclosure, a one person business. I have no staff, I have no producers, I have no writers, I have no editors. I'm doing all of this myself. So how do I do it? For starters, you got to get away from the idea of scripting. Nothing wrong with some scripted videos. But I believe for any organization, if you are answering questions from your customers, clients, prospects, and you're not reading all the script for that, you should be able to do the same thing in audio and video content. So that's all I do. That's my first big suggestion for you, is think of an opportunity to create simple videos, simple audios, where you're just answering questions from your clients and questions that they either have asked or would ask if they could sit down with you. Many of the questions in this show come from people who simply email them to me. And by the way, I would love to hear from you. Any questions that people email me about public speaking or media training, I answer them on this show. And since I do seven shows a week, I don't have to refine and edit and narrow down and eliminate 99% of the questions. I can answer all the questions at some point. Is it possible there'd be too many? I guess, but that's still going to be a long way off. So when you're looking for topics, don't go hire a researcher and a writer and have them polish a script for six months. Just look at your email inbox, look at the questions the people are asking and if not on email, look at the questions and comments people are posting on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram. Wherever you are placing your content, wherever you are out there, when your customers prospects, clients have questions about your business and what you do, just answer them. But it doesn't have to be in text. Do it by speaking. I'm a big fan of speaking in part because that's what I do. I'm in the speaking business and the speaking training business, but I'm also a big fan of it because a lot of people prefer to listen or watch someone rather than read. I'm also a big fan of the spoken word because most people are too lazy or insecure to create content in a video and an audio format they want to write because that's easier for them. I'd much rather compete with a much smaller pool of competition. So if I just blog on public speaking, I have competitors from thousands, I mean hundreds of thousands of websites at some point have a blog and have blog content about public speaking. I don't want to compete in that arena. I would like to compete in the arena of daily podcasts dealing with public speaking and media training. And that's a competition I can do very well in because I'm not competing with 200,000 other blogs I'm competing with. Let's see here. Let's look at the latest numbers here on itunes. Nobody? That's right. I am literally the only person in the world as of this publication date doing a seven day a week audio and video podcast related to public speaking and media training. Now, again, I realize that sounds almost arrogant. Truthfully, I'm doing it because I'm lazy. I want to win in competition and I want to do it the easiest way possible. It's frankly easier for me to do seven shows a week, put them up and out, and win in a category where there's no competition. No one else is doing it. Therefore, anyone who's actively searching for content that relates to public speaking or media training on a daily basis they really have no choice. They basically have to deal with me, and that's why I do it. If I were doing everything in text, I would be competing with, frankly, thousands of talented experts who like to write each day. So let's get more to the specifics of how to do it. Simplicity is what's important right now. I am standing in a closet. This is just a TV screen behind me. Those of you watching, those of you listening, I'm just in a closet. It's a rather large closet in my home. It's a six foot by nine foot closet. I've carpeted the walls and the floor to make the sound better. I've spent not a lot of money, but a few thousand dollars on lights, a quality video camera, couple hundred dollars for a microphone. But that stuff is easy. The hard part is really figuring out how do you start this thing and get it going. So what I do all week, and I only tape typically one day a week. I've been on vacation and traveling for three days, so this is the first time I'm doing any show in three weeks. But what I do every single day is I read news stories. I save any story that looks like it's a news hook for a topic for this show. I'm always thinking of questions. When I'm in a training and someone asks me a question, I'll then jot that down and use that as a context for a question in the show. And of course, I keep in one particular area in my Gmail folder for questions. Questions that come in that people post on Twitter, on Facebook, on my own blog, or on my YouTube channel. So I keep it all there together. And then once a week, typically Thursday morning, I look at all the topics, I look at the questions, I open up a Word document, and I start writing down the dates of the next eight days, the episode number, and I just cut and paste the topics that I want to address for that particular day. And if there's an excerpt from a letter or a quote or something I need, I'll put that in there. But I don't try to make a polished script. I don't spend more than a half an hour. All the scripts for eight shows, I then hit print. I then print it out on sheets of paper. I'm holding this up for those of you listening on itunes, but it's just a sheet of paper. I turn my camera on, I turn my light on. I have a mouse that I'm now holding up, I happen to use. And I'm not advocating any particular Software. I happen to use a software program called Wirecast. I click the button that shows it on me, I click a button that says record, I talk and then every so often I will hit another button right in my program, right on my computer screen in front of me. In fact, I'll do it now, give myself a little break and to give a breather, I'll do this.

Do you have a speaking related question for number one USA Today best selling author TJ Walker. For more than 30 years, Walker has been a public speaking coach and media trainer to presidents of Countries, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize winners, professional athletes and Ms. Universes. Send your questions to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter J. Walker.

So that was a pre produced video audio segment. Before I started this show which started January 1, 2016, late December, I was getting ready for the show and I had a number of these video clips plus this video background and the audio you hear produced by one producer, I believe he's in Vancouver. And this was just someone I found from the website Upworth. All the video production, all the things you see, all the little ads and requests for speeches and questions from you, the ending credits, the background you see, the special effects, all of it total, it only cost me a thousand dollars, so we're not talking about a huge expense. When I'm done talking with the show, which I will be here in a minute, I hit the button for the closing credits and then at the end I just hit a space button, the space bar that stops the recording and it's done. I do no editing for this show. I'm not opposed to editing. I don't have time for it and I don't like it. Now I can also justify it in that I'm doing a show about public speaking and when you're doing a public speech, you don't get to edit when you're in front of people. So if there's a mistake, there's a flaw. People need to see it. And I'm being transparent. So you certainly could edit. The problem with editing is once you start that process, you can open up a can of worms and you're editing six months later. Some you end up like Warren Beatty, who's been editing and refining his movie about Howard Hughes for 40 years. I love Warren Beatty, but I there's no way I could spend 40 years or even four years or even four days on any one video project. I want it done and out there to give people value. I'm not looking for perfect. If you want perfect. You probably gave up on this podcast or this show a long time ago. You could find some fault with the audio levels not being a complete match. But if you're looking for good, clear, simple information and tips on how to be a better presenter, how to speak to the media, how to speak to live audiences, I think you're probably pretty happy with this show because that's what this show is about. So I've finished recording a show and it's just sitting on my computer. I have to label it, I have to upload it to YouTube, Facebook, video, places like that. I then go to a website where I strip out the audio, I turn it from an MP4 to an MP3, an audio file. I then upload that into the service I use called Lipson and that then goes to itunes. And people anywhere in the world with a podcast player, with a cell phone for that matter, they can listen on their iPad, can listen to the audio version of the show. So it's a very simplified system. Frankly, I think it's easier for me to do 30 shows a week than it is, excuse me, not doing that many 30 shows a month than it is for some people to do one show a month. Because if you give yourself lots and lots of time to plan, think, review, critique, you'll use the time doesn't necessarily make it better. My biggest piece of advice, whether you are a one person business or you work for one of the largest banks in the world with high hundreds of thousands of employees, is just start today, do a video or an audio or both. Of providing your customers, your clients, with useful information that relates to a question they ask. Just talk to them as if they were human beings, one person sitting there in front of you. That's what I try to do. Don't give a speech and pontificated lecture, just talk to one person, give them useful information. If you're giving people useful information, are you going to go viral and have 10 billion views like Justin Bieber? No. But will your customers, clients, prospects think better of you? Will you build your brand? I believe you will. The biggest problem for most people is not finding the perfect camera. That's one of the biggest time wasting excuses out there. People researching, just use any camera, get your content out there and make sure you give people good advice. And that is how I do it, ladies and gentlemen. Now there are times. So what I do is I try to do seven shows for the next week, one more. So I've got a little bit of a stockpile. That's that way if I'm out of the country for two weeks or there's something else going on and I can't do anything for two weeks, I've got enough cushion so that every single day, anybody who wants my stuff can get it. Some of you may say, well, that's too much, tg. I just need it once a week. Well, you've got a perfect solution for that. Just listen or watch the show once a week. I know plenty of you experience this through my newsletter. In my newsletter that goes out every Wednesday, you can just look at the topic of the last seven shows of the week and then you might just click one that interests you and you don't have to look at the others. So there's really no downside to putting out more content in my view. But there is a huge, huge upside. So that's my challenge to you. What are you waiting for? The technology is cheap, simple, easy. If you've ever had a conversation with one customer, one client, one prospect where they felt you gave them useful information, you already have all the skills you need to make great video and audio content for the web. Please don't waste any more time. Start today. I'm TJ Walker. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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