Get Expert Insights on Communication | Live Q&A with TJ Walker

Hello and welcome. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. We are live. This is the TJ Walker Success Channel. This is the one place on the Internet where you can come and ask questions about any aspect of communication skills, public speaking, personal communication, speaking to the media. We try to come to you live every day, Monday through Friday, for part of every morning. We're still working out the schedule, working out the kinks, and then we typically deliver two, three videos a day to give you more tips, tricks, tools to be a more effective communicator. So thanks so much for joining us. This is live, which means your questions come first. You can actually join me right here through the Streamyard app. Let's say hello to our colleagues and friends. Barb Tomlin is with us. Barb, good to see you as always. And we'll put you up there. And Mustafa is with us. Dr. Chandler is with us. And Radhika. So we have. We have a nice full group already. Good to see everyone. Hope you're doing well today. Let's hop right in. And Mustafa, I think you were kind of the first to hop in. Tell us what you're up to and how we can help you. Whoops, we lost Mustafa. And Mustafa may have just come in to watch and listen this way. I should point out that you can, if you want to join us on Stream Yard and sort of be in the. In the green room. Oh, Mustafa is back. Let's see. And Mustafa, if you wanted to come on and say hello, share what you're up to, ask a question, promote anything you're doing, we're happy to hear from you. Mustafa, if you want to. If you do want to participate, just unmute your mic. Whether you turn your camera on or off, it's totally up to you. So I'll give you a moment and we'll come back to you. Radhika is with us. Radhika, how are you today? If you could unmute your mic.

Hello.

I'm okay.

I'm just waiting for all the participants.

And tell. Are you in one of my online courses or what? What are you trying to focus on these days as far as your own skill building? Today I'm for the first time. Oh, this is your first time? So are you in one of my online courses or did you just stumble across this channel? Yes, I come across with this channel.

And I'll figure out what are you working on.

Okay, great. Well, we're happy that you're here. And if this is your first time here, I'm TJ Walker and I've been helping people for decades all across the globe be more effective communicators, whether they're giving speeches, talks, speaking online, doing webinars, speaking to the news media, or trying to become. Thank you. Or maybe they're trying to become an Amazon influencer. Is something. It's not brand new. It's kind of brand new to me, thanks to my colleague Barb Tomlin. And Barb, let's just take a moment. For people who haven't heard of it before, what is. I know, I think I know what it is. But if you don't mind giving people a fresh perspective, what is the Amazon Influencer program and how can people be a part of that or why should they want to be a part of that?

Well, it's an extension of the Amazon affiliate program, but it is an opportunity for social media influencers. And what is a social media influencer? That is you having a fairly decent following on all the major social media channels. And at this point in time, Facebook, I'm sorry, Amazon is looking at the followers you have on your Facebook pages being important, or you can have a professional profile and followers there, but it's all about the influence that you're actually attracting on the Internet at this, you know, at this juncture. I've been in the Amazon affiliate program since it was introduced and I was one of the very early, early ones who was called upon to help in the beta of the, of the influencer program project. And now at the level that it is, anybody pretty much can get enough influence, especially if you can get 500 followers on TikTok or on Facebook to participate in the program. And why not? If you buy products on Amazon regularly, why not make some money on it? So it doesn't mean that you're going to get rich quick or ever make a lot of money on it. But if you really believe in a product, it's opportunity to voice your opinion about that product. And if it's good enough, a manufacturer will pick it up or a distributor will pick it up and you can have a whole new major income opportunity in doing so. But the reason Amazon did it, it was more of an alternative to qvc, the QVC network. And at that time they said, you know, as far as the company was considered, they said it would be so much better to have authentic representation from the users of the products. And so that was the experiment of it. And this last, it's been only in the last six weeks or so, we've had a lot of a rush on newcomers coming in wanting to participate in the program. And I think that the way that you are approaching it, since I introduced it to you, is the right way to go. So I just, I think it's. If you're going to be doing business online, if you're looking for some kind of residual income from your online efforts that you can't leave Amazon out and they've spent a. The company has spent billions in making sure that it's highly visible every time you're looking for a product. So why not make some money on it? And you don't have to be a professional salesperson. Have a, yeah, let's video or I mean, audio interference.

Yeah, sorry about that.

It's something you don't have to have had a professional career in sales or in marketing. It's just sharing your story about why you use the product and putting the product in focus so that when other people are searching for, for the solution that you are searching for, it comes right up and it influences their buying decision. So you don't have to be a salesperson and you don't have to have a lot of people around you when you're actually sharing your story. You can share, pick up your phone and share it, which TJ has been doing.

And Barb is absolutely right. You don't have to be a salesperson. In fact, let me put this in context. I do believe that everyone is selling something. I don't mean that in a cynical sense of everyone's trying to make a quick buck, but everyone's trying to sell some idea. You might be trying to sell your idea of how to protect the environment. You might be trying to sell your idea why more people should be in favor of minimalism. You might be a local hardware store. You're trying to sell the idea of why people shouldn't shop from Amazon. There's a lot of ideas to sell. What I am excited about with the Amazon Influencer program is it's a simple, relatively simple, easy way for someone to do two things that historically were hard to do. One is to speak in front of an audience without having to deal with gatekeepers. Because if you wanted to speak at a convention, you had to have the convention organizers approve you and hire you. With Amazon Influencer, once you're in, your video can show up on a product page and it can be seen by a lot of people. The second thing that it does is it connects you with a company where there's at least a potential to make money. Not preaching this as a get rich quick sort of thing, but in the past, you had to be like really famous, like Tiger woods or Beyonce to get product deals and sponsorship deals. Now you can essentially do it just because you like that product and you want to talk about it and you can. I don't even know if I bought this cup on Amazon, but if I did, I could just do a little video right here and talk about it. So that's why. So if you're not interested in being an Amazon influencer, believe me, I'm not trying to talk you into it. I just see it as a window into this world where you can speak more, possibly benefit yourself, ideally benefit other people, because you only have to talk about products that you actually like using you think might be beneficial. So excuse me while I drink some water, but this is a perfect example I did the other day at Amazon Influencer ad for this Tara stream because this allows me to make sparkling water without having to go to the store and get giant bottles of Perrier. Not, no offense to Perrier. I can just make it from tap water. So this is a product I actually use every single day. And I have a machine at home and a machine here. And I've been very happy with it now for about, well, a solid year, actually. So I can talk about it. I don't have to follow someone else's script. That's what I like about it. So that's why we're talking about that. We'll be. We'll be doing more on that today. But meanwhile, I want to turn over time to you. And I see Antero is with us, but it's not connected. If you do want to join us and ask questions, feel free to do so. So Harman Mustafa, either one of you, if you'd like to turn your camera on and chat with us, if you have a question, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a comment, a thought and analysis, or if you'd like to promote your own YouTube channel for that matter, we'd love to hear from you. Let me give you a moment to do that. While you're doing that, Barb, we had a number of our students from the Udemy platform post videos on YouTube that they'd like to critique. So if possible, if you could pull up one of those and we'll do a critique of that and that way we can help them get some more traction. Put a spotlight on where they are. Feel free to leave chats. If you are watching this, please leave a comment. Please like the video, share it. Sign up for notifications. Mustafa is here to Listen, nothing wrong with that. So, Mustafa, thanks so much. But do please let us know where you are in the world today. It's always nice to know a little more about our worldwide audience. Thank you. Thank you very much. TJ Walker, I am one of your students for a program related to training. I am Egyptian, working in Saudi Arabia in sales field. I am, by the way, pharmacist, but I am working in medical equipment sales field here in Saudi Arabia. Okay, great. Well, we're very happy you're here. And I, I had wonderful times and great memories when I was able to do some training in Egypt about, I guess, seven, seven years ago or so. So I'd love to come back sometime. Thanks so much for spending time with us. We also have. You are so. So. Thank you. Thanks a lot. We have Harman with us as well, Harmony Harmon. And you can either post a comment in the chat. We have the private chat if you would like to ask questions or comment or say anything. I see your cameras. Come on. If you want to tell us what you're up to, please share. I see it looks like a couch and maybe your camera's point. And I see it looks like a little kid. Looks like we've lowered our demo as far as our audience and you may just be tending other family members right now, but we appreciate you being with us.

Good morning, everyone. Actually, my front camera was broken by my kids, so I didn't get a chance to update my phone. That's why. Yeah, my. My name is Harmur Pitkor and I'm from California and it's been like almost seven years since I live in there. And I, I was. My. I used to work as a medical assistant and phlebotomist in the US and right now I'm just taking care for my kids and enhance my like, weakness or I can say like my personal skills that I need to work on it. That's why I joined your courses like English and how to be productive in a time management. That's all about me right now.

Great. Well, I appreciate you sharing and. And to my ear, your English sounds excellent. Volume is good, speed is good.

Thank you.

Accent is very easy to understand, the conversational quality. So your voice sounds great. And most important, you're willing to just push a button and speak to the world and show up here because we're. It's not that we have billions of people watching, but we currently we are streaming on YouTube, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitch, Twitter, I believe, and a couple of Facebook pages. So I appreciate you sharing your voice you're clearly good at multitasking, you're taking care of your child and try to figure out how to develop yourself even more. What is your next big goal for yourself? Where do you want to see yourself improve when it comes to communication skills and personal development skills?

So actually right now I quite pleased actually. I, I test myself online link and it shows me like I am on a level B. So according to that I want to enhance my business level up to the like the highest so I can have advanced skills in my English as well as in my other stuff.

So you're taking international testing for English skills. Did I understand you correctly?

No, I, I did actually and I didn't get enough score. I just get five in the international English score when I used to take it. So I just, it was like a free website. I forget the name. I have a link in my email and it was like, just like you see the English level where we are preferred and they just offering the program to be the continent, you know, the just the commercial and they said I'm on a level B.

Okay.

So according to them.

Hey, we better let you take care of the somebody who's a lot more important than we are in your life. It looks like there wants some attention. But I really applaud you for just taking the initiative of speaking out. That really is the best way to learn any language.

Yes.

Is to try experiment, figure out what works, what doesn't work and get better and better. So thanks so much for joining us. We really, we really do appreciate it. All right, Barb, we had a number of people posting videos in our student forum this week and our community page and they're on YouTube so we have to assume they're happy that we share it on YouTube. Who do we have first?

Just one minute here because I have to go back to the group to get his name because it doesn't come up unfortunately on YouTube.

And I see Ticktick has joined us as well. We're happy to. We're going to critique a video first. But, but Tick, Tick, if you have questions or comments or want to share, perhaps put in a note in the comments section and will be coming to you after this one.

Okay. It's Prashant, I think Singh is the last name and he is, he's actually a lawyer, I believe in India and is talking about India's constitution and basic fundamental rights. So. And this is his video that he's submitting from YouTube. Let me get. I'm going to start this and then I can put it on Full screen for us.

Okay.

Good morning, guys. Today is the presentation day, and I chose my topic, fundamental rights. Like, so first, I will. Dealing with what. What is the basic meaning of fundamental rights? After that, the structure of the Constitution. Like, basically, structure of the Constitution. Not I. I will not delve into the details, but very basic structure of the Constitution. And after that, I'll be throwing some light on the preamble part. And then after fundamental rights and then the. A little conclusion. So coming to the meaning of fundamental rights, like every rights, every right is very important. Like whichever right is there, given in our Constitution or given in any other act. But why fundamental rights are called fundamental. So the reason behind that is that without those rights, like, without other rights, we can live, but without fundamental rights, our survival will become very, very, I would say, very hard. That is why these rights are called fundamental rights, and they are being given.

Okay, Barb, if you don't mind stopping. All right, So a lot of things I really do like there, and there's a passion there. He's exuding competence and knowledge and authority because I don't get the sense he's. Sometimes you see people speak and it's almost like they're reading the script off their brain. Like, I don't want to get anything wrong. I get the sense he's sharing expertise. I like that there's a power in his voice. Volume is good. He has a good speed. It's not too rushed. And there is some variation. So I see a lot of strengths there, a lot of things I like. And it's always good to use a microphone if you're speaking to more than a couple of people in front of you or if you're doing something that you want to share with people online. As he is now. One thing, and this is not a strong axiom, it's more of a personal preference. I personally don't like seeing somebody hold a tiny mic because I instantly think of Tom Hanks in the movie Big, where he has the little bitty baby corners. So I instantly have that chuckle. But you know what? Mr. Beast has that thing where he holds a little mic underneath his shirt and he has billions of views. So obviously it doesn't destroy your ability to communicate or get an audience. That's just more of a personal preference for me. So I like a lot of what I see. And if he's in an academic environment, if that was for school, let's say, his last year of law school, going through the structure and letting people know what he's doing is perfectly Fine. If you are speaking to people in the adult business world or on YouTube, I'm not a fan of outlining and telling people. Well, then I'm going to do my conclusion in this and today I'm going to talk about just talking. Just tell somebody one idea at a time, make it interesting, make it memorable, and then go to the next idea. That is what I believe is the best structure. But overall, a lot of good stuff there. Thank you so much for sharing and Barb, who if you can, get the next one ready. But meanwhile, if tick tick, I'm going to add you to the stage. If you had anything that you wanted to share with us and you may just be coming right in to. Oh, I see you posted something says you joined our communication skills course, Public speaking on panels and emergencies. Please tell me how to practically benefit from each of the video or the courses. So I do have a course on speaking on panels. So a lot of people tell me the reason I created that course is a lot of people say, well, T.J. i don't have to give speeches and I'm not standing up and I'm not, you know, I'm not Anthony Robbins up on a big stage looking down, saying, say I. And I'm not standing up at all. I'm sitting down and I just am on a panel that seems easy to answer questions. Well, a panel is still an opportunity for you to make a bad impression, no impression, a good impression or a good impression, and communicate ideas. So I'm a big believer that anytime you're asked to appear on a panel, a conference, a seminar, a workshop, you should take it seriously. Typically you are sitting down. Although sometimes when the panelist is asked to speak, they would stand up in front of everyone. It still requires giving thought to what you want to say. Too many people take the attitude of, well, it's just a panel, I can just wing it. You do want to appear to be conversational and be responsive to questions from the moderator or the audience. But I do believe you want to really plan the most interesting ideas you have for that audience. Plan your examples, plan your stories as if you were going to give a speech. Now, every panel is a little bit different. Sometimes the structure of a panel is every panelist will open with a 10 minute opening remarks. Well, that's a speech. So that's the sort of things we talk about in the course on how to speak on panel. So I hope you get a lot out of that. Okay. We also have some people who have submitted questions. Barb, let me know when you're ready for the next video. But I did want to go through some of the questions that people submitted and I appreciate when people do take the time and the energy and effort to submit questions. There was one in particular that jumped out at me as a little bit different. This one comes from Michelle Lee and she says, I'm currently working as an inbound sales agent for a DIY moving company for over six years. Although I've earned an engineering degree over two decades ago, recently I have obtained four Salesforce certifications. I would like advice on where how I can pivot into a technical position. Well, Michelle, it certainly sounds like you have a lot of experience and education. The easiest way for most people to pivot from a current job they have to something else is to really be proactive. I mean, one way is to start making videos and sharing them on LinkedIn. If no other place about the area of expertise where you want to be employed. This can attract the attention of recruiters. It can attract the attention of businesses that are perhaps looking for someone. The ideal thing is someone says, hey, we've got an opening. We haven't advertised it anywhere, but you seem like you'd be a perfect fit, come talk to us. And you're not competing with everyone else. So that's one way. Another way is networking online. I don't just mean stalking someone on Twitter and finding somebody in a company in a position that would hire you and saying, hey, please hire me, please give me an interview. I mean, follow them, comment on their posts, what they're talking about in their industry, ask thoughtful, intelligent questions, respond to their videos. If, if they are doing videos on some advanced aspect of engineering using a Salesforce product and you know a lot about it and you think you'd like to work in that, then become a part of their community and engage. And then after you've built relationships, let people know, hey, I am open to new opportunities and see where that goes. That is really what I'd recommend rather than just sending out resumes all day, which unfortunately is the time consuming, easy way. People often fall into this and then they get discouraged because no one responded to a resume being emailed. Certainly wish you a lot of luck. Thanks so much for writing and let's go to the next video here. Now this is from one of our students who is a dancer and she was recently on a very lengthy podcast. I was able to look at at least the first part of it. Let's look at it together and share some sentiments and analysis of how she's Doing.

From the moment I started both singing and dancing, I immediately knew that I wanted to make a career out of it.

Wow. Okay.

So knowing that you want to make a career out of it and being able to get to that point. Two different things, right? I would imagine there was some challenges, and first, being able to get there, what were some of the first big hurdles to overcome?

Well, the first one was actually finding the opportunities, because the performance arts is already an industry where it's very difficult to make money, and it's very simple, saturated, especially here in Florida. So that was the biggest challenge. And I would say the challenge after.

That, after getting the opportunities, is keeping.

Those opportunities, marketing yourself, and then making.

Sure that other people understand your value.

Okay, let's stop.

Imagine.

So here's what. Here's what I noticed there that I like. I like that she was conversational. I like that her hands were moving. I like that she was looking at the person talking to her. She wasn't rushed. She didn't seem nervous by speaking too quickly, which a lot of people do, whether they're young or old. They're in a big podcast for the first time. There's video cameras on them. The natural thing is to speak a little too quickly and to lower the volume. Her volume was good, so a lot of strong fundamentals there. Here are things I would work on. She was moving her hands, and she was moving her head. That's great. But she was sitting back in a way where her torso was kind of tense, and it was almost like she was a little bit scared of the microphone. I felt that she was keeping a distance there. What I want is a range of movement. When your hands move, your body moves forward a little bit. It moves this way, it moves that way. Because her body was a little stiff, I felt that there was kind of a tentativeness coming through her voice where it was kind of like, well, this is what I want to say, and I'm kind of going at the right speed, and I don't really want to make any mistake. It was a little too consistent, though rhythmic. It didn't sound 100% like she's just having a conversation. But overall, really strong performance and really a good communicator, good fundamentals, and I think part of it is just doing more podcasts, doing more interviews, making your own videos, and you'll get more and more comfortable. Barb, I'm interested in your analysis of how she did.

I.

Hang on a second. I'm dealing with technology behind the scenes here today. Extra again, I was blown away by her video. Quite frankly, as you know, I shared it in several places and actually tagged other interviewers to consider fear featuring her on their channels because she did so well. But I questioned one thing, and because I haven't watched podcasts regularly lately, for some, actually, since the video side of it became really popular, I haven't watched much at all. Unless one of those interviewers actually said, barb, you've got to see this. And the thing is, is that. That it kind of. I was listening to her in the background as I was doing my work, and she just has the greatest voice to listen to. She responded very quickly, very promptly to the interviewer's questions. I think she knew what was coming at her, so she didn't have to take an extra spot of time to think about it. But the one thing that, you know that from a video presence that stuck out with me is for the podcast side, is whether just the side angle. She never came front angle on to meet with us. And I felt the aching. You know, it's like, I want to talk to you. I want to see you front and center, center, just because she was drawing me into her conversation. So I don't know if that's. And. And I think you saw some of the commentary from other podcasters that, you know, they thought it was good. So, yeah, there you go. But I think she's exceptional and very talented young woman.

Yes, yes. And, you know, when you go on as a guest on someone else's show, whether it's a podcast, a traditional TV network studio, you can't really control the angles. And my recommendation is if there's a human being there present talking to you, you're better off just looking at them rather than trying to figure out, you know, is camera two on. Is camera one on, camera three on? You can go like that. So we can't really fault her for that because that's how they set up the studio. But, Barb, you said something just really, really important that I want to stress is so key to a lot of people's advancement. You saw her on an interview, and then you. You're not paid by her. You're not a publicist. You're not her best friend, you're not her mother or sister. You took it upon yourself to then promote her to other talk show hosts and other podcasts. That is how people gain fame. That is how people gain influence. That is how people gain more followers. So you've got to be in the games. You've got to step forward. Maybe before you're ready. Maybe before you're completely comfortable, you've got to step in. Because even if most people don't like you, if a handful of people like you start recommending you to other people, it opens up another door and another door and another door. So that's why it always makes me very uncomfortable when someone says, well, I turned down that interview because I did research and their audience wasn't 100% in alignment with mine, or I couldn't really tell if their audience was big enough to justify it. I come from the school of thought. So someone wants to interview you, you just do it because you never know what door it could open. I've seen countless times in my own career and in others. You know, some small town talk radio host in the Midwest somewhere wants to interview you, you say yes, thinking, well, probably won't do anything and maybe 10 people listen to it. Two months later, that person is now a booker at CNN. They remembered you. Now you have a worldwide audience. Now. It doesn't always work like that, but that's why I'm so, so happy you mentioned that point. You did, because that is how people who are really ambitious get to the next level.

Exactly.

And someone like this is a little bit dated reference, so excuse me, but some of you will know who I'm talking about. Alan Dershowitz is one of the most famous attorneys in the United States for probably the last almost 60 years. And he is famous to talk show hosts, producers, bookers, anywhere and everywhere is. He'll do any show. Now, he may only give you two minutes, but he'll go on any show in the world because of that. Not as much now, but certainly 80s, 90s, early 2000, he was so famous, if he wrote a great book, it would be a New York Times bestseller, but if he wrote an average or below average book, it would be a New York Times bestseller. Because everyone was happy to have him on because he was there for them when they asked and they would have him on to promote his book when he asked. So that's how it worked. Dr. Joyce Brothers, again, a little bit of a dated reference. She's no longer alive, but she was the most famous psychologist in America from the 1950s until really just not that many years ago when she passed away. And she was a really good guest. She would go on almost any talk show that would have her on. TikTok has been patiently waiting and has submitted a video. Barb, while you're getting the next one ready, I'm going to go ahead and, and click on this YouTube video from One of our guests in the studio here. So I'm going to hit share screen. I'm going to hit entire screen, this screen. Audio on share. Oh, I'm not sure I did enough. I may have missed one button, so forgive me if we don't hear this. I may have to go back one.

Deadlines are the mother of invention. Why is this called so? Deadlines are the mothers of invention.

So, Barb, are you able to hear that? Did I hit the right buttons?

I'm able to hear it, but you've got. You haven't put it on full screen. And so we're getting a lot of the. There you go. No, no, no.

Wow, that just blew my mind.

Let me share it. Let's go back and let me remove that.

Let me hit. Stop sharing. That just sent us into an infinity loop.

Yeah, it's operator error, but no problem.

Sorry.

So, yeah, I can share it from in here as well, but I'm. What we would like to do is if you're in the Facebook group, to grab your links from there. It's much easier. But I understand that some of you may not be in there, so let me just check myself. I'm going to tell.

Apologies. I am used to sharing, but I've recently completely changed the configuration of my screens as I rebuilt my stuff studio, and now I only have one laptop in front of me instead of three computer screens. So I haven't quite gotten used to manipulating that. While you're pulling that up, I do want to get some feedback from everyone because I have some people who hate this. Some people say there's distractions. Here is my main camera, one shot. So I would love to hear. Oh, and I just realized now some lights have popped off, so let me see if I can actually get my lights on because they're on timers and I've not figured out how to adjust the timers. So I wanted to give you a full sense of how it is, in fact, supposed to look. But I would love some feedback from you. Don't hold back. I want to know what you like, what you don't like about this as a set. What I'm trying to accomplish is something that looks like it's a bigger, fuller set. Now, this is an unusual angle. You don't see this angle. You don't see this far down for most YouTubers or talk shows. The reason I do this is because I talk about public speaking and communication skills. I want to be able to move around and do things more like what people do if they are on stage and talking and deal with the fact that people feel nervous and what do I do with my hands and what do I do? I need to be able to demonstrate that. So that's because some of you have said, well, tj, you should have it like this. I do have that for camera three, What I have right here, I also have. Let's clear this up. I also have a camera two where. This is where I'm trying to simulate essentially what it would look like if I were on a stage where you're looking down, the camera's lower, I'm looking at an audience and I can do that. I'll be doing this primarily for my YouTube TikTok shorts because the data shows on my own channel that when I'm not looking at the camera and it appears I'm looking at an audience for some reason, that resonates so much more. So I would love to get any feedback. You have suggestions for improvement. I have a brand new light right here and I'm waiting for the batteries that should arrive today that will project different light and perhaps more light on the backdrop. So this is still very much a work in progress. So please post any comments. You're not going to hurt my feelings. I would like to know, what do you like? What do you not like? Okay, Barb, do we have the next video ready?

Okay, just one second here. What I wanted to let you know is that when we're in the studio, we need to click on the links. When we go to click on the links, we need to open a new tab. That's why you got the Infinity image that you did.

I thought I'd always hit screen. I thought that's what.

It's not that it's on your side on your computer. This is something you do on your computer. It's not the application. It's how we open links in new tabs or in new windows when we share them and then we share the same screen. So black box and sharing the video and the audio. We've got that. And I can put it up in full screen so that. And now.

And tick tock. Share us. Share with us your name or tick tick, unless that is your name and apologies if I'm not getting it right. Let us know your name so we can address you directly. Oh, Showab. Am I pronouncing it? I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. So let's take a look and a listen at Showab's video that he's posted.

On YouTube of invention. Why is this called so? Deadlines are the mothers of invention. Because when we have deadlines, when we have a finishing line, when we know some deadline about anything, we are prepared to do it as perfectly as we can. When we have deadlines, we can't waste time in unnecessary things. We can't waste our time in the stuff that is less important. Rather, we deviate ourselves from the less important things and we move towards the topic that are important for us.

Okay, if you could stop and show up, if you want to come on and talk with us, we're happy to have you. If you want to just stay and listen, that's fine too. I am interested if you could sort of fill us in on what was. Is this video for the course you did? Specifically for the course course? Is it something you did for something else? How often do you speak? And is this sort of typical of the sort of thing you're. You're talking about? Hello? Yeah, hi. You can hear us now. Great. Tell us a little background on the video. Oh, whoops. We seem to. We had you for just a moment.

He's trying so hard. Okay, okay.

Hello? Can I. Now we hear you. Go ahead. Yes, sir.

I wanted to ask you. I want to become a good public speaker, so what should I do? And I don't have enough resources, but I only have this phone and I speak good English, but I don't know how to proceed further. This is my first video I posted on my channel.

Yes. Okay. So you are off to a fantastic start. I have to commend you. You're already on the top. You're on track to be one of the top 1% speakers in the world. Why do I say that? Because you put yourself out there. You just leapt into the. Into the fray. You posted a video. You made it. Was it perfect? No, it doesn't have to be. Was it flawless? No. But you got out there. You spoke, you were easy to understand, you were articulate. Grammar good. English good. You have a lot of strong fundamentals. I did get the sense that this was maybe one of the first videos you've done. I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say, wow, you were just perfect beyond belief. Don't ever change anything. But it's far more important to know what you're doing. Well. One of the biggest challenges I face with everyone I work with is people send me a video or I'm working with them one on one, face to face. It's like, tell me everything I did wrong. Rip me apart. The problem is that's not how you get better. You get better by looking at what you've done, figuring out what's working. So I do more of it and do more of it. You are going to get dramatically better. You post a new video at least once a month. You'll get 10 times better than that if you post a video once a week. And you'll get a thousand times better if you post a new video every single day. So the main thing I want to do is encourage you to speak more and post more videos. Now, why do I say videos? We don't all have to be egomaniacs or Mr. Beast wannabes. It's because. Because it's the easiest way in the world to speak to people these days. If you have an opportunity to stand up in class, by all means do that and speak or talk sitting down in classes or in meetings if you're in work. But anyone who wants to, if you've got a cell phone, you mentioned equipment. If you got a cell phone, you have a full fledged TV studio, you have a full fledged production studio, multimedia, tv, radio, network. It's right here in your phone. So you have all the technology you need. The number one recommendation I have for you is to do another one today, look at it, figure out what you like and then do another one the next day. Build on. You're going to get more comfortable because you did sound like you're kind of thinking, oh, I'm making a video here for the first time. I kind of hope this goes well. There's a little bit of that tone of your voice, which is completely understandable because you were making a video for the first time and you were self conscious. So there's nothing bad or wrong about that. But you will sound better when you do more of these because it's just human nature not to be uncomfortable about something you've done many times. So that is my number one piece of advice. Thank you so much for sharing with it. I really appreciate it. Barb, we had some other people post videos in the channel. Plus there were a few more questions, I believe, that came in that I also want to share. If you don't mind pulling up any other videos from students who posted and I'm going to see if I can find any other questions that did come in. I did talk about the one who was trying to navigate into a different career path. And let me see, we do, when we put out the, the announcements asking people if they want to come, we do give you an opportunity to post questions. Questions in advance. So here's a question that came from Shruti, who says, I'm very less confident in speaking, among others, maybe because of less knowledge of a topic. But I've seen people who have less knowledge but can speak confidently. How can I improve? Well, Shruti, you have really hit on something that allows lot of people are kind of aware of, but they never really think about. And that is how confident someone is at speaking and how knowledgeable they are on a topic are not necessarily related. In fact, in some cases they can be inversely proportional. So confidence is something your audience picks up based on the sound of your voice, your eye contact, your body movement. I could be the most confident person in the world, the most knowledgeable person in the world on the matter of communication skills, for example. But if I gave you great piece of advice after great piece of advice for hours, but my head is looking down and I'm rocking back and forth and my hands are like this, how would you perceive me? I think you would perceive me is not confident at all, even though I'm actually confident and knowledgeable. I want you to speak about the knowledge you do have. But keep in mind, if you know you've been camping once, you're not the most knowledgeable camper. But if you're going camping with people who've never ever been camping, you're going to have some insights that are going to be helpful to them, share it with them, and you can do it in a confident manner. So the starting point is for being confident when you speak is think in advance what you want to say. You don't want to be up there thinking, oh my gosh, what in the heck am I going to say? You want to think in advance. You want to have a simple outline that's going to make you feel much more relaxed and much more confident. The next thing is you need to realize there is a grammar to how people speak where they appear confident. In the same way there is a grammar to English or any other language. I might be really knowledgeable, but if I write a story and I don't use commas or periods or capital letters, it's going to be a massive jumble. No matter how knowledgeable I am, my ideas are not going to come through because my poor grammar is going to overwhelm it. It's exactly the same way with speaking. You could be incredibly knowledgeable about something. But if all of a sudden you're speaking like this and you're kind of monotone, you're too quick, people can't process it. The Knowledge won't come through. So that's why it's important to work on the stylistic aspects in speaking the same way it is when you're writing. You know, grammar is the style of how you're communicating text to people. The spoken word has a grammar as well. Thanks for the question. Hope you found that useful. Barb, do we have another video?

Okay, this is Mark Maddox from our Udemy student graduates on Facebook. And he did message me and tell me he wasn't going to be able to join us during the live session today. He is another one what he's doing with his weight loss program and showing it step by step. I immediately after listening to this particular YouTube video, I shared it out to some other folks I knew who were struggling with their weight loss journey. And I just felt that his approach to doing it and because I wanted to participate, you know, build a YouTube channel, I wanted to participate online. And I said this is a great way to do it. So he's another one I shared out. So I'll put that.

Yeah, he really. Let's look at this in detail. I was very impressed at his sincerity, his ability to really selflessly share his own journey. Let's take a look.

Okay, I will. Let me put. I'll put him on full screen. Are you able to take him off full screen when I'm done or do I need to do it?

I think I'll be able to do it. I'll give it a try.

Just stop the screen share when you're ready. Let me see if we can do it that way and then I'll put him on full screen. Now the other thing is just before we do this, it used to be you and I back in the day, we were taught that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Now the whole thing is doing something consistently 19 days in a row. If you can, you know, can stay on the program, at least what he's committed to do here to at least 19 days, you have the best shot at being able to pull it off. So I was just wondering if you had any take on that. I mean, because it was always 21 days to change a habit, you know, and I got to thinking because you had mentioned before we went live about helping some other of our Udemy students and working with their Amazon influencer program and just how after the 19 day mark, things changed.

Yeah. So I've done a lot of research, not, not in the field research, but reading all the literature about how many days it takes for something to be a habit. And some say 19, some say 21, some say 66, some say 120. When I really dig the sources of that, it turns out there isn't really solid evidence on all on any of those things. You can develop a habit like addiction to cocaine in one day. Develop a habit. You can also do something for 100 days or a thousand days, but you don't get a reminder and you don't do it. I'm drinking water right now in part because I actually send myself, beginning of each day, I listen to an audio reminder telling me every single day for the last five years. TJ drink water throughout the day. Do not drink sugar water and soda water. Or this is a type of soda, but nothing with sugar in it. So this is a habit to me because I've structured a way to remind myself every single day. So I'm a huge fan of giving yourself daily reminder. Because think of it this way. If you made a habit for 19 days after doing something, then Coca Cola would just send you a free Coke for 19 days, and then they would never, ever have to spend any more advertising on anyone. Well, they don't do that. Coca Cola knows that if they want the world to drink more Coca Cola, they're going to put ads in front of you from the day you're born until the day you die. It's the constant reminder that works. I don't think there's Anything magical about 19 days, 21 days, 56 days, if you really read the literature. Let's go ahead and take a look and see what he has to say. And are we having any technical difficulties, Barb, or did we lose you?

Yes, you did. And that was definitely operator error. I forgot to turn my audio back on. I'm talking away that Mark's here in the studio.

Okay.

We did.

We didn't hear anything. We had total silence for about 15 seconds.

Yeah, well, I'm totally responsible for that. So now let me put. You can see that Mark is right below you in the studio. And what I'm going to do now is put his video on screen and.

Oh, so Mark is with us. Fantastic. Oh, I didn't realize. Mark, thanks so much for joining us. Hello.

Thank you.

Hi.

Here we go.

Hey, thanks for checking out my new channel, Epic Weight Loss. I just thought I would create this channel to share my weight loss experience with you. And also I want to become more comfortable on video. So that's one thing. I recently took a class on udemy for more charisma, learn how to be more charismatic. So I just Want to practice that. And I've been doing keto now for about two weeks. So I've been doing keto and working out. I'm not really too concerned about working out. I'm more concerned about diet. So I believe diet is about 90% of the battle with losing weight. So I just want to work out to enhance my cardio, the chorus become stronger. I want to do mostly weight resistance training. So I don't really know how much I'll show in the gym. Probably not much at all. But yeah, I mean, I'm just starting this channel. It's my idea today to do this. I've thought about it in the past, but never built up the courage. But now I want to just try something different. Something outside my normal helmet, I guess you could say. So I think I probably weigh in once weekly. Weigh in and then measure around my waist. So I'll do that once a week and.

Okay, Barb. Yeah, I'm trying to stop there, so.

Hang on a second. Whoops.

So, Mark, thanks so much for sharing. I really have to commend you. And if that's your first one, you really come across as genuine, sincere, you. You just feel like you're sharing a part of your life with people and it's easy to understand. Clear. Speed is good, volume is fine. So I really like what you're doing. I also, Barb was talking about habits earlier. I've seen a lot of research that shows if you tell people what your goal is and you're publicly out there, you're a lot more likely to stick to it and to reach your goal. So I think it's fantastic that you're letting the world know what you're trying to do. You're sharing your journey, and I think that's very, very commendable. You didn't wait until you got to X wait before going on camera. You just started right now. You didn't wait until you changed all your backdrop and perfect camera and all that. You just started right now. That is key. That is fantastic and I want to commend you.

Well, thank you. Thank you for that. Yeah. Something that I really took away from your videos that you've done done was there's really never a perfect time to start on video, so you just have to start now. So I really wanted to become a better communicator, so that's why I was trying to think of somewhat quality content to make videos about daily. So I just thought, you know, I'm already wanting to lose weight and doing keto, so why not document that on videos? So I thought it would work out pretty well.

Perfect. You know, so many people waste months and months and years of searching the perfect topic. I. I love your approach right there. Something you're doing, something is a part of your life. You can share your journey. And it's certainly an issue that. That faces. You know, if not a majority, then, you know, 40% of the modern Western world and people can relate to it. So it's fantastic you're sharing with it. One point. One thing. I want you to work on the next one. The way you sound right now talking to us is a little bit different than in the video, and it's not unusual that there would be a difference. But your voice talking to us right now sounds a little louder, a little more confident, a little more range in and energy. That's good. I want you to try to take that and use that in the next video you make. And please try to make a video. And is your goal to do it once a week or how often is your goal?

Once a day is my goal even better.

So try to do that for today's video or tomorrow's video. Boost the energy level a little. Because what happens to people once you turn the camera on is it's just natural to tighten up a little bit. When we tighten up, we bring the volume down. We bring the energy level down. The way you're talking to me right now is more natural, and your volume and energy are better. I want you to bring that same energy level to the next video you make.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I realized that I need to work on those things. Just for some reason, I feel. Well, it's definitely outside of my element to, like, be more animated when I'm talking. So I use my hands. Like, I've never done that. So, you know, it's a lot to get used to, but I am aware of it, and I do need to work on it. As far as the volume go, when I took that video, my phone was probably 10ft away from me. So I need, like, some sort of microphone or something to pick up the audio better.

Yeah, but. Or you could put the phone a little closer to you. But interestingly, you told me you never use your hands. Countless times when I'm doing workshops with executives all over the world, every culture, every age is someone stands up and speaks for the first time, and they're sort of. They're. They're stiff and they're nervous and they're starting like that, and someone will point out, maybe you could move your Hands a little. And invariably, when people, they think they're not on camera and we're just sitting around dissecting it, they'll say, oh, no, I could never do that. I never move my hands when I speak. And typically what I do is I secretly videotape them and then I show it to them. It gets a good laugh, but not at their expense. They realize that they actually do move their hands. So when people hear me or other public speaking executives say, move your hands, they think of it as like, we're teaching them to. To want to act and you'll be an actor. And the reality is we don't want you to act. We want you to stop acting. Because if you're doing this, all of a sudden, you are acting, you're acting scared. I again, I can't tell from this angle and how we're talking, but I'm pretty sure that if you're with your best friends and you're talking about whether it's the super bowl or some sporting event and something you really hated or loved and you're animate, your hands are moving, you're not just down like this. Can you believe that last touchdown and that referee call? I bet your hands are actually moving. Most people are simply not aware of it.

Yeah, that is true.

Right.

You know, something else that I've struggled with in the past was, have you heard of, like, word blocking or stuttering? I dealt with that in the past. So I think this will also help me become more comfortable with speaking.

The more you speak, the easier it gets. I've not heard of the phrase word blocking. I've certainly heard of stuttering.

Right. Yeah.

I didn't hear you stutter at all. And keep in mind, everybody repeats a word. Stammers occasionally. Typically nobody notices.

Yeah.

Do it a lot. That it really can cause a problem.

Right. Yeah. And I know in my case, like, I never really stuttered. I think they call it like bobulate, where you repeat a sound. I never really did that. But blocking is when you think you focus too much of what you're saying, and I think you worry too much of how the other person perceives you. And then you end up worrying about pronouncing a word correctly. And then when you get to that word, you just block. You stop. Like you can't speak. So I think as I get older, I'm kind of doing better with it, but it's still something that is kind of in the back of my mind. So I know I told Barb also that I joined a improv class.

Oh, fantastic.

Yeah, yeah. I thought that'd be some good experience for me. It starts on the 24th.

That's great. Speak. I used to watch a lot of improv when I lived in New York City. Now, typically I only watch stand up comedy. And tonight I'm going to see Ronnie Chang, the, the Asian Australian comedian who's seen on the Daily show. And he's been in a gazillion movies and standup specials lately. So I'm, I'm looking forward to him. But I'm really happy. I'm really excited that you're in improv because when you're doing that, when you can do a set of improv and get people laughing, then just a general presentation is going to seem like a, a piece of cake. It's going to seem really easy. So it's fantastic that you're looking for lots of different opportunities, different contexts to speak more. Because the more you do it, the easier it gets, the harder it becomes to be nervous or uncomfortable in any way.

Right? Yeah, yeah. I really want to take my YouTube channel to like a different level and just, you know, it would be, I, it would, it would be nice if I can make money off it in the future. So this is kind of why I'm doing this.

One suggestion would be, again, it's totally up to you. This is your life and your channel. But from what I've seen in other people is really documenting and showing your weight per day, if you want to showing. I mean, I have a weight loss course I did on Udemy and I actually showed. This was from about six years ago. I took one without my shirt on and you saw my belly sticking out and the things I did to lose weight. So people love the contrast. Now, I'm sure you've seen a gazillion weight loss commercials for various supplements and products. From what I've heard and seen in a lot of different documentation, what they typically do is they will go to a gym, find someone who has, you know, a perfect chiseled 31 inch waist and say, look, we're going to give you a bunch of money to be a before and after. Eat as much as you can, gorge out. For the next month, we'll take your picture and then we'll use that as the before and your current is the after. And so there's a lot of sleazy, cheesy things done in the whole world of weight loss, as I'm sure you're aware. So if you could actually document things, you would have a Lot more credibility. You may have endorsement options and if there's certain products you like, if there's certain, you know, food or other things you use. I personally am not a fan of really any kind of supplements or vitamins because again, when I look at the research, most major medical universities say you don't absorb vitamins and most supplements through pills. You have to actually eat real food. But I'll leave that to you. Think about any products you are using or if you're using a jump rope, anything like that. Showing that might help you get sponsorship, advertisement, affiliate revenue.

Okay.

In the future.

Yeah, that is a good idea.

Yeah. Mark, thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate you sharing your journey and I really hope to see your videos on a regular basis. Basis.

Okay.

Much we'll do.

All right, thank you. Take care.

Barb, do we have other. Barb, do you want to add something there and any other comments you have?

I actually saw him weighing himself on. Now I've, I've seen three of his videos so far and he did take that approach in, in sharing his weight. So I think it's on there. But it might be better to put that on at the beginning. And I want to ask you, tj, if he did put each week, should he. At the beginning of it is. Here's where we were last week and here's the story this week. Should you do a recap first?

Sure. You want to make it so the people who didn't see everything in line can get caught up and give them a sense of your journey. And I know I quote him perhaps too often, but Gary Vaynerchuk is a big fan of this idea of rather than create content with perfect ideas and perfect editing and here's the finished product. Just share with people your journey. Let them see what's going on up and down and your experiences, your. Your failures, your successes. That's what I've. I've essentially been trying to do with this studio and things have fallen down sometimes. That's what I'm doing with the help of Barb is sort of sharing my journey of how do you make these Amazon influencer videos rather than just showing you the final product. So share with people the journey and give them as many specific metrics as possible and it could become something that has a lot of other possibilities. I'm thinking of one person in general who ended up being a spokesperson for a major fast food company. I don't want to mention his name because he had a. He had other issues that tarnished him legally, but he was able to get. He was able to get a major, major sponsorship corporate spokesperson role for years and years because of of his weight loss journey. So keep us updated. Stated there. Mark, thanks so much. We'll let you go and but feel free to stay with us in the room if you like. Okay, Barb, I don't know if I missed any comments or chats, if anyone else had something otherwise. Do we have any other videos? We have not critiqued yet.

So I'll take a second here. So hang on and I'll go ahead and I'm going to take your off screen, Mark. Okay, let me do that.

While you're getting that ready, I want to get a little bit of feedback from people. If you could get that ready. I'm just going to do this view. I have this. I'm going to take the bottle out of the way. I have this as one of my camera angles. And people have said, yeah, you know, that camera is too low. It doesn't make sense. What I'm trying to do is simulate with this curtain behind me what things kind of look like when a speaker is up on stage because the camera's lower. They're looking down, they're not looking at a camera. We've only done one video with this new format yet and it was massively successful. It went viral, had more than 5,000 views in the past. The short videos I did were from an actual speech where I'm in front of people on stage and I'm like this. So we're trying to simulate that and what we didn't do in the first video, but my editors are going to experiment with, is actually putting a crowd shot in. Now, there's no crowd here. I'm in a room completely by myself. So I don't know if that's going to come across too cheesy. And now that you know that, maybe it'll seem weird, I don't know. But I'm experimenting with that. So I would love to get any feedback you have on whether you think that's a good idea or whether that's silly or cheesy or stupid. I don't know. I am looking for feedback and appreciate any feedback you have. Okay. And Barb, what do we did miss? One comment says, I want you to please explain live or make a separate video on how to break down a TED Talk or any talk so that we can learn maximum from that, especially for people who are very beginners. So let me come to that after we do this next review of one of our students.

Okay? I'll go ahead and set that. Whoops. Come on and put her on. And I'll be. Be right back.

Presentation the topic is going beyond achievement and adaptive testing. There are three key points in my presentation. The first one is test equality, adverse impact, and predictive bias in high stakes testing. The second point is reducing adverse impact by adding predictors such as attention control, working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. The third point is improving graduate school admissions by assessing consciousness and vocation of interest, combining their scores with GIE and recruiting diverse and qualified applicants.

Okay, so. And I forgot. What is her name? The student's name? Barb.

Nancy Lee.

Okay, so Nancy, I really like that you were planned. You were organized. You had 1, 2, 3. I like the hand motion. I like that your face was moving, the pace was good, you weren't rushing, but you weren't sort of stopping and awkwardly thinking, what am I going to say next? So many, many strengths. Now, I know sometimes when the audio is going through a couple of different systems, it can lower it. But when I did listen to it initially, it did sound like the volume was very low. Then too, the number one problem I find with so many people around the world, especially when they are speaking in a language that isn't their first language, is there's a hesitancy. There's kind of a sense of I might make a mistake or use the wrong word or the grammar might not be perfect. So if I soften my voice, people won't really notice the mistake. It is my theory that that is at the subconscious level, what's going on and what I am hearing from you is a softness in volume. And so that's the one thing I'd like you to work on for your next one. Do everything the same, but speak a little louder, more energy and range in your voice. Imagine you're at a noisy restaurant. It's a big table of maybe 10 or 12 relatives, a big round table, and you've got an aunt or uncle or grandmother is a little hard of hearing at the other end. Use that level of volume, use that level of energy. It will make you sound infinitely more confident, more authoritative and more comfortable with your knowledge. So please give that a try. Thanks so much for posting. Okay, Barb, do we have any other videos to critique?

That's it.

Great. And I want to thank everyone for posting their videos. And please keep in mind, if you post a video, whether it's in the Udemy Facebook page or my regular Facebook page, which is TJ Walker Success on Facebook, that's my business Excuse me, the Udemy student community, the group, and I also have a business page which is separate. If you post a link there, or you can post it right on my YouTube channel or join us live. And as one of our colleagues did today, you just post it right in the comment section. We will critique it there as well. Okay, one of you, and forgive me, I believe it's. It appears to be written. I don't know if it's in it. It's a. It's in a language. I don't. I can't tell from the text, the name. So I can't even take a stab at your name. Apologies. But again, the question is, I want you to please explain or live or make a video how to break down a TED Talk or any talk so that we can learn from that. Especially for people who are beginners. That is an interesting, intriguing question. So let me take a stab at that. I am. I have a mixer here in front of me. I'm going to sort of take you. I like to say this metaphorically and actually acted. I'm taking you behind the scene. Scenes now, behind the curtain of what I'm doing. I have a mixer now that allows me to record everything in the highest definition, 4K. So I'm going to hit that button now because this may be some content as you asked for, that could be a separate standalone video for people to see it if they couldn't be here with us live today. So I'm hitting record. And now I'm going to go to camera one. You've seen that TED Talk. You love it. It's a great speech. But how do you really learn from it? How do you take what you saw there and transfer that to a skill set for the next time you give a speech? There is a way of doing it. First thing I want you to do is watch that speech again. This time, hit the mute button. Don't listen to it, just watch it. The best speakers are communicating constantly with their eyes, with their hands, with their movement. Now, if they're on the TED stage, it's quite often a relatively small red circle. So they're not running around all over the place. But they're stepping forward occasionally, they're stepping back, their hands are moving, they're leaning in, they're leaning back. What they're not doing, standing like this, typically what they're not doing, hands on a table, hands on a lectern. What they're not doing, typically sitting down or leaning. So I want you to really watch what you see in this TED talk visually. You don't have to copy them or mimic them or try to become a clone of them. But I want you to really appreciate great communicators when they are speaking, are moving, they're communicating with every inch of their body, their arms, their head, their face, their eyes, their eyebrows, and not in some wacky, distracting way. Everything is in sync. So that's the first thing you need to do. Really watch this video carefully and experience what you're seeing, not the message. After you've done that, now I want you to watch the video again. This time, look the other way. Listen to it. Really try to figure out what ideas are coming through. I'd like you to get a pad and pen and write down every idea you remember, every story you remember. When you're done, look at it. Here's what you're likely to find out. That there was only one main idea or two or three main messages. And this was from someone you thought gave a great presentation and you were even taking notes. The best TED speakers. The best speakers anywhere, whether it's the TED stage or not, are great in part because they narrow the focus. They do not try to cover every single thing they know on the subject. Most important of all, they illustrate their most important point with a story. And that story typically involves them somehow, not in a way that makes them sound great or the hero. Quite often it's about their failures, their journey. That story is going to involve a person, another person, conflict, a problem, a setting, actual dialogue, a solution, and the emotion of how they felt about it. I want you to really analyze this story. The single biggest difference between great speakers, TED Talks that do millions and millions of views versus the average business presentation where everyone either falls asleep or instantly forget gets it isn't even the hand movement or the eye contact. The biggest difference of all is that great TED speakers, great speakers everywhere, illustrate every single key point with a story. That's how I want you to watch TED Talks in the future to help build your own skill base. Okay, so I'm going to stop record and my editing team will probably take a look at it and see. Is that something worth turning into an edited video, refined with some graphics and maybe a little music special effects, putting it on my YouTube channel and distributing it on other social media. Please, please, please. I'm not not fishing for compliments. I just want to know. You can just do a thumbs up or thumbs that or yes, no, yes, if you thought that's was worth any value. But those of us, those of you with us Mark, if you're still with us, Harmon, Darman, Barb, any of you, did you see any value in that or is that one you said tj, it wasn't anything bad, but you said edit here live. That's good enough. Please post in the comments, either the private chat or the comments, whether you think there was any value to that. Because typically what I try to do is, is also do a short version of that rather than editing down my long ones. I'll do a short version of that as well. So I'm not a mind reader. I don't know if you were even paying attention or saw that. So I don't want to assume. Did anyone think it looks like Harmon did just put. I probably. It looks like a thumbs up. So that's one vote for making that a longer video. Mark says, sorry I missed what you said. Okay, no problem. Mark, I'm going to do another one right now. That's a short version. What I'm trying to do with the short versions is do something less than 30 seconds. A video could be up to 60 seconds and still go out on the YouTube short feed, TikTok and others. I have found for me personally, the videos I've done that were shorts performed the best if they were typically 12 to 19 seconds. So that really helps you me focus on one idea. But it could be 30 seconds. I'm trying to get it less than 30 seconds when I do it. Harmon said, it's really good information and I learned a lot, so I do appreciate that feedback. I'm gonna do another one now short, and I'm trying to get my angles right so I'm looking this way way and then looking that way so it's framed properly. What's the best way to really learn from a TED speaker? When you see someone say, that's great. Here's what you need to do. Watch the video again without the sound on so you can see how they move. What are their eyes doing? Are they leaning in? Learn from their movement and how to move. The next thing you need to do is watch it again. Write down every idea you remember in every story. Typically from these great speakers. It's one or two ideas and one great story. That's what you need to incorporate in your next presentation. Okay, I'm going to hit stop on that. So again, I'm sort of taking you behind the scenes is what we were talking about with Mark earlier. I'm trying to document my journey. I'm trying to create a YouTube channel here that has a significant audience that Helps people around the world. Most people who create videos and YouTube content are doing it behind the scene. And then they show you only the finished, final product, where everything seems seamless and done perfectly. I will sometimes make mistakes. I'll sometimes trip up and say, cut. I got to do that over again. So that's what we're doing here with. And it's a. It's just a theory that this might be of interest and useful to people. Mark says, I feel like the hand movement and the inflection of voice really reinforces what's being said. Absolutely correct. Hand motion and inflection does reinforce what you're saying, because you can say the same message, exactly the same way. If you're perfectly straight and stiff and you say it one way, it's going to be perceived completely differently than if you're doing this and you're moving in and you have different inflection in your voice. Completely different meaning as people take it in. Okay, well, let's see. I'm in the private chat. Let me go to the regular comments. And so our colleague who asked the question said, that was quite good. Please put your photos on the videos. Wow. So I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. Are you suggesting that I would, while I'm talking about TED talks, put photos, people giving TED talks, and various TED speakers? If you don't mind just clarifying that a little, it would be appreciated. I'm not quite. I mean, I wouldn't put my own photo on a video where I'm speaking. Typically, maybe for the thumbnail at the beginning, or maybe you are talking about the thumbnail. If you don't mind clarifying that, that would be appreciated because I am going through kind of a change in that. For a long time I thought, you know, people don't want to see another old white man picture thumbnail. So I wasn't using the thumbnail of me on any of my YouTube videos. But then what I found is when I did have that style from an older video where I'm on a stage looking down, not looking at the camera and moving that all of a sudden people were watching those videos even though my face was on the front. So now we're kind of shifting back with our. Our new batch of production where I am going to be quite often in the thumbnail so people know what they're getting and ideally building some kind of brand identification. And he says, you're. Oh, you're talking about the thumbnail. Okay, so do appreciate that feedback. And I am going to Start doing that and I'll just share with you. You've heard me reference it a couple of times. So now I am going to share the screen. Barb, I hope I don't mess this up. I want to do entire screen. I guess I'll do. Okay, I will do screen two and then I will move this over just. Okay, now I'm doing it correct. This seems a little if this. Oh, that's not what I wanted to show you though. Oh, it's not sharing yet. So I just want to pull up my YouTube channel and get your feedback on a thumbnail because I am trying to make this better. Okay, so now I'm going to hit show share. I'm actually going to take my camera off a minute, so. Okay, so what I'm referencing here is this short video on the end on the far right.

Right.

If you can see this, the top right, that is a picture of me. It's only about a week old. As you can see, I look more or less the same. And what you're seeing behind me is the very same curtain I just showed you that's in my studio. But I'm looking down. That video has more than 5,000 views, so it's done better than any other video I've done. And whether it's a coincidence or not, I don't know. But I am wearing a suit and tie. And what I have noticed is that over the last six months, since I become aggressive about trying to create more content online, that only old videos of me where I'm wearing a suit and tie just got a lot more views. Again, I don't know if it's just random, a coincidence, or if that is something people like, but that's why I'm wearing a suit and tie now. And that video is sort of the first new one in this new batch, a new studio that we put out and it did 10 times better. Whether that holds consistently will find out. So I do want to spend a little time today talking about Amazon Influencer and actually doing a demonstration. But I wanted to be fair for those of you who are nice enough to show up live and participate. If anyone else has any other questions, comments, thoughts, or videos to review, I would be happy to talk to you and give you the spotlight. Mark says, besides your thumbnail, are you using different tags and a description? So, yes, I am using Vidiq, which is an artificial intelligence system that gives you tags, suggestions. You write your idea of a good title and it then will rewrite it for you and give you suggestions of better titles. And I have a team of people who work with me on that. So I was involved with it early on. I haven't done much of that, and Ben and other colleagues are working on that. So there's a whole art to that. Using hashtags, putting a description and also tagging the location will help. I have not done the location. Maybe it's something I should do. I hear varying schools of thought all the time on hashtags. Some people say, oh, that's 2021, and that hasn't been helpful or useful in ages, and other people still swear by it. So I'm not really the best expert on that. But Mark, there is an awful lot of information out there, a lot of it for free. So much of becoming good at something, something like YouTube is just spending time on it and watching other YouTube experts talk about it. Whether it's Sean Cannell at Think Media, Ali Abdul covers a lot of these topics on his channel there. There's so many great YouTube creators who are sharing their own journey of where they've gotten to, and they're a lot further along than I am. There are people with, you know, 1 million, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million million views who share their journey. So you should definitely listen to them more than listen to me, given where I am in terms of overall audience and subscribers right now. Barb, before we switch gears to today's Amazon Influencer sort of workshop, was there anything else that you wanted to cover? Anything I've missed from anyone? Any comments? I do see One more comment popped in. Brigitte has joined us. Hi.

Yeah, she's just joined us. She's someone you might consider bringing in to talk about that.

Great. And Brigitte, always happy to hear from you. I loved watching the interview you did with Author that you posted in the student page, and I'd love to talk to you about some of the technology of that. Is this a convenient time for you to come on camera? If not, I understand. I know it's getting late in the day where you are in South Africa. Would you like to come on and chat with us? And if it's not convenient, I certainly do understand. I will give Bridgetti a moment to respond to a. Sure, she can join in five minutes, so that's fantastic. While she's doing that, I'm going to at least start the process of showing you how I make Amazon Influencer videos and pictures product reviews. So I use a new microphone I just got because this is what works on my iPhone 15 Pro. The mic I had for My other one had a different adapter. And if I were really tech savvy, I would be able to tell you the actual names for these two different sizes. It's a little blurry. I realize one is bigger than the other. So everything is going to these newer size attachments for chargers and adapters. So I'm plugging this in. So this is the receiver for my phone. Now I'm going to turn on this little microphone and this is a very inexpensive, I think it's 20 bucks or something. I do have an Amazon influencer video promoting this microphone right here. So I'm going to turn it on, look for a green light. That means it has a battery. That means it's working. Now, today my wife was unable to join us, which means I've got to be my own cameraman, which is fine. It does slow things down generally just a little. And I use a little tripod here where I put it in. And I then go to my camera. I try not to hit these buttons to mess up audio. And what I'm going to be after is same as I do every day. Those of you who've been with us is I try to take. This is not completely stable here because I have a rug on top of a rug, which is usually not a good idea. What I try to do is take a vertical picture, a horizontal picture, short form vertical video, and then a longer horizontal video and then a slightly longer, more inclusive horizontal video. That's what I do for every single product. I don't know if that's the best practice or not. As I try to research a lot of other people, I get a lot of conflicting advice. Barb, have you found any other advice you really feel is compelling as far as the number of pictures and video and horizontal versus vertical? Since we last talked about this maybe a couple of weeks ago, have you found any other message or source of information that you think is really compelling? Where people say, no, you should just do 15 second verticals or no, you should only do long form horizontals.

I really haven't paid attention during this last week because of my regular schedule at this time of year. And I've really. It's all I can do to keep up. I will say that Mike Stelzner's famous social media marketing world starts this next week. So that will have. Because he gets all the top people from all over the world coming in. And that is a topic of conversation during the summit this year. So I personally, the verticals, I mean, as you know, Streamyard, my preferred third Party application that we're using today. They only recently added vertical streaming. Vertical, you know, take to live streaming directly to the platform. So that's got to be a hint that there's, there's enough demand for it for them to change the application, I think. And it's a great mix with a vertical and a horizontal on the screen at the same time using these third party applications to actually stream that. And I thought, well, that's new. It's different for me because I'm definitely used to the landscape now. You also know I am friends with some of the top streamers and there, you know, and, and Sean, he's been on vertical, but in the last two weeks people have been reporting getting more on horizontal. So I think it probably has a lot to do with the demographics of the audience you're streaming to, the attention there, what platform it is you're streaming on. So I'm, I'm a holdout at this point. I. This is the time of year when you know, you have your initial plan set and then you have all this feedback. Remember I told you about the live streaming book, Ross Brand's book. He rounds up everybody's opinion at the end of the current year and for them to give us their foresight for the new year. And I didn't have time to participate in this year, but the, the whole thing is, and what they're coming out with, I mean, we are in a tremendous time of change and it is all about us. Just like you. You're gonna hate me for saying this, but it is, it does just get down to pressing the button and getting them out there. And, and so whether it's horizontal or vertical, I think if it's vertical, you have less to be concerned about your backgrounds and you know, your sets and so forth. But most importantly, it's just to be you and to do something. So that's about all I can.

Good point.

Now I always learned something. That's why I love doing these. I learned something from Barb. Now, I didn't know Streamyard all allowed you to stream vertically. Can I do it from a computer or is that only if I start from a cell phone in a vertical position or is there some button here right now? If I knew all my audience is going to be on their cell phones. Can I do something on my laptop right now to make it look vertical?

We could try that. You know, I know that I was presented when I and Bridgetti would probably know this because when she comes in, she. And what she's doing because she has, you know, in her interviews and being able to adapt to the needs of the authors that are joining her, she probably will have the answer to that for you. Like I said, I saw the option at the beginning. So I have a hunch that when I set it up, up is might be where I have to do it, but I am not. I'm not trained on that yet. I haven't stopped long enough to pick that up myself. But it definitely has the capability. It was a big announcement and so forth. And that to me said, you know, because there's a lot of people whose stuff is originating on Tik Tok, they want to build that audience first, but because it's typically faster, they can build an audience faster. But I also was in a Facebook run meeting by management in Facebook showing stats that, I mean, these are. The stats are public. I'll get the link and share that in our group here soon in our community. But Facebook is still number one by far, far in social media platforms. I mean, it's way out ahead. YouTube comes in second in the Facebook product. I think it's WhatsApp comes in third. I have to remember that one myself. But they're all Facebook products except for YouTube being second. So we look at what did YouTube tell all of its major players to do is like, focus on shorts. Focus on shorts. And that's doing vertical. So, you know, there's something to that.

I will say, by the way, I got a it said invoice from Meta yesterday. Why are they invoicing me? It was payment. I made a grand princely sum of $1.82 for the last, I believe, last quarter from Facebook, the ads, which is better than money going the other way. So does bring up an interesting point, as I have found is I have been making just for the last, really seven weeks, Amazon Influencer videos. It does generate more attention. I don't know if it's because I'm on Amazon Influencer or because I've been making a lot more videos on YouTube and my YouTube subscriber count is going up, audiences going up. But I now get. I wouldn't say every day, but a handful of times a week I get pitched from other companies saying, we want you to be an affiliate. And there's are. There's a lot of scams too. I've had. So a couple of people say, oh, we're gonna pay you $2,000 to show Dasani water in your next video. And like, come on, $2,000. And. And then I did a quick search and it Said this is a scam. And you'll see their emails are always from Estonia or someplace like that. So you just hit delete on those. I've had a few others recently where they, they say, oh, we want you to be on our live stream and we're having all these experts and we're paying you $2,000. Well, I do get things like that that are real from time to time. But then you look at it says dear and it was a cut and paste of, you know, a machine that cut out the font from my YouTube channel. Obviously it's a fake where no one's just going to pay you $2,000 to show up in a live stream as a part of a group if there's no other pre existing connection there. So there's a, it does attract a lot of things and you got to weed through and figure out, okay, maybe one out of ten is worth following up with. But it does create, you know, interest and a lot of people who now are reaching out to you. So those of you thinking about becoming an influencer, whether it's Amazon or anything else, just be ready. Other, other opportunities can come to you, but also time consuming things where you just got to weed through and be pretty aggressive at hitting delete or unsubscribe or block.

I think that is an area of opportunity as well. With your expertise, you know, your background and you know, I've been in from the event side and getting sponsors for events and working with major corporations and so forth for really large events. There is a real skill in that and there is definitely the number one thing is being able to communicate effectively all the way around. And what I have seen in working with other Amazon influencers, being part of that network since its beginning is a lot of people, a lot of influencers have been burned even by legitimate companies because they had never worked with them before. They had no idea how to approach them, put their packages together, have something, be thinking about what they're doing and what it is they can share with them the rights that they give away to those particular videos. It comes to mind front and center. Real fast is a very well known Amazon influencer who had not made deals directly with corporations before and had tremendous views on his videos of that manufacturer's products. And the manufacturer decided they couldn't. He wasn't coming to terms making a deal with them, so they just took his video, you know, and how do you, it's like, well wait a minute, I'm this little guy and you're this big manufacturer. How Do I contend with that? And so all of that has to do with, you know, reading your terms and service with Amazon, making your own contracts and so forth. And I think it's a opportunity for media companies, I think in line with yours, that those are the kinds of courses to help people go direct, because I truly do. One thing I believe passionately is that we are in the years of social commerce in that work is going to be direct from the consumer, with the manufacturer, from the way that, I mean Amazon needs to be that destination that ships out, distributes the goods in the end, but that salesperson instead of them. You know, the size of their marketing team doesn't need to be nearly as good as big, but very astute in how to keep, capture and keep an online audience.

So I mean, certain trend line, you're exactly on point, Barb. Certain trend lines that I see and follow, and I know you do too, is there's only going to be more companies in the world creating products and services they want to sell. The world population is growing every day and is expected to until about the year 2060 and then level off at about 10 billion. There are more and more people going online every day. Last count I saw was like 200 to 250,000 people a day are going from having no Internet connection to being on the Internet. So all those trends are in one direction. Meanwhile there's all these trends of mainstream traditional media where they're losing audience and having to fire people. TV networks firing newspapers going out of business, not just in the United States, but all over the world. Just yesterday I was talking to a colleague who was talking to a friend who's been a senior producer at cnn, their morning show and was just told last week, oh by the way, we're canceling the morning show, you're fired. This is CNN is doing it. So it's not just the 200 year old newspapers, it's the 45 year old TV networks. And these days it's even, you know, the 10 year old business insiders and buzzfeeds that are firing people because the audiences are flowing to individual creators, whether it's a Sean Cannell or Mr. Beast or you know, at least a dollar 83 cents of it worth on Facebook went to me. It's flowing to individual creators. So you're going to see more and more individuals like, like a lot of you who joining us today and with us who have the ability to connect and profit from directly with relationships with companies because we can connect them to audiences. Clearly the trend is Growing stronger every single day. Barb, let me know if Brigitte has been able to join us because she had said that she. Yeah, she was able to, but otherwise, let's shift gears. Just a minute. An idea that popped into my head talking to Barb earlier today is I, I'd like to not hog the spotlight as much. So I've been documenting on a daily basis, sort of my own journey making Amazon Influencer videos. I'm going to put out a challenge to anyone watching this. I'm more than happy to block off an hour with you. There's no charge, folks. I'm not selling a workshop. There's no upsell because I'm not an expert on this. But I would be happy to devote an hour to one of you or the first handful of you where we don't talk about Amazon Influencer. You actually make the videos and we talk about it as you go. You have questions, should I do this or this angle? How is this take? I want you to actually make your Amazon Influencer vid. And if you're not in the Amazon Influencer program, you can make just videos for YouTube and become an affiliate either with a company or through Amazon or Walmart is fairly open to letting virtually anyone be an affiliate. So if that interests you, leave a comment or leave a comment on my community channel, my community tab on my YouTube channel or Facebook page and we can have just sort of a live, active workshop here where you, not me, where you create your own ads, your own product reviews, whether it's for Amazon, whether it's for Walmart, whether it's for Target. Okay, Brigitte says she's ready to join, but I don't see her.

If you could give me just a sec, Bridgetti, I put that in your Facebook messenger, the link to join us here if you can't find it anywhere else. And I want to say something to that. Even if you're not an influencer, you need to build a following to become one. But it's not about even your Amazon affiliate program. And the light bulb just went off. YouTube has. They're doing the same thing. They're going to be going direct and they've already announced it. And so you need to create your videos affiliate for YouTube because they're going out as well. So regardless of whether it's for Amazon Influencer, it's just creating post product review videos.

Everyone's getting in the game. Every major media platform like YouTube, Tik Tok. Every major commerce platform like Walmart.com like Amazon.

Right.

And every major Store like a Target Walmart, I guess you could say. And for that matter, most major products have their own affiliate program. So there's so many different pieces of the puzzle here. It does sometimes seem overwhelming figuring it all out. And I'm still trying to get a handle on the basic organized organization of all this, because when you make it an Amazon influencer product review, you own the footage. I own the footage. Amazon can use it anyway way they want, but I have full rights to use it any way I want to. So I'm still trying to figure out how do I even organize the sheer number of videos. So I've put it up, I've taken it from my phone, I've put it on YouTube, excuse me, on Amazon. But I now need a way of labeling it and organizing it in a central database so that if I want to put it on YouTube to be either an Amazon link or a Walmart Link or a TikTok or a link directly for YouTube for their affiliate program, there's almost. It's getting to the point where there's almost an infinite number of permutations and combinations where you could use any one video. And so there's an organization issue. And I have not figured it out yet. I'm trying to store a lot of these things in Google Drive, but it is a bit complicated. I see that Doug is saying hello. Doug, Layman says TJ playing catch up. Have you gone live on Amazon? No, I haven't, Doug. It is one of my plans to do and I'm still in a research mode. Part of the research mode is I'm going to talk to someone who is an expert on it. And that is. Oops. So we added her same time. And Bridgetti is with us. Hi, Bridgetti, how are you today?

I'm very well, thank you. And yourself, tj, Fantastic.

I'm so excited about talking to you. I loved watching your video with.

Thank you.

The author interviews. Tell me how long you've done that and what has been your experience interviewing authors and then presumably promoting their book with a link where as an influencer, you are an affiliate. So if they sell the book during the live session, the author benefits, obviously, but you benefit as well.

Tj, the Writers Corner live show has been running for five and a half years, almost closer to six years now. And I started the show on a whim with a friend and it's done. We've enjoyed doing it so much that both Mary and I have started separate shows as an offshoot. So she, you know, the Writers Corner live Show is an established one and she now runs Cover to Cover and I run books with Bridgetti separate to that, simply because we enjoy talking to authors so much and just sharing the author journey.

And I apologize, I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. You've done your live show for five, six years on YouTube or Amazon live or both.

Well, initially it was Facebook that we focused on, you know, because that was back in the earlier days when live streaming became mainstream, if you wish. And, you know, so YouTube came after. It was never a key focus, but I am making it more of a focus of late. And I got access to Amazon Live about two and a half years ago. Two and a half. Maybe three years. I think it's three years, actually. So Amazon Live is one of the destinations and then there's LinkedIn.

I apologize for interrupting, but I want to really make sure I can understand this. Technically, are you creating the show live through something like a stream yard and then having one of the destinations, Amazon Live and another one, YouTube? Are you having to use a cell phone that streams live to Amazon and then a webcam or a different camera that goes to YouTube or Facebook? How are you technically actually playing, putting this out?

So I'm doing all of it through Streamyard. So through Streamyard I can go Live to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, YouTube, Amazon Live and that.

You can. That's the group. No, you. You can simulcast to. To Amazon Live while being on those other channels, Is that what you're saying?

Absolutely correct. Streamyard does have the ability to. They've got access to the API for some of the destinations. But some of the newer ones, like Amazon Live, for example, they've not opened up the API and so you use it as an RMTP destination. You can do the same for Instagram and you can do the same for TikTok, but you can do all of this through. Through Streamyard. However, as you would know, you do require. You do need to use the app on your phone for. For Amazon Live. So you do that simultaneously. So you'd have your phone, you'd have to open up the app on your phone. So there's a process. So you go live firstly on streamyard, and once you've opened up the channel to broadcast, you would then hit the Go Live button on Amazon Live. But there's a whole lot of preparation work that goes in advance. So in the same way.

But I really want to learn as much from your expertise and hope it helps other people too. So I have my phone here on a tripod. I've got my main Sony high end, sort of. Oops, I hope we didn't lose you. Oh, there you are. I've got my main Sony camera that's going through my mixer with other cameras on here. I'm staring at a laptop where I have Streamyard open. You're saying I would start with my laptop, open it up. I could take the feed from this camera or would I have to take the feed for Amazon through the Amazon app? I'm still confused.

All of the feed goes directly from streamyard into Amazon Live. So what you would do is the same way as you would prepare your setup to go live on streamyard, you would have to duplicate that onto Amazon Live on their app on your phone. So what you're going to do is you're going to create your thumbnail for streamyard and you're going to make sure that you download that thumbnail onto your phone so that you can use that thumbnail for Amazon Live. So as I said, there's prep work to do. So you do your normal setup as you would on streamyard on the app on Amazon Live, you're going to set up the show with your show title. The time that you're going to go live, you have to have a. You have to have a thumbnail. You can't go live without a thumbnail. Have a thumbnail, have a show title. There's no show description as you would have in Streamyard, but you do need a show title. You do need to set the time that you're going live and you do absolutely need to select the items that you're going to talk about. So if you're going to be interviewing an author, you need to put that author's book or books in the carousel. You can't go live on Amazon Live unless you have at least one item in the carousel.

So if you're doing an author, can you have, typically, do you have just that one book and that's all you talk about to sell, or what else can you sell if you've had one? If you've got one author on, or do you try to have them on for a five minute segment and then go to another one and have different segments for an hour.

The brightest Corner live show in particular is a 30 minute show and it goes by so super quickly and so it would. What I put in the carousel is going to depend on what I want to focus on. Ideally you do want to focus on your author, so you put your author's books in there. The book that you're talking about if you're going to make reference to the other books of the author, you can put all their books in there. Generally, I will find a way of weaving that into the conversation and say, you know, you've done all these books, but today we're going to talk in particular about this particular book. So you can put those in the carousel. And it is quite okay. You know, you can see that I've got this microphone, so I can put that microphone in the carousel and, you know, anything else that I feel is relevant. If, for example, this chair is available on Amazon, I can put that on there as well.

And so if you're promoting it, as, you know, my live interview with Stephen King, you would maybe focus on his book first, talk to him, maybe talk a few of his other books, thank him, and then say, hey, while we're here, if you like this, how I sound, here's my microphone and here's the chair I'm in. Or how do you actually sequence it?

So I've worked out a sequence for myself and I keep it very, very short because really the focus is on the author and the author's book. So I have a sequence where I say something like, I love helping people look great on camera. And for that reason, I recommend that you use an external microphone if you really want to sound good. And if you want to look good on camera, do not hold your phone in your hand, but instead use a tripod. And if you really want to look good, have an external camera. And then, you know, so just. It's just very, very brief. I don't go into detail because that's not the focus of the broadcast, but I do give it all a mention. And I can sort of say, well, this, you know, and, you know, and I'm using my. I'm using my phone, for example, for the broadcast, so I could say, you know, and I have an iPhone and I'm. I'm watching your comments on my phone.

And so for the carousel, do you have to be touching things? I mean, here's a part of, you know, everyone has strengths and weaknesses I'm just not particularly good about while I'm talking to people. Touching or typing anything on a phone. Do I have to touch buttons to manipulate the carousel on a phone? Can I be using my mouse on the same page as streamyard? How does that actually work?

It's actually, it. It takes a little bit of practice to, to get into the motion of doing it. But here's what I do. You know, you don't have a lot of products in your carousel, typically, unless your show is focused on products. But if you're doing an author interview, that's not the focus. My focus is on promoting the author and their book. So generally speaking, you may have up to say, five books maximum. What I do is all from the same author. From the same author. So what I do is I position myself in such a manner that everything is within my reach and so that I can still maintain eye contact. So what I would do, for example, is I would have my. Oh, this is quite heavy. But I would have. I would position my phone is positioned on a tripod that is. Would be stationed in front of me and so I can have. I can have visual contact with my normal camera, but I can also look at my phone without it being too distracting.

Yeah, I could put it just out of frame. Frame like that. Now it's only about correct.

So mine's generally out of frame, but it's right there for me to look at. And the other trick that I've learned that works very well is I would pair a keyboard, a Bluetooth keyboard with my phone. So if anybody is commenting on Amazon, generally what I would do is while my guest is talking, I typically would take my. Would mute my microphone and either minimize myself on screen and maximize the guest or put the guest on full screen and I'd use that time to communicate with the viewers on Amazon Live on my phone. And it's, you know, forget about trying to. It's. It's virtually impossible to try and type on your phone while you're streaming. It's very distracting. I can barely read what it says. So I find having an external keyboard is a huge game changer. It really makes a big difference.

And the starting point has to be a phone. Can it be an iPad or. It has to be a phone.

It can be. It can be any iOS device. Can be. Can be an iPad or anything.

I'm not going to try to do it on my watch the whole time. That would be a.

That would be impossible. I think.

Here's what I've been thinking about late. This sounds awful to say. This is what I think of late at night. I think, oh, I, I should have asked someone this today because I'm imagining that if you're approaching an author, it would really enhance your chances of getting an interview rather than, I mean, like right now I could say to someone who wrote a communications book who isn't famous, come on my. And it wouldn't be that hard for me to get someone. But for example, two Months ago, Ali Abdaal, very famous personal Development Guru on YouTube. 5 million subscriber. He came out with a new book and I really didn't make a serious overture to have him on because he's so famous. I see him on other podcasts all the time where they have 10 million subscribers. He can go on CNN anytime. It just didn't seem like it would even make sense for me to enter to try to get him to come onto my YouTube channel when I have 16,000 subscribers. But it made me think if I could pitch an author or the publicist team or the publisher and say hey, I'd like to invite your author to come on Amazon Live where we sell the books to the Amazon community. And if you're not familiar with Amazon Live, check it out. You see Martha Stewart here, you see Paris Hilton, you see people like that. I would think that that would get a lot of attention because now they're not thinking about oh, how many subscribers does this little guy have? They're thinking about oh, Amazon, that's freaking huge. Sure, we can do 20 minutes with that. Am I correct? Does that help you get a lot of, of authors you wouldn't normally get it?

It definitely, I must be honest, I've never struggled to get authors. We've, I've, I have an endless supply of authors to, to interview. But if you're looking for a high ticket, you know, well known author, Amazon Live definitely is a huge drawing card because you know, then your numbers become irrelevant. But in any case, you know, people tend to get this wrong. It's not the value isn't simply in the actual interview is what you can do with that video after the interview that is a lot more valuable because you can chop segments of that interview that you've done. You can get 20, 30 clips out of that 30 minute interview that is evergreen, that can now be used on social media for the next year, for the next two years. So I, I never too concerned and I tell people about that. It's not about the interview, it's about what you can do with that content.

After the interview that really are you repurposing the content. Let's say you know, interview a half hour interview with someone you really like, great author. Are you then turning that into 20 shorts and then connecting that with an Amazon affiliate link. So when it's on Facebook or Twitter and someone watches the short with your interview on a, with a particular author, they like it, they buy the book. Are you making money that way?

Well, that's what you can do you can add, you can, you're gonna all that. You can share your clips across your social media, add your affiliate links. And what YouTube does, for example, is if you sharing the shorts, it will automatically take people to the full interview. So, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of spin offs in repurposing your content after the show.

And have you taken the time to like, if you, if you could take the same short, you did, put it on TikTok. TikTok has its own affiliate program. Are you taking the time to link that video that was originally for Amazon, then linking it to the store on TikTok so you get a higher commission or do you keep everything flowing through Amazon?

No, I don't keep everything flowing through Amazon at all. You can repurpose it. But here's a little nugget in terms of repurposing that I'm always mindful of is ensure that your interviews are evergreen. Don't time box them. For example, if it's around whatever holiday, Halloween, Valentine's, Christmas, whatever the holiday is, don't focus on the holiday in your interview because then you are closing yourself off to the possibilities of using that as evergreen content. So if that's one tip that people can remember, I'd like them to remember that is ensure, because you put a lot of. I put a lot of time and effort into preparing for my shows and interviews and I want to be able to have evergreen content after the show. So it's something I am always acutely aware of is not to timestamp my interviews.

And how often are you doing live shows?

Not as often as I would like to for health reasons. If I was able to, I would literally go live every single day because I really enjoy it. I really do enjoy going live. So the Writer's Corner live show is a weekly show. We live every Tuesday. And Books with Bridgetti was also weekly show, which I'm wanting to restart again. And I very often do ad hoc shows as well for communities. I've also for the last couple of years been doing a show on the, on the water crisis, which we still have in South Africa. It was, it became famous through the Cape Town water crisis four years ago when we were running out of water in Cape Town, literally. But you know, water crisis is something that people all over the world can relate to and should relate to because we are, you know, water constrained. And I've learned so much out of that, interviewing scientists and people.

Fascinating when you're doing, because it sounds like you do at Least three shows that deal with books at all. Are you automatically live streaming all of those to your Amazon live feed as well? Or do you. Do you target it and say, I'm going to do the first 15 minutes, that'll just be for Amazon, then we'll disconnect because I want to talk about other things that aren't related. Or do you just put it all out there and Amazon is fine with that?

I. The. As far as books are concerned, yes, I will put them all on Amazon because why not? That's where the books are available. So there's huge benefit in streaming all the book interviews to Amazon because it benefits not just the author, but it also benefits benefits myself if the audience purchase. Now, here's the thing, it's not even about the book because, you know, people watching your show, if they, if they're watching your show live on Amazon, obviously they went there and you know, there's a cookie on their machine now. So if they go out afterwards and they buy something completely unrelated to books, I will still benefit from that purchase. So it's not just about the books per se, it's the fact that you.

Are live on Amazon and so anyone you attract, Amazon puts the cookie on and you get a part of their sales for the next 24 hours. If they came in initially through your link. Is that generally how it works?

Correct. Yes, that's how it works. Yeah.

And I've heard people say, well, the real money is in things like $7,000 video cameras. You don't really make money in books. And there's more to life than money. I like talk, I like to write, I like to read, I like talking to authors. But is it a viable business model if someone, and I know we're not Amazon doesn't want us talking about a lot of very specific things. But generally, do you think it's a viable sort of business model for someone to say, I want to just focus on selling books online and I want Amazon Live to be a part of that Amazon influencer and I'm going to try to distribute content that relates to great authors everywhere? Is that something that someone could do to support themselves or is it more just an interesting experience and there's a little extra pocket money that comes in now and then?

I am not aware of anyone who does it to make a living out of interviewing authors. I. Yeah, I'm not aware of anyone who does that, to be honest. And it's not my motivation. I enjoy. It's great making. It's great making the extra cash you know, there's so many other side benefits to doing this that it's not the key focus on this show.

How many? I mean, I've heard if you go on Amazon Live, Amazon sends a message out to the followers of your own store. And I haven't aggressively marketed that. I've been making reviews, but I don't really have more than a handful of followers. I think I haven't even checked lately. But how much do they push you to others? I've heard maybe you get, maybe you were the one who told me you get. Maybe a hundred people might come in who didn't know you because Amazon just promoted it. Is that, is that an accurate sense?

Yes, because you don't have to do anything. Amazon will push it out. Now, a lot of that has to do with when you are streaming. So obviously if you're streaming at a time when there are a lot of people who are live, people who are higher up in the food chain on Amazon Live than you would get pushed out a bit more. But if you streaming at a time when other people are not, you are definitely going to be seen by a larger audience for sure. And there's nothing, you know, you can't really control that because it is out of your control. But the point is that they, you know, you being you get the opportunity to be seen by people that you don't have to market yourself to. There's no need for it because Amazon does that for you.

Now, how does it. Because I've seen conflicting information. Can you promote your own books? Because I've seen some things that say, yeah, this is great. And I see Martha Stewart promoting her own products. And I've seen other things in the terms of service that says, you know, you can't be directly affiliated with anything you're promoting. How does that work exactly?

There's nothing wrong in you marketing your own books. You absolutely can market your own books and talk about your own, your own books in a, in a live stream. What you cannot do, whether it's your books or someone else's books, is say to friends and family, here's my affiliate link. Go click on it. That is the problem.

Sure.

That is against Amazon's terms of service. You don't want to go there.

They want new sources of revenue they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. That I understand that completely. How. And again, I don't want to ask you anything that's violation of the agreement with Amazon or that's just personal, your own business, but is there any guidance, like if an author let's say I met James Clear at a conference and I said, James, I love your book Atomic Habits. I'd love to have you on my Amazon Live show where you'll be in the Amazon world and people can do one click and buy the book. And he is the most successful author of A Habits book for the last decade. His book has been on the bestseller list for I think seven years now and still is. It's just, it's wildly successful. He could do 15 interviews a day, every day of the week if you wanted to. He's got to be selective. It, if he says to me, tj, it sounds interesting. You know, how many books do you usually sell on this? How's, what's the experience been with other authors? You don't have to tell me exact numbers, but how would I give someone like that honest and fair sense of how this could benefit the author? Because authors times, you know, especially successful authors, their time is what they value more than anything, more than money. Money. And they have so many more interview requests than they have time of the day. How could I fairly give them some accurate sense of, of what might sell, especially if they're already on Amazon bestseller list? Does this, does this push the needle much? I guess is really what I'm asking.

Not at all, T.J. i've interviewed new York Times best selling authors and that was not a question that a single author has ever asked me. Not a single author. They are simply happy to be able to engage with their audience. And none of them have ever said, you know, how many books can I sell? What's the benefit? To me, the point is that they are getting an opportunity to talk about their books in front of an audience that they otherwise would not have had access to.

And the audience can type in messages or because you're using streamyard, they can appear on stream on video and actually talk to the author.

On streamyard. Yes, I can put their comments on screen the same way as you've been doing with all the other shows. However, with Amazon we don't have the ability to show those comments on screen at the moment.

But I mean, can you invite.

There's no way to do it, but.

I can invite a member of the audience to appear on screen and speak. I mean, you're inviting the, the author is on screen and people can see the author. Can an actual viewer join on screen just the way people have done? And you are here with me today on streamyard.

You can do that. I've never ventured into doing that because I have no control over who they are. I don't know what their setup is because I want to repurpose my video content. And so that's not an avenue I would take. I don't know whether they, you know, I, when I have guests on my shows, we have a 15 minute window before we go live, so I can go through all the tech checks with people, make sure they look, you know, they look good on camera, that the audio is good, the Internet connection is okay, you know, go through all those things with them in advance. And so asking somebody to jump onto my show that I'm wanting to repurpose to me would not work because I don't know if that person, because, you know, you get some strange people, people would want to get onto your show and they're in a bathroom or they're, you know, they're in a noisy place or they on their mobile phone or they're in a car. You know, I would not want to entertain that sort of things on my show. I know they do that. People, people do. I know, I know producers where they have shows with the nature of their show is fine to do that. The nature of my shows are not.

Yeah, everyone's got to have their own structure of a show. What do you find is the best length of time when you, when you invite an audience they're on? Do you say, give me 10 minutes? Do you say, give me two hours? What do you find is the best length of time for one of these shows?

So the Writer's Corner live Show is a 30 minute show. It's myself and a co host and we managed to get through on average about seven questions in 30 minutes. And on my other show books with Bridgetti, it's a 45 minute interview and I can do a deeper dive. And I think, you know, 45 minutes is a great time because people don't really want to watch shows that are too long. But I can do a really, really in depth, deep dive into the author's journey and the book in a 45 minute interview. And I really enjoy that I have a hard cap at an hour because I'm also bearing in mind the audience. You know, audience retention is important and so I think most people would be hard pressed unless you have a phenomenally captivating guest and your topic has huge interest or entertainment value.

To me, 30 minutes, 45 minutes seems like a great length of time. I'm a little bit torn because I see, for example, Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan are really two of the most successful podcasters of all time. And they're notorious for doing like three and a half hour interviews with just one person. And they're both at the absolute top of the ratings on, on podcast, YouTube and elsewhere. So it does seem like a long time to me, but it does. The really lengthy format does work for some people, but it's interesting to me that, you know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes seems like a good time. Can you tell us a little more about the hierarchies? My understanding is there's three hierarchies of an Amazon influencer on Amazon, and the, the highest one, I guess, increases your chances of someone finding you. If they just go to Amazon.com and hit Amazon live, what does someone have to do to get there? Because I would imagine instead of that might get you maybe a thousand views right away. But.

But I don't know, it doesn't guarantee you a thousand views. You know, a lot of it is also, apart from the fact that Amazon will push out your video a bit more, you also have to build that audience and, you know, be captivated. People come and go all the time, you know, so you've got to really work on your audience retention skills. One thing I've learned about Amazon is that you have people. The point is, you know, when people are on Amazon, they're there with their credit cards in their hand and they're there to shop. They're not there to watch a movie, they're not on Amazon to be entertained. So unless you're doing something that's really incredibly captivating that'll keep them there for 30 minutes, you've got to have some magic wand to, to do that. But it's a given that on Amazon you rather have people that come and go, come and go, come and go. I've had, you know, I've built up an audience on Amazon where people would look after my interviews. They like the way that I interview the authors and they'll keep coming back and they'll stay for most of the interview. But I'm aware of the fact that I like the fact that people come and go because that's more people coming in and out who's now getting a cookie on their machine as opposed to.

Are you able to migrate? I mean, I think you told me you simulcast through Streamyard on Amazon, but you're on YouTube, Facebook, other places as well. Do you sort of during the broadcast say, hey, if you're watching this on YouTube, why don't you come join me over here on Amazon to do that? Or how do you. What's the Interplay between your audiences from other places versus ones on Amazon. And people from Amazon are leaving comments, but also people on YouTube. Do you kind of give preference to the people on Amazon or how does that work?

I don't do that personally, but I know that there are people who do that. You know, they would go live on YouTube or Facebook and do it as a pre show if you wish. So they would schedule, say for example, they would schedule, schedule to go live on Amazon say at 10 o', clock, but they would go live on the other platforms at 9, at 9:45, warm up the audience and you know, say.

We go, it's very interesting.

Yeah, at that time and just have a casual conversation with people and then say hey guys, in the next few days, five minutes we're gonna go switch over to Amazon Live. Come and join me there.

Gotcha. So I know doing it live, you're starting live on all those places at the same time, right?

Correct.

So if someone is, is on YouTube watching it and say, oh this book sounds great work and I get it, do you just say out loud oh, it's on Amazon or do you, do you post a link right there on Streamyard that filters out to YouTube that has your affiliate link? How do you handle that?

Well, you can, you know, I think Bob, Bob shared one of my shows in, in the group and you know, I can put the link in there but these days a lot of the platforms are not liking that and so it's better to it somewhere in the comments after because you put it into your initial description. Most of the social media channels are not showing your content to their audiences any longer.

So do you try to direct them and say hey, just go to my Amazon store and give it out to them? Or how do you, how do you try to direct someone who's on this live stream? They're seeing the author, but they're watching you from Facebook or YouTube.

Well, what I would just say during the broadcast is that the book is available on Amazon and if you'd like to get the book, go and grab a copy on, on Amazon. But you've also, you know, you've got to familiarize yourself. And I know that Barbara's, Bob's mentioned this to you a couple of times. Each of the platforms, you've got to be very careful. None of the platforms wants you to direct people elsewhere because you're going to.

Find jealously protecting their own.

If you, if you're doing that, they're not going to show your video too many people. So be very careful about redirecting people onto other platforms. So I try and keep it as neutral as possible.

Yeah.

So that I remain as friendly as possible to each of the platforms.

Sure.

Where I, where I'm live instead of trying to get myself into, into trouble. But you know books, everyone knows you buy a book on Amazon so I'm not going to say go to Amazon.com or you know, here's the link. So the book is available on Amazon and if you are watching me on Amazon live, it's in the carousel.

And how, how do you put the level of importance on the lives for Amazon versus just creating a whole bunch more video and picture product reviews. Because I'm only in this for seven weeks. So I told myself let me just get my first thousand up so I can just kind of get a sense of what this is about. See if there are any trend lines, see what categories work and then I'll worry about live. Now that you've been in it a long time, like in a typical month, how much time do you spend on the live stuff versus just creating more recorded videos and pictures?

You know, I've really been out of the game for almost a year because I had to take hiatus last year. I, my health wasn't doing very well. I did find there was a lot more financial benefit in creating short form videos.

More so than the live, more so.

Than, more so than the live streams. But you know, I do the live streams because that's what I enjoy most.

Yeah, well, it's good. We all do things just for fun. I'm all, I'm with you there, you.

Know and I, I meet people and of course, and of course after that I want to promote their books so I do that post and pre show.

Is it like qb? Because I, I've seen it but I guess I haven't seen closely enough. Do you get any sales data after you've done live to see how many? Because you know QVC and Home Shopping Network, they'll show you. Oh, we just sold 89 units. Do you get any sense of how many sales happen right away or is it just the next day when you.

See it's 24 hours after you've been live, that data becomes available. You don't get too much data. But you know, if you joined Logie, which I think you have, you can get a bit more data via, via Logie. Tj I have to go because unfortunately I've got another meeting.

Well, we really appreciate your time and you know Barb and I, I'm sure thinking along the same lines of just like everything you've said for the last hour would be perfect for an online course because I'm not the only one who really, really wants to know how this works. And you've been in it a long time and are a source of so much great information. Really appreciate your time. When you come back, which I hope will be soon, the first question I have for you is walk us through your process of you just did a great interview for 40 minutes or 30 minutes with an author. It went well. It's all evergreen. Walk us through how you take that video after the live is done, chop it up, distribute it everywhere, connect with other affiliate programs, walk us through the sort of the lifespan of one piece of content and how it mutates different places, other places affiliate and all the different revenue streams. And we I know you don't have time for it now, but that's the question that's burning in my mind that I really want to find out from you. Thanks so much, Bridgetti. Really appreciate your time and continued good luck with all of your ventures and best of health to you.

Big pleasure. Same to you. Thanks for having me as your guest.

Thank you. And Barb, thank you so much for bringing Bridgetti into our universe. And Barb, I know you've had some electricity problems today. I don't know if you're back or not, but I appreciate all of your time and effort. I had hoped to do a product demonstration for all of you today, Amazon Influencer, but I've now been standing for three and a half hours, so I don't think I'm going to do it today. So presumably you have perhaps had enough. TJ at this point. Sedky says that was a great interview. Well, thanks. I appreciate it. And let's just use that as a learning moment. That was not a great interview because I spent hours and hours and hours of research. It was. I, I think, I mean, I enjoyed it because I was genuinely fascinated in the expertise of someone else. And I've been sort of living in this world. These questions have been swirling around in my head and I tried to ask questions that I thought would relate to a lot of you as well and be useful to you. There was not a and one mistake a lot of authors or excuse me, hosts make is they try to ask questions to make them sound smart. Now I've got as big, or maybe arguably a bigger ego than a lot of people, but I very consciously didn't try to ask a single question to make myself look good or myself look smart. I focused 100% on, wow, this is an interesting topic. This person has the answer. How can we find out? I do think that's a good attitude to have regardless of who you're interviewing or what the topic is. And those of you interested, I mean I do have. Sorry to sound self serving. I do have a course on how to interview people. If you're at all interested in that, you can go and check out my courses on mediatrainingworldwide.com and check out all the courses that relate to interviewing and media skills. Barb said. Barb is back. It looks like the Electric Company says things are going to be down for an hour. So Barb, if you're with us, if you want to have any concluding comments again. And Bono is still with us, thank you so much for joining us. Bridgetti says thank you and thank you, Bridgetti. Please let us know anytime you can come back and I promise I'll try not to monopolize your time without asking in advance for an hour at a time as I did today. But thank you so much for sharing your insights. And Sadiqi said, is it a mining attitude? Right. I'm not quite sure what you mean by that sad key, if you want to come on live, I mean, I got to go sit down. Frankly, I may have to rethink this idea of, of, you know, standing, take this out of the way. I, you know, my idea for doing this show and standing is so I can demonstrate, do the gestures, things people do when they talk. But maybe for interview segments I sit down, in which case I'd have to lower the desk. So. So still working out all the kinks on things like that. Give me feedback on what do you think the three cameras, the lights. You know, some of these lights still change colors, which I'm not really crazy about. We're still working out all the kinks on that. And Sedki is if you had a clarification on your comment, I wanted to give you the proper respect and I just didn't trust. I wasn't sure I understood that. Great. Bono says yes, sit down for interviews. Okay, well, I definitely might do that. It's also supposed to be a lot healthier for you standing. So I am trying to stand. It exerts more energy, burns more calories than sitting. As they say. Sitting is the new smoking. But three hours is a bit much in one place. But don't feel too sorry for me again, I try to be transparent parent here and show you as you've heard me say and Demonstrate sort of taking you behind the curtains. Well, one of the things that makes it a little easier for standing, I'm wearing Crocs, so I'm in a full business suit, but my, my feet are comfortable because I am in fact wearing those Crocs. So whether you consider that cheating or not, I don't know. Hey, I want to thank everyone for joining today. Please do me a favor like this video. Leave a comment Even if you your comment is tj, you talk too long. Leave a comment that helps trigger the algorithm that shows YouTube. Hey, people are engaging with this. Let's send more tomorrow. And please subscribe. If you haven't subscribed, I would appreciate it a lot because our research does show the vast majority of people who watch videos on this channel don't actually subscribe. So subscribing helps a lot. Oh said key says mining attitude towards the topic. Get as much information as possible. Be curious but not smart. Yes, that is exactly what I was trying to do. Says that's a great way of saying it. Like the topic is a mine and we mine it. Great attitude to have. Absolutely. And Bono leaves a very nice comment again. Tj, you are doing great. Well, thank you. And you're great for staying with us for I think pretty much the whole time. And we're, we're coming up closing in on three hours. So as my wife likes to say, too much TJ from time to time. So I'm going to sign off for now. I will see you here tomorrow if I can get the cameras and everything working properly and the microphones, I'll see you then. Meanwhile, new video, there should be a new short video posted probably in the next half an hour. So please be on the lookout for that. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.