Trena shows her actual home office and YouTube studio, messy post-it walls and all. She records audio separately to dodge computer hum, uses blankets on tile to kill echo, and lights with a ring light plus two softboxes. Nothing here is Pinterest-ready.
This office might look perfect from what you see, but you're not actually seeing what's going on behind the camera. Hi, my name is Trena and welcome to my channel Tips with Trena. Here on this channel, I help creative business owners like you get on YouTube to grow your business. And in this video, I'm going to share with you what my office looks like. So many of us see these Pinterest pretty offices and I'm going to show you a real life office. So the equipment setup that I have going on today, where my mic is, where my lights are, I'm even going to show you what's in my closets or what's in my desk drawers, how I have them all set up so you can actually see what a real life working office looks like. And spoiler, it ain't perfect. So you walk in and over here is a closet where I keep a lot of my filming equipment. It's a pretty decent size closet, so I like it to keep my equipment on the wall across from my computer. Many of you that have been around know the famous post it wall. So this is currently a breakdown of YouTube Bootcamp, my course that I' launching soon. So I'm updating some videos and I have my post it wall broken down by lessons and different videos that I need to do. And then I have a printer over here. It's wireless so that I don't have to plug anything into it. I think that stand is from Target. I've got some old planners. My paper there. This is the nice big window that gives me a lot of light with a sheer curtain because that allows light to come through, but filters a little bit of that harsh sun sunlight. My working desk over here is another closet. It's the exact same closet that's on the other side. But in this one we've got some boxes and a bookshelf. So an actual bookshelf fits into this and we didn't have a spot for it. So it goes in the closet for right now. So my white desks are from Ikea. They're fairly cheap and you'll see the blankets and pillows on the floor. That's because this floor flooring is like a tile floor and so the sound will really echo. So by throwing some blankets on your floor just really is gonna up your audio quality. So that's a really cheap alternative to buying carpet or rugs or soundproof stuff. You just grab some blankets and throw them on the floor and it just honestly makes such a huge difference with your sound. So this is my desk. You'll see I have my laptop, my scripts, my microphone sitting right there on a stand. And a little secret. I have my clothes. Let's change my wardrobe down here. So when I sit at my chair, my microphone is right in front of me. And that's what's really important to keep that close to you, especially if you have a blue yeti mic. And make sure you turn the gain down, otherwise it's gonna get a little tingy. So then my camera sits on that ring light and that ring light gives my face set glow. And then I have two soft boxes pointed at me, one right beside the ring light because I'm getting so much light from this window. So I've got to balance it out with this softbox and then this softbox as well. And I have this one a little bit higher, the shine on top of me to kind of give some more light. And then this umbrella light is pointed on this wall because if I didn't have it, it would look kind of dark and there would be a shadow. Now what I, what I do with my microphone is I actually plug it into my laptop and I will create a separate audio file. And the reason why I'm not doing it on my computer is my computer makes too loud of a hum and it picks up the hum on the mic and so it just sounds bad. And this calendar is basically my content calendar. From YouTube videos to Facebook lives to guests in my Facebook groups, this is basically my hub. So I can just turn around, take a look at it and see what's coming up for the week, what I gotta do and see when I can fit things in. Typically my laptop does not sit there, but since I'm filming today, that's where it is. So in the first drawer right here we've got my post its gotta have those post its. Am I right? Am I right? Also keep my lipstick in there. And this drawer, it's like our drawers for personal documents which we're putting into a safe very soon. This drawer has all of my camera equipment in it. So my webcam, headphones, camera. And then this is just a drawer of hanging folders with documents in it. You guys, this ain't anything pretty. I don't have anything specially organized. I have my dry erase board, markers in my butterbeer cup. Anybody? Harry Potter? Butterbeer. I have my power sheets, a book that I'm reading Primal Branding. If you have not read this, you've got to read it. A notebook. I also keep my Erin Condren planner in There. It's just not in there right now. And then in these drawers, I've got two desk drawers over here. This is kind of like a catch all drawer. I've got some scissors, a hole puncher, some notebooks in there. And then over here is basically some supplies. So white out paper, paper clips, tape, you know, just random stuff, not anything organized, special. I also have a shredder back there. And this is what I look like when I film. Oh, yeah. And this chair is from Amazon, I believe. Not 100% sure. FYI, it does run into the wall. See those nice marks that I got? So that's basically what my filming setup in my office looks like. I told you, it's not Pinterest perfect. You don't need to have a Pinterest perfect area to film videos. You know, you're not seeing all the pillows and the blankets on the floor. So just get started. Okay, so now I need some help from you. I'm trying to decorate this plain old blank wall. So I need some ideas and suggestions on what should I put back there. Leave me any of your suggestions or any links to websites or artwork that you think would go great for this setup down in the comments section below. And if I decide to go with one of your suggestions, I'm gonna shout you out when I finally unveiled the decorated wall behind me. Don't forget, if you're ready to use YouTube to grow your business, make sure you click the subscribe button down below and you check out the playlist that's on your screen right now because it's going to help you get started here on YouTube. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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