Hi Storytellers! Happy Filmmaking Thursday!

Whenever we talk about sound we tend to talk about microphones, voiceovers, and music. But what’s just as important as the presence of sound in your videos is the absence of it. Let’s talk silence.

Some of us find comfort in silence while it makes some people’s skin crawl. And it doesn’t matter what camp you fall into. I’m not here to tell you that you need to work on getting comfortable in it or to work on being ok not having it. What I want to tell you though is that it is extremely powerful in video.

And for all of you introverts out there the good news is that you don’t need to be speaking throughout your entire video.

Here’s why:

• it can punctuate an emotion
• it can allow the time and space for your viewer to take a breath and absorb what they just experienced *This also applies to podcasts. I’ve been listening to a podcast lately that gives you the info and a really hard hitting moment and instead of berating you with more info they play a song to let you absorb it. It’s not always a full song, it sometimes is just a few seconds, but the effect is awesome.*
• it allows us to really listen and think (think meditation and how we are re-inspired and realigned by taking silent moments with ourselves)
• it brings us back into the moment (imagine when you are watching a webinar and the person is talking, talking, talking and you kind of tuned them out as you are multitasking and then they go quiet and all of a sudden that silence attracts your attention)
• in a conversation or interview it allows the person that is being interviewed to expand on their thoughts

The irony of silence is that it can be filled with more tension and emotion than those with sound. You can learn so much and get such great ideas from quiet moments. Think about how you can take a pause in your next video, take advantage of silence, and truly invite your viewer to feel and learn.

Now, I’d like to hear from you, what’s your biggest video question? Let me know in the comments below.

If you liked this video, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you want more, come on over and the Storyteller Circle, my private Facebook group filled with wonderful entrepreneurs like you that are looking for more support in crafting their video stories and an inspirational community. I adore the people in this group so I post some of my best stuff there. When you join you’ll instantly get a bonus gift “How to Reach, Grow & Teach Your Online Community With Video”. Just click the button below. And remember Tell Your Story. Inspire Action. Make a Change. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time! 

If you liked this post please comment and share. I’d love to hear from you.

Hi Storytellers! Happy Filmmaking Thursday!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed that when you’re watching a video that starts with someone speaking to the camera and then switches to a screencast, there is often a big change in the quality or volume of the audio.

Here are a few reasons for why this happens:

           1. They use 2 different microphones

           2. They sit in a different position

           3. The parts were filmed on different days

Our voices change from day to day. The differences are very subtle in person, but become more obvious in recordings. Big differences also occur depending on how you sit or stand while you speak.

There are two things I do to avoid vocal differences after I’ve filmed all of my parts with me talking to the camera:

           1. I hold my script for my screencasts out in front of me and level with the camera.

           2. I make sure I am still projecting my voice to the camera.

These 2 tips will ensure you get the same quality and level of audio throughout your video.

It’s as easy as that. Stay in your filming setup, hold up your scripts, use the same mic and speak in the same position.

If you liked this post, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you want more, come on over and the Storyteller Circle, my private Facebook group filled with wonderful entrepreneurs like you that are looking for more support in crafting their video stories and an inspirational community. I adore the people in this group so I post some of my best stuff there. When you join you’ll instantly get a bonus gift “How to Reach, Grow & Teach Your Online Community With Video”. Just click the button below. And remember Tell Your Story. Inspire Action. Make a Change. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time! 

If you liked this post please comment and share. I’d love to hear from you.

Hi Storytellers! Happy Filmmaking Thursday!

The point of videos is to share your message. Chances are you have multiple messages or aspects of your message. Trying to shove them all into one video is just crazy(and incredibly overwhelming). What you need to do instead is break down your message so that each video has one primary message and hints at subconscious themes.

Before you create any video content, I really want to encourage you to MindMap. It’s a huge help in creating videos more efficiently and creatively.

To do this, I use a tool called MindMap that allows you to map out your thoughts and save them directly to your Google Drive.

I’ll use mine as an example for you. So in the middle I put my primary message: creating relationships and being of service through video and storytelling. This breaks down into a few different messages and themes. So each of the videos that I make focuses on one of these sub-messages. It also hints at another message. For example, I created a tutorial about how to download your videos from YouTube, so that falls under Technical Tools. But, I also hinted at why they would want to download these videos in the first place, and that falls under the larger all-encompassing category of Video Strategy.

Once you have your big message broken down into its parts, it’ll be so much easier to just sit down and say, for example, “Ok, I’m going to brainstorm all of the videos I could make about video editing as a tool to craft stories.” Before you know it you will have a huge list of topics that you can make into short videos.

Having subthemes in your messaging is what will weave your entire message together for your audience. My challenge to you is to MindMap your big message and break it down as much as you can.

If you liked this post, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you want more, come on over and join the Storyteller Circle, my private Facebook group filled with wonderful entrepreneurs like you that are looking for more support in crafting their video stories and an inspirational community. I adore the people in this group so I post some of my best stuff there. When you join you’ll instantly get a bonus gift “How to Reach, Grow & Teach Your Online Community With Video”. Just click the button below. And remember Tell Your Story. Inspire Action. Make a Change. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time!

If you liked this post please comment and share. I’d love to hear from you.

In this video, I’m going to share why I’ve started using video even for my personal emails.

Since starting my business I’ve come to hate email, hate writing them, sending them and receiving them. I’ve been so overloaded with email subscriptions and email marketing that I don’t even want to write personal emails.

But I recently connected with an awesome entrepreneur who doesn’t write emails. Instead she records videos and tells the person receiving the email to just watch the video. How cool is that?!

It was great because you could see and hear her and she could explain her thoughts with so much more ease than spending so much time on writing out carefully worded emails.

And all you need is a webcam and google hangouts. You can just start a private or unlisted event on youtube, start your broadcast, talk to your camera, hit stop broadcast when you are done and it will instantly be recorded to your youtube video manager . You can make it private and share via G+ or unlisted and share via email.

I’ve started doing the same thing, especially if I need to explain something complicated. And I love it!

Go ahead and try it out. I guarantee you’ll have fun!

Now, I’d like to hear from you, what’s your biggest video question? Let me know in the comments below.

If you liked this video, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you want more, come on over and the Storyteller Circle, my private Facebook group filled with wonderful entrepreneurs like you that are looking for more support in crafting their video stories and an inspirational community. I adore the people in this group so I post some of my best stuff there. When you join you’ll instantly get a bonus gift “How to Reach, Grow & Teach Your Online Community With Video”. Just click the button below. And remember Tell Your Story. Inspire Action. Make a Change. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time! 

If you liked this post please comment and share. I’d love to hear from you.

In this video, I’m going to share with you how to engage your viewers by adding segments and structures to you videos.

Have you ever watched TV shows and thought to yourself “oo I can’t wait until they get to the part when they talk about…” You’re looking forward to a certain part in the show. What most of us don’t realize is that TV shows have structures and segments, so that you know what’s coming in each episode.

Last Week Tonight is a great example. John Oliver starts off with a summary of the week, then he dives deep into one hot topic or issue for most of the show. During his discussion of this big topic he throws in a quick segment to lighten the mood with it’s own graphic like “the most patient man on Television”. And at the end you can almost always expect a funny song or piece of creative entertaining satire that he produced.

This is how you grow an audience of awesome fans and keep them coming back to watch more.

This is also how you take the step from a Vlog to a youtube show.

You can add segments to your youtube videos just on a much smaller scale since on youtube we are talking about 3­5 minute videos. So let’s say you are a wellness and nutrition coach, you can have a quick 5 seconds for your “food pick of the week” or if you are a business coach you can have your “favorite online tool of the week”.

Something else that you will definitely want to do is have categories or series of videos that your audience can expect to see on the same days with the same structure. So let’s say you are a conscious business coach and have 3 series on your YouTube channel “Tuesday Q&A”, “Marketing tips” on Wednesdays, and “Meditative practices” on Thursdays.

On my channel, I release a video every other Thursday and I have 3 series: “technical tutorials”where i show you step by step, usually in a screencast, how to do something technical related to video, “storytelling and editing quick tips” where I give a short tip that you can implement right away related to crafting video stories, and “online video strategy” where I explain concepts for you to think about and apply to your strategy.

Now, I want you to think about how you can add segments and structures to your videos. What’s one thing that you want your audience to expect from you? What kinds of series can you create?

Now, I’d like to hear from you, what’s your biggest video question? Let me know in the comments below.

If you liked this video, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you want more, come on over and the Storyteller Circle, my private Facebook group filled with wonderful entrepreneurs like you that are looking for more support in crafting their video stories and an inspirational community. I adore the people in this group so I post some of my best stuff there. When you join you’ll instantly get a bonus gift “How to Reach, Grow & Teach Your Online Community With Video”. Just click the button below. And remember Tell Your Story. Inspire Action. Make a Change. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time! 

If you liked this post please comment and share. I’d love to hear from you.