Are You Scared Of Making Face-To-Camera Videos?

James: James Schramko here with my friend John Lint from 10XPRO.io. Hey, John.

John: Hello, everybody. Hi, James.

James: John, 10XPRO.io, great platform for building memberships. One of the things we’re used to seeing inside memberships is some videos from the expert or the author. Now, you don’t have to be an expert to have a membership, I just want to firstly state that. You could hire an expert or pay for an expert. One of my clients actually, he pays for the top-level musicians to record a masterclass on camera and then presents that in the modules. But then there are people like you and I, and we tend to make lots and lots of videos. Interestingly, in my membership, I often do Keynotes for my live trainings or just audio, which is funny because if it’s sort of on an introvert-extrovert scale, I’m like a 65% introvert and 35% extrovert. So I’ll actually tend to just sit in the background rather than step up, which is crazy for someone who you might think producing all these videos and stuff.

Now, you and I are making these videos from the comfort of our own homes. And we do this on a regular basis like every single week. You look on SuperFastBusiness’ media channels and on the 10XPRO’s site, you’re going to see a lot of these videos. I don’t know how many we’ve made, but it’s a lot. Do you ever get nervous when you’re making them?

John: Right now? No. These days? No. But of course, at the very beginning, when I was doing my first videos, I remember sweating, being nervous, saying the wrong thing, and of course, you have to imagine with me, English is not my first language. So I was trying to say something. Obviously, I always make mistakes even now, you know, these days. I say something wrong. Something that’s not grammatically correct, or the wrong word, or my brain thinks one word, my mouth says another one, so I look like an idiot on the camera. But these days, I don’t care.

It’s part of me. It’s part of my brand. If someone likes me for that, or like is okay, I know that, hey, maybe we can connect and maybe down the line, they can become a customer. It’s okay at the very beginning, sweating, I had to stop the camera, do it again. Ten takes to say something that would take me five seconds to say! So that’s the number one thing I want to say to people is that it’s absolutely normal to be nervous at the beginning. But then there’s a moment where you need to say, you know what, none of that matters. Whether I look good on camera, or you think you are beautiful, none of these things matter.

And your brain is going to think Hey, what is this person going to think if they watch my video, none of that matters. What matters is that what we say, hopefully, helps someone. Our job is to help them get results, help them solve problems. So hopefully what we say will help them in their journey. So yeah, I just said something stupid now, I know I just made a mistake. I don’t care. But you know, you would help them with their journey to get that result. So hopefully what we share is good. And that’s the only thing that people care about when they watch any of your videos.

And it’s the only thing that they’re going to kind of judge. Was your video useful? Yes or No? Whether you had the perfect lighting, the perfect camera, the perfect microphone, whether you look cool, or you think you look cool, none of these matters. If you don’t help them, they don’t care. They will stop watching their video. If you don’t help them, then they’re not going to join your list, they’re not going to buy your products, they’re not going to keep on watching your stuff. So there’s a moment where the switch goes off and you say, you know what, it’s fine. I know the process now, I turn on the lights, it’s routine, you say your thing.

And again, we all make mistakes. Then when you make mistakes, you record a video, you have your editors in your team James, right? They’re going to edit the video. I do the same as well. Sometimes maybe I say the wrong thing three times. Okay, I’m going to remove that of course, right? We don’t want people to go crazy while they watch my videos. But that’s it. You remove your mistakes. And a good thing to remember is that these days, your videos don’t need to look like it was one take perfect. Because of YouTube and because the way some videos are edited these days, they are cut very strong, the cut is very strong, meaning that if my face is here, and then the next frame, my face is here, but as long as I’m continuing to say the same thing, it’s fine. People don’t care. It’s like a style these days, right?

Before YouTube, it was like, oh, something’s wrong, there’s a different angle, what happened? He probably said something stupid. These days because of vlogging, because of all these videos that are happening so fast online, none of those videos are perfect. If you watch the top YouTubers, you will see that it’s cut very strong. It’s because they make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. We need to accept that, meaning that we need to move on and go over our fears. Just create the content and help people out.

James: Right. So you know, one possible exception might be if your whole training is on the topic of professional presentation, or you are some audio-visual engineer. Look, there are some basics you can do that make things a little bit better. Like, we do think about our backdrop, we think about lights, good quality mic, and a high-quality camera, you get the best internet you can if that’s Ethernet versus WiFi, if you’re doing these things, just so that it’s not as painful for your audience to listen to a shitty sound quality or whatever.

But what I have noticed is a lot of my clients actually went from 2 DSLR cameras and Boom mics and stuff to just handheld cameras, and they got double the views. And what we have sort of put forward is that if you’re going to make on-camera videos, more personal videos like this, and put yourself out there just a fraction more, it does help your customer trust you more and get to know you and feel more comfortable with your material if you’re prepared to do it. Certainly, you don’t have to. You can use slides if you’re really super shy.

I remember once John, you asked me if you should get an English-speaking voiceover person for your webinar because you are concerned about the accent. And I said, don’t worry about it because, look, I don’t like the sound of my own voice. I’ve got a pretty distinct, Australian accent. A fairly neutral Australian accent actually, it’s not very Australian compared to some Australians, but definitely stands out in the US market and the UK market. 65% of my customers are not in Australia, but I don’t mind having my accent. People get to know you over the years.

I spoke to some person today. I’ve never spoken to him in my life. I read his book and I wanted to podcast with him. He’s telling me that he’s been listening to my podcast, he’s watched some of my videos and he’s read my book, it’s like people get to know you if you’re prepared to share it. So if you want to put your personal videos in the course, a couple of tips.

Firstly, if you’re prepared to do it, it’ll probably get you a really sticky sort of relationship with your customers, and I do my welcoming videos face-to-camera in my membership. It’s a really good one to do when they first get there. Hi, welcome, here’s a little tour of how it works, I’m available if you want help, that sort of stuff.

Know your material. If you don’t know the material off by heart, if you’re not like a world-class expert in it, then write it out, you can actually jot it down on a little Post It note and stick it like one of these things, you can stick it next to the camera. I can be reading this Post It note and it looks like I’m looking into the camera. But there is actually nothing on this Post It note. So if I didn’t know this topic, and I wanted to do this video with John, I’d stick this up here. And I’d say, know your material, practice a few times, record a couple and pick the best ones. People will only see the one you choose to give to them.

And then of course, like John said, you can do those quick edits like chop, chop, chop, take out any uhms and ahs or gasp or leave them in if you want to be actually human or make a gag reel because people will think it’s hilarious at the end of it. Nobody ever nailed it their first few times out. I look at some of my old content and I think oh my god, you know, the lighting is terrible, I should have shaved, what was I wearing, oh, that backdrop! And just start and then over time, you can delete your old stuff and over-write it, especially with memberships where you put the videos. It’s very easy to just put a new video over the top of an old video right, John?

John: Yeah, exactly. It is so easy to do. And a good tip is that hey, if you’re concerned, go to YouTube, find the top YouTubers, go to their channel, go to videos, sort them by the oldest one first watch their first 10 videos. You’ll see, it’s incredible. Obviously, everybody started, you don’t know the gear, it’s normal. But what’s important is to get started. As long as you provide value and try to help people out, the people that matter will get past it. As you get better, yeah, you’re going to know okay, I should have, for example, I have lights here because you know, my window is there. So I need to have lights, this is all part of the process. But it’s not something that’s the most important. What’s more important is to get started.

Get out there, do it. And you mentioned about, yeah, you don’t have to be on camera all the time when you’re creating a course. That’s absolutely right. For me, there are a few key areas where you need on-camera. A good strategy that you do James that I love is for example, how the on-camera video on your order page because that’s going to boost your conversions and tell and remind them that’s great. I like to have it on the Thank You page, of course, thank you for buying blah, blah blah. And I’d like to have it on my welcome page inside my course. The very first page which I call the dashboard, there, welcoming. Everything else after that can just be screen recording can just be a Keynote, you recording with your microphone, you don’t even have to be on camera. That’s it.

So when you think about it, two, three videos. And those videos, the good thing is that they should be short, by the way. These should be 1 to 2-minute videos. So everybody can do that. You will add some human contact, you are there, you are welcoming them to the course. And then after that, it’s all about you focusing on helping them get the result in your course, delivering the value and that’s it. Now your course is created and you have an asset that you can now sell on an ongoing basis and start building your online business around.

James: You know, and some members of SuperfastBusiness membership, what I’ve been doing with them is they’ve been making some videos and loading them up for me to review. And I’ve given them some feedback. And then they go make another one, and then another one. And after three or four videos, the difference between their first one and their last one is like insane, and it was all done in private, it was just them and me. No one else in the world is seeing this, and then they can just delete them, and then they can put the end goal up and that will make a big difference.

So the big takeaways from this are, if you haven’t already got some personal videos, consider it. If you want to do it, then make a couple and practice in your own time and get it to the point where you’re comfortable with it. And then over time, if you improve, then go back. Gosh, when I look at my old YouTube videos, seven, eight years ago, I don’t even recognize myself. Seriously, I’m pale, overexposed, the wrong sort of settings on my DSLR camera, it’s like crazy bad. But I just did it and got where I am today despite having a go and trying and you know, over time, the new stuff coming through is hopefully we’re improving. I like how Gary Vee shows his old videos in his new videos. He’s changed a lot physically, some of the things that he said has remained similar. And then other things he’s sort of updating, but over time we all change but just start because it’s such a great benefit and outcome. And if you’re going to be worried about how bad it could be, then you should also respectfully think about how good it could be to balance it out. That’s only fair if you make some great videos and get great feedback and use that as your thought as you’re making these and being encouraged about it and look straight into the camera.

And by the way, if you’re inside SuperFastBusiness membership, and you’re watching this video, go and check out a video I made of my acting coach from many many years ago at one of my live events. He came along and taught us how to make videos for the camera. That’s a resource I give all my members. In fact, John, if you want, I’ll give that to you to put inside 10XPRO for every 10XPRO member if it’s of interest to you, because I think this is going to be a game-changer for someone who’s just a bit shy.

John: That’s amazing. Yeah, thank you so much. It’s awesome.

James: Always a pleasure. John Lint there from 10XPRO.io. Check it out. James Schramko here, SuperFastBusiness.com. If you like today’s video, make a comment because we read them and we’re often answering questions on our next videos.

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