What equipment do I need to start with if I want to get on video?
I heard video is so important for business but oh my gosh where do I start?
How much money do I need to invest?
How much is one of these things and why is this lens so big and why does this microphone have a big fuzzy thing on it?!
And why are these microphones so big?
Okay, well I'm gonna help you out today. I'm condensing 20 years of film-making experience and 25 years of theatre performing experience, to help you, Dare to Dreamers, and Entrepreneurs step into the spotlight.
I've been making a bunch of videos live this week and right now I will address one of the biggest questions I get which is “What equipment do I need to buy to start?”
What equipment do I need for video making? Reality Check
The answer is not gonna be what you expect. People think that equipment is this magic bullet. If you just spend X amount of money in this fancy equipment you're gonna have these amazing videos that everybody's gonna watch.
And that those people are gonna buy merchandise or services from you. You're gonna go viral. All this wonderful stuffs gonna happen as long as you spend X amount of money.
Well, that is not how it works actually.
Once upon a time… when there were no fancy cameras
So let me tell you a quick story about something I learned when I went to film school many years ago.
A lot of people find this hard to believe but I went to school back when there was no easy access to things like HD cameras. If you wanted to work your way up to a fancy camera you had to learn how to shoot on actual film, which was very expensive.
That was the stuff people made major motion pictures with. So when you went to film school at that time, you had to use really cheap video cameras until you could work your way up to that.
So at my school, it was very frustrating because they wouldn't let us access the fancy expensive cameras. You could liken them to red cameras today, those are the fancier cameras videographers can buy but are very expensive.
It's kind of like if we wanted to shoot on film or a red camera today, we had to work our way up to it. If you were in the 101 class they are not going to give you access to these really expensive cameras because you don't know how to use them and at the time oh! That's frustrating!
But you know what? I'm really glad you didn't because they told us we had to focus on the craft.
Things to learn before buying a fancy camera
Learning the craft of telling stories on video first. You didn't need the fancy camera to do that so they gave us these junky little Sony Handycams (no offense Sony, I actually loved Sony cameras and I have a Sony camera now).
But compared to these big fancy film cameras we were like why are you giving us these little home movie camcorders?
They were really hot at the time but they were for home movies. They made us use those because they weren't as expensive. As new film students, we could break them and it wouldn't be that big a deal.
On the brighter side, we learned all the things that you can apply, whether you have something cheap or you have something expensive for your filming device. And we learned everything. We learned the importance of acting, the importance of staging the person in the right place, we learned the audio, the importance of audio.
We learned that the movement of the camera what you do when you move the camera or how close the camera is to the subject and how that affects the viewer psychologically. How that changes the pacing of your story.
We learned how to edit that footage and how that changes how people react to it. We learned the basics of lighting.
You can still learn that with a cheap camera versus an expensive camera.
We learned everything we had to know so that by the time we worked our way up to the fancy cameras, we were solid and we knew what we were doing and were ready and well prepared.
What camera do you need to buy?
So how does this translate to you?
Why am I telling you this story?
Because I know you're not going to film school and you're not asking a film department to give you equipment, but you're thinking about what do you make an investment on and usually the first thing people ask is what camera do I need to buy?
I want you to learn the lesson I learned going to film school, which is you don't need anything fancy.
If you're just starting out, and if you own a smartphone, you have the camera that you need right here. As long as it is a newer smartphone and it's not a razor phone from 2005, you're gonna get good enough quality.
You're ready to go. You can shoot your Instagram stories. You can turn it sideways and shoot your YouTube videos. You have what you need and, therefore, you don't need a camera yet.
Learn the craft first
So this probably not the answer you wanted, but you should be relieved.
I think people might be disappointed because you thought I'm gonna give you the magic bullet camera recommendation.
Again, if you're just starting out you need to learn that craft first. You need to learn the difference between a close-up and a wide shot and how moving the camera can be great or it can be terrible for the story you're trying to tell, for the emotion you're trying to elicit in your viewer or your customer.
You can work on your scripts. That's really the most important part. You got to be focusing on your scripts, and your delivery. Those are all things you can work on and get good at, hammer away at and build a solid foundation of knowledge and skill without spending any money.
What is the first thing you should buy in your video equipment?
So having said that, I did want to give you a recommendation for the first thing that you should buy.
The first piece of equipment you should buy is actually not a camera. The first thing you should buy is a microphone.
I know that's hard to believe because we're saying video, video is supposed to be painting with light. It's just light hitting our eyes, it's a visual thing.
So why am I saying a microphone is the first thing you need to buy?
We don't realize it, we are very visual creatures but audio plays a huge part in a piece of art. It plays a huge part in our psychology.
People will actually forgive low-quality visuals, much more quickly than they will forgive bad audio.
Have you ever watched a video and somebody's in their kitchen and there's so much echo in the room that it's hard to even understand what they're saying?
And for me, I don't even want to watch anymore because I'm having to work too hard.
You never want to make your viewer work too hard because they have way too many options out there for videos to watch. You want to make it easy and the easiest way to do that is to give them an enjoyable audio experience, give them nice clean audio.
Recommendations
You can find mics that go on top of your camera. If you use a real camera you can find one for pretty cheap. It can cost you anywhere from $30 to $100 or something but I'm not going to recommend this right now because I had told you you should start with your phone.
Lapel Microphones
Because you should start with your phone you actually only have to make a very small investment. I think the first thing you should buy is a lapel mic. It's a mic that fits on your lapel that's why it's it's called a lapel mic.
It's also known as a Lavalier Microphone. You may have heard it called a Lav before because that's short for Lavalier.
I actually don't know what that means because I've learned that in film school 15 to 17 years ago.
Anyways, you can start out with a really cheap one.
Mine are very fancy. Around $600 a pop, but you don't need something like that, These are wireless, they're Sennheiser and they're really nice. I actually got good deals by buying them used from a Hollywood Audio guy.
He hooked me up with his used kit he was upgrading.
For all you beginners, you can get mic for real cheap. It's only 13 US Dollars and that's just to start.
Once again you can upgrade your microphone later, but for now, I think you just start small. When you're ready to improve the audio on your cell phone/smartphone videos, buy a lapel mic.
But if you already own an actual camera then you can get one of these.
Shotgun Microphones
It's called shotgun because it's pointy and it's pointing in one direction and so the audio is picking up things in that direction. It's also called a directional microphone.
Not what you would expect as it's not a magic bullet. It will, though, help remove some of the sounds from far away and improve the quality because the mic is closer to your mouth. It'll be a little bit better quality than the cellphone.
iPhone Users
Now if you own an iPhone, with the newer connection, you will have to buy a cheap adapter. They're not expensive and they work just fine. I've used them for major live streams. No problem.
I can make recommendations at certain price tiers so be sure to check out my next video/blog post on that.
Want to learn more about the craft?
You know you don't have to go to film school nowadays because you have access to all this amazing information online. So I'm giving you my 20 years of experience here. Trust me when I tell you you don't need to invest in thousands of dollars on video equipment especially when you're getting started.
Learn the craft itself, like the writing which is free by the way! Writing is one of the best things you could ever learn because it doesn't cost you anything as long as you have a place to write things down.
Learn Beyond the Basics
I hope that you take some of this information and go out and at least by that lapel mic and start shooting videos for your business.
Let me know how it goes. Let me know on social media or leave me a comment with #daretodreamer and let me know if that's working out for you.
So remember, you dared to dream. That's what business owners do, that's what artists do, that's what creators do.
There will be people all the time all around you saying “You need to be more practical, you need to grow up, you need to be realistic, play it safe.”
Don't listen to them, never give up on your dreams always be a Dare to Dreamer.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? With this? The idea of being on camera?
You think you want to be on camera, maybe you've started doing some live but you feel overwhelmed because you don't know where to start.
You have all these ideas about videos that are powerful.
You've heard that by 2020 eighty percent of Internet traffic is gonna be videos.
You've heard that video gets customers to trust you and you need to do videos for your business.
You hear about these YouTube stars, you see all these amazing Facebook videos that are growing people's business but you just you don't know where to begin.
Do you know what I'm talking about? Cos I've heard it from a lot of people it's overwhelming as there are so many options out there.
What do I use for a camera? What software am I supposed to use?
What's the difference between live streaming and recorded video?
Which one should I do?
Should I be on Facebook?
Should I be on YouTube?
What should I be doing?
What's a playlist?
I know it's overwhelming, it is.
There's a lot to think about. So I'm Michelle Osorio, I'm a YouTuber and a live streamer I've been doing it for many years and I wanted to give you some tips if you're feeling overwhelmed because there are too many options out there.
I can give you a few tips to get started. I recorded a video for this blog post which was a live recording.
The Overwhelm on Camera is Real
If you're overwhelmed and you don't know where to start, usually people ask me things about gear or platforms, such as should I do YouTube or Facebook? or Medium. Should I be doing live stream or pre-recorded video? What kind of camera do I need? What is the gear what software do I need? Those are all the questions I get when people are just starting out and it's almost like it's a curse that we have too much information because there are so many options out there that if you're just getting started. If you're trying to get your business online or start tackling online video for your business, there are just too many things that you can choose from.
Where to Start?
So my advice, having been on YouTube for 12 years, having 134,000 Livestream followers, is you need to actually take a step back for a moment, first breathe and do a little thinking and a little writing first.
I know everybody just wants to hit the ground running. They just want to go and take off, but if you take the time to do a little bit of research and a little bit of working on yourself thinking about what it is you want to accomplish, you are going to be light years ahead of the people who just start trying to do everything. People who are on every platform everywhere. People who buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment and they're not ready.
Identify Your Ideal Client
So the first thing you need to do is to identify your ideal client or your target audience. A lot of people have already done this for their business but if you have not identified your ideal client you need to imagine that ideal client.
It all starts with that so hopefully, you've already done that. If not I have other videos and blog posts about identifying the ideal client that you can check out and just make sure you follow my page or my channel dare to dream school with Michelle Osorio.
Where are they?
Once you know your ideal client, what you should do is figure out where they hang out. That's how you're gonna answer the question what platform should I start with and you should start with just one platform my friend because there's a lot to learn.
So trying to be on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and Snapchat and Musically Tik-Tok is gonna be even more overwhelming. So choose one platform and it needs to be where your ideal client hangs out most often.
That's it in terms of choosing the platform.
How to find your ideal audience?
So your next question might be okay but what if I don't know where my ideal client hangs out? That's totally fine because you need to ask them. If your business already has existing clients then just ask them.
Call him up on the phone, email them, if you have in-person meetings just do a quick assessment, do a quick survey. Say hey, where you hang out the most Facebook? YouTube? Where do you go? How did you find me? Where do you go when you need to ask your questions related to my business and where do you go to learn where do you go to consume content?
And that's where you want to be making your videos If your customer says oh I mostly look for tutorials on YouTube, you need to be on YouTube. If they say oh mostly I watch so-and-so's Live Facebook show every Friday and that's where I get all the tips and tricks for the industry then maybe you should consider Facebook.
Ask them are they in Facebook groups? Do you know what do they do online? What are their activities?
If you don't have clients that you can ask that's totally fine you can run surveys. So, what I did for my new business Dare to Dream School trying to figure out where people hang out, is I went in Facebook groups that were related to my business and I just asked them more for information.
You know obviously they're on Facebook already but I was able to send out actual surveys. You can do surveys for free with Google Forms, Survey Monkey and Type Form and those kinds of services. Just ask the main questions you need like what do you need to learn?
That's how you're gonna find out what to make. One of the key questions you need to ask there is where do you hang out.
It was helpful for me because I was able to see my audience learns mostly from YouTube. They watch lots of YouTube tutorials, which is great because YouTube is my wheelhouse. So I knew I was on the right track but it's very helpful to do surveys.
Don't have any clients yet?
Okay, finally if you're having trouble with surveys or you don't have clients to ask, the last thing you do is just do an internet search. If you think they might be on YouTube go look up YouTube videos of questions your ideal client might be asking or information they might be searching for. Then go see how popular are those videos? What are the questions people are asking in the comments? Are people really engaged in the comments?
Or check out Facebook, check out Instagram go scope out other people, who have business models that are maybe similar to yours or in a similar industry and just do some reconnaissance. If you do this work ahead of time you're gonna be so much more well off in terms of being prepared before you tackle it, so once again this answers the question I'm overwhelmed I don't know where to start?
Where you need to start is one, identify your ideal client, two find out where your ideal client hangs out.
If you don't have clients, run surveys and then if you're still having trouble getting people to your surveys, just start looking around the internet. Start hanging out in those platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. And then watch how popular that stuff is. It doesn't have to be hugely popular it just has to be enough where you think you can gather leads from that platform.
How to choose your Equipment?
Then you're should choose one platform to start. Once you have chosen, I highly recommend that you just stick with what you got in terms of equipment. That will also help you feel less overwhelmed.
Make sure you just start with your phone. If you have a smartphone or maybe you do have a camera but you think you need to buy the latest camera, DON'T. I wouldn't. I would start with the phone. Start simple and first just stack. The first basic thing is making videos that people want.
Starting to gather an audience
Understanding that you're not gonna get a lot of views at the beginning is important. That's okay. But people overwhelming themselves because of this are just trying to do too much. If you just practice the basics for a few months, that is, making videos or making the live stream, you'll survive big.
If you've decided that your ideal client prefers live streams just do that. Very simple first and then can you start thinking about upgrading your equipment. But try only to learn a few things at a time.
Just work on your strategy, just work on your scripts for a while, don't try to do too much because in that you'll feel overwhelmed. Don't try to learn equipment, gear in media, editing software all at once, it's too much.
You don't want to set yourself up to fail.
You want to set yourself up for success.
Give yourself some quick wins, shooting phone videos or phone live streams, and then work your way up.
So that's how you set yourself up to not feel overwhelmed and build your confidence on camera. Do one thing at a time, one platform at a time, master that platform, only stacks the equipment and software complication on top a little bit later, when you feel good about the strategy, the scripts, and you've started to build an audience.
If you just learn a few things at a time, that's really what you want and make sure when you're ready for the equipment and the gear and you're ready to step up, make sure that you start with your audio.
As for what equipment you need and when you should make an upgrade, stay tuned for that is coming soon. Subscribe so you get the email to the blog and the video right into your inbox. Stay motivated and Dare to Dream!
Does it really work if you don't have other people to harmonize with you?
In this post we're tackling, what should I make my videos about?
What should I talk about?
That's a very common question that I get from people.
What if you run out of ideas?
Well, I have to tell you, I promise you, with this strategy I'm giving in this video, you're never going to run out of ideas.
Don't give them commercials
So you're thinking of starting a YouTube channel where you need to have videos. What should they be about? A lot of people make a big mistake, they just think they're supposed to make a bunch of commercials to sell their product. And they might even invest a bunch of money into making really fancy commercials. They even hire a videographer. But to be honest, people aren't looking for commercials. Commercials can be good for ads. You might want to do Facebook ads with those commercials or YouTube ads to get a lead, to get somebody to sign up for some service.
Give them Value
You offer some product, that's great, but when we talk about content marketing, that weekly video you put out or that twice a week video you put out, you're supposed to just be giving value. You're just going to help out your ideal client with these videos to get them to keep coming back to you and to grow what's called the “know Like and Trust Factor”.
They're going to get to know you, they'll like you, and they'll come to trust you because you're giving them such great advice for free. And that's the value of content marketing. Video is proven again and again to be the best way and the fastest way to grow trust.
The more videos you make using this strategy I tell you about, the more your videos are just going to work as a sales team for you while you sleep. They're going to work for you overnight. And just like what happens for me, people are going to come to you who you have never even heard of. And they're going to say, I watched all your videos. How do I sign up? And you didn't even have to talk to them because they watched your videos and you made them about the right thing.
What do I make the videos about?
I know, I know. It seems hard and it seems like you're going to run out of ideas, but all you have to do is think. Let's say your business is established and you have clients, just start thinking about what are the questions that your clients constantly ask you.
In addition to that, even if they don't ask you because people don't know what they don't know, what are things you end up having? To teach them or to school them constantly about things they weren't even aware they needed to learn. That is what you make your videos about. Don't worry about giving away the farm. A lot of people keep asking, oh what if I give away too much information and will they hire me?
It's just not true. If you give lots of value and information that answers the questions that your clients tend to ask, yes, some people are just going to take the free information and run and they'll never hire you, but look, they're not your ideal clients. They're the type of person that's out there looking for free content anyway, so they're not going to hire you. They weren't going to hire anyone. They're just that person that would rather spend tons and tons of time, maybe years to learn something for free, but you are going to get the people who see you're an expert.
You provided some value by answering some questions, but they don't have time for that. You know, they might be running their own business, they might be doing their own thing, but they trust you. So they're gonna pay you for the services because you already answered some of their beginning questions.
So that's what you do.
What New Businesses can do
Now let's say it's a new business or it's not a business where you talk to clients a lot. That's okay. You don't have to. Let's say you want to teach something that you know a lot about. Maybe you don't have a business for it yet or you're just starting your business. Let's say it's about, almond farming or almond trees. You've got an almond orchard and you decided to go into business. Maybe you don't have a business yet so you don't know what people ask in terms of clients because you haven't sold your almonds to anybody yet.
You know lots and lots and lots about almonds. So just go based off of what of your friends asked you you can make content on that. Or what's something you think everybody has to know about almonds that they didn't know such as Oh, it's a source of calcium or source of protein.
No clients yet? No Problem
So you can make videos about that even if you don't have any clients yet. You know, people need to know that. So you can make videos providing free education, free value, and then people who come watch those videos come to trust you. And when the time comes that they see that you're selling omens or almond milk, you're already top of mind to them.
So who are they going to trust?
Who are they going to buy from some random stranger?
Or are they going to buy from the person they've been watching all those almond videos about while they were doing research about whether they should start drinking almond milk?
So, that's how it works if you don't have any clients.
And finally, if you're still out of options, if you're still having trouble figuring out what to make your videos about, you have the Internet, my friends.
Use online tools. I'm going to tell you about three real quick.
Quora
One is Quora and you probably have run into it. Maybe you didn't remember the name but have you ever run a Google search for a really long-tail, really long-winded question like “How do I sew sleeves onto a shirt when I have really big arms?”. I know this sounds random, but I did an exercise the other day with somebody about sewing and we were trying to figure out how to like really niche that down and apparently, that's a thing people asked for.
People want to know how to sew arms into shirts when you have really big arms and you need big arm holes. So you, you might do a search on Google for something really obscure like that and Quora often pops up. It's a website where people can ask really specific questions and then human beings respond to those questions and give their answers and then they get upvoted.
Quora has questions from all industries
So you can look on Quora, see what are the most common questions in your industry, like what's better for protein, cashews, or almonds, or where is the best place to buy almonds from in California. Those are the kinds of questions you probably get to find on Quora. And then the great thing is all of those questions that you find, you can make a video about every single one of those and provide value by providing information.
And if you really, really want to have an impact and gain exposure, if you see somebody ask that something in Quora, you could make a video answering that question and then you could answer their question on Quora linking to your video. That might show up on other people's Google searches. Ha! You see. So we got a little hack there.
And a lot of people don't take advantage of Quora. I can tell you some people they're killing it on Quora they're answering people's questions. And then at the bottom, they have a link to their website or they mentioned they do services and they do get leads that way.
Keywords Everywhere
So the second tool I want to tell you about is a plugin called Keywords Everywhere. It's free and when you run Google searches, it will give you more information. It will give you information on the volume of searches, how competitive that is, that search you just did.
And it will also show you suggested or recommended or similar searches. So for instance, when I was showing someone Keywords Everywhere, I put in “how to sew armholes”. That was how I discovered, through the other suggested one, entries on the side of the Keywords Everywhere plugin in Google search. It shows up on the side of your Google search. It showed me that apparently people also search for how to sew big arm holes for fat arms. I never would've thought of that. That's like not something that would've come to mind. And so you know that might be a small audience, but it's a very niche audience.
If you have a sewing YouTube channel or a sewing blog and you're going to start making videos for your blog, man, you're going to get some traffic, you're going to get some very specific traffic.
Your Business or your service might be different, but Keywords Everywhere is really helpful and it's free. Just run a search for Keywords Everywhere on Google you will find a free plugin.
Answer the Public
My final tool I'm going to give you is Answer the Public. Answer the Public is kind of like a more robust version of Keywords Everywhere. You can put in a question or you can even put in just a topic and it will show you related things.
People are asking around that topic and it's very dense. You have to pay for the longer report, but you'll still get plenty of information. So you could say “ballet shoes” and then you can see all the questions people are asking about ballet shoes and it shows it in a really cool visual chart kind of way. It organizes by who, what, when, and that sort of thing. It's very visually stimulating.
It might get you to think outside the box in terms of ballet shoes, in terms of anything you search. It's going to give you some new ideas for videos. Just go try it. Ignore the scary looking guy that's on the cover of it. There's a weird video of a guy just standing there. It looks like he's waiting for you to ask a question. It's a weird video that's on the website. I said, don't let him intimidate you. Try Answer The Public.
To recap, one, you talk about what your clients ask you.
Two, if you don't have any clients yet, what do your friends ask you?
What are things you talk about over and over again about this subject you know so much about?
Three, use the tools that I talked to you about. They're free to start with Quora, Keywords Everywhere and Answer The Public.
The Script
Next, I will talk to you about the script itself.
What should you put in your video script?
What should you actually say in this specific video? So that you can have more impact.
You can provide more value and turn those viewers into raving fans and customers.
So check out that video and remember never give up, never let anyone talk you out of your dreams.
And Yeah, and don't forget I have my Beta course. This will be the only time, my friends, that it will be available for this cheap is that My Course and I'm teaching it live. It's like a live mastermind. We will be doing video calls twice a week and normally group consulting is going to cost like three times as much. It's only because it's a Beta course. You're going to help me perfect this prototype so that we can together make the most amazing video marketing course ever, to help businesses grow with only video and show them where to start.
What's included?
You'll walk away with an entire video strategy. You'll walk away with how to have confidence on both sides of the camera. You'll understand how to use the technology, the gear, the software and you'll know how to use those videos for other social media.
Start with YouTube and then post them to other places like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And you're going to have your own little community. You'll have me giving you feedback every week on your videos, which normally cost a lot more money.
So it's like a great deal. And then you'll also have this small group of people who you'll have to leave comments on your videos and give you live feedback. So it's really valuable. If you're reading this post later, I'm sorry, the cart is closed. That's why you want to turn on notifications for me so that you catch me whenever I'm offering a deal. And you should still sign up on the waiting list because I'm always going to set it up so that early bird people get the best price. So you're going to want to sign up for my newsletter so you'll know when I'm teaching this course again, and you can get the best price.
Hey, Dare to Dreamers It's Michelle Osorio. And today I wanted to talk today about camera confidence.
Do you feel you don’t deserve to be on Camera?
Here's a little story, a story that a lot of people don't know. A story where I thought I don't deserve to be on camera for many years. Watch my YouTube video or read on to find out how I overcame stage and camera fright in my life.
Overcoming Fear of coming on Camera
There was a time in my life when I had a desire to express myself. I loved to sing and I loved standing on the stage and sharing my story. There was just one little problem. I had terrible stage fright. But I loved it so much that I still did it anyway. I auditioned for and I got into a Musical Theater Academy.
But every time I was on a stage, it was like going through a heart attack. Every time I would go on the stage, I could just feel my heart pounding in my chest. This made it really hard to sing.
If you don't know, you have to take deep breaths and control your breath as you project your voice. That's a little bit hard to do when you're trying to sing with your heart racing at the same time, as you want to take breaths all the time.
So I'm singing, and in my head as I'm going, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I need to breathe, I need to breathe, I need to breathe because my heart is pounding, but I couldn't because I had to sing properly. It was really tough.
It was really hard and I wish I could tell you a happy ending story. That I overcame it when I was a teenager and I got over my stage fright, but actually I didn't. None of that happened and it was a bit of a sad story.
Delaying My Fear
The good part is I fell in love with film after I graduated from my Musical Theater Academy and I became a filmmaker. That was really awesome. I don't regret it.
The sad part is, I didn't know at the time, a little bit of that was an excuse because I was tired of being afraid all the time. And so if I could hide behind the camera, I would no longer have to stand out on that stage and be judged. I fell in love with telling stories, but I would hire actors and I would let them tell the stories for me. I would just craft the script and direct the shots. And although I loved it, I didn't realize this at the time, some of that was fueled by fear.
I did not feel comfortable taking the spotlight. It took me many years and the pushing of people who knew me to have the goal and the audacity to stand in front of the camera.
The Spotlight
Sometimes in our lives, we have a tendency to put other people in the spotlight instead of ourselves. Even though deep down inside, maybe we can admit it, maybe we can't, but deep down inside us, we want that spotlight. And deep down somewhere inside we feel like we deserve that spotlight too. But it can be so hard, can't it? To hear that voice?
Sometimes we just pass it off to someone else. We stand to the side of the stage and watch somebody else stand in the spotlight. We give that spotlight to someone else because something in us is arguing that we shouldn't have the audacity to take that spotlight ourselves.
It's that we don't have the confidence, or we feel we don't deserve it, or we think we don't look good enough. We're not thin enough, we're not tall enough, we're not old enough, we're not young enough, we're just not enough to take that spotlight.
Does this make sense?
Does anybody else know what that feels like?
Can I see some hand emojis or hear from you if you know what I'm talking about?
How I got my Happy Ending
But there is a happy ending here. Eventually, I did realize thanks to my friends pushing me in this direction. I started getting on camera and I felt very uncomfortable. But I will say after many years I did get used to it and actually, now I feel comfortable in front of the camera.
It took a long time, but now I can actually watch myself and think you know, Michelle, I gained a few pounds, got a double chin there, your hair's kind of messed up but you know you did a good job. That's a good video and that's incredible.
I never would have thought a few years ago that I could watch myself like that and be happy. But it was a long road and it took a lot of looking at myself, looking at my life, looking at my desires and deciding I wanted it badly enough.
I wanted to share my story and share my voice myself with my voice. I decided I wanted that badly enough. That I was willing to be uncomfortable for a while standing in front of a camera until I was able to learn to get used to it and then get pretty good at it.
But that was a long journey. Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt that way and did you overcome it? Did you finally put your foot down and say, that's it, I want this badly enough? If so, what did you do I would really like to hear from you.
Do you have a story to share where you felt you don't deserve to be on camera?
I just want to write very quickly about something I've been hearing a lot lately.
People around me are continuously saying, thinking, deliberating about things like…
I will make a video when I have the perfect script…
I will start my YouTube channel when I have everything perfectly sorted…
Or I will make regular content when I've got everything down to a perfect process…
Hmm. Sounds like you?
Look, it's NOT about being perfect.
I'm going to tell you a quick story. But before we delve into that, if you want to enjoy this story visually head over to my YouTube stream.
Watch How Perfectionism Almost Cost Me 6 Million Views
A story to change your outlook on ‘a perfect time to start something’
This is the 10th Anniversary of my very first viral series on YouTube called Boomer's Day Off and you know what? I almost didn't shoot that series. The reason is, everything that could go wrong with that project went wrong.
The night before, the makeup artist quit and we had planned everything around this amazing makeup artist that was going to do this beautiful Zombie makeup. I decided, you know, I could cancel this project, but there's all these actors, all this crew, who were SO dedicated to making this project happen.
I had written it with my awesome co-writer, Ben Paddon, and I was dedicated to just make it happen, come rain or shine. And so we decided, we're just going to do it, even if it falls flat on its face.
How we did it…
Well, what I had to do was get all the actors to bring all their own makeup because even the Party City, which is a party supply store wasn’t open for a few hours into the shoot. So we couldn't even go buy last minute makeup.
Surprisingly enough, everybody showed up. The actors literally just came with whatever Halloween makeup they had lying around. On top of that, the poor actors had to try to figure out how to do their own Zombie makeup at the last minute.
All this time all I felt was, gosh, I thought this project was going to be perfect. I don't know if we should even continue, but I'm just going to persevere. I'm going to be a leader and I'm going to put my best foot forward for the team.
But you know what happened?
That was the first time on YouTube that I had a video go beyond a million views.
Yup! And then I ended up having a whole series of videos with millions of views.
People loved the project.
You know why?
Because they loved the acting.
They loved the writing.
They loved the concept.
And they thought the characters were adorable.
Even now, ten years later, people come back to those videos and say, “I was only six years old when I watched this, and now I'm 16 or I was in college and now I'm married.”
No joke. People still remember that series.
I almost didn't shoot it because I thought it had to be perfect.
Guess what? Here's the best part.
Never have I seen a single comment about the makeup. So it didn't matter that people used cheap Halloween makeup because it was about the project.
It was about what it was about, the story, the content.
That's what your video is about. It's about you, your content and your message.
So don't worry about being perfect. It's not about being perfect. We're all imperfect anyway.
It's just about being you and sharing your message.
Or you are fighting all the misinformation that is online?
Perhaps you are caught up in some rumors and hearsay about live streaming.
This post is all about bursting the most common myths about live streaming. I am going to debunk the top 5 major myths about live streaming so you can be successful in 2019.
I have a live stream following of 134,000 on a mobile app and have made 5-figure income with live streaming. Not only that, I have plenty of friends who have done so too. I want to share my experience with you so that you don’t hold yourself back from an opportunity so good because you can do it too.
MYTHS ABOUT LIVE STREAMING
MYTH #1 YOU NEED EXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT TO LIVESTREAM
That is just not true. Even though my background is in film-making and I went to film school too, I started live streaming with my phone. Initially from an android and now occasionally from my iPhone. Yes, the camera and the microphone of my phone were all I had for a good year when I started. And it was TOTALLY FINE!
Tell you what, people are there for your personality and for your talent. I am a singer and I also used to dress up occasionally in costumes of the characters of movies or cartoons I was singing songs from. I just brought something unique and so it did not matter what kind of equipment I was using.
Don’t let that get in your way. The technology we have today allows you to live stream even with a phone.
MYTH #2 YOU MUST BE AN EXPERIENCED CHARISMATIC ENTERTAINER
Many many people who made it big in live streaming started as regular people. I know a live streamer star who was just a nanny before that. People have quit their regular day jobs to become live streaming stars.
So listen up, you DON’T need to have an acting background, you DON’T need to be a TV broadcaster, you DON’T need to know how to sell products on QVC.
For whatever reason you want to join live streaming, whether you are an entrepreneur, a gamer, or a music streamer, you can accomplish it without a formal entertainment background.
The important thing is to be yourself. This is hard for people to digest but it really is true.
MYTH #3 YOU HAVE TO BE A FEMALE SUPERMODEL
It doesn't surprise me how many people out there think you need to be a female supermodel and shake your groove to get success in live streaming. Maybe, but that is entertainment live streaming. For anyone who thinks you need to look like a Hollywood actress, it’s just an old traditional way of looking at it.
You can live stream being a business wanting to sell their products, you can be live streaming about something that brings value to people’s lives, something that increases their knowledge about a particular field, you could be a great singer, anything of that sort doesn’t need you to be a supermodel.
If you look at the extremely popular people out there you’ll be happy to find them looking just like you, normal people. Because now that people can remotely interact with a real person, they want you to look and feel like a real person.
THE EXCUSE ABUSE
I call this the excuse abuse. There are people looking for videos on how to get ahead on live streaming, how to get big on YouTube but then all they do is leave comments like, ‘It’s easy if you are a girl or it’s easy if you are an attractive woman.’
You can’t hide behind your excuses. If you want to get anywhere in life you need to drop the excuses and look at people who are successful and not just exotic-super-attractive-models.
The best way to really connect with your audience and truly understand them is to live stream. This is where you get a chance to get to know them one-on-one.
I have a friend who is an exceptional photographer and I know for sure she can do tremendous in live streaming. She wouldn’t start for she thinks she is not good-looking enough and that is a shame.
The truth is if you are yourself and authentic there are people like you out there who will like you for who you are and find meaning in what you do. Live streaming is like real life only you have electronic connections instead of physical.
Nick Nieman is a YouTube guru and you can learn so much from his weekly live streams. He does it with his brother and they are ordinary people doing tremendously well. It will help you feel better because I’m sure it will leave you with an impact that live stream is totally doable.
MYTH #4 YOU HAVE TO ALREADY BE FAMOUS
More of excuse abuse. So many people will say you get famous live streaming only if you are already famous.
Even though I had a YouTube channel it was dormant for a long time. I did not get any help from my YouTube channel when I started live streaming. Still, I made from 0 to 134,000 followers.
Many stars have come up from live streaming only.
So, don’t worry, if you don’t have a following it can still be done. The objective of this website is to help you delve into the realm of live streaming and acing your way up to success.
MYTH #5 MY LIVE STREAMS ARE BORING BECAUSE OF NO ONE IN THE CHAT
If you want to grow on live streaming the responsibility is on you. Start watching your replays and try to figure out why are you not compelling enough to get people to start talking in your chat.
If there are people in your chat how are you encouraging them to talk?
Are you making it fun?
Are you having a good time?
Are you just waiting for them to say something so that you can reply?
How much thought have you put in your content?
If you are having a hard time getting engagement have you built an outline to follow?
How much work have you put into it?
Are you just expecting your audience to do all the work for you?
Because if you do think that way, you are going to have a really hard time growing.
If you are a complete newbie and are nervous to start just don’t be afraid even if there is nobody there. I started my live streaming to literally crickets. There were zero followers and I came home to uninstall the app and say goodbye to live streaming. A few months later one of my friends Lauren helped me to get my first 84 followers. You just need to focus and the reward follows.
Keep doing it because if someone comes into your live stream and finds it dead because you decided to stop talking for there was no one in the chat, they will simply leave. Remember there is pretty good competition out there. What if someone decided to replay your stream, they won’t find anything unless you put it up.
Don’t let the fear of nobody being there stop you. Just don’t hide behind this excuse that your live stream is boring because of your audience.
THE TIME TO START IS NOW
Start now. Click on Nick Neiman's video live stream and examine how he does it. Take notes on how he engages his audience, how he is able to make money, why people are having a good time there and how he fosters community with his live streams.
I’m pretty sure now you are well aware of the fact that you can start live streaming right now without any equipment, without supermodel looks, without fame only by targeting an audience you can connect with and providing them value.
Let me know what are you struggling with in live streaming, what are you trying to accomplish, and how are you trying to grow your following.
Now get to work, never give up and always be a dare to the dreamer.
