This One Thing Can Have a Big Impact on Your “Live” Videos, and You Probably Haven’t Heard it Before

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Scott was live on the Video Power Up Facebook Page, where he shared his perspective.

Transcription:

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Good morning. Okay, today I’m going to talk about the one thing that you’re going to be doing to your Facebook Live videos that can really have an impact on the engagement and how people react to it.

It’s to double your energy, and I’m trying to do that this morning, because normally I don’t. I’m usually, now, I wouldn’t say, flat, normally; but I have my comfortability level of energy that I typically use, and that doesn’t have the same impact if I was to double my energy. That’s what we’re going to talk about today, and I’m using BeLive, again, today; and I’m on my own. I’m going to talk about that for a second.

I had this in here before, double your energy. I’m getting typos. Energy show.

Alright, cool. Anyway, I love the lower thirds you can put in, or the subtitles that you can put in. Video Power Up, my own company, is saying “hi” to me. I’m sure that’s probably Angela. She is in the room with me today, but we decided that we were going to do, I was going to do one on my own today, and Angela’s probably going to do one on her own, and down the road we’re going to start doing interviews using BeLive to do interviews with other people; because what’s sort of happening.

I recommend this to everyone, is that sometimes in our marketing, especially in our videos, we have the tendency to go a little stale, or we get into a routine and every Tuesday at 10 o’clock, Angela and I were going on camera together to do our videos, to talk about certain subjects. I felt, personally, that it was just starting to get a little flat. Now, I know people love Angela and I being on camera. Sometimes there’s some disagreements about how we feel about marketing, but we’re going to still do those; but we’re going to change it up. I’m going to do some on my own. She’s going to do some on her own, and we really want to get into doing interviews using the interview feature that you can use on BeLive.

Some changes; that’s an upcoming change you’re going to see on our Facebook Live, and we’re considering at some point maybe even changing the date and time. We’re going to stick with Tuesdays at 10 AM for right now, but we are considering changing it just to test and measure it.

The other changes, yes, I am growing a beard. I’m getting a lot of comments, and some people, “Oh, I like your beard.” I’m not quite sure people actually like the beard, but I am going to a barber because it’s a getting a little unruly, so I’m going to a barber tomorrow. I’ve never been to a barber before. I’m going to get a barber to clean it up, so I have a nice, clean beard.

Okay, so what we’re talking about today is on camera energy. The, what is on camera energy? To me, what it is, is it’s a level of confidence that you project to people. A lot of this applies, as well, for public speaking, but confidence is definitely one of them. Intonation is the other thing. Another one is leaving gaps, punctuation, that really will help people listen or tune in and will also raise the energy of your potential performance on camera; and volume is another one, as well. Sometimes people, when they’re doing their live videos or the recorded videos, they have a lower level of volume, and it’s really hard for people to be engaged and want to listen if everything’s just kind of flat and you’re not talking very loud. It’s very easy to tune out and then people are gone and they’re swiping and they’re going down their Facebook feed, because they want to see something else.

To me, that’s what on camera energy is. Why do you have to have more energy when you’re on camera? Definitely, you’re going to draw more people to you. People will be drawn to you when you exert more energy. You look at some of the best public speakers, you know, Tony Robbins. I always use him as an example because I find his routine … His energy level, when he walks out on a stage is mind-blowing, and he has this whole routine that he goes through to raise his energy level, but he just draws people in, and you want to have that kind of impact. If you’re just kind of flat with your videos, that’s not going to help you draw people in, so double your energy level to draw more people to you.

Building authority: if your energy level’s higher, people will regard you more of an authority, and you can do that magical thing that happens on videos, you can build a relationship with people through your videos with builds on that like no trust factor, that Angela and I talk so much about so often, which is really, really the power of videos. That’s one of the reasons you definitely want to increase, or double, your energy level on camera.

Now, I just got a note, here. I’ve got lots of notes today. Normally, when Angela and I are on camera I can just sort of riff off her. We can just go back and forth, and while the other person’s speaking, you’ve always got a chance to think about your next thought, or what you’re going to say, and the funny thing about that is when Angela’s talking and I’m thinking about what I’m going to say next, and then she says to me, “So, what do you think, Scott?” And I just have no idea what she was talking about, and I kind of just have to make it up and wing it.

I’ve got lots of notes here, because I wanted to do my best today, so I made some notes and I’m just referring to those. What I wanted to mention was, some of you may know my background. I did spend five years in the film and television industry in Toronto, and so I worked with a lot of directors on television shows and feature films, and there’s one thing that happened a lot with the directors. Some of the directors weren’t very patient with the actors, and sometimes actors performances would just be flat. They would just be flat. They wouldn’t be interesting, or they wouldn’t be believable, and you would just hear from the director’s chair, from behind the monitor … You couldn’t see the director, and he would just yell, “More energy!” That’s always stuck with me, way back when I still worked in the film business. You really always need to, if you’re starting to feel flat, you really need to raise your energy level.

How do you do it? How do you double your energy level? The first thing is, you got to be yourself. I’m still being myself today. I’m just trying to be more of an amplified me. Now, this is a little new for me, like trying this whole double-my-energy-thing. I find my nervous energy’s a little higher today than normal. I find like a tripping up a bit, because I am talking with a high volume, I’m using more intonation in my voice, and I’m trying to be more confident. I hope that’s coming through. It probably is, but I’ll get some feedback on that. I’m not even reading my comments, here. This is, you know, this will be new for me.

What do we got here? Hey, Amanda. Right on. Anja’s just saying, “Yes, good suggestions, as usual. Definitely have to work on that, and also smile more.” That’s the other one, too, Anja. Definitely, smiling. Double your smile. What we think is smiling, quite often, is only a half smile, so in your mind double your smile, and it probably will look better on camera. Definitely, double your smile.

Okay. All right. I’m going to take a moment to answer some of these questions. There is, I do have a couple more tips for you guys to raise your energy level, but I’m still looking through my questions here. Anja’s saying, “What do you do when you keep re-taping and you get frustrated?”

I take a break. Anja, when I first started doing video, especially prerecorded videos, I think that’s what you’re talking about. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so it took me a while to let go of it, but at the beginning, this goes back to the beginning, so almost a year and a half ago, when I started doing the videos, and I would, literally, do 12 to 16 takes. It was ridiculous.

What I’ve found over the last year, as I’ve done more and more videos, is if you get to that point where you’re frustrated, literally, take a break. When you’re scheduling stuff, I would recommend not shooting the same days you plan on posting. Shoot them in advance, at another time, so that you’re ready to post and so if you get into a situation where you keep re-taping, re-taping, you’re frustrated and your energy level’s dropping; seriously, take a break. Just take an hour and walk away; or, even better, what I would do is just put it off until the next day, or spend a little more time rehearsing in front of a mirror; because the pressure of being in front of the camera and hitting record and then doing all that stuff adds another level of stress. Maybe just commit to not doing it that day, and maybe just go over in front of the mirror and do it three more times, and then sleep on it, and then get back at it the next day.

The advice I’ve always given is six takes. Once you get to six takes, if you’re not happy and you can’t do it, I recommend taking a break; but it does get easier as you do more and more videos.

Good, Anja. Anja thinks she’s seeing a difference in her videos.

Okay, so a couple more tips to raise your energy level. One is definitely posture. The way you’re sitting. This isn’t just about presenting yourself, as well. If I’m sitting more closed, like this, versus more open, with my shoulders back, sitting in a positive position. It allows you to breathe better. You’re getting more energy to your body. It’s just one way to raise your energy level.

This one’s tough for a lot of people. This was tough for me, and I’m still working on this, but believing people are interested in what you are sharing. A lot of us, we talk about this a lot, we are experts in our field, and quite often we don’t see it, or we don’t feel it. We feel like it’s the entrepreneur imposter syndrome. You really need to understand that you are an expert. You know more than most people. You really need to believe it, so when you’re talking on camera, that’s confidence, and that comes through.

More on confidence: you also need to really own the message. Whatever you’re talking about, you need to own that message. You’re an authority on the subject.

Nervous energy: this is a tough one. Some people get so nervous that it prevents them from doing the video, and what you have to do, and what I’ve learned to do, and I think anyone that we’ve ever worked with that has had some success with video, is they’ve learned how to channel their nervous energy into excitement.

Now, most of us, hopefully, all of us, are very passionate about what we do and how we’re helping people, so maybe tapping into that passion. Being excited about helping your people, or helping your tribe, or whatever it is that you do in your business. You’ve got to take that nervousness or that fear, and channel it into excitement.

You may feel like you’re really nervous when you’re presenting, and people are picking up on that, but quite often they aren’t. They’re just seeing the excitement. Focus on being excited, and not nervous.

Physically, this helps for a lot of people, physically raising your energy before you begin. We’ve talked about this before.

Lisa’s a terrible sloucher. I got remember to turn these little things off. I start talking over the top of them.

Anyway, we talked about this before. Raising your physical energy. The simplest thing you can do, I think, is just rubbing your hands together. It does get your body moving a bit, the blood pumping. The story I always tell is when I worked in the film business, there was one actor that I worked with, and before every take, before the cameras would roll, he would jump down and do 20 push-ups and just get the blood flowing through his body and raise his energy level, and that worked for him. I’m not suggesting you guys do that, but try it. Maybe it’ll work for you.

Then, here’s the last one. Don’t overdo it. Now, I don’t know if I’m overdoing it today. I’d love some feedback on that from you guys, but I think there is a happy medium. If there’s my normal, this is who Scott is, and then I’m doubling that for being on camera, it is possible to go too far, where you’re just over the top, you’re way too energetic, and then you’re going to end up having the opposite effect, and you’re going to start pushing people away. Just be careful not to overdo it, and seek feedback. The whole thing about video marketing is testing and measuring things, as well. Put your video out there. Try doubling your energy, and ask some close friends, some colleagues, and get some feedback on how was this video compared to the last one I did? Was there more energy? Was it too much? Definitely, be aware of not overdoing it.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got.

Okay, thanks, Lisa. Very natural; it doesn’t feel natural, but doing these videos, when I first started, they felt so unnatural, but I think this doubling-the-energy-thing, I’m going to keep trying to do it, and hopefully I’ll get more comfortable with it, and it’ll feel more natural to me. I’m glad that it’s looking like it’s natural.

I’m going to wrap it up. If anyone has any questions, now’s the time to ask and while … Oh, here’s the question I’ve got for you guys: who is not doing live videos and why aren’t you doing them? I actually really don’t expect an answer to this. I was listening to a book this morning, and they were talking about reasons, and how most of our reasons are bullshit. I was just thinking about how many people are not doing video marketing, and they have all these reasons why they’re not doing it. Why they’re not putting out videos. If you just focus, if it’s one reason, what is that reason? I bet you it’s bullshit. I just want to share that with you today.

Just a couple announcements before I let you guys go. How am I doing for time, here? All right. Fourteen minutes, not bad.

A couple announcements: Jan, it’s Jaworsky, is that how we had pronounced it? Jaworsky, right? Jan, hopefully I pronounced your name right, so Jan was the winner of our members last month. She had the most points. She’s the scarf lady, so I just want to give a shout out to her. She’s been putting out some great videos. She’s working really hard. She’s one, I would say, one of our members who’s the most committed to putting out videos right now, and she’s the scarf lady. ScarfLady.ca. She makes really light scarves. They’re like jewelry. They’re really neat. Not something I would buy, but probably something I’d by for my wife. Congratulations, Jan.

For our members: Open Office is tomorrow, Wednesday, tomorrow. Don’t forget to grab your spot. Register for your spot.

Business Workshops on Thursday. I’m really excited about it. We’re doing some really cool stuff on Thursday, and for those of you who are registered for those workshops, I look forward to seeing you guys there.

I’m just going to check these comments here. Thanks, Anja. Okay, cool.

Well, I’m going to wrap it up. I’m at 16 minutes, which is a pretty good length for me. I’m always trying to be in between the 10 and the 20 minute, so that’s pretty good. Thank you all so much for tuning in today, and I’m going to see many of you on Thursday. Have a great week.