Wendy McCallum (00:01.703)
Hello everyone, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I have a really great guest today. I've got Carrie Barrett here in the studio. Hi Carrie. I'm great, thank you. I'm excited to have Carrie here today. She's gonna talk about recording better video content, whether you're using video content in a prerecorded form in online courses or as part of your social media strategy or you're going live. Carrie is an expert in this area and I think is gonna provide us with some really, really helpful tips.
Kerry Barrett (00:08.141)
Hey, how are you?
Wendy McCallum (00:31.601)
Just a little bit about Carrie before we get started. Carrie is an on-camera media, public speaking and video trainer for business owners, lawyers and executives. And she teaches public speaking, presentation skills and virtual video presence and on-camera readiness for a broad spectrum of situations, ranging from formal talks, video content, social media and media interviews to everyday sales pitches over Zoom. As an Emmy award-winning TV news anchor who overcame a debilitating fear of public speaking,
Carrie offers a unique perspective as someone who has 25 years of experience in front of the camera. So you're our first Emmy award-winning guest, Carrie. So maybe my only Emmy award-winning guest, but I'm really happy to have you here. Carrie is gonna come in and talk to the members of my business building bootcamp community in about a month. We're gonna do a master class on this topic, but I wanted to have her on today.
to just kind of highlight as much as we can cover in a half an hour for anybody who's out there struggling with creating video content that you're happy with. I would say, Carrie, the thing I hear the most from the coaches that I support around video content is that they can't stand watching themselves. They really struggle with creating content that they feel confident putting out there. And that's for a variety of reasons. Part of it is presentation skills.
but a lot of it is also around like the tech and the setup and actually making themselves look good. So I think we're gonna talk about all of those things today, right?
Kerry Barrett (02:06.07)
We sure are. to put anybody's mind at ease, you said I've been doing this for 25 years. I still hate watching myself that that feeling for me anyway has never gone away, but I'm comfortable enough in my skills and being able to do it that I can put the content out there and I put video content out there regularly. So let's set some expectations. Just because you're doing this doesn't mean that you're ever going to
Absolutely love yourself on camera, you're going to learn to have the skills and do it regardless
Wendy McCallum (02:36.849)
Yeah, I love that. And I think part of it too, interestingly, I was just putting a program together last week that included some newer video content from a program that I created about six months ago, and then some video content from about three years ago. And I was watching some of the video content from three years ago, and sort of cringing. But a couple of things in that experience that were interesting for me, one,
Kerry Barrett (02:54.318)
Yeah.
Wendy McCallum (03:01.693)
I mean, obviously you continue to get better at this. Like, it's just something like the more you do it, the better you get. I've been creating video content now for, I would say almost 15 years, but that video content from three years ago, not nearly as concise and clear and nice looking as the video content from six months ago. But also I've learned to just like put away the cringe and post it anyway, you know? And then I think that that's part of it too, is just like getting over that cringey thing and just recognizing that
Kerry Barrett (03:23.948)
Yeah. Yep.
Wendy McCallum (03:31.421)
It doesn't need to be perfect. you know, that I always say to my members of the BBB, like, done is better than none, you know, like just like getting it done. Anyway, you're gonna give us some really great tips today, I think. We're gonna talk about like some gear stuff, like what you actually need to create video content and maybe what you don't need. We're gonna talk about setting up your space to look as good as possible in terms of the background considerations, I guess, around presentation, like physically.
Kerry Barrett (03:41.006)
Yes.
Wendy McCallum (04:00.285)
And then also some presentation skills in terms of actually showing up and providing your content. What feels like the best place to start? You want to start with the gear stuff? think... Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (04:14.19)
with the gear, the gear, the gear is the easiest stuff to get over. And you do hear a lot of people say it's know, what what prevents them from getting started on video. And usually it's I don't have a I don't have a process meaning they're worried it's going to be a heavy lift and take a long time. And does it take a little bit longer to put together video? Yes. But the end results are absolutely worth it. And then the second thing I hear is tech. Now, generally speaking, those two are really the easiest to get over once you realize that you don't have to
have a bunch of fancy gear and you have a process, then we get down to what is actually the really painful part for people, which is the talking head part. I don't want to put my face on the camera. That we'll get to in a second, but the gear is really basic. I shoot all of my video on my cell phone. do have two phones. I have an Android and I have an iPhone. I actually prefer the video on my Android, but that is just a personal preference.
More people shoot on an iPhone than they do on an Android. And that's literally all I use. Your phone, as long as you have one that's made in the last four years, has the ability to do probably 8K. And you'll never use 8K. You have broadcast quality video at your fingertips with your phone.
The things that get in the way of that are lighting and your microphone and you don't necessarily know how to frame yourself up and all of that stuff. So we'll get to that in a second. But your phone is really in terms of what you need to shoot the only the only piece of gear, right? Face, phone and voice. That's all you really need. Now there are a couple of things.
Wendy McCallum (05:55.805)
What if you're interviewing someone? Can you still use your phone for that effectively or you better to use Zoom? A lot of the people that I work with use Zoom and record split screen on Zoom.
Kerry Barrett (06:05.838)
That's such a good question. There's no one right or wrong answer. Zoom is definitely an easier platform to use. However, Zoom also compresses your audio. If you are, for example, recording a podcast, I don't recommend Zoom because the majority of people are going to be listening to your podcast rather than watching it. At least that's how it works for most people. When you're just listening to a
your ear becomes hyper focused because there's no other context, there's nothing to watch about, you know, towards the audio. And because Zoom compresses the audio, it's generally not as resonant, it doesn't sound as great. That said, if you want to record on Zoom, do not let audio on Zoom stop you from recording video.
When I do content creation, so when I walk clients, I have a program where I walk clients through how to get better on camera, and then there's something they can do at the end to it on, which is content creation. And I interview people for an hour once a month, and then I edit that video up into clips, and they have a certain number of clips they can use for social media or whatever. I like to do that on the phone. The reason I like to do that on the phone is because you can upload it to a Google Drive and just send it to me and
And the audio and the video is a little bit more crisp. That said, again, and I will underscore this, do not let that be the thing that stopped you from recording video. If Zoom is what you like and Zoom is what you know and Zoom is what you do, then start with Zoom. Better to start there and then progress with a little more clarity than to just say, well, nevermind, I can't figure out this other platform and so I'm not gonna do it.
Wendy McCallum (07:56.849)
Yeah, I love that. mean, one of the things I say all the time, like I had a podcast for four years and it was entirely recorded on Zoom. I don't use Zoom anymore, but I never had one person send me a note and say, audio quality, not good enough. People listened, people loved it. People kept listening, they shared it. There are easier and better platforms out there now, I believe, around recording and editing podcasts, but you know, I totally agree with you on that. If that's what you're comfortable with and you know how to do it and it works for you.
Kerry Barrett (08:02.316)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (08:09.291)
Exactly.
Kerry Barrett (08:25.976)
Do it.
Wendy McCallum (08:26.171)
Don't let this conversation stop you. Yeah. Okay, cool. So phone, Zoom, what about laptops? A lot of us use like a MacBook or something like that with a camera.
Kerry Barrett (08:28.43)
Absolutely, 100%.
Thank
Kerry Barrett (08:37.87)
Absolutely, you can use your MacBook and if it's easier for you to hop on zoom on your computer Whether it's a MacBook or otherwise as long as you have some sort of camera on there whether it's internal or external Then you can absolutely use your computer again Don't over complicate things with having to feel you get all you know have to get all technically oriented I'm I am NOT a technical person by a long shot and so
The only reason I know how to shoot video is because I've been doing it for a long time as well. And when I was in the news industry, you know, towards the end of my career in that business, we were shooting things on our phones as well. So I have an idea of how that works. But again, it's sort of the kiss method. Keep it simple, silly, whatever works for you.
Wendy McCallum (09:28.177)
Yeah, perfect. Okay, so that's camera. What about, what's the next piece?
Kerry Barrett (09:32.029)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, the next piece is lighting. So really the easiest thing. Actually, I'm going to backtrack that. I'm going to say if you're using your phone, the next piece of a gear you need is a tripod. It doesn't need to be overly expensive. I got mine on Amazon for $30. It extends. It's telescoping. You can clip your iPhone or your
Android or whatever it is that you're using to shoot right in the middle. Sometimes you can even find them with a ring light that goes around the outside and for, you know, 30 bucks and something that can fit in your purse. Now you have a steady shot. You can still shoot walking and talking video. Meaning if you want to walk around, you're going on a walk, some inspiration strikes and you want to shoot, that's fine. People recognize that you're moving and walking and they have a little bit of forgiveness. But if you are just
sitting still in your office. Like I record a lot of video where I'm sitting right now to record this podcast. I put my phone on a tripod because nobody wants to watch you wiggle and shake all over the place if they know you're sitting still.
Wendy McCallum (10:36.925)
Yeah, I have another tip, which is related to laptops, which is get yourself a, thing that I use is basically one of those like breakfast in bed trays, for lack of a better word, that I got somewhere a long time ago and just painted it to match my desk and it sits on top of my desk. I'm sure you can buy them at the office supply stores as well, but.
Kerry Barrett (10:38.956)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (10:48.204)
Yeah. Yes.
Wendy McCallum (10:58.971)
What you want to do is have the same thing, I think, with your laptop, of using that to record a steady, solid platform instead of balancing it precariously on books. Mine is always elevated so that my face is kind of front and center in the camera. But I find that to be just super, super helpful. I've been in lots of situations where it's obvious that the other person has balanced their laptop somewhere and it's like, wobbling every time the desk moves. Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (11:25.304)
Yes, yeah, or you have a really great shot of their ceiling or up their nose.
Wendy McCallum (11:29.217)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or you're looking up at their chin. Yeah. Yeah. But like a place like IKEA, can they have a bunch of different options. 20 bucks, right? So yeah, yeah.
Kerry Barrett (11:32.078)
or their chins.
Kerry Barrett (11:38.088)
yeah. Yep. You can buy them off. I use the same thing for my laptop. I bought one off Amazon. I think it was 40 bucks and as long as it's steady. And when you're positioning your, whether it's your phone or your laptop, you want to have your camera either at eye level or just very slightly above. When you get those up nose shots or those ceiling shots, it's because the camera is shooting from beneath you and looking up. So
Wendy McCallum (12:05.777)
Right. Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (12:06.506)
eye level or just very slightly above. It's the best shot to frame you front and center.
Wendy McCallum (12:12.731)
Okay, perfect. So cameras we've got down, lighting.
Kerry Barrett (12:16.694)
Yeah, lighting. So natural light is always best if you have it. You know, if you're if you are able to shoot facing a window, that's fantastic. But if you're shooting something that is at night or you don't have a lot of natural light in, you know, in your office or wherever it is, then absolutely get some ring lights or some sort of soft box is another term for a light that goes directly in front of you.
where people get a little bit and understandably so confused is that oftentimes when you have a ring light, you then have, if you wear glasses like you and I do, you get that ring light glare. And while it seems minor and it's not a deal breaker, there is something that is, especially if you have a cold audience watching your video, if they've discovered you on social media and they're not familiar with you, if you have that glare in your eyes, it's
really hard to make eye contact. And it sounds so silly, but it really does make a difference. And, I have a news background and I always think about the way that news anchors are positioned in front of the camera and their position is certain distance from the camera so that the audience can look, you know, quote unquote into their eyes. It's hands down the easiest way to build rapport. So do not count how important this is. The way that you get around that
Wendy McCallum (13:25.202)
Enjoy.
Wendy McCallum (13:32.625)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (13:38.466)
glare is rather than one ring light directly in front of you, two ring lights off to either side at about 45 degree angles and then just tilted ever so slightly down. glasses glare is all about geometry. So if you have two lights on either side, you create the same full light as you would with one in the front, but you don't have the direct reflection into your glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go.
Wendy McCallum (13:58.737)
Okay.
Great tip. always have like I have it right now. Look, Carrie. So that's actually a great tip. I do move mine over to the side and like tip it. And honestly, for the podcast, I don't really care because we don't have a YouTube channel. So doesn't the video is not as important. But yeah, it's that that's a really great tip to have. And I do actually have another one somewhere. So I'll set that up. Okay.
Kerry Barrett (14:09.421)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (14:14.275)
Right.
Kerry Barrett (14:20.482)
There you go.
Wendy McCallum (14:21.307)
So that's, and those ring lights are really inexpensive. I have a clip on one actually that clips onto the back of my TV breakfast tray on my desk that I can move around really easily, which I love. It's got like a movable neck to it, but there are all kinds of different ones available. How about mics?
Kerry Barrett (14:24.279)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (14:33.324)
Yep. Mics. I, so I always suggest if, mean, if you're inside and you have a room that has good acoustics, meaning there's a lot of soft stuff to absorb echoey sound and you're pretty close to your camera, then you can get away without using a mic. That said,
I always like to use one. I'm using one right now. The mic that I absolutely love is called Holly Land. You can buy them on Amazon. They're about 140 bucks. And the reason that I like it is because the sound for the price is really nice. Plus it's got a couple of adapters. So you can use it. I can use this microphone and it just, it sticks onto my shirt with a little magnet and
I can use it on my iPhone, can use it on my Android, and I can use it on my computer. So whatever audio source that I, or whatever I'm recording into, I just plug the little adapter in, hook the microphone up to my shirt, and you're good to go. It is so simple. And again, for the quality of the audio, you can't beat the price.
Wendy McCallum (15:46.149)
Amazing. Okay, that's really helpful. All right, let's talk about background. So what are some of the considerations in terms of setting up the background? mean, we talked about this a lot in the BBB and I have a course where I help people create online programming. And I have seen it all when it comes to backgrounds. And a lot of people, know, are defaulting this whole like blurring your background thing, which is not my favorite. So what are your tips around this?
Kerry Barrett (15:59.8)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (16:07.586)
Yeah. tips around background are if you have a little bit of depth behind you, that's great. You know, I have some space behind me for people who are happening to watch this rather than listen. have about, there's probably about 10 feet between me and the wall behind me. So there's some depth and I can, and I have a window and I can, you know, there's a plant back there, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of times there's, you know, depending on your, logistics of your room, there's not that much.
space to set up and give yourself a little bit of depth. Depth is important because it creates visual interest and it also sets sort of the vibe for the video that you are looking to create. So if you don't have that much space, it's still important to have something on the wall behind you, a picture with a pop of color, a plant on a shelf, something that creates, it's not distracting, but creates a little bit of visual interest.
If you are really in a pinch where you are up against a white wall and you feel like your video is going to look like you're shooting a hostage video, then the thing to do is to find the corner of that room and they put your back towards the corner and then you'll create a little bit of depth that way and you still have, know, if you don't have a lot of space, it's still something that's available to you. I always say also try and wear a color that
pops from the background. if you have, for example, a white, I wouldn't wear white on camera anyway, but if you have a beige background, try not to wear beige because it just, again, that visual interest. And we are looking to leverage every single thing that we can in order to get people to stop the scrolls. So something that pops off the screen is important as well. So dress with a little bit of contrast to your background.
Wendy McCallum (17:59.069)
Okay, love that. And like, take a look at it. Like record yourself and then look at what the background looks like. I mean, I think sometimes people, know, we love our stuff and we think it looks great. I think it's important to do like a check on it. I'm always a fan of a cleaner background, you know, with some obviously visual interest, but as clean as possible.
Kerry Barrett (18:04.045)
Yes.
Kerry Barrett (18:13.559)
Yes.
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (18:21.268)
you can even do a do a screenshot and because you know, a lot of times and you sort of touched on this, there's things in our background that to us are just white noise, we don't notice them anymore at all. But you might not realize because you're so used to it that it actually looks like you have a potted plant growing out of the top of your head or there is a lamp that's sprouted from behind you. So take a screenshot and send it to somebody and ask them to put their eyes on it and see what stands out to them what
Wendy McCallum (18:38.919)
Great.
Kerry Barrett (18:50.124)
know what is distracting and hopefully there's nothing, but it's always good to have another set of eyes to look at things.
Wendy McCallum (18:55.537)
Yeah, that's a great tip. Okay, can we move on to presentation skills? Because I want to make sure we spend some time on this. I know this is the thing that people get really caught up in. you know, the audience for this podcast, mostly newer coaches in the first, let's say, five years of building their small business. And they're all, if they're following me and listening to me on this podcast, they're all recognizing at least the need to create video content, because I think it's the best way to build that like no trust as a small business person. So
Kerry Barrett (18:57.742)
Yeah.
Wendy McCallum (19:24.029)
But as I said earlier, a lot of them are feeling very underconfident in their ability to present. They're not public speakers. This is not something they've done before. Most of them are coming from a previous career that does not involve public speaking or creating video content. Surprise, surprise. So what are some of the tips that you can give people that might help them to build a little confidence and also create better quality content? Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (19:50.432)
Yeah, absolutely. So I would say this is hands down the biggest mistake that people make is they are not energetic enough on video. And I'll give you couple of reasons for that. It's not all your fault. Number one, the cameras are energetically flattening, meaning we're taking somebody that's 3D, we're putting them into this 2D box. There is no context outside of it. Then you're dealing with a little bit of degraded
you know, audio quality or video quality and there's hardware things have to run through and you've got a microphone, you've got, you know, a camera that's a couple of feet away from you. Like all of those things combined to just energetically flatten your image, right? And now couple that with the fact that this is an entirely artificial environment, especially if you're not used to talking to a camera. And so,
it's natural and completely normal to be a little bit timid. And when you add the psychology, the speaking psychology, so speaking on camera brings with it a lot of the same baggage that public speaking does, we see the audience almost as a predator. And when we are in front of a predator, we don't jump around and make grand gestures and loud noises. We try and shrink. We don't want them to look at us.
And so we do that when we're in front of the camera as well, which generally means that we sit maybe a little more quieter or more still than we normally would. Our vocal range reduces and our facial expressions reduce, like all of those things. And that's exactly what you don't want to do when you are in front of the camera. So I always advise people to think about sitting in front of the camera in this way. If you are at a noisy restaurant.
and are at a table of let's say eight and you're down at one end on one side and you're trying to talk to somebody who's down at the other end on the other side. Outside of getting up and walking around and going to talk to them, what are some of the things that you would do to make sure that they are understanding what you're saying? You'd probably project your voice a little bit more. You would lean in when something's exciting. You would use hand gestures. You know, I saw these, I did these three things today and you'd hold up your three fingers.
Kerry Barrett (22:10.498)
Those sorts of things, conceptually speaking, are exactly what you want to do when you are in front of the camera. For most people, it's a bump in energy of about, it sounds like a really random number, but there's actually been studies, about 20%. And look happy. Smile. If you have to force yourself to smile, it's going to feel really odd. All of this is going to feel really odd in the beginning, but smile as well.
Here's a practice tip. I always tell people to do something that I've called it the 30 in 30 challenge, which means 30 seconds a day for 30 days. Flip open your phone in the morning before you have, know, put your work clothes on and you've done your hair, your makeup. I just wanna take all of that stuff out of this equation and I wanna make sure that you do it. You can be lying in your bed.
whatever it is, walking down the steps, maybe that's too many things at once, but open your phone and talk into the camera side where you can't see the screen, so you're not distracted by your face, and riff about something for 30 seconds. It could be your first cup of coffee, it could be the restaurant reservation that you made at this new place that you're super, whatever it is, it could be work related too.
and then watch it back and pick one thing that you want to work on. So maybe it's energy or maybe it's eye contact or maybe it's saying fewer filler words or whatever and work on that one thing for your next videos until you feel like you have your arms at least around it a little bit. You don't have to have it perfectly mastered but have your arms around it a little bit and then pick the next thing that you want to work on.
If you try and work on all the things, you'll make very little progress in none of the things and you won't see a difference. But if you work on one thing at a time, by the time you get to the end of 30 days, watch your first video and watch your 30th. And I promise you, you will see a difference.
Wendy McCallum (24:15.899)
I love that. So that's like, so we were talking about sort of physical things that help. What about is there anything we can do in terms of how we actually speak that can be helpful?
Kerry Barrett (24:22.093)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (24:27.99)
Yeah. Yeah. So you're talking in terms of like pacing and pitch and that sort of stuff.
Wendy McCallum (24:33.883)
Yeah, just like our vocal performance.
Kerry Barrett (24:36.81)
Yeah, so we have a tendency when we're nervous and I actually just started working with a client on who has this particular struggle and this is actually what he came to me for. It's like every time I get on camera, it doesn't matter if it's recorded or live, I get so nervous. It's like my breath starts to get really shallow and it's almost like I'm swallowing my words and I can't get them out. And that's completely normal.
One of the things that I like to advise people to do when they are practicing is try standing up. If you're struggling with your voice, try recording when you're standing up. And when I worked in the news industry, we did this all the time. Anytime we recorded our voice for a pre-packaged story or piece, we stood up when we were recording for a number of reasons. It adds a dynamic element. You can't help it. It creates more
more energy in your voice, you're able to access your breath from a deeper place in your, you know, down in your diaphragm really. And so you're able to speak with a more resonant sound, your voice gets maybe an octave lower. And so you're able to really command your audience with your voice. So if you're struggling with anything in terms of voice,
Try standing up as you're recording and generally what you want to do is try and lower your voice. I don't want it to be unnatural. I don't want you to feel like you're talking like a broadcaster or any of that other stuff. But when we get nervous, our voices get high, we breathe shallow, they get tight. Focus very intentionally on dropping your voice down and use a standing position in order to help you facilitate that.
Wendy McCallum (26:21.639)
Okay, great. The other thing I hear a lot is that people speak too quickly. So people, and certainly when I was starting out, I was a lawyer before I became a coach and this, was a terrible public speaker. I was so underconfident. And that was my biggest, that was my biggest stressor. I remember my dad used to, even before I went to law school, my dad, whenever I had to do any kind of speaking thing would write the word slow.
Slow down, slow, pause, like he would mark up the whole, like whatever the script was. Anyway, I'm obviously, I've gotten over that now, but I hear this all the time from my coaches that when they start recording and they listen to themselves, they play it back. They're just speaking way too quickly because they're nervous, especially if they're doing it live. So any tips around that?
Kerry Barrett (26:47.398)
Aww.
Kerry Barrett (26:52.835)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (27:06.83)
Yeah. The practice is practice, practice, practice. I wish I had like a secret sauce that would help you slow your voice down. It's interesting. People either come to me because they're so focused on getting the words exactly right that they speak a little more slowly or they're so nervous. They're looking to have the whole thing be done with as soon as possible. And by speaking really quickly, they're hoping that that's going to
Wendy McCallum (27:10.493)
Thanks.
Kerry Barrett (27:32.91)
And so it's really hard to find for a lot of people to find that nice medium and it's just a matter of listening and going back and redoing it. So pick, you know, 30 seconds, listen to yourself, find a 30 seconds either on a video or a voice note or whatever it is. you know, again, clip that 30 seconds out. And if you feel like you're speaking too quickly,
Just practice saying that 30 seconds over again, but a little more slowly and focus on enunciating your words. If you're really focusing on hitting like the T's, for example, a button instead of button, it will force you to slow down. So focus on enunciating, go back and listen. As painful as it is, really watching and listening is the only way to get better.
Wendy McCallum (28:25.661)
Yeah, that's a great tip. What about, okay, here's a question kind of off, a little bit off what we're talking about right now, but I hear this all the time too. So people are nervous to record content. They don't wanna have to spend all day trying to record one five minute video, but every time they do it, they forget something. And so they wanna create a script and read. They either wanna read from there are these platforms that you can use that give you like a teleprompter on screen, or they want to like create a script and like.
Kerry Barrett (28:42.956)
Yeah.
Wendy McCallum (28:54.395)
you know, tape it up to the wall above their laptop or phone and actually read from that, which I personally think is a terrible idea because it always sounds like you're reading and looks like you're reading from the script. But I'm curious to know what you think about that as an expert in this area and what you would recommend for people who are feeling the urge to go to script.
Kerry Barrett (29:06.51)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (29:12.758)
Yeah, so you're absolutely right. Reading a script and sounding conversational is a whole additional skill set. And I actually have on the resources pages on my website, I have a free teleprompter mastery class because people are interested in using a teleprompter, but they often sound very canned, they sound very rehearsed and they sound very robotic. And that's because they read.
Wendy McCallum (29:26.494)
great. Okay.
Kerry Barrett (29:37.528)
They read flat, they read out loud the way that they would be reading sort of in their head versus the way that they would be speaking. So when you read a sentence that you're thinking of delivering from a script, just talk the sentence into your voice note without reading it and listen to where you would naturally emphasize words or where you would naturally slow down or where you would naturally speed up and mark the script. So as you're reading that sentence, if that's a word that you would emphasize, put some asterisks around it.
if there is an area where you take a natural pause, put an ellipsis there so that you have a visual cue of how to deliver that sentence the way that you would in conversation. That said, it is an, I love using a teleprompter. use teleprompter if I have, I I riff sometimes too, but if I have a certain...
specific story that I know needs to go in a certain order and it's a longer story and I want to make sure that I can fit it in in a compelling way 45 seconds or less, then I'll use a teleprompter. But I've, you know, I read off of teleprompter for 20 years when I was in the news industry. So it's second nature to me now. The other thing that you can do is create manuscript out what it is exactly that you want to say and then turn that into an outline.
Wendy McCallum (30:44.423)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (30:57.902)
turn it into a keyword outline or key sentence outline and follow that as you are delivering your content. The other option, and I don't love this, but I have seen some people do it effectively, is to, again, manuscript things out and then memorize one or two sentences at a time. Deliver. Couple of things with this. Number one, it takes forever to edit because you've got a million clips that you've got to chunk together to create one cohesive piece.
you are still memorizing sentences. So despite the fact that you're not reading them, oftentimes memorizing a sentence comes out the same way as if you were reading it. comes out robotic and it comes out canned. So those are three different options. If you're not into reading a teleprompter, by all means manuscript what you want to say and then turn it into a bullet point. Where that gets key is if you're trying to create super short and tight content and you need this to fit into
15 seconds or 30 seconds, then it is good to have a clear roadmap of where you start and where you want to go.
Wendy McCallum (32:04.689)
Yeah, no, I totally agree with all of that. And that's what I would suggest as well. One of the things that works really well for me, and I don't know how you feel about this, but it's certainly something that I've shared with the coaches that I support is I will sit down, I will do the bullet points if it's a complicated piece of content. And I feel like a lot of the stuff I talk about, I'm talking about it so much that it's just, easy for me to just riff like you said on it.
But if it's something that I need, I want some structure around, I wanna make sure I don't forget anything, then I will absolutely do the bullet points for it. But what I find really helpful is recording it a couple of times with no pressure, like this will never be the thing I use. But just turning the camera on and recording it, if it's a five minute piece of content, recording it a couple of times, because what I find happens is that I figure out how to say things more concisely. And while I'm not memorizing, I am remembering what it is I want to say.
Kerry Barrett (32:37.954)
Yeah.
Wendy McCallum (32:56.455)
For me, I think it hits a nice balance between it sounding sort of scripted and memorized, but also, you know, I'm covering all the points I need to cover and I'm not forgetting anything important, right?
Kerry Barrett (33:08.172)
Yeah. Yeah, no, I absolutely love that technique. The one caution I would say is if you're doing more than four or so takes, then you're overthinking it. I, you know, don't, don't do that and do 17 takes or 117. Yeah.
Wendy McCallum (33:26.557)
Yeah, I always say like, set a limit. Like I'm always telling people you got to set a limit. And when people are first starting, I'll say maybe it's like five, you know, or six or something. But when I'm recording content now, I've got a three take limit. And after the third take, I'm like, I'm picking one of these and I'm going with it. you know, you can always the other thing that we talk about a lot in the term in terms of like coaching content and online program content is you can always go and do it again someday.
Kerry Barrett (33:31.117)
Yes.
Kerry Barrett (33:41.656)
Thank you.
Kerry Barrett (33:50.85)
Yeah. Yes.
Wendy McCallum (33:51.473)
So, again, it's that whole done is better than none thing. And if you're spending an entire day recording one piece of content, it's gonna take you forever and you're never gonna get that online program up or you're never gonna get that marketing messaging out there, which means you're never gonna make any money from it. And if you don't make any money, you're out of business. So getting it up is more important and you can always go back to that program down the line and you can make a note of some of the video lessons maybe that you did you don't love as much that you wanna go and re-record and you can do that later and it's easy to replace that on your platform.
Kerry Barrett (34:04.61)
Yep. Right.
Wendy McCallum (34:20.625)
Which is, think, a good point to end on is this idea that it has to be perfect. What would you say about that?
Kerry Barrett (34:25.996)
Yeah. Perfect is non-existent. I have not met anything, anywhere, anytime, any place, anyone who is perfect. If that's what you're going for, you might as well hang it up right now. I've never watched a perfect newscast. I have a couple of Emmy awards. The broadcast that I won them for were by no means perfect. That doesn't matter. If you are rambling to the point where it's nonsensical, well then, yes, switch that around.
But if you're looking for my voice needs to hit every point and my appearance needs to be perfect and I need to lose 20 pounds and I need a facelift and I don't like my voice and my clothes suck and whatever. Those are all just your, that's all your ego trying to protect you, right? From taking a risk. Those are not real things. Those are things we've made up in our minds. There's not a, there is not a perfect video.
that I have ever put out on LinkedIn or anywhere else for that matter. So do the thing. Do not let that get in your way.
Wendy McCallum (35:30.609)
Yeah, I love that. think the other piece that is important to remember is that we don't connect well with robots. And so, you show up as yourself and you know what, if your cat comes and sits on your lap and it's a great take, use it. Say hello to your cat, be a human. I think that that works really well. I also think there's an increased tolerance for imperfect content now. We're used to people firing off content while they're out for a walk. We're accustomed to seeing that.
Kerry Barrett (35:38.528)
No, absolutely.
Kerry Barrett (35:45.388)
Yeah, absolutely.
Kerry Barrett (35:53.943)
Mm-hmm.
Wendy McCallum (36:00.283)
really perfection when it comes to video content is just gonna paralyze you. Yeah, yeah, so I love that. Okay, anything you wanna add, Carrie, because there's so much I could talk to you about, but I'm cognizant of the time and I feel like there are gonna be so many, this is gonna be such a great masterclass when you come in and talk to the PBB, you're gonna get so many questions.
Kerry Barrett (36:05.226)
absolutely.
Kerry Barrett (36:19.308)
Well, I'm looking forward to that in terms of what I have as final thoughts. Listen, I would suggest starting without any pressures. Try that 30 and 30 day challenge. Recognize that those videos aren't going anywhere. They're for your eyes only and practice that. Do that for 30 days and then take what you've learned and create a really short piece of content for you to post on whatever your platform is, whether it's LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever.
Wendy McCallum (36:25.021)
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Barrett (36:48.018)
Start there, but try and remove as much of the pressure as you can because once you once that sets in its analysis paralysis in the whole nine yards Recognize that nobody is running you through the fine-tooth comb that you're running yourself through
Wendy McCallum (37:05.393)
Yeah, that's so great. Thank you so much, Carrie. I am going to link to Carrie's website and the resources page where she has some really great resources if you're trying to create video content. And this has just, I think, been chock full of tips anyway. So check the show notes. We'll try to list all of the great tips that Carrie's given us today. And I look forward to seeing you in a month or so back in the BBB. All right, thanks so much, Carrie.
Kerry Barrett (37:07.726)
Yeah.
Kerry Barrett (37:29.773)
Yeah.
Thank you, Wendy. It was great to be here.
Wendy McCallum (37:34.791)
Great to have you.
