Congrats! You already took the first step into creating your multimedia empire and that is seriously considering it. I don’t want to waste your time, so this post is geared to those who already have evergreen content (newsletters, blogs, etc.) or videos (YouTube, webinars, workshops, and live video tutorials) that they want to use to start building/expanding their audience. Here’s how to build your multimedia empire.
Build your multimedia empire: Getting over obstacles and making your mark:
Get over yourself
First, I want to address the issue of fear. This is going to be the number one thing that will stop you from hitting record. I get it. I have that fear too. I’m still working on my fear, but do you know how to get over it?
Are you ready? It’s PRACTICE! This is the best way to get over anything. I’m not going to say that I have low self-esteem (just so you know, I think I’m freaking awesome), but I hate being in the spotlight for anything. I hate interviews, I hate taking pictures, and I hate speaking in front of people.
Unfortunately, everything about me stands out. Being biracial automatically attracts attention because people want to know what ethnicity I am. I look way younger than my age so I get questions about that and my cutesy appearance clashes with my blunt personality. Also, my name stands out so it always gets me noticed.
Just go for it
I mentioned this in another post, but I hate having a weakness. I don’t know what happened in my childhood, but if someone pointed out a flaw, then I would fix it. One of my flaws was being shy and quiet, so how do I fix that? I joined Theater Arts. Let me tell you, I was scared every day. I would literally feel like throwing up every time I stepped into that class. But do you know what I feared more than getting up in front of people? Failing. What was failure to me? Not getting an A. Yeah, I was that kind of student.
I remember the first project we had in Theater Arts was interpretive dance. I would watch all these other students get up on stage and crash and burn because they picked their song last minute and decided to just go with the flow. It was horrible, and I didn’t want to be like them. When I went home, I decided to practice. First I chose a song I loved, and that was Britney Spears‘ ‘Drive me crazy’.
I locked the door to my room and played ‘Drive me crazy’ a million times trying to figure out my dance. The next day, it was my turn to be on display. I thought I would faint on the spot as soon as I stood up. My whole body shook as I introduced myself to the class and told them my song. This was going to be an epic failure, then the song started playing and I automatically started dancing. My body just knew what to do since I practiced the routine repeatedly until it was perfect. When the music stopped, I got a round of applause. The teacher smiled at me and started laughing (this was a first). I got an ‘A’.
Practice makes perfect, or close to it…
This is what’s so important about practicing. You already know what to do or say automatically if you practiced. This works for anything. I’ve practiced questions for interviews and practiced my lines for speeches. That’s because as soon as I get in front of people, I automatically freeze and draw a blank. Improv is my enemy.
If you go back to my first video, How I use Asana for my clients, you can tell that I was uncomfortable. That’s because I didn’t practice. I just hit record and started talking. Compared to the videos I made for How I use Pinterest for my Client Process, my voice was very robotic and stiff. By the time I made the videos for the Pinterest video, I was more comfortable in front of my microphone.
My tip is to practice in front of the camera or microphone (I know that some people prefer creating podcasts or video podcasts) before you officially start recording. Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable to become comfortable.
What to post?
Besides fear, the other thing holding you back is uncertainty. Are you uncertain about what to make content about? Well, are you a blogger? If so, you can use your blog post topics to create video content. You already know what to say, so it’ll be easy to talk about your topic.
You don’t have a blog? Well, do you produce any other content: newsletters, podcasts, posts on social media? You can use those topics to create video content. Again, like blog posts, you already know your topic so it should be easy to talk about your topic.
If you don’t have any content yet, then think about the things you are passionate about. Write down all those topics, and if you’re truly passionate about the topic, then you’ll already know about that topic or you’ll be so passionate about it that researching it will be fun for you.
What problems can you solve? If your audience has a problem and you know how to solve it then create a video about that. What do you know? Are you knowledgeable about a particular subject? If you are, then create video content on that subject. You already know the subject so it won’t be hard to research and record information on about it.
Line, please!
Creating a script or an outline is a must when creating content. Like I told you before, I am not an improviser. I suck at coming up with things to say when I’m put on the spot. That’s why I always create an outline or script of what I’m going to say depending on the situation.
Outlines are great no matter what you’re doing. I like to create outlines for blog posts, speeches, video content, and so on because I don’t want to forget the main key points of what I want to talk about. I already told you that if I’m on the spot, I draw a blank, but if I look at my outline, then I know what I’m supposed to be talking about.
No matter what type of video (live or pre-recorded), an outline will help keep your train of thought organized and will cut out the ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ when you forget what you were talking about. That’s one of my pet peeves when I watch a live video. It looks unprofessional and if it was me, I would definitely die of embarrassment. That’s why I have a lot of respect for people who create live videos on the fly. I know it’s something that I wouldn’t be able to do.
Until the next chapter…
This post became longer than I thought it would, so I had separate it into part 1 and part 2. Next week I’ll talk a little about lighting, camera angles, setting, who’s not meant to be on camera, and taking it up to the next step with branding. So until next time.
For my peeps with short attention spans…
I’m one of those people who likes to scroll through blog posts and get to the good stuff. I don’t have time to read 3,000-word blog posts, no matter how interesting they are. I always save them into my pocket account and forget about them until like a year later. If you’re like me, this is for you.
The short and sweet of this post:
- Don’t let fear hold you back.
- We’re all afraid to be judged and don’t want to look stupid.
- No matter how afraid you are, just go for it.
- To get over your fear, practice, practice, and practice again.
- What should you create content out of?
- Repurpose your old blog posts.
- Repurpose your newsletters, social media posts, or podcasts.
- Find what you’re passionate about.
- Use your experience and solve a problem.
- Create scripts and outlines.
- They help with stage fright.
- They help you stay on topic.
What’s your biggest fear about being on video? Let me know in the comments below.
-Paigon | Natasha Lane Design Co.
