Are you looking into pivoting in uncertain times when it comes to your business? Recently I was invited for an interview with Kevin Ly, founder of Beyond Meditations and KEPLY Business Course. In this interview, we go around how I ended up becoming a confidence coach on my journey towards becoming an entertainer. This part specifically talks about the changes I had to make to my business plan in order to survive the pandemic.
Kevin: I wanted to ask what was your business model before Covid-19? As there's a massive change going on in the world at this moment. What has your business model evolved into or innovated and pivoted to since then?
My initial Business Plan
Michelle: When I started with the internet, video in general, as well as music, it was more of a one-to-many business model. The idea was if people resonated with my message and they want to join my community. They could just spend a few dollars here and there, buy some music, or maybe buy a DVD, back when DVDs were a thing.
I continued that and recently expanded to an e-commerce store as well. This is where I was selling clothing, specifically custom clothing that I designed and worked with designers on.
Then was the dare to dream school that was still in beta mode. I had just beta-tested my courses and my products. But I'm so grateful that I had started all this long time back. And that I had the knowledge business for a consulting company model already in its incubation phase. I was somewhat already established in it, had done some one-on-one consulting, as well as built up the course.
Pandemic and Business Model Changes
When the pandemic hit suddenly, sending physical products became a lot more difficult. A lot of my suppliers were scrambling to continue functioning. Initially, they were working at half capacity, then a quarter capacity then they shut down completely. Then they tried to reopen but were having trouble with shipping so I actually ended up pausing my store for a while because it was just so hard to keep up with what was happening with the shipping deadlines changing and the supply chain affected.
I was so grateful that we had already begun and tested the beta course for Dare to Dream School. I had already had some clients. We, me and my team, were able to quickly pivot and focus more back on the consulting.
So instead of a one-to-many, it was one two one, or one to a small group. But we were able to charge a higher price because that was consulting. The value of music and other small digital or physical products is expected to be much lower. People don’t expect us to spend a lot on that sort of thing.
As Covid-19 came, I updated the sales page and put it on a new platform. Even though we weren't supposed to relaunch the course until later in the year, suddenly everything changed. We scrapped our entire e-commerce plan even we had all these sales planned. But as was the need of the time, we just scrapped everything and made another quick plan as a replacement.
I'm about to do a soft launch of my Business for Video Confidence course that I had beta tested last year. I have people enrolling because I had been nurturing during this time. So I’m very grateful I had a digital product to pivot to at this time.
Surviving with E-Commerce during the Pandemic
Kevin: So essentially you went from having an e-commerce store that was completely disrupted by supply and delivery, you had to pretty much pause it or shut it, for the time being, then you curated what you've learned through this whole process and combined it with mindset coaching to create courses for other people.
Michelle: I won’t say e-commerce is entirely hit because many of my equals in that industry are still doing pretty well, despite the pandemic. The reason being, they, unlike me, are very comfortable with Facebook ads and other similar mediums. I am not or else, I think I would have survived as well.
But as someone who sold luxury items like music and things people don’t need to survive, I’m glad I paused my store. Although, I do think if I had a solid base with Facebook Ads I could have sustained it. Not to forget, my apparel was a bit high-end.
I was constantly getting emails of shipping prices going up week after week. Followed by not shipping on weekend. I think I skipped a bullet there. I would have made a few sales and spent a lot of time answering angry emails.
Note: My stores are since reopened once worldwide supply/chain/shipping logistics restabilized.
Kevin: I want to ask, through this whole process of you transitioning from e-commerce to digital courses and obviously, keeping in mind this whole pandemic, what learns have you had or what would you consider doing differently, if you had to do it all over again?
Lessons Learned
Michelle: If I had to do it over again, I would have spent, well hindsight it’s 2020, I would spend the beginning of the year not focusing on rounding out more of my products for my e-commerce store and I would have instead used that time to do the soft launch of my course. So that by now I would have had the entire funnel set up, the entire ad campaign ready to go and I probably could have benefited more now from that.
But having said that, I couldn't have seen it coming. At least I had enough diversity in income streams; I did have something to jump to.
Amongst my creative friends, the people who are doing a live stream and Youtube are doing okay because they switch to just live streaming all the time and started depending on donations from their fans, which is something I used to do a long time ago. That works too. But there are some people who relied entirely on live venues and they're really suffering right now because they're not able to pivot.
There's a tiny group of us creatives who started getting into the knowledge business consulting so that we can show other people how do you get online, how do you build a brand, how do you grow audiences. I think we're probably in the best position right now because if there's one thing people are willing to do right now, it’s using this time to learn.
Time to learn is now
Kevin: I agree 100%, especially in isolation, you just want to expand and learn. There is some statistics about three out of five people at home wanting to upskill right now.
Michelle: I think it's also that some people are using this time to really pause, reflect and think about their life because they were forced to stop doing their regular nine to five and face their life.
Someone just enrolled in my video for a business boot camp that's about to start and he was working in IT but never really wanted to do that in the first place. He actually really wanted to start a Youtube channel and start live streaming.
When we talked, I told him, hey you're stuck at home anyway so why not use this time to explore it? I'll teach you how to do it so at least you can say you tried. I've been there. I was in exactly the same place and I know how it is to have that wake-up moment.
It's good that the pandemic has at least allowed people to examine their existence and think about their life. What do you want to be doing with your time?
Kevin: I think this whole period has really accelerated people's journey. Now you've got so much time to think about and do something differently. I think that's a great segue into asking you about what do you think the future landscape will be in your industry? More specifically, of people, whether it's Youtube or the knowledge business, where do you think that's going?
The Future of Creatives and Consultants
Michelle: Well, every time I talk about my business it's twofold because I technically work in these two different businesses.
So in terms of being creative, there have been a lot of changes anyway in the last couple of years related to how people who are creative make money online. So a while back there was the Youtube apocalypse where, for instance, the way ads worked changed. A lot of people started losing money because they were relying on ad money alone. A hard lesson was learned by some of those creative entrepreneurs that you have to have multiple income streams.
But for anybody who is still holding on to that business model, it’s long gone, almost entirely over now. So, I think, post-pandemic a lot of people who are creative need to start thinking about truly treating what they do as a business, whether they are a musician or a filmmaker, or a painter. The idea of just hoping you make some money on ads or selling a couple of t-shirts on CafePress? It's only going to go so far.
Follow the third part of my interview with Kevin where we talk about the importance of pivoting in these uncertain times.
How can you leverage online video for your business?
I recently had Madi from Madi to the max over. She's going to talk to you about how she was able to grow her business as a voiceover actor using YouTube, her great success story of how she was able to leverage YouTube and online video to help her grow her voiceover acting business.
Madi's Story in Madi's Words
I'm a voice-over actress. I have over 300 videos on my YouTube channel of me doing different voices and cartoon impressions. That is what my channel is about. I do different cartoons and impressions of those actors and it allows me to stretch that muscle, figure out a new range, figure out what I want to do with those voices so that when the casting calls come up I'm like “Oh I have that voice already in my repertoire.” I know what voice to give.
I've been on YouTube for almost six years now but I started doing impression videos about three years ago. When I first started I was doing my own original sketch comedy playing all the different characters and filming and editing it so that it looked like I was talking to myself, which was great fun. Unfortunately, it didn't take off the way I was wanting it to.
I did voice over just for the fun of it. There were a bunch of impressions that I could do but I ended up booking a feature film voice acting role with that. It was like this clearly works, let's pursue this. So I've been doing impression videos ever since and it really helped me hone and focus on my choices as a voice actor. It allows me to have this amazing resume of things that I can do.
People have specifically come to my channel and asked me to do voice acting because they have seen that I can do that. I've had directors look at my videos and go “Oh she has a range, I can see that right away”.
I've had so many animators reach out to me directly because they saw one of my videos.
How to leverage your YouTube Channel?
I met Madi at a networking event. The first thing I did after we met was that I went to her YouTube channel and saw how talented she was. I reached out to her, to be in a music video I knew that she could dress up I knew that she could play parts, so I had her play Cinderella in one of my videos.
That's how it works. You put yourself out there, you let people know what you do, it doesn't matter if you are a Lawyer, if you are an Actor, whatever business or service you have you should be making online videos, so that you gain more exposure and let people know what you do.
You want people to come to you instead of you constantly chasing people asking them to give you a chance. It's really important that when people go to your channel or your site or your social media because right off the bat it's very easy for them to see exactly what you do.
If you go to a YouTube channel of somebody you really admire. You right away get an impression of what they are and what they do and what they can do.
You need to make sure that your channel looks that way too or however way you're wanting to portray yourself.
What is the immediate thing that jumps into your head when you first look at your channel? You need to portray that.
Getting Started with Video?
If you're thinking of getting started with online video, have knowledge about your subject. Make simple helpful tips like the best five ways to make a shoe and top five mistakes people make when making a shoe. Simple things really off the bat because when you first start out it's not going to be as polished as the big guys that have 400 people in their crew. It's just you. But you can still make a really high-quality great video.
You got a good sound, you got good lighting, you can make a good video. Keep it short.
But if you are an artist and not a niche expert then what?
I'm going to get more specific to Madi's journey from an artistic perspective. If you are an artist of any kind, trying to get your name out there trying to get people to give you a shot, make sure you read on. I talk more in detail about Madi's journey using online video and also where she's headed next, based on where YouTube is going and where the online world is going.
Are you an aspiring creative? Maybe you want to be an actor or a voice over actor? Well, you should be leveraging YouTube, check out these tips that I'm going to get from Madi, from Madi to the Max. She's been able to use her YouTube channel to get her feature film gigs and cartoon gigs. She was even the voice of Happy Frog in the hit game Five Nights at Freddy's coming up Alright.
Use YouTube as Your Resume
Madi leveraged online video, to book all sorts of awesome gigs as a voice over actor. So, let's hear her out. How long has she been on YouTube and what kind of roles did those end up leading to by putting herself out there? How did she do it?
Madi: I've been on YouTube for almost six years now, and when I started doing impression videos, it actually helped me expand my career. It allowed me to show my range and what I could do so that casting directors can very easily see, Oh, this is what she can do.
So if somebody is an aspiring voice over actor or an actor, should they start a YouTube channel?
Madi: I think so for sure. If you got time, definitely do it. Because the thing about being an actor is that you as an actor can go “I can play anything” Any actor can play anything That's great. You're an actor, we know that, but what type do you actually fit is depends on what they want to see you as.
So if you're the tall, skinny blonde, you tend to go out for the ingenue rules. But man, you really want to play that hard-ass detective. So you're not getting cast like that. What can you do, is you can actually write your own script. You can write your own monologue or short scene that you can do just for yourself. It might seem overwhelming like I don't have a set, I don't have a crew. That's fine. Most of these things can be shot on a blank black background or white background and you can just set up your phone. If you got good sound and decent lighting, that's fine. You can totally do it.
Give yourself the Role
Madi: I actually have a friend of mine who did a monologue once a week challenge. Because of that, she had this huge repertoire of different characters that she can pull from so that if a casting director says, we really want to see you kind of playing this type of character, she's like, great. Here's this video. I can do that. Here's this specific thing. Try different things with those monologues. Try being crazy, outrageous, trending team and introverted.
You can really have a lot of fun with that because you have the to do as many takes as you want. They can be as bad as you want because you have another one due next week and that's part of the challenge. You suck at first and you get better as you go along.
One of my clients, who is an actress was talking about how she wasn't being considered for certain types of roles. I said then just give them to yourself. That's the amazing thing about the world we live in today. You don't need those gatekeepers anymore or those casting agents because you can just put your video on YouTube. So if you want to show people you can play that part. Just put yourself in that part.
Network!!!
Network with other directors and other writers if you want to collaborate, Check out your local film colleges. They are always looking for actors to do stuff with them. Go there, go talk to the heads of their department, let them know, Hey, I'm an actor, I'm looking for this. Please, would you recommend me to your students?
And that's where you can get really good with that.
How long does it take?
How often do you get contacted? And how long did it take since you started your YouTube channel before you started getting approached for roles?
Madi: My very first impression video is what booked me my big feature films because a friend of mine sent it to their casting director and the director said, Wow, she has range, let's bring her in.
That booked me one of my very first roles. It was one of my first impression videos. That's not necessarily going to happen all the time, but it does happen. I've had Sony reach out to me because of one video that I did for one of their products. So it's not unheard of. You will definitely find other YouTubers that will be like, we should clap. I'm also an actor and I'm looking for so and so to fill this part of this thing I'm wanting to make, be willing to go out there and say, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna work with you.
It might be bad, but it might also be good. You'll have a good time with it. The best thing is you get to grow at the same time. As you grow and get better, so will they.
Got to have Business Cards
Not everything has to completely immediately translate into money or a huge success. But yes, building up your networking, can be hard too. Having a channel is a kind of currency. It's really important that you have business cards. They don't have to be the super expensive kind. You can go down to Office Depot and get some printed out for fairly cheap. But it's really important, especially with something like this, the number of times I've run to somebody and be like, Hey, I want your card. Or you sound interesting. And I'm like, Oh, I don't have a card, but here take a picture of my badge.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to have a card on you all the time. It's kinda like having a head shot nowadays, except I've used more business cards than I have my actual head shots. I recommend that actors and entertainers have their photograph on their business cards. People remember them better.
If your logo isn't something that I already super know, like Hasbro, I'm not going to remember who you are. But if it's, Oh, right, they had this really distinctive necklace that they're always wearing, that's their logo. That might work.
I know a guy who is wandering around, he has this Egyptian headdress on that he's always wearing in all of his videos and all of his things. That's his logo. But if it's just you as an actor, definitely have your head shot there.
Demo Reels
What is a demo reel?
When I want to send someone my link, if they go back to that channel the link is attached to, I want them to see everything else that I have done because I'm very proud of everything else I've done. I've built up my brand with that. I'm a demo reel.
For those of you that don't know it's a very, very tight reel that shows, here's what I can do very quickly. Ideally in five-second clips.
I have definitely seen a demo reels that are five minutes long. Don't do that. I don't care if it's this great monologue. Take the best five seconds because you maybe can get a casting director to watch 10 seconds of your demo reel. Don't put the best stuff in the end. Put it at the very beginning. That's really helpful. Yeah.
So if you wanna check out Madi's demo reel click here. I think that will help you. You can get an example of a really good demo reel that has helped Madi get more gigs.
If you're just starting out with online videos for your business or personal brand, you know there's nothing wrong with starting on your phone. IPhones especially have very nice video quality, but they almost always need some kind of audio enhancement. So before you make any kind of investment in a microphone for your iPhone, there's some very important information you need to know about that lightning connection.
Sennheiser is my personal favorite microphone brand (they did not pay me to say that!). I recently met Rob at the Sennheiser booth at VidCon 2019. He's going to give you some very important tips.
Do not invest in a microphone for your phone until you talk to Rob.
What's with the iPhone and Audio?
When looking at the iPhone technology particularly when Apple got rid of the headphone jack there is something weird with the audio. What they also got rid of was an easy way to do microphone input. So what happens is if you want to have an analog microphone that goes into your iPhone, you need to use the lightning adapter dongle. Now there are other microphones out in the market that are purpose-built specific for lightning connectors but there's advantages and disadvantages with that.
One of the really big advantages is it's easy to just plug it in and use it, but the downside of that is you have a product that is purpose-built for that device only. So it can't really grow with you once you want to get out of an iIPhone and maybe move into a digital SLR, a mirrorless camera or a shoulder camera, that product really can't come along on your purchase journey or on your customer journey.
You will be stuck with the microphone that just connects to your phone if you were to get something that just has that lightning connector. If you have an intention of buying better video equipment, maybe you want to get something for audio that can grow with you.
Sennheiser Products
MKE 400
There is a product called the MKE 400 and if you notice this product has what's called a TRS connector. You have these three rings on the connector. A phone looks for something that has four rings and the reason that's important is that additional ring is what allows you to get a microphone signal into your phone.
Some people look at this and they say “oh I can't use it with my phone too?. Well, that's not exactly true. There's a lot of different accessories out there that will allow you to do that.
Adaptor Cable
An adaptor cable basically breaks out your signal from the lightning connector for your microphone and for your headphone so you can now plug this 3.5 millimeter TRS signal in and have a 4-pole connector that I can plug into my adaptor and then I can plug that adaptor in.
Now, this is not elegant by any means and of course, you want to have some strain relief but you can absolutely do this. There are a couple of other products that Sennheiser makes.
MKE 600
One of the products by Sennheiser is MKE 600. It's a shotgun microphone and you can get great professional quality audio from an MKE 600 with this cable. Just plugin with that 4-pole connector and that 4-pole connector then plugs right into your phone and you could have a professional-grade shotgun microphone to match up with a great looking video.
Talk about Fast Fashion
This is gonna sound like a silly analogy but I think it's a good one. You know there's this concept of fast fashion nowadays where they make really cheap products and you can buy a $10 shirt but you can bet after a few washes that shirt is gonna be no good in a year.
Sometimes if you invest in something that's a little more high quality it can come with you on your journey. When you graduate from a phone to perhaps a more professional camera you would be able to keep that microphone and you would be able to use it for your next camera. That's something to think about when you're making an investment in a microphone for your phone if you're currently shooting on your phone.
It's also all about just learning a little bit about the accessories. There are all sorts of products around the market that can allow you to interface products to your phone, to your DSLR or to a camcorder. If you do a little bit of research you'll find ways to really utilize the best possible product for your application and then you'll have that along your journey. Make that one-time investment and then educate yourself a little bit.
Have Budget Constraints?
Now if you don't have a lot of money to invest, I do have a video for people with 20 bucks or less to just get started so they're not just using that in phone microphone. If that's really more of your budget right now make sure you check out that video and remember never give up on your dreams, you deserve to take the spotlight, always be a Dare to Dreamer.
Where should you start with audio for your videos if you have a set budget? Well if you have a minimum of $300 to start, I'm here with Rob at Sennheiser at VidCon 2019 and we're going to talk about some options that you have.
If you have a business or personal brand where you're ready to invest a few hundred dollars or more to start, I have Rob here from Sennheiser to talk about some of the product lines for 2019 if you're ready to get started with audio.
Audio Equipment on a Budget
Audio is a very important part of your video and it's something that a lot of people don't focus on necessarily. They're always focused on that perfect shot. While video feature is always important, people are going to turn off your channel, turn off your station or turn off your tutorial if your audio is bad. This definitely going to happen.
So investing in your audio is extremely important. And at Sennheiser, they have a great product range for beginners.
It's so important to have good audio. It's an important investment. I Use Sennheiser for my audio. That's what I use in film school. And I've stuck with Sennheiser ever since because I will say truthfully, you get what you pay for and if you make that investment upfront, they're not paying me to say this, then your equipment's going to last. That's something to think about if you're ready to invest in your business.
XS Wireless
XS wireless digital allows you to quickly and easily get into great audio for your blog or any of the other content creation that you might be doing. This starts at $299.
XS Wireless Digital just launched this year January 2019 and has a variety of different systems, but the systems we're focused on here at VidCon or dedicated to audio from video. The most common system is going to be our Lavalier, a 3.5-millimeter locking connector with an Emmy to Lav Mike, which is one of the most popular Lavaliere microphones with our a receiver and cold shoe mount. That system is going to be $349 and it's a great entry into getting great audio for your video. The nice thing about the system is that it's entirely plug and play. You don't have to do anything other than turn the system on, plug it into your camera and you're good to go.
What are Lavalieres?
So if you're not familiar with Lavalier, that's what many people have put on their collars. It's the kind of microphone that you wear. It's mobile and wireless and is a really good investment for that sort of thing if you've got the budget for it. It allows you to walk around, and the audio stays the same. And one of the things that people don't always think about, especially if they're doing it blogging, is if filming while the camera is far away. Having wireless freedom is an important part of being comfortable when you're on camera.
Also, these products can grow with you. If you're doing a seminar or anything where you want to record yourself, maybe you're going to be 20, 25, 50 feet away from your camera person, having a wireless option as opposed to a wired microphone always makes for a good investment. And again, the XS Wireless Digital at $349 for that Lavalier set is a great place to start.
Evolution XS Wireless System
Let's say that we've got somebody who's rolling in the dough and they're ready to invest a little bit more in their audio. What would be the next tier?
Well, for Sennheiser, a lot of things they do are in good, better, best. So XS Wireless Digital is going to be the good and then the better will be Evolution in Wireless systems. Those start off at around $599. It is a comparable system in a UHF analog system, which just means that it's not as plug and play friendly as XS Wireless Digital and you have to know a little bit more about audio to get into the Evolution Wireless series.
AVX Wireless System
Finally, there is the AVX line. AVX is excellent in that same plug and play kind of concept. You have a receiver here that plugs into your DSLR or the side of your camera; your choice of either a handheld microphone or a Lavalier microphone. These systems start around $700.
So again, that's also plug and play. It just operates on different frequencies whereas XS Wireless Digital is in 2.4 gig, which shares with WiFi. AVX is at 1.9 gigahertz. You have a little more flexibility in terms of if you're in a crowded RF environment.
So if you have more money to spend, you can get better audio acoustics. That can be a better Lav Mic or a better handheld.
Don't be intimidated if this seems intimidating. It's not. These systems are just plug and play. If you don't know anything about audio, you can take these out of the box and you can be ready to go that minute.
If you're not ready to go to this level, we are also going to talk about microphones systems you can use for your phone and specifically something you really need to know if you have one of the newer iPhones that have the lightning connection. So make sure you check out that video as well. Catch next time, Dare to Dreamers.
So what the heck is TubeBuddy? You may have heard of this helpful tool.
If you are an absolute beginner read on to find out how you can use this tool to leverage your video production as a YouTuber.
What is TubeBuddy? Do You Even Need it?
I've talked about TubeBuddy in the past, I use it a lot and was with Andrew from TubeBuddy at VidCon 2019. I wanted to give you an idea of what the heck TubeBuddy is if you're an absolute beginner to online video and YouTube.
TubeBuddy is a browser extension, all that really means is that when you go onto YouTube, TubeBuddy will be right there after the install. You may need to accept some permissions but once you have done that, it's right there ready for you to go. It's there to help you do better on YouTube by showing you some of that back end information, on the front end so it's more easy and digestible to understand.
I've worked with clients and some of them are a little confused about what it does. Some of them are kind of afraid wondering if it is just doing stuff for you in the background.
It's a tool but it's something you have to actively use, kind of like a hatchet. Like a hatchet can be used to chop down a tree. Yeah, you could technically chop down a tree with your hand but it would take you hours and be incredibly painful. Similarly, people find YouTube to take hours and be incredibly painful.
TubeBuddy basically helps you do keyword research. It helps you manage your comments all within YouTube so you don't have to go to a third party website. You can do it on the website you want to be on, which is YouTube.
So instead of having all of these needs of different teams, you can do it as a one man band.
I use TubeBuddy with my clients and my students. I show them how to use TubeBuddy cos it's very convenient. But if somebody's totally new to this, what are some of the results that they get by using a tool like TubeBuddy? What kind of person is the ideal client for using TubeBuddy?
Who is an Ideal Client for TubeBuddy?
Anyone really interested in starting on YouTube or getting into that space is really the ideal client because most of the times people see YouTube as just people who upload videos, but they don't really understand how they found their success.
If you've ever done Google SEO, it's very similar on YouTube because it's owned by the same company. Google. YouTube is a search engine and one of the primary ways to grow on YouTube is through search. TubeBuddy's tool such as the keyword explorer gives you the ways that people are finding your content and ways that people are searching for so your content can be the answer to their searchable question.
What the heck is a keyword and how can you use TubeBuddy to help you with that?
If you're just starting out on YouTube and you want to leverage keywords to help increase the views on your videos, TubeBuddy is for you.
Keywords, Keywords Everywhere
I use TubeBuddy as a tool that helps me with keywords. A lot of times people tend to overthink keywords. The best way to describe a keyword is the way YouTube looks at them. And YouTube follows wherever the audience is going.
Keywords in a very blatant term are how YouTube uses to describe the video, to send it to people looking for it. So we're doing a video on what are keywords, for an example. People are more likely to type in what are keywords. A common mistake I see is someone trying to target just one word – ‘keyword' in our case. How long will it take you to find your content if you type just one word? It would take ages.
So you want to use something called long descriptive keywords. In our example they would mean:
What are keywords?
How can TubeBuddy help me with keywords?
And again the whole point is keywords but the search is specific.
Keywords in themselves are used to describe whatever the video is about. Keywords on YouTube specifically can only be based on whatever you title the video. So before you ever look at keywords, they are dependent on what you title the video.
What if you tried to cheat and you tried to put “World Cup Winner” in your keywords? That's not what the video's about, you're just trying to use that to make your video trend because that's what everybody's talking about. But this video is really a dance video. That's not really going to help you out. No, and YouTube doesn't want to mislead people.
We've all been click baited at some point in our life and it's not a good feeling. So YouTube tries to eliminate that by seeing what the keywords are based on the title. And if you do have misleading titles and keywords, it can actually get you hurt on YouTube.
Hey, did you just Click bait me?
You're not delivering the promise. That's what click bait is, by the way, if you haven't heard of that term. It is where you write a description that gets somebody to watch the video, but you've actually tricked them and the video is not what the title is about.
Sometimes people write very provocative titles like “I'm leaving YouTube forever” and what they really mean is “I'm taking two days off from YouTube and I just wanted to be dramatic so you'd click my video!”
People get mad at such tactics.
We see this every year. “I'm quitting YouTube in 2019” but in two days it's 2020 it's like you're not really quitting. I see that a lot.
So don't click bait. It's okay to think of sensational headlines if, you're actually delivering that promise. But the keywords need to match the title.
Instead of being, click baity, be click-worthy.
So finally, another question I get asked a lot is thumbnail strategy, and since TubeBuddy has a lot of tools related to that. I have another video on that.
Let's talk about thumbnails because they're really, really important. They're one of the factors YouTube looks at.
You can't SEO a poorly performing thumbnail
You're brand new to video and you know that thumbnails are important, but you need to learn the strategy. I'm going to talk about how you can use this tool to help improve your thumbnail strategy to get more people to click on your videos.
You may have heard thumbnails are very important because it helps improve your click-through rate. Meaning it helps people click on your videos. But how do you improve your thumbnail strategy?
Well, you can use the Tubebuddy tool.
That's something that I use. I didn't get paid to say that by the way!
What Can TubeBuddy do to improve your Thumbnails?
Within the free version, there's something called the TubeBuddy Thumbnail Generator. What this does is you can either choose a still from the video, a pre taken the photo or just a solid color in the background. Then from there, you can make and craft around whatever your video is about.
You can definitely intrigue and compel viewers to click on that thumbnail and through TubeBuddy you have a lot of customization tools, all for free.
So basically, if you're pretty new to thumbnails and you don't have a way to create thumbnails there's a nice quick Thumbnail Generator Tubebuddy allows you to do straight from the YouTube website. That is if you've got their plug-in installed.
A/B Testing with TubeBuddy
If you have the higher tier, like the Legend tier of TubeBuddy there's this really fancy thing you can do called A/B testing.
When you're A/B testing it's basically showing two images and seeing which one the audience react to the most. TubeBuddy takes two thumbnails, one you originally uploaded with the video and then they let you create and craft a second one or you can do it on your own. You can upload it and TubeBuddy will tell you the data side by side which one got more viewers to actually watch your video.
Because you can have the best video in the world but if no one clicks on the thumbnail, no one comes into the storefront, no one actually contributes or decides to come in.
It doesn't matter how good the video is if the advertising for the video is bad.
A/B testing is something that's used a lot in marketing. There is a lot of talk that goes back and forth about what's big on YouTube and what's not. People talk that faces are important but sometimes you don't need faces. For instance, if you're making a cake maybe people want to see the cake instead. So that's a great example of where you might want to do a test and see does the thumbnail perform better with just the cake or the cake and a face?
That's why A/B testing is so powerful. If you are a larger creator going for faces on thumbnails makes sense. But if you're not, just having the cake can be all it means. But always A/B test with TubeBuddy.
You can guess but why guess when you can actually test and have measurable results?
Thumbnails are important but what's more important than that is if once they click through and watch your video if you're not confident on camera, it doesn't matter that they click through because they're not gonna believe in the messaging you're saying.
If you want to be able to get better on on-camera confidence check out my other blog posts on the website.
If you're brand new to online video, you're probably in the market for a video editing software. While I use Adobe Premiere Pro, I've heard a lot about Adobe Rush, also in that same family. So if you're curious about if Adobe Rush might be for you as a beginner, check out this video.
Video Editing App for Beginners: Adobe Rush for phone AND PC
If you're in the market for video editing software, like a lot of my students and a lot of my clients, you probably are asking where should you start?
I use Adobe Premiere, but I've heard about this new product called Adobe Rush that may be better for
beginners. I got to speak with Danielle from Adobe while we were at VidCon. She will help all you beginners understand what is the difference between, Adobe Rush and Adobe Premier. Also, she will help you identify what's a better product for you if you are brand new to video.
Meet Danielle
Danielle works on Premiere Rush. She's a Product Manager. Here is what she has to say about Premiere Rush:
We introduced Premiere Rush to help aspiring creators; people who are getting started with video. The aim is to give them a tool that's made for them to make video creation easy and fast. Premiere Rush is all about leveraging a lot of the existing technology that we have like some professional tools compare Pro and After Effects by putting it into a lighter weight experience. And an experience that you can use on the mobile device.
If you're working on your phone or on your tablet, you can continue editing on the go. The project can go between a laptop or a computer and a phone?
Premiere Rush works on phones, tablets, and on your computer. It's supported on IOS Mac, Windows, and Android. That's really helpful.
Who is Adobe Premiere Rush for?
Adobe Spark
Anybody who's getting started with video, Premiere Rush is a good tool for them We also have other tools within our video platform. There's Adobe Spark video for anyone who's working on the go or who wants to create something in seconds. There's an awesome workflow within Adobe Spark to help you get started.
You can use some templates that are beautifully designed. Just throw your videos at it and it'll automatically create something beautiful for you. It's a great tool if you're really just getting started and you don't want to spend a lot of time.
Premiere Rush
If you want a little bit more creative flexibility, you may want to move up to something like Premiere Rush. There you have four video tracks available so you can stack things on top of each other, like cutaway shots or picturing in picture shots, titles, do color correction, work with your audio if your recording a voiceover or want to do things like auto dub against music.
Premiere Pro
But if you want to move up to the tool that has a lot of creative control and ultimate flexibility, Premiere Pro is going to be the tool for you.
Spark is more like an automatic thing and just a quick fix.
Rush gives you more room. So that might be better for someone who has some time and they want to give a little finesse.
Premiere Pro is going to be for the Pro level. For someone to really get a nuanced control.
Can you upgrade your video from Premiere Rush to Premiere Pro?
Anything created in Premiere Rush can be taken natively into Premiere Pro. In the Premiere Pro home screen when you launch a product, you'll see a button that says Open Rush Project. You can start and edit on your phone if you are a Premiere Pro user. That is if you want to start incorporating mobile into your
workflow, you can shoot a bunch of footage right into a Rush project to make a rough edit. Then make some quick edits. And then because you're an experienced Premiere Pro user, you can use Premiere Pro for your final edit.
We are seeing a lot of interest for existing from existing Premiere Pro users. They now have a tool that they can use, that works with the tool that they already use and start incorporating mobile into their workflow. A lot of existing and established creators, even if you're advanced or an expert, you're capturing footage on your phone.
Ready to Rush?
If you are starting out then Rush is probably then a good place to start. I get a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business owners, if they have some inkling that they may be ready to upgrade one day to Premiere, perhaps rush is the way to go.
It shows you how the video editing process works. It still has a timeline. You still work in a timeline to do your edit, got a color correction, and transitioning audio. You get a flavor of what you can do in a lighter weight experience.
Adobe Rush Video Editor Full Demo
Did you know that you can edit on your phone and across computers and multiple platforms using Adobe Rush the video editing software?
We're are going to do a quick demo of Adobe Rush, something you can use on your computer and move your project across over to your phone. Or you can start on your phone and move around vice versa.
When you launch Rush on your phone you have access to all of your projects. You have access to projects that you started on this device or on your computer. Everything is synced to Creative Cloud, so you can pick up wherever you left off. Start here and move over to your computer and vice versa.
To start a new project on your phone you have two options:
1. You can either choose media that you've already captured and is on your device or in the cloud somewhere.
2. Or you can go right into a capture experience and capture right into a new project.
One cool thing about Adobe Rush is that you can capture media and you can also have control over your capture experience. So if you wanted to set your exposure or lock your exposure to change your temperature or anything like that you can do that manually. If it's a little cool-looking in here you can warm it up.
You can also change your resolution and frame rate. If you want to shoot in 4K you can do that right here from within this capture experience.
Any videos that you capture in this capture experience get queued up to go right into a project and once you do that it'll line it up into the timeline. All your clips are laid out in the timeline. You can scrub and preview them. And then start making edits.
Sample Media within Rush
When you first launch the application as a new user, you're taken through about a three-minute interactive guided tour, to walk you through all of the steps of how to create a video from end to end within Rush.
We use the sample media that ships within the application for this tour. I'm going to show you that in your media you select the clips in the order you want it in your timeline. You'll see you get a preview of your timeline.
You can add videos, photos, and music tracks, all within this experience. They ship ten royalty-free soundtracks with the applications. You can add my music to play underneath my videos here as well.
You can then name your video. Once you hit create it's gonna take all of the media that you selected right into a timeline. You've got your video clips. You can scrub through them. You've got your audio tracks playing underneath it.
Let's start looking at some of the editing features within Rush. If you see the audio track is a little long, you can use a scissors tool to split that clip right where you want to cut it off. Take that last piece and just delete it.
Scissors tool to split clips in half.
You can rearrange the clips within the timeline. So if you wanted to pick a clip up, just drag it right over, move it along the timeline.
You can take a handle and trim it backward or forward to shorten or lengthen the clips. If you want to make this quick Instagram story of 15 seconds, you could use those trimming handles to shorten the duration of your overall video.
Create Cutaway Shots
You can create cutaway shots – cutaway shots are pretty popular with video editing. You basically see a shot and you cut away to a different shot.
Picture in Picture Shots
You can create a picture-in-picture shot. These are very common with journalism or news where you're having a talking head and you want to get a picture-in-picture shot. Or you can use them for reaction videos of course. These secondary video tracks can be used for other things beyond just video clips or photos.
Add Titles
You can also add titles to your videos. When you go to the plus button and add a title it's going to add a default title but it also opens up this menu to show you a bunch of built-in titles that are shipping with the application. Adobe ships hundreds more free motion graphics templates in Adobe stock right from within this panel as well.
You can choose from these. You'll see that these are already animated motion graphics templates created in Adobe's professional tools like Premiere Pro. You don't have to know anything about animation or graphic. You just drag these on and they are fully customizable. You can change them to make them fit your look and feel for your videos.
You have access to the layers. They're fully customizable. You have access to the text layers and even have access to change the color of the shapes that are within these motion graphics templates.
Additionally, you change the fonts. You have access to Adobe fonts to fit your brand and aesthetic of the video.
You can change the font size, the character spacing, the line spacing, and the color too. There are tons of things that you can change here.
Apply Transitions
You can also apply transitions in between clips. If you want to add a cross dissolve in between your clips you'll see that its fairly simple to do that. It's a good way to show a lapse of time or show transitions. You can also do a dip to black at the beginning of your clip if you want it to fade in from black or fade in from white. It's a really popular editing tool.
Lightroom User by any chance?
Similar to what you can do for your photos in Lightroom, you can also do to your videos within Rush. There's a color panel dedicated to just adjusting all of your colors within the product. You've got built-in presets very similar to other apps you've used or Lightroom where you just tap on a preset and you can quickly give your video a look and feel.
But if the colors aren't popping quite as much as you want them to, you also have all of the controls to manually edit something. If you want to make it a little bit warmer or make the colors pop a little bit more, you can really do that by adjusting the sliders.
You have a lot of control to give your look and feel to the video.
Audio Features
You can also record voiceover directly into the product. If the head of your mic is hooked up to your phone, you can record a voiceover, maybe talk about your VidCon experience while showing the video of your VidCon experience. All for the audio that you bring into the application, Adobe sense technology automatically detects what type of audio you've brought into the application.
If a someone is speaking, you'll see that it's automatically detected it as a voice clip. If you were to select on a music track, it's automatically detected it as music. If it's something that we can't detect or if it's ambient noise it'll be selected as other.
One common thing that we hear a lot from YouTube creators or content creators is about the conflict between music playing in the background in the narration right. It's conflicting against each other. One way to correct that is by turning on the Autoduct. With one tap it'll automatically deduct your soundtrack against any narration that's happening in your timeline.
I'm gonna date myself here. I've been editing video for a long time and for many years I had to manually do all of that and it was very time-consuming. What a time we live in we're now a mobile app can just do that
automatically.
Render the Video
Let's say we're done and we're happy with our video, you can, of course, export your video. It automatically gets saved to the device or to your camera roll. Once it's done rendering you can have the option to share it directly to your social media channels.
Share Across All Channels
Another thing we hear from content creators is that they want to be able to save time and get their video out as quickly as possible to all of their channels. So right from within Rush you can share your video to YouTube. You can choose your thumbnail if you're creating a thumbnail and like Adobe Spark post. You can add a custom thumbnail that you've created, you can also set a thumbnail from within the video itself.
Once you're signed into your YouTube account you have access to all of the things that you would normally
have access to you on YouTube, like your playlist, your channels and things like that. Moreover, you can customize and add all of your information right from within the tool and with one tap share it to YouTube.
There's more
Make sure you check out Adobe Rush. I talk about a lot of other tools so make sure you check out my blog posts. There are other steps you can take. I would recommend you upload a YouTube video from Adobe Rush but put it as private. Then go to your computer and use the TubeBuddy tool to make optimize your video before you publish because that's really important.
Check out my next blog post where I talk with TubeBuddy about how you get started using their plug-in as an additional tool to help you get more views on YouTube.
Do you wonder how you can get started with online video if you're an introvert? The mindset in video performance plays an important role. In this blog post, we'll discover the obstacles that pull back your mindset in video performance.
I, Michele Osorio, with Dare to Dream School, was recently a guest on Paola Rosser's Fearless Female Podcast talking about my journey from being a very very shy young kid who had stage fright, all the way up into being a teenager and an adult who was able to go on to become a stage performer, an actor, a filmmaker and eventually a YouTuber.
I went from being very awkward on camera and not wanting to be in the spotlight, to learning to embrace that. So if you want to get some tips on how perhaps you can go from being an introvert to still being comfortable on camera and in online videos then check this out.
Some Rad Tips for Confidence on Camera
Question: Tell us a little bit about how you got started on YouTube. What made you start a YouTube channel? What was your first intention for the YouTube channel?
So I started on YouTube in about 2007. I got the idea from some other people who had done a show somewhere else, it wasn't on YouTube. At that time, I was working for a corporation making online videos for them.
So I was already a filmmaker, I loved filmmaking and I found out oh you can make a show on the Internet?What? This is crazy!
YouTube Vs. The Real World
I'm just old enough. I actually did the real film festival circuit and I went to film school, although I didn't finish. But I went to most of the film school for three years and I took and I ran with it. So I was used to making videos and then showing them in public in theaters. If people don't like it then they don't laugh and you are embarrassed. You have to look at all those people after the show. It's really awkward. That has happened to me. But also, you get that wonderful feeling when you're sitting in the theater and they do laugh when they're supposed to laugh. It's one of the best feelings in the world.
I discovered in 2007 that there's this whole audience of people online that I can tell that story to and you don't get to hear them laugh in person but they'll leave you comments!
That was so thrilling to me at the time that I could take these stories I had already made, and then share them with people online.
As a creative person, somebody who's been creative since I was a little kid, whether it was drawing or singing. I was always doing something creative and I always wanted to express myself. The internet was just this huge gift especially to somebody socially awkward – which was me.
So I get to hide behind a computer screen and still get to tell my stories. This was the best thing ever.
Early Years
Question: So when you started in 2007 how long had YouTube already been out?
A year. Only a year. I was right on the very first bandwagon. Going like I am gonna get on this, I'm gonna like do my creative stuff, I am gonna like share what I wanted to share.
It's been stuck inside me. At the time I don't think anybody really knew what YouTube would become. It was just a place to host your videos for free. But that was huge because it was very expensive to put your videos online.
In the past as a teenager, I had made these action figure movies. With little action figures and I still have a copy somewhere. It looks terrible because it is the size of a postage stamp! Because I believe at the time I was using Yahoo Geocities and I hosted my website back then. On the site, I had videos that were the size of postage stamps because that was all the space you were allowed. At the time, that was all you could get unless you had lots of money which I didn't when I was in film school student.
So later when YouTube came around that was a big deal.
Mindset is a Key Factor in Determining Your Success in Videos Online
Mindset plays a really important role for confidence on camera whether you're an introvert or not so make sure you check out this next clip also from this podcast where I talk about pushing out negative thoughts and how to be positive, so that you can not only appear confident on camera but you can eventually genuinely gain that confidence as well.
Are negative thoughts keeping you from taking the spotlight you deserve?
Well then make sure that you check this out.
Question: What negative thoughts did you have when you started?
You can get stuck in this script or this idea and negative thoughts can keep you from taking the spotlight you deserve. Whether that's being on stage or being on camera, it's really important to be in the right mindset.
I can look back and realize there were many times when I was pushed to realize my talent. But for some reason I was not listening to those voices, I was focusing on the negative voices.
The negative voices are there. They're permanent and they are daunting sometimes. They can almost paralyze you from stepping into your true self.
Mean Comments?
A lot of times people, nowadays, are afraid to get on camera because they're afraid of the mean comments they're gonna get. Even a big YouTuber or a famous person will tell you, that they'll never come to a point where you are just numb to comments. Every once in a while, something will get through and it'll it will hurt your feelings. It's hard to absorb. The trolls are out there. It's human nature that no matter how much praise you get, it only takes one mean comment or one negative comment. And then we fixate on it. It bothers us for days.
That's how it was, just feeling like I don't deserve the spotlight growing up. But now I can look back and realize there were people rooting for me. I had a choir teacher and she gave me a solo that was meant for
like an older kid. It was just like one of the scariest moments of my life. Yet when I was ever feeling a lack of confidence as an adult, did I remember that time?
No, I always thought about the time I was a teenager and I had a choir director make fun of me in front of the whole class and tell me I was slow. He said it as a quote-unquote joke. But it always stuck with me. I think he was frustrated with me at the time.
Just one negative comment can literally pierce your soul forever and ever.
That's when Self Doubt Ticks In
I mean I don't want to say my age but I obviously haven't been in school for years and it's like I still
remember that, and I can still picture my standing in the middle of the classroom and being made fun of in front of the entire class.
It's in the past and I didn't realize how much I was holding on to the past. But also how I had painted this narrative in my head, the story I told myself was: people don't think I'm any good. I'm not any good. I don't
deserve to take the spotlight, but I'm creative so let's find another way to be creative.
Question: So, why you thought you are going to be behind the camera?
Yes, I decided I'll stay behind the camera. It's not to say I don't love film. I love being a filmmaker I love telling stories. I knew and I'm so glad I learned these very valuable and lucrative skills, but I didn't realize
when I was learning them in my earlier YouTube years. I didn't realize it was a way for me to continue hiding.
Is it just the Mentality?
It's not just negative thoughts and negative mentality, it can also be fear that keeps you from hiding from the camera or from the spotlight.
So make sure you check out this last clip from the Fearless Female Podcast where I talk about learning to
face your fears and how I actually hid behind the camera as a filmmaker. A lot of people don't know that and how I was able to overcome that, so make sure you check out that video.
Do you really want to be in the spotlight and tackle online video but you have these fears that perhaps you haven't addressed or overcome?
If you have some fears, whether you can acknowledge what they are or not, when it comes to taking the spotlight learning that you deserve to be on camera is the key.
Question: How you overcame your fears to go from behind the camera as a filmmaker, to finally acknowledging that you deserve that spotlight and tackling online video?
Paola Rosser:As you're sitting there and you're singing, literally singing from your soul and someone says “Oh my god you sound just like Ariel!” And even listening to the lyrics of the words of that song, like
I want to be where the people are…
You were in your house alone with this creative bug inside of you this beautiful gift that you were gifted with, it's bringing tears to my eyes. Because it's honest. It's like you wanted to be where the people were, yet you were stuck at home aching to show your creativity.
And then YouTube comes into your life.
My Family's Role
I did study, I did go to choir. My family wasn't totally supportive, so they didn't pay for singing lessons. They'd let me do it but they weren't crazy about it. So I grew up in a mixed family.
Question: What was your mix?
My Dad is Mexican and my Mom is Vietnamese. So my Mexican side was always saying “You're so talented, you're the best you can do anything.”
But on the Asian side, it was mostly like “Okay, well that's interesting, how are your grades?”
You know it was all about my grades.
You know it's interesting because I still hold on to some of that baggage as an adult. I always was listening to this voice from my past saying “Mmm that's not realistic Michelle, you know the creative thing”
It's funny because for a long time, even when it came to YouTube, I was hiding behind the camera. There was a reason I hid behind the camera, even though I did choir and I did do stage stuff as a kid but it was very hard. But there was always this voice in my head saying you don't deserve the spotlight.
Do You Know What Your Fears Are?
So do you know what your fears are? Let me know and let me know your requests, maybe I can help you with them. Remember I'm not just a YouTuber, I was an actor for many years on stage even though I had terrible stage fright and was an introvert and was very shy. I also have been a Director for many years and I've learned how to make people feel comfortable on camera and eliciting genuine performances.
So I want to know what are your questions? Until next time, Dare to Dreamers never give up.
