The 3 Biggest Mistakes Smart, Spiritual Entrepreneurs Make When Recording Videos

She didn’t put it off until her background was perfect and her hair was just right. My guess is, she felt the impulse and hit record in under an hour, if not a few minutes. Sharing content that feels ALIVE and INSPIRED like this is key to being able to sustainably create engaging content.

This is big!!!! A lot of people (myself included occasionally) record a video and then never publish it. Whether it’s because you second-guess yourself and let your perfectionist tendencies run wild, or just have a hard time with the technical side of getting it edited or uploaded, it’s easy to let a video sit on our phone and never upload it. When you post a video, you give yourself practice (not just in recording, but also in posting) PLUS you open up to the possibility of getting some positive feedback, which is what feeds the fire and inspiration to keep going.

She wasn’t tense, awkward or stilted and she wasn’t pretending to be someone she’s not. She was thoughtful and shared from her heart, wisdom and experience. Even if this is the first video you’ve ever watched of hers (which let’s face it, it probably was!) you probably finished it feeling like you can feel and know a little bit of her essence.

That is the beauty of casual, authentic, vulnerable videos.

Even on the heavy topic of grief, she found a way to crack herself up (look around time stamp 1:40 for the start of that thought). This is one of the things that makes videos super engaging and connecting. It is something I (am pretty sure) I mentioned in 1-Take Video Secrets but she clearly didn’t force a reason to do it, it just came naturally. The important thing is she let herself giggle when she felt like it–despite the serious topic of the video. It made me smile, and I bet it made you smile, too. Genuine shared laughter or smiles is a natural connection-builder.

Okay, now on to where I see room for improvement…

First off, I want to say, if you are making these mistakes right now, it’s FINE. Don’t take your videos down, don’t go back and re-do them. Just leave them alone and make the adjustments NEXT time you record.

It’s OKAY that you are a work in progress (we all are!) and you should be celebrating the fact that you got a damn video done at ALL rather than lamenting the ways it’s not perfect. #DoneIsBetterThanPerfect

In her initial email to me, Melissa commented on the fact that you can kind of see up her nose a bit.

Is it the end of the world?

No.

Is it a bit strange and distracting and does it slightly break the rapport?

Yes, it does.

The good news is, it’s an easy fix.

Imagine that instead of the phone in your hand, it was my fully-alive and free-standing head, lol.

Would you rest my head down in your lap and make me look up at you or would you try to position me at the same height as you so we can see each other eye to eye?

Who the hell knows what you’d do with that bizarre scenario, lol, but I bet that visualization will help you hold your camera up better next time!!!

Being eye-to-eye with your viewers (or in this case, more precisely, eye-to-camera) will go a long way toward helping them see you better and feel more connected to you.

In this case, she might have rested her hand on the steering wheel while recording or set the camera up on the dashboard (depending on the configuration of the car). Sometimes I find it helps to rest my elbow on something while I record, or to brace it with my other hand.

Holding it out in front of you might serve to make your video a bit more concise as your arm gets tired, lol.

But whether you drop it because your arm gets tired, you have an injury that restricts your movement, or something else, the next best solution to actually raising the camera is to verbally acknowledge the camera position.

You might say something like, “Sorry you’re kinda looking up my nose today, but I hurt my shoulder and I just can’t raise my arm that much, but this message felt too important not to share…”

As long as your audience knows that you know, they’ll stop being distracted and be able to focus on what you’re saying.

This follows from the previous mistake. It seems like a subtle difference, but viewers can really tell whether you are looking at yourself on the phone or whether you’re looking at the camera.

There are a number of reasons we look at ourselves instead of the camera. It can be super distracting to see all the things that we don’t like about our setup, but it can also be a strange way of feeling less alone and getting validated as we talk.

Either way, the focus is to connect with the viewer, and the best way to do that is to, you know… actually look like you’re looking at them! 📷

Once you get the camera positioned at eye level, make sure to look AT the camera as you record, not down at the screen. (Some people put a post-it note on their screen at first to practice.)

This is something I go into in a lot more detail in my online course, Be Yourself in Video. I teach you how to figure out exactly where the camera is if you aren’t sure, as well as how to feel like you’re actually making eye contact with a person even tho you’re just staring at that little spot on the glass.

You can look away from the camera sometimes like you naturally would break eye contact during a conversation with someone. But the important thing is you come back to that spot on the camera when you are ready to make the connection again.

I admit, this one is WAY less clear-cut than the other two mistakes, but when I look at where there’s room for improvement in Melissa’s video, this is the third thing that comes up for me….

If you or I were sitting silently in front of Melissa while she said all that, do you think she would have smiled a little more? Or held warm, loving eye contact a little longer?

The main measure I would use for this is, if I skim through your video without audio, are your facial expressions connecting with me like I imagine they would if we were in person? If it’s a funny video maybe you’re laughing (or deadpan) or if it’s a serious video like this one, maybe you’re looking at me with more compassion and tenderness…

This is a tricky one because on the one hand, I’m saying “Be Relaxed! Be Yourself! Be Authentic!” and on the other hand, I’m saying “But Pretend You’re Talking to a Real Person Even Tho You’re Not!”

But the thing is, you ARE talking to a real person.

(I have an entire module and visualization exercise on this in Be Yourself in Video called “Connecting Across Space and Time.”)

Essentially, what I’m asking you to do is to defy the space-time continuum and connect from your heart to the person who is watching in the future AS IF they are with you now as you record (because you ARE right there in front of them by the time they watch your video…)

This might mean asking questions even tho you won’t hear the person answering…

This might mean smiling like you would if they were right there in front of you …

Or it might mean letting yourself pause to silently connect with them for a moment after you’ve said something meaningful…

This will amp up the engagement and connection factor on your videos dramatically.

It isn’t as simple of a fix as moving your camera or adjusting where you’re looking, but give it a try and see how it goes!

Of course, if you want more support from me, you can always join my program, Be Yourself in Video for a more self-paced, DIY approach or sign up to work with me 1-on-1 on for a VIP Intensive, to get individualized coaching and support to dramatically uplevel your video presence–FAST!

Now, before we go, I wanted to just name a couple things that COULD be of concern to some people, but I don’t think are worth worrying about right now.

If the whole video was as shaky as the beginning, it would probably be pretty distracting, but after the initial movement, it settles down and I don’t find that it detracts from the video overall. Would it be nice if none of our videos were every shaky like that? Sure, but is it more important to just get the videos done and share yourself with the world? ABSOOOOOOOLUTELY!

Some people might say this video is slightly rambly. Or that she talks too slowly. Or doesn’t get to the point fast enough. But they, my dear, would be missing the point (and the context).

Sure, nowadays many people have a 3-second (or is it 1/3 of a second now?) attention span and want you to give them everything immediately or they click away.

Will she lose those viewers?

Probably.

Are they her people?

Probably not.

By being herself in her video, she is attracting people who like her for who she is and how she shows up today.

If you’re on my email list, you know I write long-@ss emails.

Is that everyone’s cup of tea?

Of course not. Some people hate to read.

But it’s how I naturally am, so if I just do that, I will attract the people who, not only, are okay with that, but actually appreciate it.

Besides, only a small fraction of the world is going to see this video compared to her 100th or 1,000th video. She has plenty of time to refine her style, find out if slow is usually gonna be her speed or if it’ll change as her videos evolve.

But who she attracts only matters if you think the point of this video is to get viewers.

The #1 most important purpose of this video is to build Melissa’s video-recording muscles and build momentum in her business, and from that perspective, it was a glowing success.

If she hadn’t followed the inspiration to record this video, she wouldn’t have been featured in this case study and gotten all this feedback from me, which will help her improve her future videos. This video is a small stepping stone along her journey to sharing her gifts with the world and helping the people she was put on this planet to help.

And if you want more support and guidance along YOUR journey to sharing your gifts with the world and helping the people you were put on this planet to help, you can always join my program, Be Yourself in Video for a more self-paced, DIY approach or sign up to work with me 1-on-1 on for a VIP Intensive, to get individualized coaching and support to dramatically uplevel your video presence–FAST!