Believe it or not, anyone can use live video to grow their audience and build connections – even introverts. And it’s not the end of the world – or the broadcast – if the Amazon delivery driver rings your bell or your toddler needs attention.
How do we deal with such disruptions, and what are the dos and don’ts of making live videos to benefit your business? How does one even get started?
Today on the podcast, guest Alicia Henderson and I talk about strategies for using live video to portray confidence, developing content and contacts, the importance of promoting, and more.
Listen in!
Mentioned in this Episode
About Alicia Henderson
Alicia Henderson is a business and online marketing strategist for service-based entrepreneurial women and the CEO of Alicia Henderson Enterprises. She has produced more than 400 live videos and uses her experience to help women leverage live video as client attraction lead magnets so they can position themselves as experts, make more money, and have the freedom to spend more time doing things they love. A Marine Corps spouse and mom of three, Alicia is also the host of the Empirenista Business Success Podcast and the founder of the Empirenista Business Group program.
If you’re looking for the skills to grow your business through the use of live video, Alicia’s got the tools (and the tool kit) for you. You can find and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Transcript
Abby Herman: If you’re new to the podcast, welcome, I work really hard to bring you informative and to the point content because let’s face it, no one has time for fluff these days. If you like what you hear, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss another episode. Today on the podcast, I am thrilled to welcome Alicia Henderson. She’s a speaker at the upcoming Content Experiment Summit in March. And on the summit, and here on this episode, she’s talking all about using live video in your business. And honestly, live video has been a huge asset in my own business. But before I go any further, let me tell you a little bit about the summit.
The Content Experiment Summit is a five day summit for coaches and course creators who are tired of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by their content. And the summit features about 25 speakers who are sharing bite sized tips and tricks on how to get a better ROI on their time and financial investments in content and marketing. There are so many people out there telling you what’s right and what’s not. And it’s really noisy, I get it. Often, we’re also listening to the same people over and over and over again talking about the same things in the same way. That’s what I think makes the Content Experiment Summit so different. I intentionally looked for business owners, who we haven’t heard from. a lot of business owners who have amazing ideas, stellar results and so much knowledge to share. But we don’t hear from them because so many summits, conferences, podcasts and partnerships, focus on email list size, social media following, and other arbitrary numbers that have nothing to do with the impact that they could give you. And I believe in letting other voices shine. So I worked really hard to make that happen.
Yeah, you’re gonna recognize some of the names that you’ll see on the summit. But I’ll bet you’ll see a lot of new faces too. You can sign up for the waiting list right now at thecontentexperiment.com/summit. Registration begins at the end of February. And while the summit is free, there is an opportunity to purchase an all access pass, where you’re going to get some extra goodies from speakers networking and co working opportunities and a lot more. A portion of all of the sales for the all access pass will go to Women of Color Connecting an organization that builds bridges between women of color and those in positions to open doors. I’m not sharing who all the speakers are yet, but I will share that everyone you’ve heard from so far this year on the podcast are all on the speaker lineup. And so is today’s guest, Alicia Henderson.
Like I said, Alicia is speaking on live video, something that every business owner can implement incredibly easily. Even if you are an introvert. and Alicia shares why video is so effective, how to decide what to create video about, how to get more viewers live, and why it’s okay if nobody shows up. What you should always include in your videos and more. And we both also share a few live video pet peeves. Sorry, not sorry. You might be guilty of one of them. Let me formally introduce Alicia before we get to the interview.
Alicia is the empire building business and live video strategist for women entrepreneurs. She helps women leverage live video as client attraction attraction lead magnets, so they can position themselves as experts make bank and have the freedom to spend more time doing the things they love. Alicia is also host of the Empirenista business success podcast and the founder of the Empirenista Business Group program, which is a coaching program designed for women entrepreneurs who want to use their visibility to have five figure months. Now without further ado, let’s hear from Alicia Henderson. Hi, Alicia, thank you so much for joining me today.
Alicia Henderson: I’m excited to be here. You’re welcome.
Abby Herman: Yes, thank you. I’m super excited to talk video with you. And to learn more about video through the summit that you are going to be on in March. I’m really excited about that. But let’s take into video and how we can use video in our business, specifically live video. So before we get started, I’ve already introduced you but could you share in your own words with listeners what you do and who you do it for?
Alicia Henderson: Hey, everyone, I am Alicia Henderson and I am a business and live video strategist. And I work with women to use live video is a high ticket client attraction magnet. So basically, what we do is we sit down and work together how we can use it as a funnel to bring warm leads into cold leads, so they can swipe the card and be ready to work with us. So we talk all about the strategy, how to feel on camera, how to look on camera, a lot of things that have to do with live video is all about mindset. So we work on mindset, like how to get competent, even when we don’t feel competent, or maybe sometimes how to fake it. Depending on how you feel that day. So we work together with that that way, you know, to show up consistently speak to the right people, because a lot of times people feel like they’re just talking to no one when they’re doing live video to call the right clients in, so that way you have the best return of investment on your time and your live videos. So that’s how we work together.
Abby Herman: Awesome. So do you work primarily one on one with clients?
Alicia Henderson: Yes. So I work one on one with clients with a video of success intensive- well that way. And the market like a boss intensive with basically, you know, course style Sometimes. I have a course called Live Stream lab. And I work with them together one on one. And then I have a group coaching program as well. But with the live video success intensive we work one to one during that time together so that way they can have the feedback from someone who has done over 400 live videos. So that way they are rest assured that they have the right strategy, and they’re doing everything necessary to have the best time with their live videos.
Abby Herman: Yes, I love that. So how does the way that you run your business and the way that you work with your clients, How does that help you to live the lifestyle that you want?
Alicia Henderson: Well, It helps me because for one, I’m an introvert. So I know that it’s tough sometimes for introverts, and just people in general to get on live video. So we want the thing that it’s going to help us to be- we can repurpose it. And we can show up one time and get the most out of the live video. And so when I’m working with my clients, I do live video as well. So it helps me to show up as one time, I can get you know, have a conversation, because life is all about having a conversation with clients. And then I’m done with that. And from there, it goes out in several different forms and stuff with different strategies and pieces of content. And so because of that, I have more time in my day, because I’m not sitting down and always writing a blog. And that’s going to take me, you know, hours and hours. And it shows my clients as well that they don’t have to do the same. They can just show up once they have content for a whole week. And then they have more time in their days to meet with their clients, or to do things that they love and their business and their lives actually, like for instance, spend time with their kids, and making sure that their kids are on task with distance learning because that’s what I’m doing right now. Learning the one live video, boom, it goes out there and then I have time to go catch up with my kids. And really, I’m building a business and I’ve been building businesses for the past 11 years that revolve around my children. And my clients, I know that they want to do the same that has helped me and helped my clients as well as building my business in my lifestyle.
Abby Herman: Yes, it’s all about the lifestyle and giving yourself some of that space. I want to go back to something that you said at the very beginning right after I asked that question, and you said that you’re an introvert. But wait, you do live video. So are you trying to say that introverts can do live video?
Alicia Henderson: Absolutely.
Abby Herman: Hopefully you can hear the sarcasm in my voice. clients all the time and people in my membership community who say well then I’m introverted. I can’t do video. Yes, you can. I’ve introverted too. And I actually love to do video now. I think it’s just a really easy way to connect. It’s a really easy way to you know, quote unquote, look at someone in the eye as you’re talking and you can build that relationship with them. Now when I’m done, I like to just go sit and read and yeah, nobody talked to me. But can you talk a little bit more about just you know, being an introvert and doing live video and why it works so well for you?
Alicia Henderson: So in my mind, I know that I want the fastest way to get in front of someone very quickly, I don’t have the time. I don’t know if y’all can’t tell. But blogging for me is just not going to get it. It’s going to take me a whole week to write a whole blog, when I can just piece together content that I know my ideal client wants to hear my audience, they want to hear something from me, I can just get on for 15-20 minutes. I don’t recommend more than 30. Because you’re going to lose your audience and say what I need to say, connect and communicate those things. And then I’m done. And like you said, After a while, I just want to decompress, and maybe listen to some music or you know, just close my eyes for a second. But as an introvert, like there’s, we really want to do that we want the quickest way, and we want the fastest way that’s going to connect.
So yes, introverts definitely can do it. And I knew that I don’t want to waste my time. And I communicate this while speaking. So why not give this a whirl? And if you know, you communicate best while speaking, why not try it out. And so when I first started out, they were disastrous, but I put together my own strategy. And I just kept doing it and doing it over time my audience grew. And then I created binge worthy content, to where all the sudden, I’m seeing comments from online videos that I did, like months ago, even years ago, all of a sudden, they’re coming back up, and people are commenting. And they’re like, Hey, I got to work with you right away. And all of a sudden, here’s an acuity, there’s a scheduled call with someone, you know, for discovery call. So for me in my life, I just know that I want to maximize my time, the best way. And as an introvert, I know I’m not going to go all the time to mingle with folks or want to do a coffee chat every day. So why not just show up the best way that I know how, and communicate what I know, connect with my audience, and boom, there you go. So yes. And a lot of celebrities are introverts, too. So I figured if Beyonce can get up there, and she’s an introvert, so can I,
Abby Herman: Mm hmm. Yes. Oh, good. Okay, yeah. So do you hear that everyone, you can do video as an introvert. And I love that you said that, like the first couple of videos that you did were not great. And that’s, I mean, that’s life, you know, anything that you do, you have to practice and you have to continue doing it, in order to do it well. And to get better at it just like in you know what, whatever your expertise is in business, the more you do it, the more you’re going to grow as a business owner, the more you’re going to grow in your industry, the better you’re going to be the higher rates you can charge. And it just, and you just keep going and you just keep growing. So yes, your first baby videos are not going to be great. And that’s okay. All right, totally. Okay, so some for someone who has had an aversion to live video, and maybe this is the year they’re going to give it a try. How do you recommend someone gets started with live video? Where do you think they go first? And what are some ways that they can kind of put that, Oh, I can’t do this, you know, attitude aside?
Alicia Henderson: Well, I definitely think that the first thing that they should do is just really know what their ideal client wants to hear about. A lot of times we create content that people don’t care to hear. So that’s the one reason why people they stopped doing live video because no one shows up. So they don’t really have a strategy when it comes to they just pick a topic, get started speaking, and then they wonder where the clients are. But you have to make sure that you know, for one, what platform Are you going to go live on? Is it going to be Instagram? Is it going to be Facebook? Is it going to be LinkedIn now? Because they finally caught on board with it? Is it going to be YouTube? What platform? Do you know your ideal client? Where do they show up? What times they show up? What do they want to know about and then you have to put your content together from there, you want to make sure that you have a captivating, like a captivating hook, what’s going to bring them in to you to say, Hey, I’m gonna watch that.
And you also want to make sure you’re promoting ahead of time. A lot of people do not promote ahead of time and when I mean promote ahead of time I’m talking about before the live broadcast. even a day before, even an hour before, make sure that you have all eyes knowing Hey, When am I going to go live. And this may even be a thing where if you’re going to start going on live video that you have a day, a certain day of the week and a certain time every you know on that day that you go so that you can have an anticipation and build up a longing to show up for your live videos. And then once you go live, remember it’s a conversation. This is you talking to your audience, even if no one’s there act like 11 you know, 100 people are there and ask them for questions and also Remember, one thing is key. Don’t forget about the replay viewers, a lot of people, they just forget about the replay viewers, but the replay viewers are the most loyal, they are the ones who are going to come back. Because they know, hey, maybe that time hasn’t worked out for them. But I know she’s got information that I want to hear about. I love how she goes live, I know how she talks about stuff. That’s how the binge worthy content is there. That’s how the audience grows. That’s how you get more comments, likes and shares.
And then when you’re done, you always want to give them a call to action, and other to take the next step with you. Because you just don’t want them to stay on your live video, you want them to join your list, you want them to have a conversation with you that you want them to share. And then after the live video, you guys still promote the video. So those are some ways that if this is going to be the year for you to start doing live video, that’s how I suggest getting into it. And practice even before your first live video, maybe put your recording on just private only, and then go live that way. But don’t watch it as soon as you get done. Because then you start critiquing yourself and picking things. But practice with a friend, practice with somebody. That way you can feel confident and just go for it.
Abby Herman: Awesome. Okay, so you said to promote after. so we know that we need to promote ahead of time, we know that we need to let somebody know that or let people know, let our audience know that we’re going live. But what do you mean by promoting afterwards?
Alicia Henderson: So afterwards, that’s also a big piece is now you want to make sure that you are you know, sending them to your list, sending a live video to your list, going back on social media and say, Hey, did you miss out? I talked about this today. So you want to you know, really, it’s almost I guess the word is all of your avenues of communication with your ideal client and with your audience. So the list, putting it on Pinterest, pinning it, putting it embedded on your website, those are the ways to get more life out of your live video and more views. And a lot of people think that they have to get a client right then and there from that one live video. But again, if it’s content that people want to hear about, if it’s binge worthy, they’ll come back and watch all live videos. So if it’s in every arena and area that you can put a possible. That’s what I mean by promoting afterwards, just saying, Hey, did you miss out? Or did you know that I had this live video sending them there? It goes to wherever platform and was on and there you go. That’s more promotion and more eyes.
Abby Herman: Okay, but what if everyone missed out? Like, what if you’re doing a live video and nobody shows up? I’ve heard a lot of people say, Well, I don’t you know, I don’t want to do it. because nobody’s there. I feel like I’m talking to myself. So how do you actually Well, first of all, is that okay? Like, should you continue the video if nobody’s watching? And second of all, how do you start to get people to show up live so that you’re not just talking to yourself?
Alicia Henderson: Well, it’s okay if nobody showed up, because I have plenty of those when no one has showed up. But when I look at the analytics and the insights, I know that people did watch because I see the views. So it’s perfectly fine. If no one comes on live, you’re still going to talk to your audience as if there’s 100,000 people, you know, listening to you, and you know, having a conversation, and you can still engage- and I’m doing some air quotes- with your audience, even if no one’s there, asking them questions. This is going to help you when it comes to someone watching the replay, because they’re going to answer the question, they’re going to like and give you feedback. So ask them engaging question, say, hey, if you can relate to this, put an emoji like a hand raise emoji or a heart emoji, or put a number one or a whatever. Also, if no one showed up live, remember the replay viewers are important. tell them to use hashtag replay. When one person use hashtag replay, everybody else will do it, too.
Alicia Henderson: So one thing I like to recommend if I’m going live, and you also always want to go live on your business page, especially on Facebook, we don’t want to do it on our personal page, because we’re not going to see the insights, we’re not going to know where the audience came from. It could be your aunties and your uncl’s watching when that’s not your ideal client. So if we go live on our business page, and while we’re doing it in the first two minutes, we share it to our personal page because many of us have networking colleagues on there. And if we share it into maybe a community that allows us to share live video too, then this will help to bring people in. This will help to bring an audience in because maybe they just forgot, you know it maybe they didn’t send a notification to attend your live video. So if they forgot that’s completely fine. So still speak to your audience, as if you have 100,000 people there on the live video. still interact, still ask questions. Still be engaged. And then at the end say, I don’t see any questions or comments. But at the if you leave a comment and you’re watching the replay, I’ll come back and I’ll answer your question or I’ll interact with you. I would love for you guys to share this with a friend, a bestie, someone that you know, that could hear this message or wants to know this information. This helps to get more, you know, more confidence, get more views, the more shares the more comments helps your live video to show up in the feed. So that’s one way that you can do that, to get more views on there as well.
Abby Herman: I love that. Yes, I think that we’re so fixated on seeing like large numbers of people watching us live that we don’t take into account, all of the people who could be watching afterwards, I actually had a client who did a series in the fall all around. She did a Facebook Live series where she invited somebody to come on live with her, someone in her industry. And every Monday for an entire month. She did these lives. She had very few views during the lives, but there were 300 400 500 people who watched afterwards within just like 24 hours. So it was amazing how many people watched afterwards. Andshe was discouraged at first about, you know, not having enough people watching live. So yeah, so that’s good to know that Yeah, there’s a lot of things that you can do to get people engaged after the fact even if they’re not there live. So I wanted to ask about strategy. You mentioned a little bit about strategy, when and how you started your lives. What should that look like? Like How do we know what we should be talking about? Where we should go live? How long those should be? Is there a certain structure that we should keep in mind? Like, what does that look like when we’re developing our video strategy?
Alicia Henderson: Well, the first thing you want to do is you always want to go off of your script. And the script will tell you how the strategy goes. So what you want to do is you want to make sure you like I said, you want to have a hook that invites them, you want to have an introduction, you want to have three to five main points. And you want to have a call to action. So creating before you even get the script, you want to make sure you have content that they want to know about. So I always ask my audience, hey, what do you want to know about live video? Or what do you want to know about business strategy or you know, operating a business, when you have kids at home, I ask detailed questions, because that’s going to help me to create my content. And that’s going to help me to create my tips. And, of course, there’s different types of live videos that you can create. But you always want to have the content you know, your audience wants to hear about, that they want to know about, because that’s going to create the structure of your script.
So once you do that, and you have a call to action, and you have the promotion afterwards, and you have the before, which you know, we really work in detail that out, then you can get more live videos- more views on your live video. So my strategy is that first, start out with my content, what do they want to know? I map that out, I brain dump that. And I usually can get several live videos just from one brain dump. And then I create my strategy from there. So then I laid out and say, hey, how’s this gonna work with my promotional strategy? Where’s this gonna go when it comes to what I’m promoting for the month or for the week or whatnot. And then I started to promote those live videos, then the strategy looks like me sitting down on the same day, every time of the week. And I say, Hey, I go live. And then I promoted afterwards. So there’s a lot of promotion before and then during you have your script, and that lays out. And it doesn’t have to necessarily be a script where you read word for word, because a lot of people get tripped up over that. I literally have like three by five cards that has my bullet points there. And I talk about it. And then I make sure that I have my, like ring light on if I need to. And I just do my live video and I promote from there.
Abby Herman: Have you ever used- now I mean, I’m not going to remember the name of it. But like one of those teleprompter apps? Have you ever used one of those to like if there was something that you really wanted to say something in a specific way or anything like that?
Alicia Henderson: No, I actually have never use a teleprompter at all. Normally, what I’ll do is I’ll even have a Google Doc. And let’s see, sometimes for me, I started off doing my live videos on my phone. And that’s where I put the strategy together to have the three by five cards. And so often what I do is I repeat what my- when I promote my live video and I’ll ask a question. I’ll just repeat that question as my hook in the beginning of my live video, and then I’ll read that off and that will Probably be the only thing that I read off of any screen, just because for me, I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t have to read anything off of a screen. If someone’s just starting out, they can do that. But I think if they took the strategy of just one sentence that they read off, that would help them. And that way, you know, and they don’t have a lot of people get tripped up over the script part.
Abby Herman: But really, as soon as you get off script, like, as soon as you miss a word, and then you start to fumble, because you’re like, Oh, dang, I messed up. And yes, yeah, so you get really fixated on having it be absolutely perfect. Yes.
Alicia Henderson: And then when you get fixated on it, it’s like, everything goes downhill from there. Because all you’re thinking about is that fumble. So in order to that way, so that way, they don’t fumble, that’s why I always recommend a three by five card or a five by seven card if they really need something bigger. Because now I do my live videos on my computer with E cam. Now, it’s just easier for me to have a three by five card or even a sticky note. Like just tape them to the screen so that way, I just stay on task. But really, it just takes reading that one sentence will help them get started. And having a three by five card or the five by seven card were the bullet points because bullet points help you to stay on task versus you don’t have to read word for word. And I think a lot of people also as they’re going through the strategy, they get really set on making sure that it’s perfect. But we have to remember that you know, live video, there’s all kinds of things going on your case, probably running around the background, the dog might bark, Amazon might come and ring the doorbell. So you’re going to get it off script at some point in time, tripped up. But if you have that three by five cards, it can bring you back in and center you. It’s okay. And live video is not meant to be perfect. It is live and in its life. And that’s what makes you more relatable online video when they see all those things versus everything being perfect. And you look like a robot.
Abby Herman: Yes, thank you for saying that. I totally agree. Like nothing is ever perfect shoot, even my recorded podcast episodes are not perfect even and I use a script for what I do my solo episodes, I use a script. And I’ve been working really hard at trying to go at forcing myself to go off script here and there so that it sounds a little more natural. But yeah, it’s human. Like we’re all human. And when you strive for perfection, and you want everything to be super shiny, and perfect, and all of that you become unrelatable. And people look at what you’re doing. And they think oh, well, you know, like, that’s a little much for me. And I’m not, I can’t be perfect, like Alicia or Abby or you know, whatever. It’s just the I like the idea of being imperfect, just a lot more personality to when you can deal with the dog barking and, you know, Amazon ringing the doorbell and all of that and then be able to come back to it. It shows I think it shows resilience, and it shows that you can be focused and all of that. So yeah, I love that. Thank you. Okay, so I know that there’s a ton of different options when it comes to live video. You mentioned LinkedIn, there’s Instagram, or Instagram Live, there’s Facebook Live, there’s, I don’t know, I don’t know if Tik Tok has a live option. I have no idea because
Alicia Henderson: I don’t think so.
Abby Herman: I’m too old for Tik Tok but I mean, there, there are a lot of different options. What do you think is like the easiest option for someone who just wants to start practicing? Where would you send them First?
Alicia Henderson: I think the easiest place would be Facebook, I think because everyone’s already on Facebook. And you know, regardless of whatever your audience is of who they are, they spend time there. So it’s easier to bring them onto Facebook to do the live video and you can see the comments. You can interact, you can share that with their you know, your audience, and they can share, it’s just a lot easier to start off there. So it’s probably a lot easier to start off with your phone doing live video as well. Because it’s right there you have it. We always- I don’t know how many seconds people are picking up their phone all the time. But it’s always there for us to you know, to use and stuff. Yeah, just pick it up and hit live video just hit live and start talking. You have a strategy though.
Abby Herman: And I have a tip too, for people who are like, oh, but the tech, I don’t know how to do it. So years ago, I created a kind of a fake Facebook group. And I’m the only person in the group. It’s just me and I use that as a place to test things out. So if you feel like you need to test something, create yourself a fake group and don’t let anybody in and make it totally hidden and private. So that you can just practice things there. I also do like some practice. The client that I mentioned, I was helping her figure out how to hook things up. And so I was playing around with things in that Facebook group. And I let her in so that we could play around. And yeah, it was just a really easy, safe place to start putting my face, you know, start putting my face out there when I was first getting started.
Alicia Henderson: So that’s, that’s a really good idea. And like, to your point about making sure you’re setting up and make sure you’re not fumbling and whatnot, you definitely want to set up whatever you’re using ahead of time. So if you have like, e cam or B live or a ring light or a microphone or something, you definitely want to set that up beforehand. So that way, you’re not fumbling with it as you hit go live. Because then it’s like, What is she doing? What is he doing? I don’t know, are we- does she know that she’s live, because that’s happened before. And that’s just life. So you want to make sure that if you’re using anything additional that you test it out before, so that way, you’re not trying to adjust it while you’re going live. And because that can just be totally distracting. And it may take time off of your live video. And you could lose an audience or people that did show up live because they’re not they don’t know what you’re doing. So you definitely want to make sure you have the setup of your equipment, the setup of your content together those two things before you even hit live, go live at all.
Abby Herman: And then you look a lot more polished because you are starting on time, because you’ve got your act together. And yes, I totally agree. Yeah. So in the summit, you are going to share some tips on how to uplevel our live video. Can you share a tidbit or two? Like maybe there like a couple of mistakes that you’ve seen people make in live video and ways that we can kind of just tweak them and perfect them?
Alicia Henderson: Yes. So this is interesting, because I’m going to be sharing that today on Instagram some mistakes that I see people make on live video. So yes, one mistake that I do see people do is that they take so long to get to their content, or they take so long to even start their live video. What that means is those give their hook and they’ll say who they are, but then they’ll just wait a good five to 10 minutes for people to come on. And that is something to where you’ll lose the viewers right away, even on the replay, because they don’t want to sit there and wait for you to get to whatever you’re going to talk about. They want the good stuff right away.
So I always recommend that in the beginning of your video or your live video, you start within the first two minutes. You say you do your hook, you say who you are, you say who the live video is for. So that way you know you have the right audience on and you say if you’re using hashtag replay, do that in the beginning. And then you get to your content, because we don’t want to lose live video viewers whether they are there live or they are on the replay. Because that’s just a waste of people’s time. And you want to show people that you value their time you appreciate them showing up and you know, you’re appreciating you’re thankful for your audience. So that’s one mistake that I see people make often, too even where I’m sitting there like Girl, you don’t get to the information or what, like I’ve got things to do. Yes. So that is one mistake is just taking too long to get to the point, taking too long to even just start and say this is what we’re going to be chatting about. You don’t have to go straight to the information, but at least let them know, Hey, this is going to be what we’re talking about and get to your story and whatnot, but just taking five to 10 minutes. That’s just outrageous. So that’s Mistake number one that I see. And another mistake that I see is when people are eating while they’re going live.
Abby Herman: What? no,
Alicia Henderson: yes,
Abby Herman: no.
Alicia Henderson: Yes. Girl, you would be surprised. people are just sitting there putting food in their mouth. smacking their food, you can see the food in their mouth
Abby Herman: while they’re the host?
Alicia Henderson: Yes, while they’re the host. while they’re the hosts. And again, your live videos do not have to be perfect but and this is a conversation and we’re all about being relatable. You know, for me, I’ve had my kids pass me notes when I’m going live, you’ll see me do a thumbs up or thumbs down or I’ll go like, you know, kill it sign like too much noise. but you will never see me come and you will never see me have food in my mouth or gum. Because people don’t want to see that it’s so distracting. And it’s gross. And they’re letting chewing and smacking at the same time. This is how this happens often on Instagram, more than Facebook Live. But people just feel comfortable enough to come on live and do that. But you have to remember that one is just discussing and you disclose that your audience, but you want your live videos to be something where you can repurpose them. And you don’t want to come back three, you know two, three years later, and you’re thinking why did I do that? Why did I have food in my mouth and also talking about food in my mouth. That is true. I have seen people do that. I’ve seen people talk with food in their mouth.
And another one that I’ve seen is we just talked about is fumbling with the equipment, like the ring lights going on and off. They’re adjusting the camera and all those things and that’s just again, distracting. Yeah. If you make sure that you have your strategy and your script in place your content together ahead of time, your equipment together and that you ate before because you know, the food helps to energize us. Then you know, your videos will be better.
Abby Herman: Yeah. Oh, my gosh, yeah, I cannot I have to share one that drives me crazy, too. Can I share? Yeah, maybe you can add this to Instagram that you do later today. But something that drives me crazy, and this is going to sound extremely vain. But I’m gonna say it anyway, because I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t like it when people show up to live video or any video record could be recorded video because I’ve seen it on recorded video to where they’re trying so hard to be the Oh, I just rolled out of bed and I’ve got my hair is a hot mess. And I’m in my pajamas. Which by the way, I’m in my pajamas right now. But I’m not on video- well underneath my sweatshirt I’m in my pajamas. But I feel like sometimes people try so hard to be that just rolled out of bed look that and to me It’s not- And sometimes that people truly did just get out of bed and their hair sticking up all over the place and all of that. My thought process behind this is you know, I get that we’re on like, a lot of us are, just we’re online business owners we work you know, on zoom, we work in our home offices. I love it. I’m wearing slippers, I’m wearing pajama bottoms. However, we need to like make an effort and show our audience that we care by making some sort of effort to you know, fine, put your hair in a bun, like, that’s fine. Can you put a little bit of makeup on, like, get dressed a little bit so that it shows that you’re making some sort of effort and when you’re doing video for like something promotional for something that you’re trying to sell, really make more of an effort to be presentable.
Alicia Henderson: Yes.
Abby Herman: sounds totally vain. But and because I know anything without makeup on these days, because I’m old and my skin is not great. So but I always have makeup on now. But sometimes I’ll do my hair in a bun. But I didn’t go live. I didn’t do anything on Instagram or Instagram stories for the whole, like all around to the holidays. Because i probably washed my hair twice the entire time. I did not want to put myself out there because it just didn’t it didn’t feel right to me.
Alicia Henderson: Yes. So the only time when that would be acceptable if it’s if it’s on brand, if it’s on
Abby Herman: Yeah, totally.
Alicia Henderson: Yeah, only time. So like, for instance, I’m wearing a workout halter top right now I was supposed to work out like at 6am. And it was just too cold for me to do that. But if I was someone who like that was a part of my brand, then that’s okay. Yeah, not to be sweaty though. But like, maybe put a fresh one on or something and wash your face. So that would be the only time It’s okay. I always say if you- because a lot of people don’t want to do live because they don’t know how to do their makeup. So let’s talk about that because you did mention it. I always say if you cannot do your makeup, the best you can do is make sure your face is moisturize. You have a little bit of Vaseline. if you don’t like to wear lip gloss because you know Vaseline- that is the equivalent for moisturize lip and put on some mascara. Just you know, blot your face. If it’s shiny and get on camera, make sure your hair just look presentable. Even if it’s a messy bun. That’s better than the I just rolled out of bed hair. Like it’s a bad bun. Like we don’t want that we want the crust out of our eyes and the crust away from our lips and our teeth. But once you do that, because again, you don’t want to have these to be repurposed.
So many people think that a live video is just a live video and that’s it, but it’s not. And so I can see how that’s a big pet peeve of yours because people will notice those things. And so oftentimes, because live video is the first interaction that people have when working with you, that’s gonna be the thing where they say, Oh, no, I don’t care what she has to say because that is-that’s annoying me right there. Right You know the you just run out of bed or the you know, the Lord the food chewing, I’m still on that. Like I can’t believe that people do that. But that’s the first interaction. And so oftentimes live video is like, we’re working with cold leads most times when it comes to live video. And so the live video is supposed to cut down the whole know, like, and trust client journey. So if you are rolling out of bed with your pajamas on with like, you know, coffee stains and whatever else there is, then that’s going to turn people off. Unless it’s people who like coffee stains on clothes, but you can’t repurpose them, a lot of times people use their live videos as ads. Again, if they’re selling something, that’s not going to cut it, that’s just, that’s, that’s totally unprofessional. But, you know, you just got to remember that it’s something we can repurpose.
Now, I will say that this is not a pet peeve. But I want to say for those of you who have kids at home, and when you were talking about up leveling your live videos, it’s okay if your kids come on live with you. I’ve done several, I’ve probably done 30 of them. Where my kids, my son has walked into the camera, he wants me to pick them up and I pick him up and I just keep on going. That’s why I have my three by five cards there. And you know, when he wants to get down, he just goes down. Again, you’ll see sometimes my arms, the arms of my children, my oldest daughters, they’re handing me a note and I’m circling yes or no, and I’m handing it back to them. And you know, they’re off to do their own thing. So I don’t want to discourage you, for those of you who have children that to not do live video, because that’s a big thing as well. It kind of does up level your live video when people can see your life when they can
Abby Herman: You’re human. Yeah.
Alicia Henderson: So that’s another piece, keep the human piece there to upload a live video. Because if they say you know what, she’s a mom, and her kid just came into the camera, and she didn’t skip a beat. And even if she was flustered, and we didn’t know, oh my gosh, she’s relatable. Like, I can listen to her, I can see her as an expert, because live video is there to establish us as an expert, because she’s able to do these things. And you might be thinking that wouldn’t. I don’t know how anyone would think that- you’d be surprised. Yeah, you’ll be surprised because you will have someone say, Oh my gosh, your son is so cute. How did you do that? Like literally I have people after my live video say How were you able to stay on task? and have your son or your daughter send you a note saying Can I have chips circle Yes or no? So that is the relatable piece and I feel like that does up level you being human. But the other stuff really what we just mentioned will take your live videos down to the gutter.
Abby Herman: Yeah. Well and and not only does like picking up your son in the middle of a live video show that you’re human, I think it also attracts people who you know, like you were saying it attracts people who have young kids at home who need somebody you know, you know, they really want to do live video, but they have these little these little guys at home, and how is it even going to be possible, uh, wait, Alicia has a little one and she’s able to do it, she can probably teach me how to do it too. So it, I think it makes you the expert not only in the live video component, but in the live video with little ones at home at the same time.
So and I want to go back to my comment about the makeup too, and, and the rolling out of bed. If you know, I think that whatever you do, and however you show up on live video or anywhere online doesn’t necessarily have to be live video, but it should be relatable to your brand, it should be connected to your brand. So if you do not wear makeup, don’t like put on makeup just because you should get makeup. Like you know, if that’s not something that you do, that’s fine. It shouldn’t be there just should not be a complete disconnect between the professional branded photos that you have on your website and on social media, to what you’re putting out there in video or any other way. Like there shouldn’t be a complete disconnect there. Because I don’t think that your I don’t think that your branded video your branded images. Are you in your pajamas, or with the messy bun are just rolling out of bed you probably took some time without so I think that it’s it makes sense to take the same amount of time to get ready for your videos as well. Not every time. But some of the time. Yeah, so it shouldn’t be a complete disconnect.
Alicia Henderson: I agree. And I always tell women especially learn how to do a five to seven minute beat. And what that is, is a signature look that takes you five to seven minutes. So that way you don’t have to put so much thought process into how am I going to look on camera. Oh my gosh. That’s another reason why people don’t do live video is because they don’t like the way they either look on video or how they sound. And those are two excuses when you can change or you can least put some effort into how you look. So if that means just running a brush through your hair, do that, to create a five to seven minute beat look where you can get up on camera, it doesn’t take you that long, and you still feel comfortable and confident and it’s on brand. So it looks like I gave a crap. Even though I mean I feel like it today. And maybe you know there’s all these things going on. At least I gave, you know I care enough to present myself in a way where there’s not a disconnect from the brand of photoshoot to hear. There’s not this planet you know, disconnect.
So that’s what I always encourage people to do is to have Like a five to seven, you know, look all the time. it never fails. And YouTube, Google Lena, aka Google will help you to do this. And so will YouTube. Yeah, that’s what I always say. So, you know, and I always tell people just fill in your eyebrows if you feel like you need to put on some mascara, put on some Vaseline and go, let’s not use the way that we look as an excuse, because that boils my, you know, blood when I hear people say, Well, I don’t look good on camera. Well, it’s okay. Nobody starts off looking good on camera, we are not doing a whole video production in a studio, where we have a makeup artist there that can help us you need to do your own makeup artists, and help yourself out your own stylist and help yourself out especially in these days.
Abby Herman: Well, and so you have a toolkit, livestream success toolkit to help people get started. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Alicia Henderson: Yes. So the live stream success tool kit has all the tools that you can ever need to do live video. So we talked about the equipment, like a microphone, a ring light, what type of software to use, if you want to get started doing live video on your computer, if it’s for like iOS, or if it’s just a regular, you know, Windows upgraded base computer, we talked about those things. And I also provide strategy in the live stream success toolkits, how to get started and how to start using it right away. So it’s just Hey, you have no excuses. It’s like a no excuse guy to say, here’s all the equipment that you need to get started in house. Here’s how to apply it to your live streams.
Abby Herman: Yes. And Where can people find that?
Alicia Henderson: They can find it- Oh, you put me on the spot. What’s the link? I think it’s AliciaHenderson.biz/livestreamsuccesstoolkit.
Abby Herman: Okay, perfect. And we will have a link to that in the show notes as well. And where else can people find you online?
Alicia Henderson: You can find me online over on Instagram @Alicia HendersonBiz. In my Facebook community. It’s private. It’s free. We all we talk about live video all the time. We have go live Tuesday where I encourage all the members to come in and practice or live video over it’s called the Empirenista Business Incubator. There you can find me on LinkedIn at Alicia Henderson biz. And on Facebook. Alicia Henderson, business strategist.
Abby Herman: Fantastic, well I will be sure to include links to all of those and your Facebook group in the show notes as well. I am super excited to have you as part of the summit and I can’t wait to learn more from you. It has been so great chatting.
Alicia Henderson: Oh, thank you. It’s been fun. I love talking about all things live video as you can see.
Abby Herman: Thank you so much. What a fun conversation right? thank you so much for listening in today. I had a lot of fun and this conversation motivated me to take a closer look at how I’m doing live video or not doing it right now. I can’t wait to see what Alicia shares with you at the Content Experiment Summit. Be sure to get on the waiting list add to thecontentexperiment.com/summit. If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it over on Instagram stories. tag me @AbbyMHerman and Alicia @AliciaHendersonBiz. The more you share the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time. Take care
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
