020 Stay Calm + Prep Smart!
Time to tackle the dreaded video jitters, sharing practical tips on staying calm, prepping smart, and overcoming nerves before hitting record.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is a simple way to manage last-minute video jitters?
A) Take deep breaths and reframe nerves as excitement
B) Avoid recording altogether
C) Read a long script word-for-word
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Answer: A) Take deep breaths and reframe nerves as excitement - much easier than the other options 😉
Stay Calm + Prep Smart! Overcome Your Video Nerves!
Feeling nervous before recording a video? You’re not alone! In this episode, we explore the best ways to manage last-minute jitters, build a pre-video routine, and use breathing and pausing to boost your confidence on camera. Whether you're creating content for your business or personal brand, these strategies will help you feel more at ease and ready to shine.
Stepping in front of a camera can be nerve-wracking, but with the right preparation, those pre-video jitters can turn into positive energy. One of the key strategies is to reframe nervousness as excitement, using deep breaths and simple movement exercises to shake off tension. By reminding yourself that your video is about serving your audience—not achieving perfection—you can shift your mindset and boost confidence.
A solid pre-video routine makes a world of difference. Whether it's following a checklist, warming up your voice, or running a quick test recording, these small steps help you feel more prepared. Pausing and breathing naturally during your video not only improves clarity but also helps your audience absorb your message. Remember: your audience isn't looking for perfection, they want to connect with you!
If prioritizing tasks feels overwhelming, start with one key action that moves your business forward. Avoid over-preparing by using a simple dot-point script instead of memorizing lines, and give yourself grace—every video is a learning experience. If you’re ready to take your video confidence to the next level, book a session with Zoë Wood at VCC.Training and get the guidance you need to grow your brand with video!
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00:00 – Introduction and weekly check-in
06:30 – How to manage last-minute video jitters
12:45 – Creating a pre-video routine for relaxation and focus
19:10 – The role of breathing and pausing in video confidence
27:00 – Practicing without over-preparing: Finding the balance
35:20 – Prioritizing tasks when everything piles up
43:15 – The importance of audience connection and authenticity
50:50 – Wrap-up and final thoughts
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Zoë Wood 2:40
Zo
Zoë Wood 2:46
But before I begin, I wanted to welcome everyone who is joining us on the live stream. We leave. We record this live stream on LinkedIn and on YouTube at 10am every Friday, from 10 to 11am is what I like to do. You can have your comments in the comments. Feel free, even if you're watching on the hashtag replay, feel free to comment your thoughts, your ideas, or any topics that you want to discuss. I'm always happy to put them into future live streams, or if I may see them in time, I make sure to answer them as we are live. You can find out more information, plus show notes, as well as my live stream and podcasts and future events at Vcc dot training, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadaw people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I conduct my business today. I pay my respects to the elders past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand. G'day everyone to this week's video confidence, connect with your host, Zoe with the video, confidence, coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video, strategies, and welcome to the video confidence, connects so do not worry, it is not. G'day everyone to this week's video confidence, connect with your host, Zoe with the video, confidence, coach, smashing your marketing. G'day everyone to this week's video confidence, connect with your host, Zoe with the video, confidence, Coach. G'day everyone to this week's video confidence, connect with. your host. Zo Wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. And welcome to the video, confidence, connect. So do not worry. It is not you haven't seen anything wrong. This is I am currently wearing a hat that I got last night. I went to the Geelong after five, Geelong chamber after five, I should say, and we were hosting that at Avalon airport, which is a local airport down to me in around the Geelong area. So it's a little bit north, so it's between the Melbourne and Melbourne Airport, which is telemarine and Geelong, so there's a airport in between, and it's now opening up to international passengers as of next week or the week after. So we got to explore that space. So that was nice. So I won the opportunity to do like a paper plane tossing contest. I didn't win because I only got, like, maybe a foot or two, but I got a hat. So who wins? I did I win, but congratulations to Jeff for winning. You did a very good job on the paper plane. So I'll take that there and leave that and refer to that throughout today. With them and their fight against injustice, always was, always will be Aboriginal land. And for what we've accomplished this week, what I'd like to do is just a weekly check in with you via live stream about what has been happening at the video confidence coach, so this week has been a bit of a week, as most of you who are experiencing this in real time, the second week of February has been a bit of a hard one for a lot of people. I think it's just very much the feeling of hitting the ground running, not having enough time to actually rest over that December, January period. And now everyone's back at work, everyone's back into the swing of things. It is proving to be very exhausting, and a lot of people are already exhausted. So I want to say that I'm here for you. I completely understand, and which is why I like to make marketing less exhausting. Here we are. You can do this or I. The way that I like to do it is by my focus for this quarter is the glow and grow branding session. All it is, is an hour of your time and multiple hours of my time. But for $350 we're able to overcome any marketing issue that you're having and be able to grow your either your personal brand or your small business with the power of your marketing in the least amount of effort as possible, and hopefully something that you're passionate about too. So you can check that out on my website, VCC, dot training again, I would like to thank the Geelong chamber is my local chamber down here for their they hold regular after five events. So after five is a networking event that is held, as you can imagine, after 5pm and this most recent one as of so today is the 14th of February. Happy Valentine's Day. The next the yesterday was the 13th, and that's what was held at the international terminal of the Avalon airport, which in turn, I got my cool Ricky dinky hat, which doesn't actually fit, over my headphones and my hair. My hair and headphones are quite big, so that's probably not going to stay on put, but we'll see how we go. So thank you. Everyone who I talked to last night or had a chance to meet, do not worry, I will be following up today. I have so many things to follow up on, notes and letters and things for me to touch on. So do not worry, you will all be reached out to today, and if not early Monday morning, we will definitely reach out to one. But essentially, it was great to meet you all in that lovely location, and upcoming for the next week. We we don't have any networking events that I'm attending or hosting. I do have a lot of one to one meetings with potential clients, or for any just regular catch up. So if you are interested in just having a quick yarn, 15 minutes, no obligation, chat about your marketing or what you could possibly achieve with working with me. Or if not just have someone with expertise point you in the right direction, you can again reach out to me on Vcc dot training, but yes, for all the people that I'm going to be seeing next week, hi, do not worry. I haven't forgot about you. I will, well, you already receive a fair few emails and communications from me. I am trying to scale that back a bit, because I am been told it's a bit overwhelming. But in the meantime, I will make sure to say hi and reach out to you, all of you on the live stream upcoming on our podcast that will be released on Sunday. So for those who may not know, I run two podcasts, mainly because I also run a group called the Vic podcasters. And as you can imagine, it's for Victorian podcasters down here in us, in the state of Victoria in Australia, I run a group, both on Facebook, LinkedIn and an email newsletter that helps people build and grow their podcasts, either starting from a hobby or using it as a way to market their business. I have minimum 15 years experience of working both as a Podcast Producer, listening to podcasts daily, minimum five hours, and also working on the podcasting landscape to in fact change. So if you're interested, check out those details below, and you can also find out more information at Vcc dot training slash Vic dash podcasters. That is V i c dash podcasters. So going back to that, we have a weekly podcast that we have about five minutes for helping people grow or maintain their podcast as part of the Vic podcasters, we are looking to probably about halfway through this year, looking to get guests on. So if you are a member of the chain, if you are a member of the Vic podcasters, make sure to check out the sign up form for the podcasting stuff and say hi and you'll definitely reach out there. So for the this Sunday, I should probably focus for this Sunday, which will be Sunday the 16th of February, 2025 we'll be releasing a first in a series that has been asked by our members to produce a restart series. So if you're restarting a podcast after. Having let it lay dormant for a period of time, or you're restarting the podcasting game with a new podcast. What do you need to cover? What do you need to do? All those tips and tricks we're going to be covering in a very in a longer series, as you can imagine, five minute episodes. Doesn't mean that we can cover everything, so we like to make sure that we have a longer series to cover in those those detailed subjects as we go along. And for the unborn, your brand podcast, which is my podcast, we will be covering the strong personal brand, what, how, when. So for those of you who reach out to me quite regularly, and we have discussions about personal branding, as to what it is and how, what actually makes a strong personal brand, I touched on in that podcast for you, so you can check that out on this Sunday, February the 16th, at 3pm is when I release it, but usually the reason, and I have, before anyone asks the reason that I release it on a Sunday, and I have had a couple people ask me that already is because on Sunday, it allows The whatever algorithm gods, but also gives you an opportunity as someone who is, you know, listening to the podcast, or someone who is engaging on, say, Monday morning, it's already sitting there, either in your inbox or in your feed of podcasting, ready to go, so you don't have to faff about or try and get things to be downloaded in their time. It's already there waiting for you, ready for the podcast. That's why I like to release it on a Sunday. Also, personally, it gives me a chance that, just in case something goes wrong, I can fix things before they get released on the Sunday, because if they get released anytime during the week, I'm working with clients, I'm already too busy, and then on the weekend, it gives me a little bit of time to fix stuff, or, in some cases, record the podcast entirely. You don't know that. You haven't heard that from me. Don't worry. We are all messy here at the video, confidence coach, we like to smash your marketing mayhem, but sometimes the marketing mayhem is still there, un smashed, and not in a sexy way. But in the meantime, we are covering zo today on the video confidence connect, I would like to answer a lot of community questions. So essentially, what I like to do on this live stream as an opportunity, as an hour to answer people's questions, or as an opportunity to either record podcast episodes or answer community questions. So community questions are questions that people have either asked me, either in emails, in DMS, in comments, or in live in networking events, or in my live my workshops. We are moving away from workshops, but unless you have like a company who has specific workshops that I do have organized this year, don't worry. I haven't forgotten about you, but most of the time, we won't be running free range workshops accepted virtually mainly because that gets a lot more better reception for this year, I should say. But we the questions that we do have that I want to touch on. I've essentially got an answer around about a five minute answer for each that's why we're going to be covering a couple of different community questions today, and I'll give you for each community question, we will cut to a slide, then come back. And essentially, what we'll be doing is covering the best, best ways to as you can imagine from the title of this podcast, which I'm scrolling up to, remember what it is, stay calm and prep smart, overcoming your video nerves. Yes, the community questions that I'll be answering today are in that vein. So the questions that I've got, how do you manage last minute jitters, so just before you're about to either record a video or a live stream or a podcast, the jitters that you feel, how do you manage them? How do you what do you have a pre video routine to relax? But also, do you have a pre video routine? Yes, and I have something for that. Also touch on, what are the role? What role does breathing and pausing play for you in the way that I coach, but also in the way that I prep people to be in front of the camera. So that is more video confidence side of what I do, the confidence coaching side of what I do, there is also the marketing strategy that comes behind it, which will definitely play in all of these answers. And the last two questions that I'll touch on today is, how do you practice without over preparing? So that was one that was touched on recently, in fact. And the last one is prioritizing tasks when they pile up, which is not necessarily a video centric question, but I think is a question when it comes to staying calm and preparing yourself for those times where things pile up in your business and marketing just becomes another back burner, back burner, back burner, back burner, back burner situation you didn't even know you had that many back burners when it comes that far back, When marketing becomes that intense, what do you do? So
Zoë Wood 14:44
we're going to find out today. So there's going to be a lot of backing and forthing, in the sense of, I have little chapter or little ads that run between most of my sections. And as you can imagine, because we're going from one question to another, and I'm going to need a little bit of time to stand in front. The fan that I have right here, because as we record this live, it is summer. It has been muggy, it has been wet, so it's not as hot as last week. I was sweating off my makeup last week. And thank you all for everyone who reached out to me and go, are you okay? No, I'm not. My office is a nice size. It's everything's compact. Everything's within arm's reach. The problem is it's small and hot, so everything gets a bit warm in the summertime. But in the meantime, I'll use this opportunity to jump between chapters. So essentially, I'll use this opportunity to have the screen look a little bit different, so you're not as bored and as we go watching live. But thank you all for those who are bearing with us during this time as we cut between each of these answers, but if you do have any questions or anything regarding personal branding, marketing strategies or like in today and a lot of questions regarding today, specifically video marketing strategies, then feel free to reach out. Always happy to have a 15 minute chat. And from there we don't, we don't have to progress on to any paid work. We can always just carry on with the chat at hand, and we'll work on from there. So in the meantime, I'm going to stick my fan in front of a stick my head fan, stick my head in front of a fan for a little bit and breathe. But in the meantime, why don't you check out the website where you will find out all the details that I've been referring to at Vcc dot training. So that's that there, and apologies. You can see my little notes there. So right there, you can see all of should look at the right cameras, alright, you can see all of the notes and all the details that I refer to. And also you can find the show notes for this live stream. So I do show notes for every single live stream that I do, to be able to have it for my own details. So know what I've actually talked about in live streams. But also, when I record live streams, to be able to go back and understand, hey, what did I actually ask people to do? That's what we're here for, beautiful. Alright, let's go on to the chapter, and let's get going. So you've heard that the algorithm on many socials favors faces, and yes, that is definitely true, because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera and you're confident about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there. And then once you put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community like us here, or you share the video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way, of course, because people are willing to support other people, and the algorithm favors a lot of things at any different time, I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what The algorithm is going to do because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and nobody knows what it's doing at any given time.
Zoë Wood 18:40
How do you manage last minute jitters? And I'm talking when you're about to record either a video or a podcast, or maybe you're about to get on a zo meeting, or maybe you're running something for one of the first times, be it like a eventual like an event, or something like that, virtually like using a camera. How do you get rid of those last minute jitters? Well, tell you. First of all, all right, apologies for everyone watching this live. I'm going to be editing this as we go. Need to breathe myself. First of all, I'd like to thank first of all, I'd like to thank Anton for giving me this question via email. Thank you so much for reaching out, Anton. I look forward to catching up with you soon. The first thing that I like to do to manage my last minute jitters so then these are just again, the thing right before you've about to click record or get started on your video for whatever purpose that it is, first thing that you need to do is breathe. Is just breathe, mate, it helps a lot to just take a long, deep breath in and out. Now this is coming from someone who breathes quite heavily a lot in her videos, mainly because of COVID, but also. Because it just helps to get all the information into my brain so then I can relax a little bit before I get started and bring down my energy levels. Speaking of energy levels, I do find myself, and especially for a lot of people who can interpret your nerves or your jitteriness or that like as fear and not energy. I want to give yourself that opportunity to reframe your thoughts so it's not your when you're about to click record, it's okay. I'm excited to do this. This is energy. This isn't like fear. This isn't like the pits of my stomach coming in to reach out my throat and pull it out. It's you're just you're excited. So reframing your thoughts when it comes to that end, nervous energy that may be inside you as you go to hit record. The next thing that I like to do physically. So again, we're touching on physical things to do before you hit the camera for hit record, is to shake it out so to physically. So physically move your body around, be your arms, be your legs, whatever is a comfortable for you to do, but also gives you that motivation of just moving things out that'll help with the nervous energy, and again, the excited energy. It's not fear, it's it's nervous, but also it's the energy that you're bringing to the video that you want to do, because taking a step back from it all the reason that you have jitters is because you want to do the right thing, you are ultimately doing this video for whatever reason, not for your benefit. You might be the one speaking, you might be the one talking, you might be the one with your face on the camera or the video at the end of the day. But this is for the benefit of your audience. This is for the benefit if you run a business of your customers, if you run a personal brand, this is for the benefit of the people that follow you, who like you, who trust you. And of course, that energy is going to become a lot. It's going to become quite heavy, and it can be a bit intense. That's why it translates into nerves, because yes, other people will see it, but those people are the people that you're trying to help and you're trying to serve. So in turn, let's physically get that out of ourselves, and also take this opportunity to talk it out. Remind yourself of maybe the first couple of like lines that you have in, say, a dot point script in front of you, or maybe just remind yourself and saying out loud, not just in your head, because you're going to be speaking of who you're doing this for in the first place, why you're doing it for them, and maybe a couple of reminding yourself a little bit, just in words as you speak it out loud, to warm your voice up, that you are in control. And also speaking to the camera as if it is a client, as if it is a friend, as it is someone who actually cares about what you do, usually helps to get that mentality out into the world and not just stuck in your head. The last thing that I like to do other than smiling, because again, smiling is helpful, especially when you're trying to convey a message of any kind, be it a positive or a negative one. We won't talk too much about motions today, but being able to just practice smiling and then letting your face relax gives you that opportunity to just let you feel your face as you calm down your nerves. So again, move your body usually helps. And the last thing that I like to touch on, other than just reciting a mantra of, you know your stuff, you've got this good, positive self talk, because that actually changes the way that you will perform on camera. The last thing you do, as I have done with my minecraft my minecraft mug, is to grab a prop, be it a pen, be it a lucky charm, be it a mug, be it something that you can physically hold in your hands. For people like me who like to talk with our hands, it is very useful to be able to stop you flapping around in those moments when you feel like, okay, the nerves and the energy that, again, not fear, the nerves of the energy are coming out to be able to bring yourself down by anchoring it to something that is physical. Now, of course, probably not a great idea to have, like hot liquids in front of you. Water is usually best. But in those moments to have something that can physically hold you there, and then in those moments, be able to just put the pen down, put the mug down, and then start recording or start going live, whatever your video may be, and remember that perfection, you are not seeking perfection, because perfection is a myth. No one expects you to be flawless or repeat that again, because I gotta be perfect. Am I right? Perfection is a myth. No one is expecting you to be flawless. They are expecting you to be you. They're expecting to hear your message and what you have to say, because they want to understand your passion, and you ultimately want to maybe get money off them, but also you want to serve them. You want to help them. So to do that, you need to convey your message. And I hope that was helpful for you. Anton, and I look forward to seeing you around on the interwebs. Oh, it's been. Zo Wood, the video confidence coach. Mashing your marketing mayhem with killer video marketing strategies. Not everything is going to be perfect at the gate. When you first started your business, were you crack hot straight away? Did you not make mistakes? Did you like the first thing that you ever created, that you ever serviced, that you ever did for your business? Was it absolutely perfect? No, can anyone argue that what you do now is perfect? No, the reason I ask that is because when it comes to marketing your business in general, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to make pitfalls. But hopefully the work that and the message that I put out there is that if you're willing to make mistakes, that ultimately, in the end of the day, don't harm yourself and do not harm anyone else, then it's okay to make mistakes you
Zoë Wood 26:29
I'm just about to hit record. What do I do? What routine, what process do I do? Zo, ah, do not worry. Anonymous, I am here for you. We have a checklist for before you record your video. I should probably start that again. My apologies to all those who are watching live. That was a very unclear like I went in full bore and then made no sense. So and because that's why I've like, I'm doing this off the cuff. So even though I have some notes in regards to the main section of what I'm doing, I'm kind of just running at this with whatever I've got. So because I've done plenty of these in the past, I take the opportunity to just, you know, do them. But in the event that you do this, like, even though I'm doing this live, hello to everyone watching live, I also take this opportunity just to do my own thing. So if I stuff up, that's right, I'll just do it again, and I'll explain that in the next video.
Zoë Wood 27:28
Imagine you're about to hit record, but you feel nervous, you feel uneasy, you feel like you've forgotten something. How do I figure that out? Well, you go and download our checklist, our pre record checklist, to make sure that you're not forgetting anything before you actually hit record. And I follow this all the time. I follow my own IP I follow my own checklist all the time, and I make sure that I update it at least once every three to six months. So if you are needing a pre video routine to help relax, but also to help you focus, that is what you need. So download that below, but essentially what you need to focus on are these key things. Is, before you record your video, think, or at least spend a little bit of time thinking about your message, knowing who you are talking to and why you are talking to them, and also what you're talking to them about, usually helps. Is very important for your video, but also for your nerves. If you don't know what you're talking about, that will send you off the edge completely. So having an idea of all those things combined, and actually spending some time to breathe in and out and think about those things ahead of time is going to greatly reduce that overwhelm, but also that internalized stress in your chest. What you can also do is use a dot point script. So again, you can check that out in the checklist and link below, but that a dot point script is essentially something where you know your stuff, you know what you want to talk about. You just kind of need reminding points, like I'm using right now. I'm looking down at these dot points that I've created to help remind me what I want to talk about, but also keep myself focused, because I can go on tangents if I try, but we're going to pull it back to what we need to focus on in this video today. The next thing that you can do, to take off any like nerves that you have, but also a good thing to do, is just to test your setup. You test, do a test record of about 10 seconds, if you are going live, maybe you may not have the opportunity to actually go live in that moment, because if you're going live, you're going live, but in, say, for example, maybe a week before, or maybe a couple of days before record or go live into maybe a group with no one in it, or a zoom call with no one else in it, just to test and see how the recording looks afterwards, or See how it comes across on a different device. Take the opportunity to test your setup, your lighting, your sound, sounds very important, and also the framing of the camera of how it's ultimately going to look for you and also your audience. Because hopefully, and I please say you're doing this. You're recording your live streams, your podcast and. Any video that you're putting out, you are keeping for the future you because they will future you will thank you. But also it's very useful to just look back and see how far you've come on your video and marketing journey. Another thing that you can do is also hydrate. So grab some water, Minecraft, mug sands or not, but making giving yourself a chance to take a couple of gulps of water, not don't go the full hug unless you're dehydrated. Please don't be dehydrated, but take that opportunity to just let your mouth be wet ready to talk, and not just completely drenched or drown yourself, preferably not. The next thing that you can do, and especially helpful when you're about to talk for a long, extended period of time or even just a shorter video, is to do some vocal warm ups. You can do some humming or some tongue twisters. I'm not going to do that for no offense, I'm not going to do that for you. Tongue twisters are not my thing, but you can do them, or you can use a random sentence, or, again, just get yourself into that headspace of talking with a friend or a client or whoever you picture on the other side of that camera watching your video, and just give it a couple of goes running into that sentence of how you're actually going about saying it. And one of the last things is to practice smiling and dropping your smile, and also maybe doing some power poses. So power poses are physical poses within the body to generate some confidence, and also just some lift in your esteem. So I like to put my hands on my waist like the Wonder Woman pose. You can do the full the full arms, like this, or just hands on your hips to, you know, open up your chest, essentially give yourself a little bit of that confidence within yourself, physically. And the last thing that I want you to do is to remind yourself that at the end of the day, this is just a video. This is just something. You're not diffusing a bomb. If it goes wrong, you're not gonna die if you mess up. You can always edit it in the future. You can always have another go at it, or you can just completely laugh it off and never do it again. That is always an opportunity in the future. Nothing that you are going to do because you are doing this again. Let me hear it for you. You're doing this for your audience. You're doing it for the person who is going to watch this video at the end of the day. On the end of the day on the other side of the screen. So do your best to serve them, and you'll be fine. Zoe wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your I should know I own lines. Zo smashing your, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. Cherry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you. And when people are calling you, a messaging you are reaching out to you, to work with you, they're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example, like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself. Most of the time you
Zoë Wood 33:40
Emily, what role does breathing play before I hit record. So thank you to Emily for having this conversation with me before we met at a networking event yonks ago, and we talked about what breathing and taking the pause can play in your video marketing process. So I wanted to split this into two camps, so we've got before and after you actually, you know, record the video, but also during the actual process of recording a video. So let's do the before and after. So focusing on actually taking a slow breath before you start speaking, can help settle your nervous energy. Now I want to stress. This isn't fear. This is just nervous energy and keeps you from rushing in head first into something that you may or may not be fully prepared for, or at least you feel fully prepared for. You can also use breathing and pausing to be able to help yourself. I know this seems a bit counterintuitive, to speed up, because if you need a chance to reset, maybe you stumbled or fumbled, because I'm going to tell you now, most of the time when people are watching your videos or your content or even live streams or podcasts, people don't really notice that you fumble unless you point it out. But maybe, unless you go blood, ha, people can be like, I'm sure this is just the bit. I'm sure this is the thing, and people are perfectly fine, as long as, again, you are making videos for people don't mind. As long as the message is clear and you're doing your best to make sure that you actually support what you're saying in a way that they can understand. Maybe not the problem, but everything else can go along with it. So if you fumble, making sure to take a pause, bring back your energy center yourself, and you can keep going. You can always edit the video later. And if it's a live stream, people understand. People can breathe, and they keep watching, making sure that you pause right before an important point can help you actually make the point land harder. Instead of it being a really impactful thing that you kind of speed into and you kind of follow yourself, you can take a pause, take a break, and everything that you say after that pause will be more impactful. Good Ching and making sure that you breathe naturally also allows you to recenter yourself if you get too over impassioned or too over emblazoned in whatever you're speaking about, because there's a highly chance, if you're watching me building a personal brand or your business, that you are passionate about what you do, you're passionate about what you say, and if something is like building up that passion in you because you want to be able to help the person on the other end of the screen, you sometimes you need to be able to take a break, and that is a good chance for me as well, to be able to take a break, breathe and recenter myself so that everything is nice and clear for the viewer at the other end, I
Zoë Wood 36:49
now on to during, so during the actual recording of the video. So everything we talked about is before, what you can do before and after the actual recording of the video, or even between the videos that recording, but the way that breathing and pausing for effect can help you both during the actual production is to help you stop rambling, because you're taking the time to breathe and take the time to stop that stops you from going on wild tangents, because you're giving yourself brain time to think. A lot of us, especially when we are very passionate about what we say, we kind of fall over ourselves. So in those moments, to be able to take a breath, focus on who you're talking to and why you are talking to them, to center yourself back and be able to showcase your knowledge and your expertise in the area without being coming off as a crazy lunatic or, you know, Dr Frankenstein on the on the hill. It can, it can be a bit much when there is a bit too much passion for a long extent of time, being able to sit back into your words, take a pause, take a breath, allows you to do so. Also, taking those pauses during your actual video gives that impact to the words, as I mentioned before, and gives you that chance to just make your points, and especially the points that are really impactful time to breathe. You can also do this during interviews or conversations with other people. Yes, there may be a chance that they might cut you off accidentally, because especially when you're doing virtual conversations or interviews, there's a little bit of a lag. So when people there's a pause. There's a chance they've got to get in, but once they understand your cadence and how you speak, there's going to be more of a chance they're going to give you a bit of time to breathe and pause during those really important moments. As you can imagine, breathing allows you to stop gasping for air. And I'm going to say now for everyone here as the video confidence coach, this happens to me a lot. I find myself and especially in moments like this that I after, especially after COVID, I have a fair few breathing problems. And when I speak, and when I am passionate, I take really big breaths in when I speak. So I find that on the editing floor, when I'm looking back on my videos that, oh, my breathes, My breaths are really big. Okay, so to be able to mitigate that in the future, what I do is that I do my best to center myself. I can still be impassioned, I can still be focused, but I can also not breathe so heavily to the point where it looks like I'm struggling, because, again, I want to be able to get the message out there and have the people entertained, and hopefully also get the message at the same time. Also the act of pausing also lets your brain catch up. So in those moments, in those interviews, or in opportunities where you're answering people's questions, say, for example, you're reading someone's question, taking a pause, centering yourself and being able to answer the question in an a way that makes you come off as the authority, because that's the ultimate aim with building a personal brand, is to become authority in this space that you the niche that you choose, and to do so you need that chance to kind of pause before speaking. So. Filling the words with um is a thing that I used to do a lot before I started doing a lot of videos, and I just got annoyed at myself when looking back at myself and editing myself, because, of course, most of us don't have any editors that we pay in those moments. You want to be able to just look back and go, Yeah, stop saying um. Zo. I practiced, I practiced, I practiced, I practiced, and I don't do it as often. Still happens. I still find myself saying so or other words that kind of fall in and out of favor, to be perfectly honest. But I have noticed that I pay attention, and then I use that opportunity to pause and then answer people's questions. And the last thing that we'll touch on for this video is your being able to take pauses and breaths throughout your video allows people the silence to actually pay attention, to actually engage, to give them or their own brains time to think, because you you need your brain time to think as the speaker, the one with the message, the one with the thoughts, they also need time to actually breathe and think themselves, to actually understand the words that they've that you've given them, to take pause and also maybe a little bit of anticipation into hopefully, what you can lean in and maybe offer some sales offer, what that offer, what you can do to help them achieve their message and the passion that you've been talking about, not necessarily in a business way, but in a way to grow your personal brand. I've been Zo Wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. So you've heard that the algorithm on many socials favors faces. And yes, that is definitely true, because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera and you're confident about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there. And then once you put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community like us here, or you share in a video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way. Of course, because people are willing to support other people, and the algorithm favors a lot of things at any different time, I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what the algorithm is going to do, because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and Nobody knows what it's doing at any given time you
Zoë Wood 43:06
practicing without over preparing. Is that even possible? Well, Zo the video confidence coach is going to tell you how to do that. So the first thing that you want to do to actually practice effectively without actually over preparing yourself or getting bogged down in your own thoughts about what you're actually going to say, is knowing your key points. So this helps to know who you're talking to, so the audience that you're talking to, and I'm not talking about like demographics, like women between 45 and 65 I'm talking about like actual demographics of the people who you're talking to, the language that they use, the things they can understand. And you can use a tool like a dot point script, hi, check that out in the description to be able to funnel your thoughts into something, because, again, you already know your stuff, to be able to just write that down in quick dot points so that you can refer to it and look at it. Because memorizing every word like an actor can work for actors is not exactly going to work for you as the person who has the knowledge and the expertise, and you're trying to be the industry authority in your space by building a personal brand or your business. So to do that, you need to be able to focus on what matters, and what matters is those key points. So it's natural to forget a line or two when you're practicing a word for word script, unless you know your lawyers are telling you to do it. If your lawyers are telling you to do it, maybe do it. But in those events, to be able to just use a dot point script can help you be a little bit free and a little bit flowy, like I am doing today in this video, making sure that you actually practice your script out loud and making sure that you do it, I'd say realistically, around about two to three times. Now this may seem a little low for some people who get quite nervous in their energy in their body regarding recording a video or a podcast or a live stream or whatever you're using your video for, and the reason. That, I want to stress that that nervous energy is not fear, even though it may feel like it, it is energy inside you, because you're wanting to do your best for whoever the video is for. You're wanting to help and serve the person at the other end of that video, right? So to do that, you need to, you know, know your stuff, so running through your main points a couple of times, and again, it helps to have that dot point script so you're not lock. Not locked in to an exact, you know, phrasing of words like you would as an actor. Because, of course, an actor has strip drops. You don't have to worry too much about that. And being able to practice it, both out loud and also only doing it a couple of times, allows you to center yourself on the points that you're trying to get into and touch into. But then also allows your brain to this. Also allows your brain to hear yourself speak and get into that rhythm and that motion. So when you actually end up recording the video, it becomes second nature. And that is how it usually works when people are doing word for word scripts, because an actor is not just reciting lines. There's a lot of character work behind that. And for your character work, you need to do a lot of thinking about who your audience is, and speaking of which, doing a test run and speaking with your audience in mind, doing a quick 32nd recording of your setup, with your lights and with your microphone and with your camera and the way that it's framing give yourself like 10 to 13 seconds of just something where you just say, Hi, this is me. This is the video I'm recording. I'm going to talk about this. Stop recording and then check how it looks. Will your audience care if something looks out of place? Probably not. Will your audience care about how you present your message, or are you clear? Can you be heard? Can you be seen? Okay, let's focus on those first so give yourself that test run, but also keeping your audience in mind. Whenever you do a video like this, you could also practice in those two to three times. You can do this by practicing it a couple of different ways, maybe moving couple of the dot points around to make it easier, or maybe you found yourself stumbling over a couple of words or phrasing. You can use move those dot points around to actually figure out the best way to say it, because you've practiced a couple of times, and again, you've practiced it out loud, and my best recommendation is to practice while looking at the camera. Lens the camera doesn't have to be on, doesn't have to be recording, doesn't have to be doing any of that stuff. You're looking at the camera lens, you're practicing that muscle of staring at the cold lens. But on the other end, you're a living human, breathing person. You can also do a mini run through, if that helps, like if you are doing a longer, extended video that requires a lot of points to hit, and you don't have the opportunity to edit then, yes, doing a mini run through where you hit the key points is going to be useful for you, but I'm going to recommend that you walk away. So you do a bit of practice. You do a bit of a sit down, and especially something that has a lot of nervous energy that is being building up in you, physically taking up that chance to walk away, even if it's just for 30 seconds. Go get a drink, go fold some laundry, whatever you need. Don't get distracted and forget about the video entirely. But then come back, sit down or stand up however you're recording the video. Trust yourself and breathe. You are building your personal brand or your small business. You know your stuff. You are an authority in this space, and if you are an authority in the space, you can recover from whatever stumble you come across. You've got this so as I said, relying on the dot point script is going to be a lot easier than trying relying on a word for word script. If there are points in your video that you need to rely word for word, then obviously read it. Make sure you practice that, and maybe have a couple of goes in the editing bay before selecting the right one that has the right recording for you. I've been Zo Wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies, being confident in your product service skill and would definitely be a help. Despite nerves and stage fright, I completely agree, because once say, for example, if you are new in your business, I completely understand you have both the nerves of I'm new at this, I can make like there's so many mistakes I'm going to make, as well as being nervous of getting yourself out there in front of the camera or behind the camera to show your business to the world. There is a different special type of fear involving that. But once you have a bit more confident in your own skills to be able to produce the product or service that you actually do in your business, then you can rest a little bit more on your laurels and give a little give yourself a little bit more of a hug. Going, Okay, this will be okay. I can do this. I can do this because you will have a bit more confidence in the work that you can produce and the clients that you can help. And hopefully if those clients that you've worked with or customers that you've sold to are able to. You good feedback, It'll even give you even more robustness to be able to be like, Okay, I know what I'm doing. I'm okay with this giving me that good feedback loop to be able to start producing videos or reaching out on social media to people like your past clients. You
Zoë Wood 50:33
prioritizing all the tasks that have been piling up on your to do list can feel like a unwavering task. Let's figure out how to break that down for you. G'day, I'm zo the video confidence coach, and I am as a small business owner for 15 years, a majority of my life. At this point, I want to thank Nina for asking me this question. We were talking. We having a 15 minute chat, like I have a free chat available on my website, BCC dot training. And essentially, we started off talking about video marketing, but it was clear that she just was overwhelmed by so many things, and was told to do video marketing as opposed to wanting to do video marketing, which there is a difference. So we went through a couple of things as I can do as a marketing coach, where it's not necessarily my strict area of focus, but this is what I do to be able to prioritize tasks when everything is piling up around me, especially as someone who is working both on my business as a video confidence coach and in my business to help my clients. So focusing down. What I like to do, especially when I feel overwhelmed, is change my location. So if I'm in my office where I am now, I like to go outside. I didn't realize my screens off. Whoops, I like to go outside and like or go to another room, whatever it is, change my focus and just write down all the things that are worrying me, all the things that are concerning me. Brain Dump, like take out the brain shake it and everything that falls out. You write down. It helps to write on pen and paper. But if you don't have that, like writing on tablet again, getting it out of your head is the point, and making sure that it lays out to stop the overwhelm spiral from kicking in, just to be able to lay it out in front of you and then with the stuff that has fallen out of your head as you've jiggled it and put it back in your head, to be able to sort out urgent versus important. So what it like not everything is a crisis, despite how it may feel in the moment. So what can you do? What needs to be done now? What is actually better long term, like, what is important but is important? Like, what can I do and then focus on the things that in those two brackets, and then everything else that's not important, you can just put in the power for later, everything that is both something that is both urgent and important, be able to just put those things and those are the things that you need to focus on. I like to use a tactic following on from that, coming back into the office to actually do the work is the one thing rule. And I check my notes to make sure that I'm actually following the flow of this is if you finish one task today that moves the needle for your business or your client or whatever work you're doing. What would that be? Start from that one thing, what is the one action that you can take to get it done? It may be something that takes one or two hours, something that takes five minutes, whatever it is. What is the one thing then go from there, like forgetting everything else, what is the one thing that you need to get done? And in my case, what is the one thing that is going to take that stress off myself so then I can focus on everything else? Is the thing that I focus on for that day? For example, like today, recorded this video. What you can also do with the tasks that are left on that list that are not the one important thing is be able to batch similar tasks into areas that require the same sort of energy, or maybe the same sort of tasks, or schedule in time in the future. Which is something that I like to do with these tasks, is, instead of relying on just your brain to remember everything that you need to do, schedule in time to say, for example, if you got a whole bunch of email things, schedule them. Say, like tomorrow morning from 9am to 10am I'm doing just emails, and that's where my energy is going to be. That's where my focus is going to be, and I'm going to work from there. Saves your energy in switching gears between different subjects and different topics, but also allows you to just focus on what you need to focus on, and in turn, when it comes to focus, being able to set yourself time limits. So instead of you being overwhelmed that like I'm doing all these things, I'm doing all these things, and then five hours have passed from your work day to be able to give yourself limits for your actions, but also your activities. And if you have no idea how long something is going to take, that is okay give yourself that space and that grace. Hang out to Karen, that if you need that time to figure something out. Sure, is it the one thing that you need to do that day? Is it the one thing? Then do it, then do it, forget everything else, just get it done. And if it takes a bit of time, sure everything else should have pretty strict time limits that you try and follow, just so that you are on top of everything that you need to do. And then in that event, that wherever. Thing else that we've put into those we put it into little packages and funnels. We've scheduled things in half. We've scheduled things as well. If there's something that you're looking at on that little brain dump list that you've got, then you're just no zo. I don't like this. I don't want to do it. So in that event, can you delegate or ditch? Are you able to delegate it to someone else, if you have a team member or any staff to be able to delegate that too. Can you hire someone to complete this task for you? If it's important enough for you to deem as either important or what was? What was my list either urgent or important, but you have the resources or the time to do it? Do you have the money? So in that event, I would love for you to be able to figure thinking about delegating, and if it is not either urgent or important or either both, can you ditch it? Is this something that will be put in the too hard basket for now that you will revisit later, making sure, and I do this a lot with my clients as well, is scheduling time in the future to look back on your ideas that so you had a month ago thinking, Oh, this was going to make and break my personal brand, or make and break my business, and then a month later, you're like, oh, that actually doesn't seem that bad, you know, a month on, but the fact is that you review it, so make sure you schedule in time in your calendar to review the things that you're going to ditch, just in case maybe they're an idea that actually works for you in your business. And the last thing that I want you to do when it comes to prioritizing your tasks, and of course, everything that we've mentioned so far is taking a breath and actually taking action. Doing something for two minutes is better than not doing it at all. So if you take that time to start from the top, work your way down. Take a couple of minutes. And if you need to give yourself that momentum to just say, Hey, I'm going to do this for five minutes if I absolutely hate it and I hate everyone in my world and I hate you got zo that's okay. Do it for five minutes. I'll check in with you in five minutes. And how do you feel now? You're already on your way. You've already on your way. You've already started. You've already done the hardest part, which is starting. You've got the momentum to keep going. And this can work for your personal brand or business whenever it comes to it. Now, of course, this particular question not necessarily related to marketing strategy, which is my stick for personal branding and small business, but it is something that I'm very passionate about, is helping other small business owners thrive. So if you are feeling overwhelmed in that respect and you just need to talk to someone for 15 minutes, feel free to reach out to me at Vcc dot training. Or if you want to get in touch with someone where it is their job to help you with a priority and such. I have so many contacts, I am happy to refer you to anyone who will help you in that stead. So feel free to reach out to me. Zo the wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. Terry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you. And when people are calling you a messaging you are reaching out to you, to work with you, they're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself. Most of the time you
Zoë Wood 58:47
music. Thank you everyone who joined us today for the video, confidence, connect on the 14th of February 2025 it has been a wonderful Valentine's Day, and thank you so much for giving me the pauses between each of those community questions, to give myself a chance to cool down on my fan right here, to be perfectly honest, and also giving me that chance to just take off the sweat. You may have noticed that each time I was doing the video, the sweat droplets go worse and worse than they received. Go worse worse they recede. That unfortunately does happen. I have to close the door to make sure the sound is decent enough. The sound isn't perfect in this space, I'm very well aware, but it's not going to be a permanent solution, because we're probably going to move again in the next little while. So please hold in there with me for the time being, until I get at least a better microphone at this stage. Apologies for the backdrop. I'm trying out a new system, and of course it decides to not work whenever I need it to actually work, but in that meantime, that is all that is what we're here for. So in that opportunity, I wanted to outline this for anyone who's watching us live. So this is a dog clicker, so it's also a whistle, but it's mainly a dog clicker. So this. This is a little piece of, I think, metal that you click, and it makes a click sound. So as well as being able to train your dog, this also allows me to both look at a video recording and I can see the sound waves. So when you take any into any video program, you usually see a strip which is usually the video, and then underneath you see these waves, which are sound waves. And instead of me being able to have to go through everything to try and find the community questions that I've answered throughout the entire live stream, I can just use this click to be able to go in and check, okay, that is the section that we, you know, recorded this section from, and I can see that go in and edit it. And makes my efficiency a lot quicker, because always think of the editor. Think of Eddie editing, the editor that Eddie the editor may be you, there is a good chance the editor may be you, but think of the editor. Make your job a whole lot easier, and you will thank yourself, or make it easier for the editor, and they will love you. So thank you everyone for your comments and questions and thoughts today's during today's video, confidence, connect. This is a little bit out of the ordinary. Usually I don't do just community questions. Usually we do, like a podcast episode and community questions, but there was a lot today regarding the same topic, so I wanted to cover those for you in a nice, concise way. I did repeat myself a little bit with those multiple ones, but keeping in mind that those final products will be shortened into both social media videos as well as videos for our YouTube and to answer questions on the FAQ. So that is why I had to repeat myself a little bit there make sure for anyone who was on the hashtag replay squad to feel free to comment your thoughts and questions throughout today's live stream. I always do my best to follow up with everyone's questions. If you missed any part of today's live stream, you can watch and listen the whole live stream back on our website at VCC, dot training, slash video, dash, confidence, dash connect, where you can find all the show notes for all the details. So everything that I mentioned in the late today's live stream will be in the show notes, because I am a diligent bitch, and I like to make sure that all the details are there available for you to watch and consume, so you can watch that there. And in the future, we will probably be moving more towards a different recording system, but in the meantime, we will definitely get on our way. Thank you, everyone, and I hope you have a beautiful time.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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