554 – Make yourself look great when live: Tom talks Preparing for Live Events

Episode 554 – Preparing For Live Events
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody is Tom here with episode five hundred and fifty four. Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about preparing for live events. I see so many people that are so brilliant and have such great information, but they just look terrible when they do a live event, either a webinar or some Facebook Live or YouTube Live, whatever. So I'm going to tell you how to prepare in this episode so that you look good, you sound good and you're already and you're not flustered with last minute stuff. So that's we're going to talk about today. I hope you didn't miss episode five. Fifty three, that was Emmy Woo. She's a twenty year Hollywood career veteran, and she helps people really make sales videos. Really, really nice sales videos, so you don't want to miss her tips. She's really deep on the psychology of it and all that. Now, how'd you like to make big money referring my products and services? Well, we never get complaints. Everything's high quality and you can make some really big commissions just for telling people about my stuff. So if you're interested? Email me at Tom and screw the commute and we'll give you all the details. Now, pick up a copy. I've been beat you on the head over this for five hundred episodes of our automation e-book and do some of the stuff, please and then tell me how what it did for you.

[00:01:56] The ideas in this book will save you enormous amounts of time and make you screamingly faster in taking care of customers and making more money. So you've got to do that. So screwthecommute.com/automatefree and get your copy. Hey, we sell it for twenty seven bucks, but it's yours. Free for listening to the show. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app. You can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. All right, we're still going strong on our program to help persons with disabilities get scholarships and learn internet and digital marketing. So not only can they legitimately learn from home, they can legitimately be hired from home or start their own business or both. So please check it out at IMTCVA.org/disabilities that'll be in the show notes and pass it on to anybody that's got a real feeling to to help these these people because it's something you can really be proud of to change somebody's life for the better. So I'm real proud of being involved in it myself. So check it out. IMTCVA.org/disabilities. We have a Go Fund Me campaign to help fund these scholarships, and the people are just doing wonderfully. It's just a very inspiring to see how they progress.

[00:03:23] All right, let's get into the main event. We're talking about preparing for live events. Now the first thing I'm going to talk about are the things you should handle, whether you are being seen on a live event or production or whatever production it is. I mean, sometimes you do a webinar and you have a picture in picture where you're being seen. But even if you're not being seen and only being heard. You need a great internet connection. All right. Some of you were out in the boondocks and don't even have access to one. I would seriously consider getting one of those share offices in a more closer to town. If you're in that situation and get a good fast internet connection and then. Wherever possible, plug in with a cat five cable, this is called an Ethernet cable. It's always faster than WiFi, WiFi has to go through the airwaves and subject to more interference. So just get yourself a cat five e cable and you plug it into your router where your internet comes into your house or your office, and then run the cable and stick it into your computer. That's all we're talking about. If you don't have any technical skills involved here, but do you want a cat five cable? You want the E on it because Cat five is the older, slower technology. So Cat five ears. Anything above Cat six is fine or whatever else they have.

[00:04:55] It's above Cat five E. Ok, so the next thing is your sound and your microphone and stuff now. Please invest in a good microphone. Nothing makes you look and sound so more ghetto. There's a pitiful microphone and poor sound quality. And ignoring the things that make you sound better, maybe you don't even realize them because you're not listening on the other end as a person would listen to you. So you've got to get a good microphone. These earbuds with the things, you know, the microphone from Apple, they suck. Very seldom do they ever work, right? That's going to rub against your clothes and make noises. And it's going to. And especially if you're a podcast guest, I think episode 211, you go to screwthecommute.com/211 tells you how to be a great podcast guest. Well, having poor sound quality makes you sound bad to the podcast host, so the less chance of getting invited back makes you sound bad to the listeners who you're trying to be in front of. New people that never heard of you. You don't want to sound bad. So record yourself and then listen to it and have some other people with good ears, listen to it through head. Good quality headphones so that they see what you really sound like. I get so many people that come on the podcast and they have lip smacks, and this is a thing that you can work on not doing lip smacking because anything you do wrong on your audio causes trouble for the either the listeners or the podcast host who has to have pay somebody to edit them out.

[00:06:39] If, if even possible, to edit them out, things called plosives where you I'm going to do it on purpose, I'm going to say, P, I'm going to get rid of my pop screen p that's called implosive. You'll hear how bad it sounds. I'm going to leave it on this recording because a lot of times you can't even edit them out because they're so bad and they run into the words and stuff. I've covered a lot of this stuff in my audio episodes, getting ready for audio books and everything else, so you should go back and listen to those episodes and avoid cheap noise cancelling headsets. These things suck. They're just bad. Bad, bad. I always have trouble with people with them, and I remember who used them, and I don't want to invite them back because it just caused me enormous trouble with the editing, say, and a lot of the stuff. It just sounds bad. I can't fix it. And that's nobody wants that. And then pay attention to eliminating feedback virtually always. You should be wearing headsets because of feedback loops. Now, if you don't understand what a feedback loop is or feedback, maybe you've ever. Maybe you've been at a live event and heard a squeal coming from the speakers.

[00:07:58] Well, what happens is, is if if you're talking. And maybe you're having an interview with somebody and. And or they're talking back to you and their voice or their sound comes out of your speakers in your computer. And your microphone that you're talking on hears the voice coming out of the speakers of the computer. And then it goes back into the computer, back out the speakers, back into the microphone, that's a feedback loop and it can cause squealing and all kinds of crazy noises and makes your ears bleed, you know so. So you don't want that if you have headphones on. Then you hear what the other person is saying, but it doesn't go into your microphone and cause this feedback trouble. That's why you'll use headphones or earbuds to listen. You don't use the earbud microphone like I just said, because it sounds, it sucks, but you definitely want to listen through earbuds or earphones and talk through a good microphone. That's the way it costs very little to do this. But whatever it costs, one hundred bucks or so to get a good microphone, I mean, sixty to one hundred and fifty, is you all you'd ever need for most of this stuff? It's your reputation, you're doing these things to promote yourself, right, you're not just doing them as a hobby, so you don't want to sound bad and makes you look ghetto, you know, so that's just crazy to not pay attention to this stuff.

[00:09:43] And then the room sound the echoes in your room and your fish tank making noise and alarm clocks and air conditioners. All that stuff, as I covered in these upper other episodes of what to do about that so that you don't sound bad. All right. Now, if you are seen live, so this would now those are all general things, but if you were seeing live, that's what I'm going to talk about now because it could be a webinar where your picture and picture or could be one of a live Facebook Live or a YouTube Live, something like that. Pay attention to your background now, unless you are really, really, really, um, emphasizing this like crazy, super competent. Get rid of the electronic backgrounds, you look stupid when you use them. Most of you, I'll say 90 percent of you look stupid by using electronic backgrounds, your hair, especially if you're blonde and wispy hair. Makes all kinds of weird ghosting pictures that just terrible. And get rid of the green screens, you know, I was taught in Hollywood lighting and green screen stuff. You have to be really, really, really good at it. Even with the advanced electronics we have nowadays, you need to light yourself separately. You need to light the green screen separately. These ones that sit on the back of your chair, you're supposed to be as far away as the green screen as you possibly can get because the green reflects onto your shoulders and edges and makes the edges of you look stupid.

[00:11:29] I mean, come on, folks set up a plain old background with bookcases or your diplomas or anything but the electronic background. What happens is is people let their ego overestimate their skills. All right. Even people see it being interviewed on TV nowadays because, you know, they're there because of their great expertise and insight. But many of them look stupid as hell with their visual production from their home. Don't be that person. In fact, start paying attention to whatever news or opinion channel you watch and pay attention to the way the person and their background looks. Some are great, some are pitiful, and you'll see everything in between. So it doesn't cost anything extra to make your on screen performance look great. All right, so here's some details to it. The camera height, your webcam height should be right level with your eyes, not above, not below, but level with your eyes if you have to jack up your monitor with books under it. Great. Then the next part is what people really have to force themselves to do. You must force yourself and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice and practice. All right, looking directly into the webcam, it's so tempting. And normal to look at the person's face that's on the screen that you're talking to. If if in fact you are talking to somebody else.

[00:13:13] But that looks like hell to them. Your eyes are just off enough to make it look weird, like your beady eyed and you and your untrustworthy. You've got to force yourself to look at that webcam practice, practice, practice, practice and practice some more. And it's OK to glance at the person once in a while for their reactions and stuff. But look back at the webcam. Ok, I can't emphasize that one enough. All right, now, I love multiple monitors, I've preached that for years, I have four of them in my other office. You know, in one computer. But don't put your notes on the monitor that doesn't have your webcam on it. All right. Here's the trick that I use. I tape my notes on a piece of paper where the edge of the paper is just so it doesn't cover the hole where the webcam is peeking out. And then I can it's in my peripheral. I mean, it's right in line with the webcam almost. And it's not covering up the person I'm talking to, if that happens to be the case. And then I can glance at it easily, and nobody notices, I'm still looking right at the audience, eye contact and all that, so. So do that. Don't put it on a separate monitor and you're looking way off to the side and talking and you just look terrible. It's OK to look away and look back.

[00:14:46] Ok, that's a normal thing, but not to look away constantly at your notes. And then the for the audience to see it in the side of your head. All right now, lighting. Make sure you don't have any giant backlighting behind you, like I've seen people behind these giant patio doors with no curtains on them, and you can. Their face goes dark. The camera sees that giant light coming at it, and it puts the iris or the little hole in the in the camera down. So so you can get a decent picture. But it can't go far enough to make your face look right so your face goes all dark. So do not set up where you have a giant backlight behind you. Also, try to avoid using natural light from windows, and it can be very beautiful sometimes. But the problem is is if you've got a cumulus cloudy day, you know the light is bright and then it goes dim. And then there's the clouds go over and it goes bright and then it goes dim. That looks terrible. That looks very distracting and stupid. Also, if you happen to be, you know, right, early evening or late afternoon starting your production and then it gets dark in the middle of it, you just your light went from light to dark, which is just stupid. So control that either put blackout curtains over it or just don't set up where that light is affecting your production and you want to have a light.

[00:16:19] You want to have lights in front of you. Usually, we call them soft boxes or soft lights. So and they look very pleasing. A lot of people are using these ring lights nowadays. They're OK, too, but try not to put them directly into your face. Put them off at the side a little bit because that creates some character on your face with a little shadow on the side of your nose. You know, I teach the full lighting how to light people and stuff in all my video production stuff. But at least if you're going to use the ring light or one of these soft boxes, don't stick it directly in front of your face. Put it a little bit of an angle and then listen to some of my other idiot videos on video production if you want to see how to light a person. Now, dealing with glasses, this is a big mistake people make, and I don't know why it's hard for to understand what I'm talking about here, but but if you have a big, let's say I'm looking at an iMac right now. And so if I'm looking at the webcam with my glasses on and remember, the webcam is directly level with my eyes. Well, the light from the screen is hitting my glasses and bouncing directly back into the webcam. And that just looks you look like an alien you got.

[00:17:39] All they see is big light where your eyes are supposed to be because it's that's the reflection that people are seeing. So there's a couple of ways to deal with this. Number one, you should have a light high up. That like, if you were going to have a soft box or a ring light have don't have it level with, you have it high up. So if it does hit your glasses, physics tells you if it's coming at a down angle to your eyes, it's going to bounce away from the glasses that are down angled towards the floor. And it doesn't go right back into the webcam, say. So that's one way. Another thing you should do is dim your screen virtually all screens if you just learn how to do it, have a button or a combination of buttons that allow you to dim your screen so they don't see the dimness. Only use your glasses. Don't get as much light hitting them right in the face. So that's another thing. Then the third thing is we use this TV trick on TV or this trick on TV all the time. Although TV studios usually have the lights way up high in a high ceiling, and that's because it helps take care of a lot of these problems. But if you can't do that? You take if you're wearing glasses, even if you have. Don't tell me. I've heard so many people say, Oh, I've got the non glare glasses that does not stop what we're talking about here that I mean, when you've got a heavy light bouncing right back into the webcam, it's going to show up.

[00:19:14] I don't care what your glasses are made of. Ok, so anyway, what you do is you, you take your your hands and you go back and you grab the the very tip of the temples that are behind your ears. They're going behind your ears. You, you grab those and you don't let the glasses. That are on your nose, go up or down or, you know, move. You just tip up the temples so that the lens is tilted a little bit. It's still right on your nose, but the top of the lens is tilted forward a little bit and you got to try this. So what that does is it takes the light from the computer screen and any other light you got hitting you. And then when it hits the glass of your lens instead of bouncing horizontally right back to the webcam. Since the top of the lens is tilted forward, the light hits it and bounces down away from the webcam. And so that allows people to see your beautiful eyes and make eye contact with you. Right? So if you if you didn't catch all that, go back and figure this out because you look stupid, you look like a freaking alien when you have. I see these big shot economists and everything on TV.

[00:20:40] They got too big ring lights in their eyes, and it's like they absolutely look like aliens. And I think some of the decisions they make are alien alien. But but that's beside the point. The thing is is you don't want to look like a moron because you didn't take care of this. Ok? So now I got a checklist if you're going to go live. This is a checklist. I used a lot on webinars because I don't want to be, you know, a lot of times I was here by myself or one of the kids was here in a far other room answering the phones while I was on the webinar. So this is the the checklist that I use for webinars. First thing I do is well in advance. I reboot my computer that gets cleans out everything, but I do it. I don't do it five minutes before I start. Why? Because the computer might decide to do an update. And if you're on windows, you know how long that can take. And I don't want to be late for the webinar because the computer is totally locked up with a with an update. So reboot your computer well in advance and then don't work and put a bunch of heavy duty programs while you're waiting for the webinar to start. Reboot it and just bring up the bare minimum stuff you need to operate that webinar. Shut off your phone.

[00:22:03] Leave it on vibrate and keep it where you can see it in case of some emergency. You can at least see a text come in. Eliminate your distractions. You know, I always tell people, you know, muzzle the dog, sedate the kids. That's what Benadryl was made for. I'm just kidding. Don't do. But you have to, you know? Now I get away with murder, with my dogs barking and stuff because I'm a cut up kind of guy and a lot of fun and, you know, joking around all the time. But if you're trying to do a very serious professional thing, your dog's barking and all that. I remember seeing something on TV where there's really big shot. Guy was doing something and his baby wanders in and the nanny comes in. It's all on camera and you know, and the thing is, you know, life is life, you know, since the pandemic, people understand you're at home, but but try to keep that stuff to a minimum. Get whatever beverage suits you ready. Preferably not milk, you know, or coffee with a lot of cream in it that could coat your throat and make you clear your throat, whatever it is you've tested, which you should have tested. That's right for you. And by the way, before you even get into this checklist for like a webinar or a live event, you should have learned and practice how to operate the thing. Say, because if you don't know how to operate it and it's happened to me, I mean, there's sometimes I thought I knew what I was doing and then go to webinar changed function and I was like, Oh man, I'm in the middle of this thing.

[00:23:40] I can't figure it out. All right. So I joked away from it. But whenever possible, you want to make sure you know how to operate the the functions. Ok, so you got your, you know, water is best for your beverage and you know, and then beforehand, eat whatever works for you that is going to keep your energy up but doesn't coach your throat and make you clear your throat like crazy so you keep your energy up. Have extra pens and pencils ready and scratch paper to make notes to yourself during the presentation. I always am thinking about something, or if I'm on an interview, a podcast interview or something, I've got a pencil and paper here because while the other guy's talking or while I'm talking, I think it's something, Oh, I want to tell him about this, or he just said this, or she just said this, so I should tell him this story. So I make notes to myself, you know, in the middle of it. Now, if you're selling, you want to recheck all your sales links and any redirects, that's where if somebody does something slash Tom, you know, I'm getting an affiliate commission out of it and it's redirecting through my affiliate link when you buy the stuff that they're promoting.

[00:24:55] So make sure all that stuff works. Yes, last thing you want to do is come to the end of a great sales presentation and know the sales process doesn't work. Has it happened to me before? Yes, once or twice and 20 some years. But boy, oh man, it's a terrible feeling. And then log in to every site that you're going to need for your presentation, if you want to show them certain things, have it already logged into and if possible, make sure it doesn't log you out, time you out and log you out and. But I would have my passwords ready next to me in case that was a possibility and so that I could log back in in a hurry without wait, you know, either blowing off that part of the presentation or either blowing that off or taking time to go, find the password and all that, that's going to mess up the presentation. Recheck, if you're using PowerPoint, make sure all the slides are in the right order, the right links are mentioned on on the slides. Make sure any other visuals you plan on using or available to you easily. Now, if you're showing plan on showing a video on a live presentation. Make sure you have figured out in advance how to make sure the audience can hear the audio off the video you're playing. Sometimes this is called system audio, and you have to like, check a box to see if your presentation is going to send out the system audio, see the the videos playing on your quote system and sometimes just you hear it and maybe a faint part of it will go through your microphone.

[00:26:47] They could hear it, but that's really terrible because people will put up with bad audio video, but they won't put up with poor audio, and you've just wasted this time of your presentation and what you wanted to show because they couldn't hear it. So make sure you figured that out in advance. And like I said frequently, it's called system audio. Ok. Open all browser tabs that you think you might need. And then and then log into your webinar service, but don't start the broadcast yet. Now, if you're using a second monitor, a lot of times the controls of the webinar or whatever live broadcast can be moved to the second monitor, which gives you more screen room to see what's going on. Maybe the comments go some place. Maybe you have somebody sitting next to you that's handling comments and pointing out the important ones that you want to mention. And make sure that you have if there's a place where they're supposed to ask you questions or chat that it's separated out so you can clearly see it in the midst of all the chaos that's going on during your presentation. And then get on early, check everything out.

[00:28:02] Make sure if you have a guest that you're interviewing that they're on early and that they know how to operate their end of the system. Which is usually dummy fied for a guess so that you operate everything and they just have to talk or do, you know, do miniscule stuff because you have a lot of guests? You can't depend that they're going to pay any attention to this until the moment they get on. And then they'll mess things up for you. And then you deliver your live presentation, and so those are the things that I do to make sure that my live presentations go well. And I'd love to help you with this. If you have any trouble, you can always jump in my mentor program, be like seven hundred people before you. I lost track. Really? I've been saying 17:00. That was a couple of years ago. I can't remember. Really? Check it out, a great internet marketing training. It's the longest running, most successful ever and most unique program, and I don't mind saying that I'm not going to recap all the unique stuff on it on this webinar, but it's stuff that you cannot get anywhere else. You cannot get the attention for any amount of money that we give you and long, long track record of success. So we'd love to help you out with that. So check it out. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com, and I'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.