18: Three Steps to Overcoming Your Fear of Live Video

Are you looking for a way to boost engagement, build connections, and fast-track your sales goals? Utilizing live video is key! But, if the thought of live video terrifies you, here are three things that will help.

Tools mentioned in this episode:

Be.Live

Ecamm / Learn Ecamm

StreamYard

Zoom

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Transcript:

When people ask me what one of the biggest things is that has impacted the results that I've experienced over the last two and a half years, hands down live video has made a tremendous impact on my results. Live video is so powerful for a number of reasons. It boosts engagement. It helps you build connections and that Know-Like-Trust factor. It allows you to connect with your audience in a very different way than just posting a prerecorded video.

But I get it. Live video is scary. It feels very vulnerable. It feels overwhelming. I remember when I first started utilizing live video. Just hitting that go-live button, it was terrifying. And if you are still in that place, I get it. It is very hard to step out of your comfort zone, put yourself out there and do something that's new, do something that feels uncomfortable. But I'm here to tell you that if you will embrace live video in your business, if you will feel the fear and do it anyway, I promise you it is going to have an impact on your results.

So, in today's episode, I want to jump into just my three things that I think will help you get past the fear and help you embrace the concept of live video. We can use live video in so many different ways in our business. My favorite use is with Facebook Live. I love using Facebook Live most often inside a private Facebook group. If you have a private Facebook group, live video is an amazing way to connect with your audience to share valuable tips, to tell them about your exciting offers, to share even content where they can ask questions. And that experience gives you so much valuable feedback on the information that your audience is looking for from you. So, Facebook Live inside a Facebook group is probably what I do most often. Sometimes I will go live on my Facebook business page. Others will go live on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram.

But there's so much validity to utilizing live video. And let me share why. A number of years ago, I went to a marketing conference, and they were sharing how people are only 7% likely to connect with you when they read your written words. That increases to 38% when they hear your voice. It's why voice messaging, audio messages, phone calls, and podcasting is such a powerful content. However, the bar jumps to 58% when you connect through video. When someone is able to see you and hear you, they are 58% likely to connect with you and your message. That is a huge jump from 7%, but live video has another powerful impact. Being able to communicate back and forth even with your audience through the comments or the chat is very powerful.

Now, in addition to Facebook Live, you can also utilize tools like Zoom and hold live training on a platform like Zoom. That's another great example of live video versus just posting, versus just sending emails. There's so much power and impact when people are able to see and hear you live and in real time. So let me go ahead and share my three tips for overcoming the fear of live video and helping you move forward with this amazing opportunity.

Number one is to focus on your audience not yourself. We all fall into the criticism of ourselves when we see ourselves on live video. In fact, some people actually struggle with live video because they're looking at themselves. And we are often the most critical of ourselves. So, we pick up every flaw about how we look, how we sound, what the background's like. But I will tell you, yes, there are things you can do to improve the lighting and the quality of your video, but stop being so critical of yourself. No one is looking at you like you are looking at you. And if your message is having an impact and you are focused on how you can change the lives of the people you are sharing with and that's your focus. You're coming across with, you know, wanting to fulfill a need, wanting to be service based. You will feel so much better about your live video. You'll feel more confident. You'll feel more excited.

So, when I was first getting started, that is always what I intended to do when I would start to push that go live button. Pushing that button always felt hard, so right beforehand I would think about the audience I was serving, about how what I was going to share was going to impact their life. Often, I would say a prayer that the Lord would give me the words to say, for the people who needed to hear it. And again, that focus came off of me and onto the audience I was speaking to. And that made such a difference.

Step number two is to remember live video is not about perfection. It's about being authentic. It's about being genuine in what you are sharing. And being genuine and authentic means being yourself. It means mistakes are going to happen and that's okay. You have to learn how to be okay with putting content out in the world that's not perfect. No one is perfect. So, if you have a tech glitch, the dog starts barking, the doorbell rings, you have to learn how to laugh about it. If you are comfortable, your audience will be comfortable.

Number three, the more you go live the faster you will find your voice. So, tip number three is consistency. And if you are just so nervous about going live, I do have a tip for you. I recommend setting up a Test Group in Facebook. Go ahead and hit that home button, go to groups, create a new group, and just create a private hidden group that is just for you. If you'd like to add a support person, significant other, or virtual assistant to the group, you certainly can do that if you would like feedback. Or just keep the group solely as you the only member.

By having a test group, you have a place where you can practice. You can go live in the group, whether it's with your phone, whether it's from your desktop, maybe you're using a third-party tool like Ecamm, Be.Live, or StreamYard. Whatever you are using to go live, the only way you get comfortable with your voice. And I don't mean just your physical voice, but I mean the way you share, the way you passionately talk about your niche. You will find that voice only by going live consistently.

Even in recording this podcast, I will tell you. This is my 18th episode. If you've listened to the podcast since the beginning, you know that that first episode I recorded took me like twenty takes. Because I was like, how do I even sound on a podcast? I couldn't get my voice down. I couldn't get comfortable with my words. And for the few episodes after that, I actually recorded them live because I feel more comfortable on live opportunities than I do prerecorded. If something's prerecorded, I know I can stop and rerecord. Therefore, I do a hundred times. But what I love about live video, live recording, is you start to get comfortable just being you, just sharing from the heart. This is very different than prepping for a teaching segment you're going to do with all of these slides or a webinar. I want you to get comfortable just going live and sharing from the heart.

Now, you know your area of expertise. Yes, bullet points are great. I remember in the very beginning, I used to write out every single thing I was going to say. Yes, I agree in having notes, or an index card, or something, especially if you tend to go off on tangents. But let me tell you, after years of writing out everything, I finally said to myself, "Lydia, why are we having to write all this out?"  You know, your content. You know it, you live it, you breathe it. Why can you not just talk to people like you were talking to a friend at a coffee shop?

So, that is what I started to do. I started trying to go live without all the notes, without all the bullet points. Now, I do prepare three things for every live. And this I do determine ahead of time. So, when I say no bullet points, it doesn't mean I don't have a plan. I just mean eventually you will get to the point where you don't have to have everything laid out in this perfect outline. So, the three things I include in my plan for live video is my intro. The second thing is my steps, or points, or topics that I'm going to be discussing. And then third is my call to action. You do want to have a plan for these three things when you go live.

So, for the intro, for example, I always like to practice just my intro statement right before I hit the go-live button. So, an example of this is "Hey everybody, Lydia here. Today we're going to talk about how live video can boost your engagement, build connections, and fast-track your sales goals. I'm so glad you've joined us. Let's go ahead and jump right in." So, that's an example of an intro. And if you notice, I didn't start off with "Hey everybody. This is Lydia. I'm just going to wait a few minutes until a couple people come on. Hey, Sally. Oh, so good to see you." You all get what I mean. When I do live video, you don't want to have this wasted time in the beginning because you want to be thinking about your replay viewer. So many people who watch our videos aren't necessarily watching them live.

So, always keep the replay viewers in mind. You want to jump in with exactly what the purpose of the live is. And if you can share that first and foremost, then if you want to have some chit chat with those who are coming on live, that may be appropriate, but now they know where they're headed, especially if they're watching the replay.

Then I go into my main bullet points or topics. I love having a few of these numbered and ready to go. Just like I did for this episode of our podcast. So, number one was to focus on your audience. Two, it's all about authenticity, not perfection. Three, consistency will help you find your voice. That's the only thing I jotted down ahead of time because that jogged my memory of the topics I wanted to cover during this episode. You're going to do the exact same thing during your live video.

And then the last thing you share in your live videos is a call to action. A call to action is simply the next logical step or resource that you want your audience to take. A call to action can be any number of things. For example, want to learn more, go to such and such to get my free guide. Go to this link to listen to this podcast. Message me for more information. Be sure to check out my blog post at such and such. You can be directing people to free resources, paid resources, directing them to getting in touch with you, send me a DM. But you always want to have a call to action at the end of your live video. But it really is that simple: an intro, a few bullet points or topics, and a call to action.

So, if you follow that system, do you feel more confident about utilizing live video? Especially knowing that you don't have to be perfect, that it's really not about you, and it's all about your audience. The more you do this the more confident you will become. And before you know it you may be like me and fall in love with live video.