Am I Not Pretty Enough for Video? Kasey Chambers posed the question in her 2001 song Not Pretty Enough. Having the right ‘look’ for video is becoming a thing of the past.

In 2020 the key to video presentation skills is authenticity. 

All your lumps and bumps and wrinkles give you credibility.

Own them.

This advice by Herman Munster in 1965 holds true for everyone in business worried about being on video.

We worry about how we look and sound on video.

We worry that we will forget what we need to say and look stupid. Fair call. I used to feel this way. I say feel this way because I knew, that although I was no oil painting to look at,

this was an emotional response, not a logical one.

I had witnessed the same reactions from people I videoed over the years. I would spend extra time using flattering lighting to make interviewees look great. In my eyes, they looked a million dollars, but for many, they couldn’t see past their perceived flaws. Nothing I did was...

In the first video on video storyboards for business, we discovered how easy it is to add a few extra lines to a childlike stick figure that turns it into literally ‘a business tool’.

Now, let us bring faces to life.

1. What’s the power of an emotive face?
2. How do we get eyes, nose, mouth in the right place?
3. What're 3 emotions that anyone can do?

Find out all about Simon Banks

and see how you can work with me to win more business with a smartphone and a smile

You might have seen one of these a storyboard? It’s a simple series of frames that show people what’s going to happen so they go… ok, I get it now. But I hated using them because I couldn’t draw and I was embarrassed about my stickmen.

Well that all changed when I went to one of Simon Banks whiteboard ninja workshops where he shows you how to become a better visual storyteller and therefor a better communicator, just by using some simple techniques.

This will improve the way you make your business videos

Plus Simon shows you a ‘forever skill’ you can use for family and fun.

In the next video see how you can add emotion to your business videos

Check out Simon Banks

And get video smart with me to win more business with a smartphone and a smile.

Want to but a video camera for your business? You already own a pocket-sized TV station. You realise that, don’t you?

The future of video lies in computing power. 

Taking the image out of cameras and applying computing power to create even more amazing results.

The smartphone you own right now probably has a lens more powerful than the Hubble Space telescope

Stop your search for equipment. Your wasting your precious time and your competition is getting ahead. 

Grab your smartphone and discover what it can do for you.

Ever been liberated? I have. 

I stuttered in my youth and teens and into my twenties. I hated it. I hated how the ideas in my head would not flow off the tip of my tongue as simple eloquent words.  It took me years but I don’t stutter anymore. I did it myself. I had all the purpose I needed. I simply didn’t want my life governed by something I never chose.

And you never chose to have to add video as yet another business skill you need to master. Leave it unchecked and it will start steering your decisions. You’ll be avoiding it and making excuses and watching opportunities slip by. That hurts. It doesn’t have to.

It’s why I’ve chosen to lead a business video rebellion against the out of date mindset that perpetuates the notion that video needs to be slow, expensive and outsourced to others to create. It’s simply not true. You now win more business with a smartphone and a smile.

Want to rise up? Grab your smartphone and discover a...

So let’s say you’re thinking about creating a video strategy for your business and you think you might use smartphone video recording and smartphone video production?

If you’re asking which smartphone has the best camera, you’re asking the wrong question? 

Pretty much all smartphone cameras will give you better results than you need.

• The iPhone has a lens better than the Hubble space telescope.
• We mostly watch videos on our smartphones and if we do watch it on our desktop at work it is almost always viewed in a small window on our screen
• and most importantly - and always keep this in mind - the sharper the camera lens the sharper your wrinkles are.

Please understand that overproduced videos are not where your ROI is going to come from. It’s going to come from authentic selfie type videos where you reach out and say here, I’ve got something I think will help you.

Three questions to ask when choosing your smartphone…

1. What are you...

 Business Video Skills Tip. What is headroom and why do you need to get it right? It’s this space between the top of your head and the edge of the frame and you need to get it right because it helps people watch your video through.

 If your headroom is wrong…

 and you have an artistic eye you’ll just see it and it’ll annoy you and you’ll want to reach through the screen and reframe it.

 If you’re the visual equivalent of me… I’m tone deaf and couldn’t sing to save my life…  then know that if the headroom is wrong it can make us feel psychologically unsettled - like someone singing off key - and that is an underlying distraction and...

Distractions dilute your message.

 What’s right?

 Too little

Too much

Just right

 This is the Goldilocks Zone of headroom.

 If you can’t intuitively see it then

here’s two simple hacks.

1. Roughly divide your screen into thirds...

Uma Bahadoor is a marketing professional based in Mauritius.

On a recent trip I made to his country to present corporate video training and to deliver a keynote talk, I was also invited to present a professional development session for Port Louis Toastmasters called 'Video for 21st Century Toastmasters'.

Uma Bahadoor takes up the story....

I’ve taken many previous courses about using video for my business.

These courses were from people such as TJ Walker (a world-known media trainer and bestselling author) and Alexa Fischer (ex-actress & confidence coach). These courses have been super valuable, but yet I felt something missing.

So, I thought maybe this training would fill in the gaps.

I was right! Julian’s presentation blew me away. This style and energy were out of this world. I’ve got two pieces of training that day. The first one is the training that he delivered, but the second one was how he structured and...

When I was a kids entertainer there was a maxim: If you can't get a laugh from a fart joke then you're just not trying. So imagine the belly laughs I got when I made coins come out of kids' ears, elbows, noses and finally their bums. I was dealing in joyous surprise every show I did until...

A boy, maybe six years old, stands and excitedly proclaims, 'please can you make more money. I've only got $2.60.'

The room exploded with laughter

from kids and adults. Of course, kids say the funniest things so I prompted a follow on... why do you want more money?

'Cause I've only got $2.60 and it's not enough to help my mum because she doesn't any money right now'.

I struggled the rest of the show as the mood of the room had changed. But I had also become a better, wiser performer. As was so often the case, the best insights, as well as the funniest lines all, came from the audience.

And it's no different with a video audience.

I post videos on different platforms and every month or so someone...

Here’s a quick quiz to start. One billion hours of Youtube are watched every

A: Year

B: Month

C: Week

Barp!!!!    It’s a trick question.

One billion hours of Youtube is watched every day.

So reports the Wall Street Journal. ^_*1 Welcome to the video age.

For you, the business owner, the business leader, the sole practitioner, the rising noisy chatter about video for business is just another inconvenience that threatens to suck away time and resources you don’t have.

But for your customer, video is a huge convenience.

Even if you allow big margins of statistical error, the rate customers are using their smartphone as part of the buying process- they like to research, get recommendations, shop around - is going up and their demand for this information to be presented as video is going up.

Why do customers prefer video?

It’s very simple. On a smartphone text is small and fingers are big, It’s too fiddly for us to use text. We are a global community...