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Video is still on the rise and according to Social Media Today, 90% of consumers claim that a video will help them make a purchasing decision.

In this episode, I interview and chat with Mark Egan. We talk about just how fast and easy it is to use your phone to create pro-level videos, why you should and he shares some great tips on how to look and sound on video too.

Mark is an ex-BBC Video journalist and spends most of his time travelling the world teaching thousands of journalists, marketers, entrepreneurs and media professionals in creating smartphone video content for TV, websites and social media. He also now has a membership site - called the Phone Video Academy.

For more about Mark go to his website https://www.markeganvideo.com

Mark's Phone Video Academy - complete with a 7 day trial for just $1

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Full transcript:

Sara Moseley: Welcome to the show. Mark. It's brilliant to have you here. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. I'm really pleased to have you here because I know you are super, super passionate about making this as easy as possible. You really want to dispel many of the myths about video. So would you like to start with just giving us a bit of a brief history of how you have come to love phone video so much?

Mark Egan: Well, essentially I started, I was a journalist so I worked at the BBC and I was first a radio journalist and I loved that because when you're a radio journalist you're sort of self-contained. If I think there's a story at the market, I get my little audio recorder pop down to the market interview people, edit it, feed it back, go to the pub. So very simple, very easy. Then I crossed to the dark side. I moved into television and television was a completely different kettle of fish because you know, I had to, if I had an idea for a story, I had to pitch it. Then I had to try and get a camera crew and so book a camera crew and then when it was filmed, you had somebody else edit it. So it was like a manufacturing process. So there was a point at the BBC whereas the cameras got smaller and the editing became doable on a laptop.

Mark Egan:  Um, you know, they trained up some journalists to be sort of one man or one-woman band. So I had a backpack, a little camera a laptop, I made documentaries, news programs, all sorts of things like that. And I loved, you know, the autonomy of just being able to have an idea and make videos. Um, a few years ago I left the BBC and a big part of what I do now is train journalists, uh, brands, big organizations, how to shoot genetic quality video on their phones. So this is everybody from, you know, BBC, sky sports, uh, United nations, all these major organizations because everyone has the same problem, which is everybody needs more video, but their budgets aren't necessarily going up, going up and up and up. So in that case, you can hire a camera crew every time you want to do a 32nd video on Switzer. Oh, you can muster the tool that everybody has with them and that's their phones. So literally all over the world there are people saying, I've got a phone, I need video. I just need to learn how to use it. And that's where I come in.

Sara Moseley: So I love that because nobody, we don't have any excuses anymore, do we? We really, you know, if the professionals are using this kind of care, why have we not embracing this more? So what can we do? What can we do to get started with using our phones to create videos?

Mark Egan: Well, I mean, the first thing to do is change the mindset. Um, I mean people sometimes say, you know, like I've got a dog training school or something and I want to make video, but I'm worried about, you know, my brand. I don't want to shoot, you know, terrible video on a phone. So the first thing to understand is to raise your expectations. Because let me just give you a few kind of facts and figures that blow your mind. Um, you know, Tim cook gave an interview, um, a little while back where, you know, Tim cook, head of Apple, and he said that they have 800 people working on the iPhone camera. So 800 people directly working on the camera. And why? Well, it's because what makes you buy a phone is the fact that the camera is better. So the development going into phones is much higher than it is to digital cameras.

Mark Egan: Actually, if you look at the digital camera market, it's dying on his feet. And even the head of Canon, I think that it's going to half in the next two years. So the first thing is, except it is a professional camera. I mean, if you've got Netflix, look up high-flying bird, it's by Steven Soderbergh. He's a Hollywood film director. Everything that is shot on a phone, it looks amazing. So the first thing I would say is, firstly, raise your expectations. You know, it's not all about wobbly, terribly video, terrible video. Um, but also, um, just understand the weaknesses of the phone. So this is why people get my phone out. It looks terrible and they say, well, it's the problem with the phone. It's not if you use it correctly, um, your video can look really, really good. So just a few. Absolutely. As a basic tips.

Mark Egan: So stability, um, phones do not deal with very quick movements. So cheap tripod will do the trick. Um, you don't need to spend a fortune. Just get a photography tripod on Amazon. Uh, the cheapest photography tripod, the gets up to my Eye-level, cost me about 11 pounds, so probably like $15 or something. Um, get a microphone. Don't rely on the internal microphones. Um, he can achieve one again, full 10 to $15. Um, I mean just to throw out, um, one brand, the Boyer Boya, B Y M one. Um, I bought, well 14 pounds. Does a great job for me. Clip it on little time, like plug it into your phone. By the way, if you don't have the Jack for your headphone on your phone, you do get little adapters. So those can work. And then the other thing is to think about light. Um, you know, where's the strongest light coming from?

Mark Egan: And if you're filming yourself, make sure that light is falling on your face. So don't stand in front of windows, your silhouette and just think about the light. So every company's good light. So if you have a phone camera, good light, it will look great if you don't give it to the blight and look terrible. Um, so think about lighting. Um, and then, you know, one of the things I recommend once you get a bit more into it is taking a bit more control of your focus and brightness. So there are some apps like, uh, one called filmic pro, which gives you phenomenal control of your camera, but I wouldn't necessarily start with that if you're just starting shooting videos. Um, but if you think about keeping it steady, getting good audio, think about lighting immediately, your videos will look much better than most people's.

Sara Moseley: I think that's it, isn't it? It is keep it simple. Face where the light is and if you're not sure where it is, sorry, it's say our photographer and me coming out here blocker. Do you know what sugar is? Just move around and you can just see Clint you in front of you. Yeah, that the image is better.

Mark Egan: That's the thing that you can see on your screen. Um, instantly, one little tip, if you are using the selfie camera, just run a little test because depending on your model of phone, some people they talk to themselves on the screen, not at the lens. So you have people talking to their audience and it looks like they're looking off to the side. So just make sure you making eye contact with your audience when you're doing it. But the other great thing about the phone, which I think isn't talked about enough, is often people will say, what's the best camera? And they'll go to somebody who's an expert and they'll give them some very expensive DSLR to buy. They go and buy it. It's pretty hard to figure out. Then they've got to buy all the accessories. Then they've got to figure out how to download onto their laptop and edited there.

Mark Egan: And if you're very techie, then that's great. But for a lot of people, that's where they get stuck. Whereas with the phone, the thing I love about it is the workflow. So I can shoot something on my phone, I can edit it on my phone, I can, you know, but titles on and everything, I can share it to social platforms. And as the audience goes, more mobile. You know, for instance, Instagram stories is growing and growing and growing. It's easier to make content for that mobile audience on mobile. Um, so my phone can do all sorts of video. I can do live streaming, I can do Instagram stories, I can do YouTube videos. But my main camera can only do one thing. Like I have another big Canon camera I use for certain jobs. And for that it shoots video and nothing else. And the great thing about your phone, it's like a Swiss army knife. It can do lots of things well and it fits in your pockets. Literally, you have a video studio in your pocket. If you choose to use it.

Sara Moseley: I love that you have a video studio in your pocket. I, I remember once I was asking somebody, what's the best camera to use? And they said the one that you have on you, which of course is your phone because then you can be spontaneous. And I just want to add in something here because one of the things that I've started doing is I've been out for the day and I'm taking some footage. It's brilliant because when you're sitting on the train, on your way home, you can just edit your video and it's all done there and then isn't it?Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that's the thing. Um, that, you know, sometimes I'm asked by brands to go and create content and you know, content marketing around big events and you know, you have these big camera crews, like they're wheeling in literally trolleys of kits, you know, that they probably spend as much time with the chiropractor as they do filming. They carry so much equipment. Um, but the thing is with social media is often you want to be posting it when the hashtag is trending. So literally somebody, you've, you're at an event, you're at a conference, you grab an interview with somebody, you can literally clip it up, share it straight away. Literally whilst you're queueing for coffee, um, you don't have to get your laptop out, go and find the space to plug in. All that sort of thing is very, very quick. And that's the value. Once you get quick at this and they can shoot something, edit it, share it all within a few minutes. And that's something that, um, can kind of keep your head of the competition. And also it means that video doesn't have to come a big chore where you're thinking, you shoot lots of stuff, you put it on a laptop, a, you know, it's something that you've committed a lot of to is something you can be posting. Little short videos where we quick videos on a regular basis. Literally wherever you are.

Sara Moseley: That is great. There's some great little tips in that, you know, what we're saying really is get your phone out, keep it stable, look for the light. And away we go. Most people know an element of that. They know they've got to get that camera out. They know they've got to speak to the camera and so on. But it can be a little bit scary. And I want to ask you this, the most common things I hear when I'm, when I'm working with my clients and we're talking about video is they say things like, I don't like how I look. I hate how I sound. You know, these are all things about how we feel about ourselves. So as you know, I mean, you're an ex BBC journalist, so you would've had to, to deal with this on the go as well. Have you got some top tips on how to, how to be on camera that can give people, you know, a sense of, a little bit more confidence so that she doing this?

Mark Egan: Well, firstly, it's a learnable skill. I mean, just to tell a little story. Um, when I was at university, I had like long hair, almost like kind of in my head, I thought it looked like cooker bang. Um, but I remember going to try and, you know, studying journalism and, uh, went into the video studio for the first time and was supposed to read this news bulletin and I was so nervous on camera that, you know, at the end of it the professor said, um, I think you need the psychology department rather than the journalism department. Um, because I was just like terrified of being on camera. Um, and one of the things I think, you know, I liked working radio is that you can see me, um, but being around television and seeing how kind of presenters work, firstly, even top, top, top presenters often hate the way they look.

Mark Egan:  Um, they learned to kind of just get used to it. Um, but you always look in sound much worse than everybody else in your head because you get to sound the way you think you sound. Um, and also nobody else is judging you in that way because let's say you are somebody who teaches that people. So you put a video up on YouTube to teach them something. Um, you may think that they're sitting there thinking, Oh, that whisper the backpack is really distracting and whatever. And you will get a few trolls who may do that, but most people are, are you providing value? So mentally just focus on actually what you're trying to achieve rather than is all about me and that they're judging me and the judging me. But if there's a few kind of basic tips, um, firstly, repetition, repetition, repetition. You don't have to post everything you shoot, but again, if you get your phone out, just keep recording video, keep recording video, and it's a learnable skill.

Mark Egan: The more you do it, the less you look like a rabbit in the headlights. Um, so a few things that people get, so which are wrong, um, often they're told, um, you know, just speak to the camera, um, as if you're having a normal conversation. The problem with that is the camera kills about 25% of your energy level. So if you are on camera, the way I'd liken it is in your head, you might think that you'll like one of those kinds of, you know, you see those preaches on American TV, which you don't like full of energy. That's how you're picturing it. And then you watch it back and it looks like you've just woken up from, you know, falling asleep and you can't understand why, um, video just does that. You have to give it about 125% to be normal. So imagine if you were speaking in a conference room to maybe 15 people, the level of energy that you'd need to do that.

Mark Egan: You just, you don't shouting, you're just giving it a bit more, um, energy. That is the level you need to just sound kind of normal. So that's one of the reasons people say, I hate how I look and sound because I just look so boring. Um, so you have to kind of give it some kind of passion. Um, I think also don't think of all the thousands of people who may watch your video. Think about one person who you really like or as somebody who's a customer and just when you're looking down the lens, I mean, I knew people who put a picture of them underneath the camera. Um, just some things. So it takes it away from, while there's loads of people looking and listening, listening to me, that's terrifying. It just, you're talking to one person. And when you work in TV and radio for somebody like the BBC, they always teach you, you think of one person, have a viewer or listener in your head, and you always refer to the, the listener.

Mark Egan: For instance, in radio, you don't tell them who your listeners because you're only speaking to one person. So again, if you break it down to, I'm just speaking to one person, it seems less scary. Um, the other thing I would say is just think about what you want to achieve with your video. Um, have a plan and then stick to a certain structure. So for instance, the very beginning of a video needs to have some kind of hook. So think about meaning of your video. What's your promise? Why should anybody bother watching on how are you going to capture their attention? Then go into your main one of the teaching is, or whatever you want to say, and then have a call to action. So instead of you being in your head and thinking about the things you're thinking, right, this is my style, this is my middle, this is my end, this is my goal of my video and this is what help I'm providing to people with this video. Um, so if you can concentrate on those things and just keep doing it again and again and again, uh, I'm not saying that you're necessarily going to absolutely love the way you look and sound forever, but you'll get used to it. And that's, that's the point I've got used to is, um, just by doing it again and again, I can now go in front of camera and tool, even though naturally I'm quite introverted.

Sara Moseley: Yeah. It, well, there's nothing, no substitute for practice is there. I, I w some of the things that we've been through in, um, in the members group is I tell people just to practice, not talking to yourself, you know, because just playing around with your voice and we'll come onto that in a second. But just hearing yourself out loud I find found really, really helped me get used to hearing your own voice because we hear it from the inside as well, don't we? That's right. When and then when you hear yourself on video, you'd hear it from the outside. So it does sound, it does sound very different. I love that. So plenty of practice and, and I guess in a way, you know, we've got to get over ourselves because when we go out and meet people, we don't worry about how well does that make sense? You do, how you look in sound, but you're not conscious of it. Are you? So just because we're looking at a camera lens, really, there's no difference is that

Mark Egan: we've got, I mean, just a little anecdote. Um, one of the major costs as I worked, um, I was speaking to the audience people that people who do the research on, you know, how the audience likes certain presenters and things and um, tend to me, they did some research on newsreaders and they found the newsfeed is who made the most fluffs the most mistakes actually came out as the most believable. So in a sense, sometimes everyone's striving for some kind of perfection where they never say, um, they never say anything, do anything wrong. We'll then actually videos about a connection because the reason I love video is if I can have like five seconds on video and somebody would get a sense of who I am or what they are. Uh, where's the texts? It's not quite the same. Um, I mean I met Richard Brenson a few years ago and I had a good 15 minute chat with it.

Mark Egan: And one of the things he said that really stuck out for me was, um, he doesn't understand why so many chief executives, people who run companies are stuck away in boardrooms. Because you know, when you think about his logic was if you, um, need to build, pressed in a brand, like a logo or something like that, I think about how much money and time that's going to take to build that trust. Whereas if you put a face in front of camera, people connect with a person so much quicker. So that's why I reached in Princeton. Whenever there's a launch or something, he's there doing something to get the cameras along, um, in the standards, how to build trust. So often again, you know, with some of the people you work with they'll say, you know, I want to get my message out there or promote my business, whatever it is, but I don't want to go in front of camera.

Mark Egan: And it's like cat being in front of camera is the best way for people to get to know you really, really quickly. And that trust level is, you know, goes through the roof when you put yourself on video on a regular basis. Um, so this is the trust level for being consistent. The other reason, by the way, for being consistent is the algorithm. Something like things like Facebook. Um, if you show that you consistently post good stuff, the algorithm will say, yep, you're good. We like you. And they'll show you videos to more people. If you just post a video now on again, then obviously they can't put you down as kind of like a high trust factor. So being consistent is good for real life and for algorithms.

Sara Moseley: Yeah. I think it's just one of those things that most people now are accepting of this is that you've got to do it. You know, and, and you know, we've been talking about various different ways is as an introvert that you can, uh, you know, raise your visibility and so on. But I think there comes a point where if you really want to build your business, if you really want to be attracting the exact kind of people that you want to work with, then this is just the best way to do it. Um, I know, you know, even in my small amount of video that I've been doing, there is nothing more exciting when someone comes up to you that you have never seen physically before and they say to you, Oh my God, you know, they recognize you, they greet you as if you're a friend and it's, it's down to, they've seen your videos, they've seen you doing lives and so on. And it's, you know, it's just testimony when that happens, it really boosts you, doesn't it? Because you think, yes, this is, this is worth the effort. Yeah.

Mark Egan: Well, so, you know, the number the excuses people give is, um, Oh, I don't have this GDO space at home, or I don't have all the lighting and all that kind of thing. I mean, um, because I was working with big companies, big brands, I was, I was getting emails from people saying, how can I learn this, um, when they would just individual people or small businesses and yeah, I, you know, obviously I didn't really, wasn't really running courses for individuals. Um, so I want it to convert some of my training to online. And I didn't have time to block off, you know, two weeks just sitting in the studio doing videos. So what I did is literally wherever I was, I just created a list of all the topics I wanted to make videos on and where I w wherever I was, I just literally sometimes even just a tiny little mini tripod.

Mark Egan: I mean there was one I did, I was its um, um, he through Apple and my flight was delayed and one of the videos I wanted to make was your kind of pre-flight checks before you start shooting video. These are the things that you need to check. Um, and I thought, right, put my phone down on that. It's kind of one of the seats that you sit on and chatter to the camera, blah blah, blah, blah blah. Um, and there it was by the time the plane landed, the other side, the video was edited. Um, so this is the thing, you can actually take your audience on a journey with you. So wherever you are, what are you, what have you doing? Get your phone out, maybe post something on Instagram, maybe shoot a little YouTube video. Um, so it's that flexibility that once you must've video, I think video is now almost like, you know, there was a time back in the day when you would have specialist typist, you know, so if you were in an office, there were people whose job would be to type things.

Mark Egan: So we're not, you know, the BBC for instance, you'd have people who talk to the scripts. Now if you go for a job and you say, well, you know, I'll do the job, but I need somebody to type log on and type everything I say, you know, you're not going to get pretty far in the same way. I think video has got to that point where it's becoming a base skill. You know, the youngsters growing up now, you know, they shoot native video without thinking. So if you, uh, sort of in any of these kind of industries you want now in the media industry, you need to, must have video so that you can, you know, even things like sending a pitch to somebody, a proposal. Yeah. The proposal, shoot a little video, send them the video is far more powerful than just sending the text.

Sara Moseley: I had a bit of an embarrassing situation recently and I'm supposed to be jumping on a zoom call with somebody and um, they didn't, that internet wasn't, wasn't brilliant and they said, I can't. They said, can we just use the landline? Can we talk on the, on the phone? And I suddenly realized that my Nana, I don't have a phone attached to it. I don't actually have because we never use it. We FaceTime friends and, and family with our phones and also everything I do for, for my business, I do on, on zoom rather than that two phone calls. And it just made me realize just how far we really have come. I do have one now because once I realized, am I asking people one day? Um, okay, so next, let's just

Sara Moseley: give [inaudible] the benefit here because one of the things that like we are now talking on the podcast, but we are actually recording this, aren't we? I mean we're, we're making a video as well because I'm going to use that. But the re-purposing of making a video is just fantastic, isn't it? Because you can, like you say, you can get the transcript, the transcript done, if I can say it, the transcript done, and then you've got a blog post, you can take snippets of it and use it for social, um, uh, for your social media content and so on. Just so much you can do as a result of just making one particular videos. It's well worth doing.

Mark Egan: Yeah, and I mean that's one little tip I would give as well. People say, should I shoot vertical or landscape? And I always say, unless you're just doing something like Instagram stories and it's only going there, I would wish you'd landscape because it felt like a landscape video. Um, I can, as in horizontal, I can chop it up, I can make it square, I can make it vertical. I can make it work in any format. If you shoot vertical, you'll stuck with vertical video. It doesn't really work on something, you know, on a landscape format, like a website or, or YouTube even. Um, so always shoot landscape because it gives you that flexibility. But you're right. I mean I often see people at conferences interviewing people with audio recordings and that's fine, but I sometimes wonder, you know, why don't just get your phone out to get rid of it because suddenly opens up all these other platforms and the social platforms are video-heavy, you know, they love video. It's very visual. It's becoming more and more visual. So if you are not creating regular visual content, then you can kind of get lost in all the noise. So how do you stand out from the crowd? You make good video content that answers the right questions, the right kind of content, but on a regular basis. And that's why I say the phone is just the easiest way to do it.

Sara Moseley: So let's get comfortable with this. So can I just probe you a little bit here to talk about voice because you sound amazing in terms of it's so engaging and I know that clearly you’re trained in it, you said everything is a learnable skill. Have you got any top tips for what we can do with of resets?

Mark Egan: Well, he say that but um, even after I had a whole degree in where we had done kind of broadcasts has been a bit, I got placed at a local BBC radio station and to kind of ease me in, the first thing they asked me to do is to voice it when they could voice pieces. So when you hear what radio bulletin, sometimes they say this report from so and so, and you hear basically it's a script read and recorded. Um, I did a few of those and the news editor came out of his office often one of the bulletins and said his voice can not go in. Um, I said, you said like just sounds terrible, you know, whatever. I just wanted to kind of leave the industry, you know, go and sell used cars or something completely different. Um, and um, but he did kindly is later on the OCT realize that it was a bit soul destroying.

Mark Egan: He, he got me into radio studio and he started to kind of give me proper voice training. Um, so some of the things are, and I probably mean breaking lots of these rules because I've been trying to cram in as much stuff, but let me ask the question. I'm totally conscious now of how I sound and I'm still you. Well, yeah, exactly. Yeah. But slow down. Generally I, I've got the habit of speaking too fast and FOSS does not always mean more interesting. So putting cum politics aside, but Barack Obama, um, I think most people would agree is a very good speaker. But when you watch him speak, it's not like, um, he speaking really, really fast. Sometimes you could literally, he'll say half a sentence. You go and have a cup of tea, come back and still be back in time for the second part of the sentence because it's the poses that give it the, um, the drama.

Mark Egan: So things I would say are if you have a point or would rephrase you want to stress, do things like slow down. So if I wanted to stress that, you know, you need to think about the light instead of saying you need to think about the light, you need to think about the light. It sort of draws more attention to that. Now, you could change the pitch of it. You can do whatever you want, but just pick out keywords and stress those. Um, the other thing to think about is almost becoming more sing-song because people often speak in a monotone. Um, uh, what can make things sound more interesting is when this change, because the way your brain looks in, here's things is that if there's any change, it kind of wakes up a bit. So that's why if you find yourself, okay, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, if you then go, and so the reason why we would do that is blah, blah blah. The minute you change that picture was like what? Yup. Yeah. I'm like, again, um, so think about adding a bit more, almost like up and down to your boat voice. So think about changing the pace and changing the pitch a little bit. So in other words, a sentence that might, that might be, um, the most important thing in your business is to do lots of video. You could say, now the most important thing you've in business is to do lots of video. Um, it kind of

Sara Moseley: just two completely different impacts.

Mark Egan: So in other words, it's just, um, you know, like I said before, give it a little bit more energy. Um, vary your pitch and vary your pace. Cause sometimes, especially if you're speaking for a long period of time, they may be a bit way you want to tell a serious story. So you might say, um, you know, one of the lowest moments for me was blah, blah blah, and you slow it down and then later run, you might be talking about success story, then you might want to pick the pace up again. So those are the things, you know, pitch pace, um, and just giving it energy. Um, but like I say, none of this came naturally to me when even when you said, Oh, I like the way you're using your voice. That still sounds strange to me. Cause in my head I'm still that youngster who was told your voice isn't good enough for radio, but it is a learnable skill.

Mark Egan: Again, it's just, um, it's just energy and just, I think sometimes also when you speak about topics you're passionate about, lots of this stuff happens naturally anyway. It's just, you know, paying attention to it. So that's, those are the main kind of tips I would give. But again, I think just repetition, repetition, place your voice back. And there are certain things I do even now that when I play back, it's like, why do I keep saying that? Why do I keep, you know, like I just did that, you know, I keep saying, you know, and like it's, it's, it's a terrible thing, but you know, nobody to hide it. So, um, so yeah, do your best. But, uh, if you are completely perfect and you sound like, you know, Siri or something, um, that's not natural. So I don't think you need to worry too much about having no ums and AHS and that kind of thing.

Sara Moseley: Yeah. I have to admit, one of the things that I, when I was first doing video and I'm with the podcast as well, is when you start to edit yourself, it really massively improves your presentation skills. Because if you have to go through a podcast or if you have to go through a video and take out all the, um, and you've said kind of, or like, or you know, a million times to the point where you're irritating yourself, you soon drop those things

Mark Egan: when you're making a video. And also, exactly. Yeah. But I will say that whole point about if you slow down, it gives you time to think sometimes. Whereas when you're rushing, I knew were kind of ahead of yourself, then, um, that's when you make more mistakes because you're thinking, I need to sound passionate and interesting, therefore I need to speak really quickly. Um, and you know, not necessarily, you know, there's not a problem to speak quickly, but it doesn't make it harder to speak without making lots of flush some mistakes. So, um, so yeah. Um, but at the same time I would say find your own style because if you were to watch people who do video, like in just kind of self development world, you have people that, you know, Tony Robbins versus Gary Vaynerchuk versus very at various other people and they've got their own style. You know, there's certain rules that they would follow, but you need to find a style that works for you rather than, you know, trying to almost put on an actually you're pretending to be somebody else's, basically. You turned up to kind of 120% as opposed to you mimicking somebody else.

Sara Moseley: Yeah. That's so true. I have to admit, when I first started doing videos, I w I just practiced in practice because I mean as a photographer and there was a reason I was a photographer, I really did not want to be in front of the camera. I was, I made myself very comfortable behind the camera from a very early age. But once you decide that you're going to go for this, and I think lots of things, you become a lot more conscious of things. And I would video myself and just look at it and go, who is that? I don't know who that is. You know, on one day I'd be sounding like a BBC for um, you know, radio presenter. Another day I'd sound like a children's TV presenter and it, I think you have to go through that. I think you have to get started, keep recording yourself, you know, keep playing with your voice so that it feels natural rather than forced. And there's loads of tips. One of the things I did and you know, I know you've just said, you know, don't necessarily just look at other people and copy them, but I started to look at news readers. I started to look at, um, presenters and how their voices worked and so on. And then you just sort of adapt it and make it right. But the number one thing is definitely that isn't it? It's you, Tom's 25%, you know, another 125% just [inaudible].

Mark Egan: Well, one of the things I always used to, um, struggle with this because I'd come from a news background, um, I would do these videos with a really like Stony face because when you're doing news, you're supposed to be impartial and you know, you can't say, Hey, the serial killers on the loose with a big smile on your face. Um, but then suddenly I'm talking about, Hey, you know, how to get the best microphone for your phone. And, um, you know, looking at the audience like the world is just ended. Um, and so for me, I was always jealous of people who hadn't come that route. And we just learning videos, they didn't have that hang up of, you don't have to be really serious and credible. Um, instead of smiling is another thing that I've learned that even if you're doing audio, people can hear whether you're smiling or not. So not saying being like a kind of, you know, that capping, crude, fake smile type thing that um, uh, generally when you start your videos, shake your, shake your body else, take a deep breath and smile and then you kind of get off on the right foot and [inaudible]

Sara Moseley: yeah, none of it. So as ever, I think the overriding message here is be you find your way of, of doing this, get comfortable with it so that you can do it on a regular basis and like everything, it doesn't just come overnight, does it. You're going to have to put some, a little bit of work into this that you can relax and enjoy it and get planned with what you're going to say.

Mark Egan: Brilliant. When it comes to just normal videos. Um, I mean there's an app called quick TUI K and this isn't necessarily one for talking to camera, but if you turn up at an event or something and you think, I just want to post something on social media, you know, this app, it's owned by GoPro and it's free and literally you're putting your photos, your videos and it will give you a whole load of templates and it will generate that into a kind of music onetime video. Um, so even if nothing else, just get started with taking some videos and photos and putting it in that and that would generate a video. Um, couple of other reps just to mention as one called pic play post. And that allows you to put different videos in different boxes. So you could have two, three, four boxes and in those you can have different videos running.

Mark Egan: And the idea of that is when people are scrolling through their timeline yeah. Jumps out as well. That's a bit different. So it's actually recommended by, you know, people at Facebook and Instagram because it increases what's called dwell time. So as you're getting through, it makes your videos just to look a little bit different. So sometimes people will have in one of these boxes, them talking and then the other box is just photos and videos of what they're talking about. So that's pick, play, post. Um, and if you are on an iPhone, there's a great one called mojo, M O J O and that allows you to do animated Instagram stories. So, um, you know, when you have your Instagram stories, if you want it to be more graphicy, you know, where like photos come on and then text moves on and you don't have great design skills, you'd actually get mojo.

Mark Egan:  I think for free. You get a certain number of templates and then to get the risks you have to pay, but it can make this stuff look a little bit more stylish. Um, so yeah, there were lots of apps out there which help you create content very, very quickly. So that's the other advantage of the phone is that, um, sometimes you just need to put something out and some of these apps allow you to do something that is a bit better than just, you know, bulk standard video allows you to stand out from everybody else.

Sara Moseley: Fantastic. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. There's so much in that. I can't wait to get the show notes together for this and I'll put all the links for those apps, um, or the, or the name of them at least so that you can go off and unset with those as well. So Mark, clearly the final question is, uh, you've given loads of value on this podcast. Thank you so much. I am sure there are going to be plenty of people who would like to know more about your, your membership that you run. So can you give us a little bit of a rundown on that? Yeah. So, um,

Mark Egan: my website is markeganvideo.com , the membership is a phone video Academy and the idea of it is to take people, even if they've got zero knowledge of video and give them, um, basically the tips and formulas that professionals use. So when, you know, we go out and shoot things, we have kind of open formulas that we follow and checklists that we follow. So the stuff looks good. Um, there's all the latest apps. Um, and it's constantly updated. There's, there's new things happening every day. And that's the exciting thing about mobile is that if you know the latest apps and the latest, you know what's working, again, you can kind of stay ahead of everybody else. So, you know, this stuff on filming the stuff on editing, you know, when you go on iPhone or Android, there are different apps. So I cover both of those.

Mark Egan:  Um, how to shoot an interview, what equipment to get. Um, and again, you can get fully up and running. I mean, there are literally people making things for television. Broadcast is with about maybe $60 worth of equipment. So it doesn't always have to be lots of money. Um, but if you can lost the skill of video, so if you can shoots, you can plan which videos you're going to make. You can do interviews, you can edit them and you can share them. Um, you can stream live all these things. I cover all of those and it's in little bite sized videos. And the way I've tried to do it is like I said, wherever I am, if I'm in Delhi and it's noisy, I'll do a video about, you know, how to get good audio, which microphones you need. Um, so in a sense I've tried to make it fun and entertaining, um, but also just try and bring people together. Like all these cellular entrepreneurs and small business owners who need to master video. There's not really anywhere, some kind of post the questions when they come up against an obstacle. So part of it is building that community, everybody encouraging each other. And so that's phone video academy.com. So yeah. Um, four for a dollar you can try it out for, weakens the CFI telling the truth.

Sara Moseley: And I highly recommend it because I have to say, I recently joined, Mark's membership and, and I'm, you know, as I said, I'm quite aux fey with, with phones and, and cameras because it's a passion of mine, you know, I'm still a photographer at heart. But I loved the way that you explained things and it definitely given me so many more ideas. I loved what you said on the podcast here where you're saying, you know, have a list of the videos that you're going to make. Just have it on you because you never know when you suddenly think this, this is the perfect place to make this video. And you can really get some variety in it. Cause I think sometimes we get a bit stuck in our ways, um, with, you know, how we make our videos and songs.

Mark Egan: Yeah. I mean the, the different student coming between professionals and sort of say amateurs is professionals will gather a whole bunch of shots in their environments, make it more visually interesting. Yeah. Know, one of the things people sometimes say is, Oh, I'm a life coach. You know, what am I going to fill me? Well, visualize it. Think about maybe the topic you're talking about is um, overcoming a conflict or something like that or a challenge. You know, is there anywhere in your area where historically there was a conflict than it was overcome? Going and film it there and just be, tell the little backstory and that can bring you into the point you want to make visually. It's, it's interesting you are in a different location. People will tune into your videos because you take them on an exciting journey. And again, that's the value of mobile. You can actually be mobile.

Sara Moseley: Absolutely. And I'm just going to add this in actually because this is one of the things that I come across a lot, so I'm going to address it on here is that a lot of people get stuck with what to say, you know, so I would make videos, I'm, I'm happy to him. I don't really know what to say, what, what, what can I do? I think when you plan out your content, you know, you know what sort of content you want to be pronounced on your own social media, you know what your messages are and so on. Then I actually just planning it in some level of detail. These ideas can then come out. It's kind of like you were just saying, thinking about that occasion,

Mark Egan:  kind of in the on the site, publish some basic formulas, kind of like, you know, if you're doing a testimonial video, if you're doing this kind of video. But generally it's um, you know, what's the overarching thing you want to say? Uh, is there like an overall message and then break down all the bits of that message. And then the other thing is what are people searching for? What to, what is your audience wanting to know? So, um, again, if you are doing something, let's say you were doing life coaching, uh, what are the main issues people are struggling with? Maybe make some videos about those bits of content. So I'm always have a little notebook or something on your phone and just list everything. And then you might have half an hour free somewhere and you know, you have an idea, create the video, don't, it doesn't always have to be done. You know, where you sit there for an entire day and record all your videos for the month. I know it's still doable but I don't know about you but I find you know the first video and we're like, well yeah and by you know, halfway through the day it's like

Sara Moseley: another thing. Yeah.

Mark Egan: Whereas, um, if you, uh, just chip away at it, just a little video head look at here then yeah. Get a few shelves in your environment. Just try and make your videos as interesting and shows enough of your place in personality as possible

Sara Moseley: and keep it easy. Keep it simple. Mark. Absolute pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. There's so much in this episode. I'm sure there's going to be lots of people scrambling for the notes so they can get all of those apps and get started. I have to, I love all of this, but you've really re-energized me in terms of, yeah, I've got loads of ideas suddenly popped into my head with what I'm gonna do this video, so I know. No more excuses. Absolutely. There's no excuses. You can hold me accountable. I should. I should start getting more creative with my videos and you can check them out. Thanks again.

Mark Egan: No, it's my pleasure. Thank you.