“But I can’t”, he croaked with an ashamed look weighing down his face.
He continued:
“It’s too much. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.”
So what was this big fear about?
Video.
Yep, showing up on video.
It puts the fear of God in people.
It cuts them to the core.
It’s debilitating, like public speaking is for many.
And it seems impossible.
Until it’s not.
The best way to tame our fears is to expose ourselves to that which we fear.
I don’t mean exposure like throwing yourself in the deep end of the pool you fear, but instead starting with the smallest possible exposure and gradually increasing, like dipping a toe in the shallow end.
So you have a fear of showing up on video?
Well, start small:
Could you look at a video camera?
Could you record a video of you chatting with your spouse?
Could you talk for one minute about something you are passionate about?
I bet you can.
And don’t worry. You don’t have to release anything yet.
You are just getting comfortable being around that video.
And once you have the tiniest hint of being comfortable, that’s when you should post. As you will never feel “ready”. There will always be an excuse not to post:
The audio sucks.
I say ‘umm’ too much.
The lighting is terrible.
Does my face look bad?
I haven’t gotten to the point!
Oh, that damn hair is in my eye!
But if you’ve been following me for a while, you will be aware of my number one rule for creators:
Start before you are ready.
Why?
Because, of course, that first creation is going to suck.
So the sooner you get it out of the way and keep showing up, the sooner you can improve!
And you know what else?
Nobody cares about your shit.
“What?” you exclaim with disgust.
Yes, it’s true.
People are busy living their own lives.
Have you heard of the spotlight effect?
The spotlight effect is the psychological phenomenon by which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are.
Being that one is constantly in the centre of one’s own world, an accurate evaluation of how much one is noticed by others is uncommon.
The reason for the spotlight effect is the innate tendency to forget that although one is the centre of one’s own world, one is not the centre of everyone else’s.
Wikipedia
People are so consumed with their own business that they don’t have time to sit around judging you all day.
And you know that small audience following you have been complaining about:
“Why aren’t I growing faster? My content is good. Why…”
Well, why not use that small following to your advantage?
If you’re going to start on video, you may as well get some reps in before you have that huge audience you desire.
Now is the best time to get those awkward early reps in. Start climbing cringe mountain!
Mastery awaits you.
The Walk & Talk video format
One thing that often shocks me is the compliments I get on my little videos on Instagram and LinkedIn.
These are usually just 1 minute “Walk & Talk” videos — me outside walking around and riffing on an idea into the camera.
So why am I shocked?
Well, for one, I feel like an imposter!
You know the thoughts:
Who am I to be doing these videos?
Your quality is terrible.
Nobody cares you fool! Shut up.
Look at all those other highly produced and edited videos.
But no, that inner voice is wrong.
All you need for a video to be valuable is a simple story and an “a-ha” moment for the audience.
I don’t know about you, but I get tired of all those overproduced, in-your-face style videos with rapid cuts, sound effects and emoji popups.
The TikTokification of video isn’t my style.
I don’t like the feeling of someone deliberately hacking my emotional systems so that I watch their (often) mediocre content.
I would rather just watch good content without all the BS.
I like basic conversation, storytelling and lectures.
I think that’s why I love podcasts so much.
I struggle to watch a 2 minute TikTok video.
But I will quite happily binge a 3-hour conversational podcast.
What is going on there?
That is one of the beauties of the internet.
It has room for everyone and all their different styles.
The legacy mass media treated us like we were stupid. Byte-sized news updates not telling the whole story or overblown entertainment gossip. They assumed we weren’t capable of depth and meaning.
But no, the internet has proved them wrong.
Look at the most successful podcast – The Joe Rogan Experience – it’s 3-hour conversations about anything and everything.
It breaks every rule of what was considered necessary for success:
Pick a niche
Keep it short
Stay on topic
Get to the point
Make it all about the listener
This makes me realise we can’t fully trust the gurus and success consultants. As they always have something to sell you. And they are trying to lead you down their path.
But that may lead you to something dull and uninspiring for you. Maybe something you grow to hate.
And that’s not good for anyone. You will give up if there is no fun or meaning for you. And the world loses out on your gifts.
Back to video
I had no idea these little videos could be valuable.
Why did I discount the value of short-form?
It’s probably because of how I approach creating this newsletter. It’s a labour of love, which I meticulously put hours of effort into long-form.
And I absolutely love it.
It’s a pleasure to create and a tremendous source of growth and meaning in my life.
You might think I write these newsletters for you or my business. But the truth is I am the one who gets the most value out of them.
This learning, growth, and mastery process is making me a better person. I already barely recognise myself from 2 years ago.
So I see the direct value of these letters. All the fantastic feedback I receive from readers is incredible.
But short-form videos like Reels?
It felt shallow.
Petty.
Silly.
I would exclaim, “There is no room for depth or nuance there.”
But I was wrong.
How?
Well, you can pack a powerful insight into each little video.
And over time, all those videos add up.
Your followers could be watching every one of them, or maybe a new follower binge-watches all your videos to date. Not only do they learn a lot, but they grow to like and trust you, which is priceless.
Priceless for your business and your personal brand.
And in this AI writing phase where we currently find ourselves, it’s becoming increasingly hard to tell what is real and what is not.
So trust is low.
“How do I know if this is a scammer?”
“Can I trust this guru?”
“Is this person the real deal?”
And video can be the bridge to that trust.
I know deep fakes are a thing, and AI video won’t be far behind the current AI writing phase.
So now is an excellent chance to establish yourself as a video maker.
And the “walk & talk” format is great for building that trust. Why?
1. Authenticity
It feels authentic and natural seeing your face casually speaking out in nature.
2. No AI fakery
It’s not some AI studio – you are clearly walking outside.
You’re a real person doing real person things.
3. Engaging background
The moving background is engaging to watch and hear.There’s no need for emoji popups, time-consuming b-roll edits, or ridiculous sound effects.
You get it naturally with the sound of the birds and cars driving by.
Your audience comes to feel like they know and trust you.
I landed a business client through my videos. I had a call with a guy, and you know what the first thing he said to me was:
“I feel like I already know you from your videos.”
This got our conversation off to the perfect start.
7. Help your audience win
It’s a win-win.
Build in public. You learn, grow and show.
Share your insights (win for you), and then by sharing, you are helping your audience solve their problems (win for them).
How do I record, edit and publish my “famous” Walk & Talk videos?
“My famous?”
Haha, yep, that’s a little joke.
I have no claim over the idea.
But it’s funny how people notice and associate things with you when you start doing them publicly.
Since I started posting them on Instagram and LinkedIn, I had many people compliment, thank, and reference me.
I’ve bonded with other creators over our mutual appreciation of walking and talking — shoutout to Daniel “Mamba” Odoi, Dylan Wheatley, and Peter Kuyt, who immediately come to mind.
Feels pretty good — like the beginnings of a little virtual walking community!
It’s a cool way to connect with new people over a mutual love of ideas and walking in nature.
So I‘ve already told you why you should be doing walking videos.
Now I’m gonna get a little more specific and tactical.
Scheduling – Either directly on the social media platform or via Buffer
My video making process
Ideas
First, you need ideas.
Otherwise, it’s a slog trying to force the magic. Often you think of cool stuff while walking.
But personally find having an idea beforehand makes things smoother.
So ensure you collect all your ideas, interesting thoughts, and things you notice in a note-taking system.
I simply catch them in Apple Notes as I don’t like over-the-top complex systems.
I prefer simple.
Walking
Have a daily walking practice.
James Clear recommends stacking desired habits on something you already do.
My after-lunch walk with my dog is the main one I try not to miss, so I combine that with video recording.
Before setting off, I review my notes system and see what catches my eye.
Then I let that seed of an idea sink into my mind.
For the first 10 minutes of the walk, I review how to riff on that idea.
Recording
Then I simply put my AirPods in my ears for the microphone, pull out my phone, and hold up portrait-style to my face on the screen camera (no selfie stick, lol, couldn’t be seen in public with one of those!).
Time to hit record and start talking!
I usually just do one take and keep talking (repeating) until I get it.
I edit out mistakes when I get back to my desktop.
Note – I feel dull and uninspired some days, so the last thing I feel like doing is video.
When I have those days where I’m bursting with inspiration, I capitalise on it and record a few videos in one session.
If you’re worried about looking the same, you can have a jumper on for one video and wear your T-shirt for the next.
Note – I aim for max 1 minute long videos as that is the limit for YouTube Shorts. Then it makes repurposing easy.
Editing
I could write a love letter to my editing software — Descript.
It’s changed my life!
It’s so simple and intuitive that it makes video editing a breeze. I recommend you check it out. It blew my mind!
How?
You need no video skills.
It converts your video into a transcript like a Word doc on the left sidebar. And then you simply edit the Word doc (e.g. delete a word), and the Descript AI then edits out of the video — Magic!
I often say “umm”, ramble, and even stutter, so this is a lifesaver!
It also has other fancy tools like an auto clean-up of filler words and awkward silences.
And you can even use AI to correct mispronounced words or add new words (I haven’t used that feature yet, as I’m a bit weird about AI taking over what is “me”).
Here’s one of my favourite features in Descript:
Studio sound. This feature cleans up your audio to make it sound like you are in a recording studio. Perfect for walkers and talkers, as wind noise, cars, and sirens can be a real problem.
Although once I captured some kookaburra birds laughing in the background of my video, I left them in — you can’t get more Australian than that!
Next, adding captions is effortless. You just hit the captions button and select your preferred font and format. And because you have the Word doc text, you can quickly correct transcription errors.
Finally, I layer in some background music and turn the volume down on that track.
Thanks to Daniel “Mamba” Odoi for putting me into Uppbeat – where creators can access royalty-free music for use in their creations. This is important as you don’t want any copyright infringements.
Next, I give it a playback with headphones and check that the video and audio levels are good. Sometimes I need to trim the beginning and ending to remove awkward pauses.
Then I hit publish at 1080p resolution, which suits the social platform requirements — to my Google Drive for storage as I don’t want all the video clogging up my phone/mac. But I want it to be easily transferrable between devices.
I happily use the paid version of Descript as I love the features.
Scheduling
I usually manually post videos if I am having a standard working day at home.
I do this directly on the platforms, e.g. Instagram app on my phone, Meta Business Suite on my Desktop, and LinkedIn via the desktop platform.
I’ve also started repurposing my short videos on YouTube Shorts since I now do the podcast on YouTube.
I was doing TikTok, but I am trying to simplify the number of platforms I use. Burnout sucks! So I cut TikTok.
If I have a busy week or am on holiday, I usually pre-schedule on Buffer. You can have three platforms for free on Buffer (e.g. Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube Shorts). So I do it here for ease in one scheduling location.
Bonus for Instagram
I wanted to start showing up more on Instagram Stories.
But I didn’t want more burnout from more content.
So I started showing some of my raw, unedited videos from Walk & Talks on the day to my IG stories.
Then I post the best ones as reels, which could be two weeks later.
So it’s an easy way to get more use out of your content, and people will hardly notice.
Final tip – Batch!
Parts of the process can be a pain in the backside (editing is boring for me!).
So it makes sense to batch the process and do multiple videos in one work block. E.g. record three videos one day, edit videos the next day, and schedule for later.
Otherwise, it becomes a real burn if you record, edit and post all on the same day.
That’s it!
I hope this breakdown of my process has been helpful.
Information is handy, but remember:
You have to actually start.
Reflection
I have a challenge for you over the next week:
Record and publish a 1 minute Walk & Talk video on your main social platform.
Don’t overthink it.
Just do it!
And recognise:
This is a necessary first step to you becoming a superstar video creator.
A quote to ponder
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The pod is the same content as my YouTube channel, but on audio.
Why do this?
I don’t like watching videos. I default to audio. But I see the benefits of becoming good on video for future opportunities.
And I looooove audio! It’s so intimate having someone in your ears. I consume while driving, walking and doing the dishes, etc. I’m assuming many of you are in the same boat of preferring audio.
I always dreamed of having a podcast when I started this whole creator journey. Honestly, getting into podcasts was what put the fire in my belly about the possibilities of the creator economy.
Ticking off this bucket list item, I feel a massive sense of fulfilment.
And that is why I am so passionate about encouraging you to create what you want to see in the world.
