AMY PORTERFIELD: Welcome to another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. I’m your host, Amy Porterfield, and today we are talking about live streaming video.
We can’t ignore it guys, we’ve got to dive into live video. We’ve got to talk about what works, what doesn’t work, what’s working right now, and we definitely need to talk about the technology to make it all come together in a way that is incredibly strategic for you and your business. That’s what we’re getting into today.
I can’t do that episode alone because we all know I am not an expert at live video. However, I have friends that are. My guest today is Luria Petrucci. Luria, I’m only saying her last name once because it’s a difficult one.
Luria helps you create professional live streams that put you a notch above what everyone else is doing and sets your brand apart. She’s definitely been doing that with me and she can help you do the same.
For over 11 years Luria has created 3,500 videos with one billion, yep I said billion, views using video and live streaming shows. Because of her shows she’s been asked to share her expertise on CNN, FOX, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, and BBC. That pretty much covers all the Cs.
She’s worked with top brands including AT&T, Samsung, Verizon, Bosch and Lomb, GoDaddy, and Panasonic.
Luria, along with her partner, David Foster, are the owners of LiveStreamingPros.com. You can learn so much about live streaming just by visiting their website and following along on their videos. They were the masterminds behind my new TV- quality video studio in my home.
If you’ve been following me on Instagram and you watch my InstaStories (the little videos I make for you every week) I’ve given you a behind-the-scenes look at my studio in my home. It’s something I’m still getting used to.
Quite honestly, all of these lights and cameras and everything else going on in the studio, makes me a little bit uncomfortable because, as we all know, I’m not fully comfortable doing video. However, I absolutely love what video does for our relationship.
I get to connect with you at a level I’ve never done before. It goes beyond the podcast. You see me in real life when I do my live videos on my Facebook page. I think it’s important that I come out behind the computer screen and actually connect with my audience in that way.
That’s why I’ve been talking about live video so much. We’re going to get into all the details around you getting started with live video and Luria is going to help us with some tips and tricks to help me and you feel a whole lot more comfortable in front of the camera. It’s all about mindset. That’s what I’m learning.
Before we get into it, the freebie today is a good one. I know I probably say that every time I create a freebie, but this one is what people have been asking me for the minute I started to show my new live streaming video studio.
It is the Gear Guide. If you’re curious to know all of the details of how I’ve put the studio together, what camera I’m using, the lighting, the monitors, the software, if you want to know it all it’s in the Gear Guide.
I will tell you I spent a pretty penny on this studio because I up leveled my quality of equipment. That is not where I want you to start. I told Luria we could not expect my students who are just starting out on video to spend a lot of money on technology. It’s the last thing I want you to do.
Luria graciously agreed to also give recommendations for equipment that’s not as expensive but will really make you look like a pro. We’ve included less expensive options inside the Gear Guide. You’ve got to get your hands on this one.
Go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/168download. It’s a pretty fancy giveaway. We’ve included images, links, and descriptions. Make sure to grab it.
I won’t make you wait any longer. Let’s go ahead and dive in.
Amy: Luria, thank you so very much for being on the show. I am so excited to have you here.
Luria: I am thrilled to be here, Amy. You are awesome. For anybody wondering if Amy is really as cool as she seems in person, she is. Even more so.
Amy: We actually had a really fun situation. I actually didn’t even mention this in the intro. You guys were all here. You had kind of a little snafu with a not so great AirBnB so I said you had to come over here for a few nights.
Your last two nights you were staying at my house and I got to cuddle with your dog. Abby is the cutest thing in the whole world, a little Chihuahua, and we had great conversations out of the blue, which is really fun. It was a lot of fun that you got to stay at the house.
Luria: It was a blast.
Amy: I loved it. Because you have been at my house and we’ve spent so much time together I was extra excited about this interview because there is so much we get to cover as it relates to live video. Since this live studio has been in full effect I’ve gotten so many questions about what kind of equipment we’re using, how it all came together, what I suggest, and I really don’t suggest anything, I get all my cues from you and David.
Let’s start at the top. At LiveStreamingPros you’ve created four levels of live streaming. These four levels map out the progression from just getting started to going big like I did with my own live video setup.
Let’s just start there. Can you walk us through these four levels?
Luria: Absolutely. It is confusing and the world of live video is massive and there are so many different options. A lot of times people get so overwhelmed with where to start so we broke it down into the four levels of live streaming.
Level One is what I call the selfie stream. It’s exactly what it sounds like. You’re holding your phone and not using anything else other than your phone. It’s free. It’s easy. You’re using either Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, or Instagram to go live.
The bad part of Level One is that it’s got a shaky cam. You can very easily have really bad live video if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing. You can’t do any fancy stuff like graphics or interviews or some of the things people see you doing.
Level Two is what I call mobile plus. That is still your phone but you add a video stabilizer like an IOgrapher or BScript. Then you can add a microphone. You can add lighting. You can spice up your phone streams so that they are more professional and a better experience.
Level Three is going live from the desktop using software like Wirecast, OBS, and some of the other software you may have heard about as well. That is a really cool level. It’s a hard level but it’s a cool level because it’s the first time you can add graphics and do side-by-side interviews. You can add your branding and you can start to stand out of the crowd of live streamers.
Level Four is where you are, Amy. It’s TV quality from a studio using dedicated equipment and really having a set-it-and-forget-it studio. You come in, you flip on what we call the “party on” switch, and you are ready to go live. You don’t have to worry about setup and tear down.
When you have excuses you will use those excuses so that’s really all about eliminating any possible issues or excuses that could come up.
Amy: This is great. I love the Level 1, the selfie stream, and I really do believe that’s where we all start.
Luria: Absolutely.
Amy: But most of us move from that pretty quickly. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one that was creating shaky videos. I thought maybe I had a problem they were so bad. Level Two is getting into adding mic and light and a video stabilizer.
But, where I really want to encourage my listeners to get to is Level Three. You may never think Level Four is something you need. You might not have the room for it in your house and you might not want to pay all the money to go to a Level Four TV quality. But I feel you could do some really great things and look pro in Level Three. Would you agree?
Luria: Absolutely. Level Three takes extra time, extra work, and extra money over Level One or Two. Before you get to Level Three I would really like you to get used to going live from your phone on Level One or Level Two because that process of going live is scary. It has what I call the “live adrenaline monster.”
You have all of these fears and all of these things that are going through your brain so you have to get used to that process before you add everything to it. You definitely want to move toward the more professional stream, for sure, but I also want to make sure you’re not doing more than you can handle. That’s always a point of failure for people.
I see people day in and day out all the time going to Level Three and failing because they’re not sure of all of the ins and outs of it. I want you to be aware of things before you dive into it. That’s a whole other thing but I think Level Three is a fantastic level. It just comes with its issues just like any other.
Amy: So easing into it is always a good idea?
Luria: Absolutely. I kind of call it layering complexity. You always need to start small and add your complexity. You definitely want to move fast in the world of live video but you’re always going to use a Level One or Level Two. We’ll talk about that later, but you’re always going to use it so you might as well get used to it as well and kind of move up as quickly as you can.
Amy: Awesome. I just want to remind you guys that we have a special guide that Luria and David helped me put together. Again, it outlines all of the equipment I used in my Level Four studio. We are also giving you recommendations and links so that you can get good in Level Two and Level Three as well.
You can get it at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/168download and you will love it. We’ve included images. Like I said, there are a lot of links to make it really easy so definitely get your hands on that.
We are moving on because this is the big question beyond technology that I get asked all the time. What advice do you have for someone who hates seeing themselves on video?
Luria: Don’t we all?
Amy: Coming from you that blows my mind because if you guys have ever seen Luria on video she is an absolute pro. We got the chance to watch some of her videos and it’s funny because her partner, David, said, “You’ve got to see some of the videos where she’s using the teleprompter because you’d never guess it.”
We added a teleprompter to my studio and I am not really smooth on teleprompters. We watched some of Luria’s videos and I could not believe it. You are amazing on video and you are saying that even you sometimes don’t love to see yourself on video?
Luria: I never like to see myself on video.
Amy: I can’t believe it.
Luria: No one does. It’s a rare occasion that you find someone who loves to watch themselves on video. It’s really important to watch yourself on video because it teaches you a lot. But there are four things I want you to know if you are feeling that way.
The first thing is that it’s not about you. It is truly about your viewer. It’s not about you. That’s easier said than actually putting into practice. What I want you to think about, can I pull out a movie reference here? I so rarely do this because I am not a pop culture person.
Amy: I’m not even going to know the movie. Watch. I just have a feeling.
Luria: Oh you’d better. If you don’t know this then you have a problem.
Amy: I’m nervous.
Luria: Beauty and the Beast.
Amy: Oh good. I thought you were going to bring some sci-fi thing up and I don’t know any sci-fi.
Luria: Gaston, right? I try to say it with a French accent but I fail miserably. If you think about him, he’s always looking in the mirror. He’s always, “Ooh La La, awesome,” and all this stuff. It is when you are thinking about not looking good on camera remember Gaston. You are actually falling into that realm of selfishness, if I can call it out like that.
You are thinking about yourself more so than the viewer. You’ve got to turn it around off of yourself and turn it onto them. If you can focus on content and community you start to involve your community members into the world. You talk to them and ask them questions. It really starts to turn your self consciousness around.
First of all, it’s not about you. Second of all, focus on content and community. Third, prepare. That will help you to focus on the content. Bullet points. Gosh, if you are not thinking through what you want to say on live video I guarantee the live adrenaline monster is going to attack.
Amy: Yes!
Luria: You’re thinking about the fact that 20 people or 100 people are watching, “Oh my gosh” there are no people watching, you are saying “um” too many times, what were you going to say, “oh my gosh” a comment came through. There are so many things going through your brain.
If you are not preparing then you’re going to lose site of the value you’re promising your audience. So use bullet points. It’s okay to look at them. A lot of people ask if they can look at their bullet points. Yes, absolutely. It actually helps you and shows the audience you actually care enough to prepare. They love that.
The fourth thing is to realize that everybody actually feels the same way you do. I’ve been doing live video for ten years and video for 11 years. I still feel uncomfortable with who I am. I feel uncomfortable being on camera.
I do not love being the center of attention but I do it because I get to help people, because I get to get people results for what I’m talking about, live video. That makes me feel awesome. I feel I focus on that instead.
One of my students told me they don’t like being on video because they have a lisp. I popped up Google and looked up celebrities that have lisps. You know what I found?
Amy: What?
Luria: A whole heck of a lot of celebrities with lisps. If they can do it and they have a much bigger audience than any of us, why can’t you?
Amy: So true. The whole idea of it being selfish to only focus on how you look on video and the fact that it takes away from your audience getting value from your content, that was a turning point for me. I remember the first morning when I woke up to come into the new studio to do my first live video.
I had to tell myself, “Today’s not about you. Today’s about the content and your viewers and them learning something.” But I probably had to say that to myself 20 times to believe it. It’s a hard thing for me but it’s so very true. Good stuff!
Luria: Yeah.
Amy: I’m going to not let go of this one because I’m going to build on it just a little. What if the person on video is genuinely awkward? I’m not just talking about being self conscious and saying “um”. We have all seen people that are really dedicated to doing video on Facebook once a week. They are kicking butt on showing up every week but they are really awkward. What about that?
Luria: First of all, there’s an audience for everybody, I believe. I’ve seen people that I may find awkward that might have a huge audience.
Amy: Great point.
Luria: There is that so just realize that we are not for everybody. Just as you tell people to make sure they’re not trying to market to everybody and that they focus on who they are trying to go to, that’s a part of that, realizing our personalities don’t attract everybody.
I get told every day that I shouldn’t be on camera.
Amy: That’s so crazy. When you told me that I thought you were crazy. At the same time, she gets told many, many times how great she is on camera but she was reminding me that there is always someone that says she’s terrible at it and then there are more people that say she’s better at it.
That person that says she’s terrible at it just has to speak up. It is just so crazy to me that people do that but it’s true.
Let’s say you are genuine awkward on video. I know it’s kind of like if someone thinks you are then someone thinks you’re not. I get that. But what tips do you have to show up more natural?
Luria: I have five tips for you? First your energy level. Everybody says the camera adds ten pounds and we’re all self conscious about that, right?
Amy: Yeah.
Luria: Instead of adding ten pounds, it actually zaps away energy. If you think of it in a physical situation you are standing or sitting where you are and have the amount of distance, whether it’s a webcam or a camera or whatever, you have some distance between you and the camera.
Then there is a device between you and the space (the world) and then you have to get from you past that space to the camera, through the lens, through the space on the other end of the viewer watching to their eyeballs.
If you think about the amount of space, energy is being zapped from you throughout that entire process. You have to amp up your energy. It’s going to feel awkward and it feels really stupid, actually. When I first started doing this way back when, I felt like a complete idiot. But it is true.
When I’m doing anything on video I am way more amped up than I am necessarily in person. Amp that energy up. Does that make sense to you?
Amy: It does. You are a great example and I know not everyone will get to see you in person but you are more shy in person than you are on video. It is definitely an energy shift. I feel like both of those people are you but I really do see it. I love that and I am mesmerized by your videos so I get it. More energy, that’s great.
Luria: I’m not changing my personality by any means. It is the same personality. But I am a shy person and so many of us are. If I’m in an environment where there are people around I want to go hide in a corner. That’s what I want to do. I have to change that energy.
The second thing is smile talk.
Amy: What’s this? I guess that I can guess what it is.
Luria: Yes. It’s smiling while you’re talking. I think I may have even heard you mention this somewhere. When you’re talking, whether it’s through a podcast or on video or anything it goes along with the energy. If you physically smile people actually hear that an it makes a big difference in the way people perceive you.
When you don’t smile at all throughout your entire video people think you’re boring. That’s just the way people perceive that. So get used to smile talk. If you pause a video several times throughout your live stream you should find a smile in there.
Amy: For sure.
Luria: That will help tremendously. Third is eye contact. A lot of awkwardness comes from not keeping eye contact with the viewer. How do you do that if you’re not in person? You look straight into the lens.
If you’re streaming at a Level One or Level Two that’s the phone lens. That’s the tiny little dot that looks like nothing on your phone. You have to stay focused on that. If you’re doing a selfie stream and you’re looking at you on camera on the screen of your phone and you’re trying to look at the tiny little dot you’re a lot bigger and you’re naturally going to look over to you on camera and see yourself and watch yourself. You’ve got to train yourself to stop that and just focus on the lens.
Amy: That’s good stuff.
Luria: The fourth thing, are you ready to move on?
Amy: I am. Do it.
Luria: Get passionate. Why are you talking about what you’re talking about? If you’re not passionate about it at all then I’m going to feel that as a viewer, for sure. There is a reason you did this in the first place. There is a reason you have your business. There’s a reason you want to help people. There’s a reason you started to do live video.
Before you go live close your eyes for a second and tap into that. Think about it. Remind yourself. Create a mantra for yourself if you have to before you go live to really tap into that passion that I know you feel.
Amy: I like that. It is so true. I always know when I’m on a roll and know my videos going to be when I lose track of time, lose track of where I am, and I’m so into the content because I’m so excited about it. It’s easier to smile when you talk when you are truly passionate about a topic.
Luria: Totally.
Amy: I get that one.
Luria: I think the biggest thing, and this is #5, the biggest thing that makes people feel awkward or look awkward is that they are literally concentrating on the fact that they are on camera. Going back to that Gaston example, they are freaking out about stuff and you have to be aware that with live video comes mistakes and things that will go wrong. Absolutely 100%, I guarantee you if nothing else, something will go wrong whether it’s your first time out, third time out, or 100th time out.
Don’t freak out when those things happen. That will minimize a lot of the awkwardness that does come across.
Amy: I like that one a lot because as I’m in this new studio I’ve seen a shift in my energy and just a shift in my overall feeling of comfort because it’s new. I’ll get used to it but I’m focusing very much on a lot of lights and cameras so I’m not totally present.
I’ve seen it in my videos so it’s something I’m aware of. I’m so glad you brought it up here. It is something we can work on. We just have to keep doing videos. It’s like riding a bike. Just keep doing it and you keep getting better and better.
Good stuff. We talked about the whole idea of hating yourself on video or maybe you’re just genuinely a little more awkward than the average bear. If that’s the case I love these tips that you gave. Thanks for spending some time on really diving it.
This next section is about live streaming from your mobile device. Most people have an iPhone but not everyone, of course, so any kind of mobile device. I want to talk about it because I really do believe Level One and Level Two involve using your mobile for streaming. I know you have a simple formula for making mobile live streaming a success.
Can you walk us through that?
Luria: Yeah. This will work on any level, really. There are different things based on what you’re trying to accomplish that you can do with this formula but it will get you started in the right direction.
First and foremost, the worst thing you can do and the thing that so many people do…
Amy: I’m nervous. I’ll bet I do it. What is it?
Luria: They open the stream and say, “Hey, can you hear me? Let me know…”
Amy: It’s like I can’t not do that. When I am just on a mobile, not in my video studio, and go live I am sure that nobody can hear me. It’s the weirdest thing. But 99% of the time they can, right?
Luria: Right. Here’s the thing. You’ve got to trust your viewer to tell you if they can’t hear you.
Amy: Oh, that’s good.
Luria: When you concentrate on the viewer, as we’ve talked about this whole episode, you want to make sure you’re giving them a great experience. Michael Hyatt has a whole thing on creating a “Wow” experience. That’s what we want to do.
If you are concentrating on giving them that wow experience then what you are doing by asking, “Hey, can you hear me? I’m just going to wait until…let me know. I’m just going to hang out until people show up.” You are checking your hair.
That’s fine if no one is showing up live but you have a replay of that video and you are wasting people’s time. It is just not a great experience. Get into the formula I’m about to share with you. If they can’t hear you they will tell you. It’s a better chance that it is going to be fine than not so go with that.
The formula. First and foremost, in the formula we are going to take a step to the recorded audience, to the replay viewers, and this may feel awkward and counterintuitive. You have just hit the “go live” button and you’re first thought is the replay viewers.
Unless you’re Amy Porterfield there aren’t going to be any live viewers right there at the moment you open your stream. It takes a little bit of time for people to come on. Start with a tease. Tell people what they are going to be getting by hanging around on your show.
You’re going to be telling them exactly what you’re going to be talking about. Then introduce yourself. Hopefully your stream is being shared out or you’re going to boost it later. You are getting in front of a new audience so be sure to tell them who you are and why you’re talking about yourself. This can be really natural. It doesn’t have to be a big long bio, by any means.
In mine I say something like, “Hey, we’re going to be talking about the three tips for mobile live video and doing it well. I’m Luria Petrucci. I’ve actually been doing live video for over a decade so I’ve seen it all and I really want to help you accomplish great video.”
Something like that is natural and easy. It’s not a bio but you are still introducing yourself and giving yourself credibility.
After those first two things we move on to focusing for the live audience. You will ask for a social share. By this time, even though that was really quick, you are going to have some people there. If you don’t, don’t worry they are coming and there is a focus on the replay people at that point.
For the live audience go ahead and ask for a social share. Ask for any kind of engagement. If you’re doing this on Facebook they care about engagement right up front. They will give you bigger reach if they see that people are engaged with you.
That includes comments, reactions: the like, heart, wow face, anger face. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good or bad reaction. That also includes shares. Any of those are great engagement so go ahead and ask for something right there and give them a reason why they should.
Go ahead and engage people. I like to ask people a question. You always have a buffer of time where people are going to hear you 30-45 seconds after you ask a question. Go ahead and ask a question. I always have a question of the day that relates to the topic I’m talking about.
You can ask where they are watching from. It doesn’t matter. Just ask a question and then answer that yourself. You are giving yourself a little bit of buffer time to allow people to respond to you so that you’re not awkwardly waiting for people to respond to you. Does that make sense?
Amy: It does. Yes.
Luria: Then restate your topic to be sure the live viewers at that point (because a lot of new people have joined) know what you’re going to be talking about and then get right into it. All of this beginning section really doesn’t take all that much time. It’s a fairly quick process.
Engage with them. Make sure they know you want to be there with them. Restate your topic and get into the value. Then you want to think about it from a hopping back and forth perspective. Let’s say you have three tips for something. You will give the value of Tip #1. You will then stop for a little bit of engagement.
You will then give Tip #2 and again stop for a little bit of engagement. This will make sure you’re delivering on the value and not engaging too much. There is definitely such a thing as over engagement.
That happens when people say, “I’m going to tell you the thing that’s going to change your world forever. It’s going to make you rich, it’s going to make you live forever, and all this great stuff. Are you ready for it? Hey Amy, I’m so glad you joined me. Oh my goodness, I’m so glad to see you Derek! Welcome to the show. Didn’t you go to vacation in Hawaii? How was that?”
You were about to give some really good value. You are going to live forever but then you’re talking about Hawaii? Who cares? They can see Hawaii once they are living forever, right?
Amy: Right.
Luria: Think about it in that perspective. You really kind of give the engagement because that’s what’s vital about live video and that’s why people are there. But you do want to make sure you don’t get that message confused.
Of course you end with your call to action. You’ve always got to have a call to action, right?
Amy: Yes. You make a great point. I found myself doing this today on video. The comments are so distracting sometimes and if I look down sometimes if I’m not feeling totally comfortable it gets me off my game.
I am literally mid sentence saying something really great in value and then boom it took me out of it. What do you suggest people do in those moments where they are giving great value but the comments are definitely there for a reason. This is live. How do you not let them distract you?
When do you know when to go to comments and when to stay away from the comments?
Luria: If you focus on chunks then that will definitely help and I literally don’t look at the comments during that time.
Amy: That’s a great point. Just don’t look. I made the mistake of looking down and it threw me off. But if I just don’t look and then when it’s time for me to respond to people, give shout outs, whatever, then I am fully there.
Luria: Exactly.
Amy: I think it’s all about presence. Where are you putting your focus? There are a lot of places to put your focus during a live so I love that you walked through this formula because I think it’s incredibly valuable.
This next part is actually my favorite. Obviously I prepared notes for this interview because I had a lot to cover. This next part is my favorite because once my studio was set up and you and David got me all dialed in you took me downstairs away from David. He’s a talker and will get in our business, so it was just you and me. I love David so much.
It was just you and me and you sat me down and said you wanted to talk to me about the three-part live strategy. I was wondering what you were talking about. I just had a video created. I am doing live video. What is the three-part thing you were talking about?
It was so good and it’s not necessarily what I’m doing now. It’s something I’m working toward. I want my listeners to hear this three-part live video strategy because it’s very eye opening in terms of how to approach live video in general.
Luria: Thank you for saying you love it. First and foremost, obviously as Amy just said, she’s not doing it yet but she is getting there and it’s going to take a little time to put it all into place. You never want to try and do all of the things all at once.
If you think about this going forward at least you start off with the right mindset. Part One is your consistency. Do a weekly live show. It is something where you set the date and time and say to your audience, “I am going to be here for you. I’m going to give you this particular value and I will be there to answer your questions. We’re going to hang out. You’re going to get a lot of great stuff from it. This is our hangout time.”
It’s just like you book a weekly hangout with your girlfriend on Friday night or whatever you are going to do that with your audience. Consistency. This really builds trust. When they see you are wiling to put it on your calendar they are going to return that favor.
Live video is really scary for a lot of people. I’m not talking about being on camera. I’m talking about the investment and time people have to take to join you on your live stream and interact with you. They have a lot of things to do. They are busy and when they see you putting that commitment in they are more willing to do so.
They know you are going to be offering value and that they are going to be able to talk to you in person. They look up to you. You are, by default of doing any kind of video, blogging, podcast, whatever, you become a micro celebrity.
They want to join you for that. We are going to tap into that micro celebrity in Part One and Part Two. Part One is consistency, making sure they know when to join you and that you are there and solid.
Part Two is random life streams. These are videos that you do unplanned from Level One or Level Two. This is really all about creating the relationship and building a really human connection. This is where live video really shines from an interactivity perspective, from a raw perspective is the life streams. I’m not saying “live”, I’m saying “life”.
Amy: I thought she was when she explained it to me but she is saying life. These are the ones that I struggle with. They don’t feel very natural to me. I don’t do them enough. But keep going.
Luria: This is about bringing people into your world behind the scenes. You could do a few things. You could do behind the scenes of your business. We are voyeuristic. People love the behind-the-scenes stuff.
Allow them into your world. Show them what it takes to do the stuff that you are providing to them. Beyond the work side of things, your actual life is really important. You don’t have to show your kids on camera if you don’t want to show your kids on camera. I’m not trying to push you somewhere you don’t want to go.
In Amy’s case, I’m trying to push you where you don’t want to go because I want to get to know you as a person. I want to know that you do this or do that or what you like to do to hang out on a weekend. If you go to an arts festival or music festival…You have to be careful about music because it will get you taken down with copyrighted music.
If you go to an arts festival I want to know what your taste in art is because I care about you as a content provider and somebody I already trust. I want to get to know you as a human being.
Amy: I was telling Luria this is the one I struggle with because, for some reason, it doesn’t come natural to me. Then I told her my most popular podcast was the one I did with my husband, Hobie. I just recently did it at #161 and it was by far the most popular.
She said, “Of course it was. You took people behind the scenes. You brought them into your life. You shared the personal stuff.” I know, I know.
Luria: You can save some stuff for you. Nobody wants to know
Amy: The gory details.
Luria: Everything.
Amy: I’m not super private. It just doesn’t feel like they will care about this. But they do because I watch everybody else’s real life streams, as you say. So yeah, I get it.
Luria: When it feels uncomfortable it’s because you feel they care about your tips and strategies. They don’t care about “me”. But they really do. And if you encourage that then they become even more loyal. Amy, you don’t have any problem with loyalty. But when you’re building an audience or if you don’t have the years of experience that Amy has that is a really, really powerful strategy to get people more engaged and more loyal to you.
Amy: Yes.
Luria: I don’t mean this out of a manipulative kind of scenario. You don’t want to do this with bad intentions by any means. But it’s about that connection. Like I said, I’ve been doing it for many, many years and I still have people come up to me today and say, “I started watching you from your first episode.”
Amy: Wow.
Luria: You’ve been watching that long? What’s wrong with you? Right? But it’s because I build that relationship. I’ll take people out on my stand-up paddle board on the lake. I actually use that as a little bit of promotion toward the weekly show.
When I did this particular video I literally had my phone out on the water. Stupid? Yes. But I was doing a live stream from out there and I had something coming up like a workshop or something the next day so I mentioned that.
It’s not a hard promotion but it is kind of allowing people to be a part of my life and then also using that as promotion. By the way, before we move on to Part Three, if you haven’t started your weekly live show use your life streams, your Part Two, as a process to get them involved in the creation of your live weekly show.
Amy: What do you mean by that?
Luria: The more involved they feel the more ownership they feel. If you talk to them. If you take your mobile phone to go live from Level One or Level Two and you start to go live and you start to tell people what you’re working on and involve them in each step of the process, “Hey, I have my website up,” or “I’m thinking about this time and day. What do you guys think?”
You don’t have to let them make all of the decisions because that can get messy real fast. But you do want to allow their voice to be heard. That makes a huge difference in their wanting to be there for launch day, for the entire thing.
The more involved you can get them, ask for their opinions, ask what something should be called, or do a poll, those types of things.
Amy: That makes sense. Cool. Good stuff.
Luria: Part Three is the after live. It is the after life of your live video. I call that the after live. When your video is live a lot of people make the mistake that it is only live. That is so not true. You will, guaranteed, have more replay viewers than you have live viewers. It’s really kind of a weird thing to think about.
We are doing live video because there are a lot of benefits. But you are going to have more replay viewers than you do live just by the nature of live. You want to make sure you think about that in the formula you use (that we already talked about). But you also want to repurpose your content.
Use the live video you did with purpose. After it’s done go in and make sure you have changed the description or thumbnail and things like that to kind of spice it up a little bit. You can run ads to it. You can boost it. Amy, you talked about that at Social Media Marketing World.
You can make it a blog posts, turn it into a podcast, clip it out and make it a fun teaser video to drive traffic to the video itself. I use my live videos in conjunction with an entire marketing strategy so that I’m constantly driving traffic to the places I want to drive traffic to. It’s the repurposing the after live.
Amy: Okay. I love those. I love the whole idea of going live weekly and then doing the random life streams and the after live. I thought that was brilliant. I’m not doing all that yet. I feel I have only been doing the first one but I’ll get there. I am a work in progress, right?
Luria: Yes. Always. As your overall strategy you want to make sure you use live as part of your overall business strategy and that includes all of your other marketing. Use email in conjunction with…use your lead magnets in conjunction with…live video stands great on its own but it is even more powerful when you include it in the overall strategy. I know that’s something you are working on.
That is something that is probably always going to be in flux a little bit because your business is always in flux.
Amy: That makes great sense too. I feel like that’s a perfect place to wrap up. I want my audience to really understand how live video is not just a weekly show on Facebook Live every single week.
I’ve learned through you and David that there is so much more to it and there are layers that I can add. I am really looking forward to it.
Before we wrap up I wanted to talk to you about your special workshop. I think my listeners would find it incredibly valuable. So will you talk about it a little bit?
Luria: Sure. I put an entire workshop together. It is really focused on using your mobile phone for live video, just your phone and nothing else. That’s where we start. That’s where everybody starts. Even if you are Level Three or Four you are still going to use Level One if you are using the three-part strategy. It’s really everything you need to know about going live from your phone.
It may seem to be pretty straightforward but, Amy, I showed you several things on Facebook Live video on the app itself that you can do to make a bigger difference.
Amy: Yes!
Luria: I really focus on all of the different platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, and Instagram, whatever you choice is. I give how-to, best practices, how to use the little things that make the big difference in the quality of your streams.
I even have a couple of bonuses.
Amy: I love bonuses.
Luria: I know you do. You also love checklists, right?
Amy: Oh, I really like a good checklist.
Luria: The formula we talked about is actually listed out in a checklist so that you can have it printed and available to you during your live stream. I also have a before-you- go-live checklist. It’s important because your brain, again, with the live adrenaline monster you can just make sure you’re checking these things off before you ever go live.
Amy: It’s so good. I’m so excited about the workshop. You can check it out at http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/livevideo. It will take you directly to Luria’s workshop. You are going to love it. It is incredibly affordable and that’s really cool.
If you want to get better at live video this is definitely the first big step.
Thank you so very much for being on the show. I absolutely loved talking to you about all things live streaming. I feel like you are always in the know so thank you so much for being on the show.
Luria: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Amy: There you have it. I really, truly hope you found some tips and tricks from this special interview with Luria.
Here’s the deal. Luria’s live video training is only $27. It’s $27 to learn to go pro with your smart phone when you are doing live video. Yes please, sign me up. Make sure to check it out. I’ll link to it in the show notes if you didn’t grab the link when we talked about it earlier.
Remember, this is the final reminder, you’ve got to get the live video Gear Guide that Luria and I put together for you. If you go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/ 168download you can grab it right away.
Thanks so much for being here with me. I cannot wait to connect with you again next week. Bye for now.
