Leveraging LinkedIn Video with Alicia Henderson

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, linkedin, video, content, camera, book, talk, podcast, recording, clients, lighting, authority, recommend, personal brand, audience, network, episode, important, create, light

SPEAKERS
Alastair McDermott, Voiceover, Alicia Henderson

Alicia Henderson  00:00

No one’s going to know that you’re an authority if you don’t say anything, so you have to start showing up to talking about it over and over again and stand in your power, if someone may not agree with what you said, and that’s perfectly fine.

Voiceover  00:13

Welcome to The Recognized Authority, a podcast that helps specialized consultants and domain experts on your journey to become known as an authority in your field. So you can increase your reach, have more impact, and work with great clients. Here’s your host, Alastair McDermott.

Alastair McDermott  00:29

Before I introduce today’s guest, I just want to let you know two pieces of news: so this is episode 98, and so we’re nearing episode 100 of this podcast. And episode 100 will conclude Season One of The Recognized Authority Podcast, and so after Episode 100, I’m going to be taking a well earned short break of probably three to five weeks, something like that, and I will be coming back with Season Two of the podcast, and we’ll still be focusing on building authority, but I just want to give you a heads up on the hiatus. But I’m having a lot of fun creating the show and getting to talk to all these amazing people, so I guarantee you that I will be coming back.  The second thing I want to mention is I’m just about to publish my book on podcasting. It’s called “33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Podcast” and it’s going to be published by one of the guests I’ve had on the show here – Melissa Wilson from NetWorlding. And so within a few weeks of this episode being published, you will be able to purchase the book. So that will be it’ll be available sometime in early December 2022. And it’ll be available in print, and on Kindle and ebook. So check the link in the show notes. And so it’s called “33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Podcast”. And so it’s written for a guy for anybody who’s interested in starting a podcast something like this. And I’m really honored to have some great folks involved in reviewing and pre reading. And I’m really super honored to have the foreword written by Rochelle Moulton, and some other folks have said some very nice things about the book too. So you can find out more about this by clicking on the link in the show notes.  And so now on with the show.  So today, my guest is Alicia Henderson, who is a LinkedIn video and business strategist, and she helps women entrepreneurs to position themselves as experts and thought leaders by leveraging LinkedIn video so they can rapidly increase their visibility, grow their business, and attract high end clients. Alicia, thanks, thanks for coming on!

Alicia Henderson  02:24

Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk about video!

Alastair McDermott  02:27

Oh, yeah, me too. I love talking about video because I think, um, you have like, right right there in your bio, you have increase your visibility, which is you know what building authority is about, and leads directly to building authority. So I’m really interested in talking about this, because this is right on the money for this show. So the first thing I want to talk about is the barriers that people find with video, because I think that everybody knows that they probably should be doing video, and everybody listening to this is probably a lot, a lot of them are solopreneurs. I know it’s not a great word. But it really describes a lot of people very well, a lot of independent experts and consultants and people like that. And they know that they should be doing more video, but they’re really not doing it. Can you talk a little bit about that? What Why are people resisting the concept of doing video?

Alicia Henderson  03:19

A lot of times people resist the concept of doing video because they don’t have a strategy. And there’s no clear way of how to do it. So they know they have to get on camera, they know they need to talk about something, then they start thinking about the editing, and maybe they should add some graphics or do some sounds, and then they just get overwhelmed. Other times they don’t know what to say they’re afraid of how they look on camera. It’s there’s probably 10 to 12 reasons. But that’s the gist of it. And one thing that instead of getting overwhelmed, they should just take it step by step and say okay, what overall do I want to do with video? Like, what’s the purpose? What’s the plan? What do I want to say? And how can I say it and get it done effectively. So in order to do that, you just got to sit down and say, Hey, this is the steps I’m going to take. And instead of allowing yourself to get overwhelmed, if you really think about like, Hey, I’m gonna do this, this and this, I’m gonna take my time, I’m gonna learn it, I’m gonna work it and I’m gonna trust the process, then it becomes easier for them.

Alastair McDermott  04:22

Yeah. And like you mentioned something important there. I think you actually do have to learn it. Like you don’t just pick it up. You actually have to learn it and get better. And it’s a process that you go through.

Alicia Henderson  04:33

It definitely is a process. And for me, it wasn’t something that I just picked up overnight. I don’t like to blog, I don’t want to write along social media posts. So the stuff that I would put in a social media post is what I decided that I’m going to put it in video and I will just sit down and said what do my ideal clients want to talk about or want to hear me talk about what do I want to talk about? What do I know they struggle with? And how can I say this on camera and on video? Then I started breaking down ways to talk about it. I used to have these long winded videos, that took too long for me to say and get my concept out. And I said, Hey, let’s just break it down, make it smaller, do smaller chunks, and then I can start batch recording different topics, maybe even do a series, and then go from there. But the process is not really hard. If you think about how you put together other content, you just have to take that type of streamlined process and put it into your videos.  So for instance, what I do, like I mentioned is I think about what I want to talk about, I think, what would my audience want to hear about, I think about my content pillars, which everybody should have about three to five content pillars that they’re talking about all the time. And it may seem that you’re beating a dead horse, and talking about the same thing and who would want to hear it, but people actually want to hear it, and they are observing. And the more you talk about the same thing, the more they’re going to say that, hey, this person is an authority they have they’re positioning themselves as an expert to talk about this thing. I need to listen.  And then getting up on camera, what do I need? Do I need to do it on a DSLR? Camera? Do I need to do it on my phone? Do I need a ring light? Do I need a microphone? Then how do I look on camera? Maybe I want to show up as is maybe I want to put a little bit of effort in which I recommend everybody does. Maybe I want to add a background in the back? I don’t know. But those are the things you want to talk, you know, you want to think about, then you want to think about how am I going to speak on camera and when I’m going to say. So I don’t recommend anybody show up with a script. I don’t like scripting, because I think that it’s very obvious that you’re reading, we can see your eyes moving, then if you don’t say the things correctly, a I gotta go back and edit it out. Or there’s some other issues that happen. So how can I make this simple for myself to show up?  I always recommend that my clients and I teach my clients to have a three by five card or sticky notes. And in fact, I have a ton of them on my desk right now. And I just put them up where are my cameras, because I always record my videos on my iPhone, surprise, surprise, but I put them there around the iPhone, or I have my computer there where my camera stand is at. And I just go from there. And sometimes I edit the video sometimes I don’t just because I’ve been doing this for a long time. And I know what I’m going to say. And then do that. And then you think about well, how am I going to get this video in front of the right people who was in my network who needs to see it. That’s where I’m going to place the videos. So that really the process becomes easier once you break it down in chunks. And you take out the things that you really don’t need, that you focus on the things that you you do need.

Alastair McDermott  07:46

What are those things that people really don’t need them? Because like there is there’s so much like we you just mentioned like a thousand different things. They’re like what parts do people really not needed, particularly at the start?

Alicia Henderson  07:59

At the start, you don’t need a DSLR camera, you really don’t, you are probably spending way more money than you should. What you have to do is go into your camera settings, you can record HD, 4k, whatever it is that you want to do. You want to make sure that you record those videos that they’re crisp and clear. And you know record on your camera. I will say though, this might be a little advanced if you do decide to post this on social media and you’re using a program where it creates a caption for you. Depending on that program, they only want you to record videos under a certain type of like say it’s not HD or not 4k. So if you decide to do that, you know going forward, if you’ve become a little more advanced, then I would take a look at the settings as to what they don’t recommend you doing. But you just need your camera or your iPhone or your Android phone to start recording videos, you do not need a DSLR camera.  You also don’t need to go past this is when we’re talking about scripting. You don’t need to have a video that is too long. Now, depending on the platform that you’re using, long videos don’t work. So as I mentioned before, you want to make sure that you capture your audience’s attention. So long winded videos are all something that I don’t recommend that you do and that you don’t need. Another thing that you don’t need again is a long script. So or teleprompter. Don’t waste money on a teleprompter you don’t need that. Just 99 cents dollar or dollar tree sticky notes both gotta go a long way when it comes to scripting and whatnot. You can have your whole script on one side of a three by five card so I don’t recommend a teleprompter as well.

Alastair McDermott  09:44

Yeah, cool. So just to recap. Most phones and like I now I keep telling myself that I’m going to upgrade I have an iPhone eight plus which is a good phone from when it when it was launched, but that was like five or six years ago. And I keep saying every year I’m going to upgrade it. But it’s still it’s such a good phone that the like, it’s got 4k camera. The front camera has a 1080 p camera, which is plenty good for recording videos for online. And so like I’m using this five or six year old phone for recording video, and it’s perfect. So I know that people out there like you can get older phones for quite quite inexpensively.

Alicia Henderson  10:26

Right.

Alastair McDermott  10:26

And I know that like the the latest Galaxy, Samsung Galaxy S and all of those phones, they’re all great, too. So you don’t need to go and I say this, and I do have DSLR camera. So you don’t need to do that. If you do Yeah, you can put like you can put nice lenses and get nice depth of field effect and things like that, that make your videos look even more professional, which is nice, but you don’t need to start that way. So 100% agree with you. I love what you’re saying about no scripts, because I have tried the script with teleprompter thing. And I found though I was very wooden and robotic when I when I tried to do it that way. And so I switched to using bullet points and outlining outlining stuff. So and I loved it like the sticky notes thing. Yeah, so. So let’s see, let’s you you help people specifically with LinkedIn. So I’m really interested to know, like what’s different, or what what works in videos for LinkedIn, that might be different than videos that you’re doing for somewhere else like for YouTube, or for say Tik Tok or something like that?

Alicia Henderson  11:35

Well, because video on LinkedIn is really new. And I’m doing air quotes just because people have been using video there for a long time. But it’s just now starting to catch up. Because LinkedIn is now kept trying to catch up with whatever the platform is doing. So at this point, a lot of video is working. I think it depends on your audience. It’s really based upon your network and what they like, and they know you’re going to input your personality. So for one network, that might not work, they may not like to watch a lot of videos, but for your audience, they might like to watch them. So you have to really take a look at what your audience likes to watch what you’d like to put out, and then what LinkedIn likes as well.  So the videos that are working really well are the Tiktok and Instagram style. Now when I say this, it’s because they’re not educational, they shouldn’t be educational, those are for the entertainment. So you do want to entertain, and you do want to educate, you do want to flip the script. So those type of videos are flipping the script, and they’re coming on the platform. And they’re saying, Hey, we’re going away from the how to, and we’re coming in, and we’re showing behind the scenes, or showing how we work with our clients, or showing that business, or whatever it is that you do can be fun. And we like to have fun doing it. Now, I’m not saying get up on there and start pointing or dancing. What I am saying is, if you are a solopreneur, and you’re building a personal brand, that you should incorporate your personality.  So the Tiktok, and reel styles, even if it’s a voiceover, those work really well on the platform. LinkedIn live, that’s another type of video that is working. If you have a podcast, if you have a blog, if you have any other form of content, you want to take those LinkedIn lives and you want to continue the conversation that was happening on your podcast, or you want to take the conversation from the comments that were happening on your blog, and lead those to LinkedIn lives. This allows you to get more content for more other you know, blogs and podcasts, but also helps you to build a community. And right now LinkedIn is focused on building a community and having a lot of content creators and a lot of content be heavy on the platform. So the more that you have either people showing up live or replay and engaging with the LinkedIn live, the more that you’re establishing that authority and growing your authority and can you know really good in that community. So that way you have more people sharing your content.  And then lastly, I mentioned this before, videos that are more than I would say three to five minutes, those ones do not do well on the platform. We have to remember that LinkedIn is a social media app. It is a social media platform. It is now moving away from being a stick in the mud stuffy platform where it’s just corporate II and people are networking and saying hey, I got a job, or hey, you know, so I’m celebrating my 10th year with this company. And you’re seeing a lot of more b2b on there. So because you see more b2b on there, and you’re seeing more content creation coming from Tiktok and reels because LinkedIn is hiring those content creators to come on. Then you need to understand that your videos need to stop the scroll. So if the video is more than three minutes, if it goes way past five and seven, you’re gonna start losing your audience. See, what you want to do is make sure that those videos are not that long. So that way you can give them the content that they need. And that way they can make a decision to comment, like or hit you up in the DMS. And then they can keep going. But it’s really those who are important to top of scroll and have that engagement with your audience. So those are working right now versus any other form of video.

Alastair McDermott  15:28

Yeah, I think it’s important to note like the, the LinkedIn is a social network, and it is this, it is this b2b kind of networking place. I know there’s some, there’s an old school kind of approach where, you know, I don’t connect with anybody I don’t know, personally. But in reality, I think that it’s, it’s, it’s way beyond that at this point, it’s a network for it. Like it’s, it’s similar to Facebook, it’s a professional version of Facebook, effectively. And there’s a lot of people who don’t like Facebook and have moved off there. There’s people thinking about moving off Twitter, because of the ownership changes there. And, you know, there’s people looking for a social network where they can hang out, and they can find interesting and useful content. And I think that’s where that edu-edutainment style comes in. Because it’s entertaining, and it’s educational. And that’s really useful for people.

Alicia Henderson  16:20

Yes, and it stands out to, and you can really get people to start a conversation with you from that entertainment type of content. It’s not boring anymore, it’s not stepping anymore, and people like that. And then there’s some people who don’t, there’s that old guard that they don’t like that type of content, they I actually just saw a post about the algorithm and the different type of posts that are working. And one person said, Well, you know, LinkedIn is a safe place for us to network where we don’t have to see those videos, and people are inundated with that. But that’s because you spend a lot of time on those platforms. That’s why you think that video doesn’t belong on LinkedIn when it does, especially when they are asking for business owners and content creators to bring those videos here onto LinkedIn.  So it is a refreshing way for you to stand out on the platform, especially because everybody else is doing long winded text post, and you’re showing up on video, you’re now creating your own lane, and it’s a blue ocean versus everybody else. They’re doing the same thing and posting their text. And now it’s a red ocean. So would you rather stay in the red ocean with the sharks fighting to get clients and to build your authority and establish that credibility, or start showing up on video being a blue ocean? Have that personal brand that people recognize and people start hitting you up in the DMS? I don’t know. It’s just me.

Alastair McDermott  17:47

Yeah, so I want to get into some more strategic stuff. But I do have one last kind of tactical question. And that is, if I’m recording video, and let’s say I’m doing on my phone, should I be doing a portrait or landscape now?

Alicia Henderson  18:00

You could do both. Actually, at this point, it’s a matter. Like I said, The Tick Tock and the reals, those are doing more of the portrait style, and then the two to three minute videos are landscape. So you can try both. And you can see which ones work best like that you feel comfortable recording. But also, which one is that your audience paying attention to. But at this point, it doesn’t matter.

Alastair McDermott  18:23

Okay, cool. Well, so and just based on what you mentioned, there like the the tick tock, and the reels are typically like 59-60 seconds long. And that’s it. And same for YouTube shorts. So so that might be a good rule of thumb, then for me, is if it’s going to be 60 seconds or Less make it portrait. And if it’s going to be longer than 60 seconds, make it landscape.

Alicia Henderson  18:45

Yes, that has been my strategy as well, if I know what’s going to be 60 seconds or less, I’m doing portrait. If it’s going to be a two to three minute video is definitely landscape.

Alastair McDermott  18:54

Okay, so yeah, I did want to kind of get into the more strategic stuff, which is, you mentioned right back to the start, you know, having purpose on a plan. Can you tell us a little bit more about like, how you would actually approach that? So let’s say you’re working with a new client, who’s a consultant or an expert of some type? How would you actually approach the strategy for them? Like, what what would you advise them?

Alicia Henderson  19:16

Well, the first thing that we take a look at is their personal brand and what they’re talking about, we take a look at that. What is it that they want to talk about? What are the things that they know their audience needs? We’re going to talk about that we’re going to take these and create content pillars, if they don’t already have them and establish what those content pillars are. We’re going to take a look at what is it that the audience responds to, and what is it that they shine with when it comes to delivering content and also delivering their services? So we take a look at their personal brand first and we talked about what type of work they’ve done in the past, what are they currently doing and how they’ve been able to build their personal brand. And I do understand that sometimes clients don’t have a personal brand already established. So that’s when we start establishing a personal brand, if they don’t have them, so that’s what we’re taking a look at that, let’s content pillars.  And then from there, we’re going to start going through the content, we’re going to start creating different piles of content that they can create. So if it’s a topic about, you know, building a website, if it’s a topic about the different types of fonts that the photographer that like what type of pages they need, on the website, we’re going to talk about those things, we’re going to put them in different little buckets, and then we’re going to pull past pieces of content that they’ve already created. And we’re going to drop them into those buckets. Because I’m not interested in creating a bunch of new things, we have a lot going on as business owners, we do not need to reinvent the wheel. And if we can talk about something that we’ve ordered in the past and just talk about it in a new way, then we’re gonna do that. And then from there, what we do is we go through how they’re going to show up on camera, we’re going to talk about how to create a script that converts, whether they want to have someone sign up for their freebie they want to have someone’s in the MME, they want to sell a course or program or have someone show up and sign up and enroll for whatever coaching program they have, where if they have an event, how can they sell that event. So we’re going to talk about that those scripts, those three by five cards, how to make it and structure it to where they don’t forget what to say, they know what to say, and how to come back to those three by five cards, and how to have things seamlessly, then we talk about putting the production process together.  So there’s a pre production, a pre Pro, a production, a post production, and a promo. So there’s four stages to production that we have. And it’s often I noticed that a lot of folks tend to forget those, and they miss out. So that’s why the videos may not be as polished as they could be. And then from there, we talked about the marketing strategy, and how those videos are going to show up in front of the right audience. So this goes back to the personal branding side, making sure that on LinkedIn, they have the right people in their network, deleting people who are not a good fit and who are in their network, which is absolutely fine. Last year, what I did was I removed 1500 People from my LinkedIn network, they were from another business that I had, they I couldn’t serve them, and they didn’t serve me. So I wanted to curate my feed with my network, my referral sources, potential clients, people who I can refer business to. So that helped me, and we made sure that they have that. And then we talked about the marketing strategy, what it looks like for the week or for the month, but different types of videos that they’re going to create. And if they need to get help, like an editor, or VA, we talk about those things as well. So overall, they’ll end up having a marketing strategy that is seamless, and that works for them. And it’s easy, because I’m all about simplicity. So as I said, we’re going to this is going to be a repetition, every time he would create a video, it’s going to be the same thing over and over again. Regardless if it’s a LinkedIn live, if it’s a two to three minute video, or a real or Tiktok.

Alastair McDermott  23:14

Yeah, I love that focus on simplicity, I think that’s really important. And what you’re talking about, they’re having a production process. Having that as a repeatable workflow. Like I find that that is absolutely crucial for the podcast. That’s why I’ve been able to produce nearly 100 episodes now is having this repeatable process. And it’s the same every time. And I don’t do all of it myself either. Which is also really important. I think you have to get somebody to help you with some of it. Now, if you if you can’t afford, like, particularly if you’re early on your business can’t afford to get somebody else. Yeah, sure, you can spend your own time doing it. But I think as soon as you can afford to you should hire somebody else to come in and do some some of the more repeatable steps in the process too.

Alicia Henderson  23:55

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I know that with a real and Tiktok. Because you’re, I always recommend batch recording. So you can do a lot of that editing stuff right there from your phone. And it really doesn’t require a lot of things. It could require you just typing words on the screen and saving it into your drafts and bedsit, and then when it’s time to post, you go ahead and post it that you save it to your phone, and you repurpose that on LinkedIn. So that’s my whole reason why I use Tiktok and reels. And I recommend that my clients do that as well. Because I’m am very strategic, and I’m doing the LinkedIn or I’m doing the Tick Tock on the reels only for LinkedIn. That’s the only reason why I’m creating them is that I can create them in another platform and repurpose them on LinkedIn. So all of the content is geared for LinkedIn only, even if it’s posted on Instagram. So you know, you definitely want to do that. If you need to get a video editor you can you can go on programs like Fiverr or you can find someone else that can do edit a bunch of videos for you for a certain amount. There’s You can get so much help. And again, if you have the repeatable strategy in place and a repeatable script, you won’t have to edit as much.

Alastair McDermott  25:08

Yeah. Something interesting. You mentioned there about repurposing from Tiktok into LinkedIn. Is that because the tools on Tiktok for doing video are better? Is that what you do it there first?

Alicia Henderson  25:19

Yes. That is why it is why because they have so many good things that you can do different graphics, different music, whatever. So I would rather do that, then do it on LinkedIn first, and then put it somewhere else.

Alastair McDermott  25:32

Wow. Okay, now, that is a really cool tip, and something I really didn’t know. So thank you. Thank you. I’ve already gotten something really super valuable out of this.

Alicia Henderson  25:41

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Alastair McDermott  25:43

Okay. And that’s not to say that, that the other stuff we were talking about is not valuable, either. But that but that wasn’t that’s really tweaked my interest. So I want to go back a little bit, because you talked about a whole bunch of stuff there. And that was like, almost like a masterclass, which is what I love for these kinds of conversations. I just want you to give me the Cliff Notes on personal brand for people who don’t already have a personal brand, like what do you go through with with somebody who doesn’t really have personal brand, as a client of yours?

Alicia Henderson  26:14

So if you don’t have a personal brand, I don’t want to I start with, what is it that you want your audience and your client to feel when they work with you? What do you want them to feel? Do you want them to feel that they are accomplish? Do you want them to feel relieved? Do you want them to have peace of mind? Do you want this to be a luxury experience? It’s a premium, high end thing, you have to take words that you feel about your company, and what is it you’re doing. And that’s how you create like a personal brand.  So I want my clients to feel that they are going to have relief, that they’re going to have peace of mind that they’re going to know what to do, I want them to trust me, I want them to see me as an expert. So I use the word Trust, that’s very important. So every time they come to me, they know they can trust, we’re going to get good content. And then I’m not going to tell them some fluff type of thing. I want them to know that this is our hiring experience, and that they should feel like they’re going through something that they’re not going to get somewhere else. So we started establishing that brand, by me asking them and pulling out what is it that you want your audience and your clients to feel when they come in contact with you whether it’s on Zoom, whether it’s on LinkedIn, whatever platform it is, even if it’s in person? What do you want them to feel? What how do you want them to at the end of the day, when they’re done working with you? Are they going to say this was a terrible experience? Or this was a good experience? And you ask them?  So another thing I do is I ask them, What have your client said about you when working with you? Because that’s another thing. Oftentimes, we just work with our clients. And we just go through without asking them questions like How did it feel? Or, you know, we’re just performing a service? And that’s it. But we got to ask them, like, how did it feel when you work with me? Like, did it feel like it was a slow process or that you thought that I was pulling teeth and you were pulling teeth for me to get the job done? And that you feel relieved that you know that it was going to be handled? So when we ask those questions to, then I asked them, hey, what about this, that they said about you? Do you feel like this is a part of you. And if they feel like that’s a part of them, and we incorporate that into the personal brand, then we start creating the content pillars and really establishing that authority. So what like I said, I’m gonna, I teach you LinkedIn video, I actually did simple, I teach you to where you’re going to show up and know what to say, and also incorporate your personality, because that’s important for me.  So that’s when I’m establishing my brand. So I want them to know, what is it that they’re establishing for theirs. So we start cultivating that and finding it. And then we figure out, okay, this is the content we’re going to create, and what we’re going to say, and then you’re gonna start showing up with authority. And another big piece of the personal brand that I like, if you need to show up personality wise, don’t, don’t give me any of that corporate jargon. I don’t care about that. They don’t care about that. They want to see you. So if you want to make fun of yourself, if you’re on video, and you want to laugh at yourself, go right ahead. It’s okay. That personal brand is filled with whatever quirks and whatever personality whatever SAS and jazz that you have. So I also teach them to do that as well.

Alastair McDermott  29:17

Cool. One other thing on the personal brand, when you talk to people about, you know, how your clients should feel afterwards, like, how do they feel? How do you actually take that and implement it? Like, what does that look like when it’s turned into, you know, the brand itself? Like, how do you actually take that information and use it?

Alicia Henderson  29:37

Well, we put that in the content. And we also put that into the systems that they put in place for their business. So it could be in the onboarding process. It could be in the actual production of them delivering the services, it could be on the you know, off boarding. So we make sure that all of that personal branding is in every aspect of their business. So not only am I taking them through the process of creating the videos, I’m having them take a look at how is it when you work with your clients? Do you have the systems in place? Like if you’re gonna say they need to trust you can they trust that you’re gonna get the work done on time, if it’s a premium experience is the onboarding where you’re having them sign and send a bunch of emails and all that stuff. Because that’s not premium service. It needs to be some, you know, streamlined. So we’re making sure that not only is it in your content, and not only is it in your videos on how you show up, but how does it show up in the rest of your business. That personal brand side.

Alastair McDermott  30:28

Yeah, making sure everything is congruent?

Alicia Henderson  30:30

Yes.

Alastair McDermott  30:31

Yeah. Okay. So there’s a bunch of other things. So you talked about personal brand content pillars, what audiences are responding to actually creating the content, you know, how to show up on camera scripting? I’m interested in I saw an interest in all those and then the promotion parts. The content pillars, I think, let’s pick that one. Because that one is, is is fairly self explanatory. Let’s talk a bit about showing up on camera because I think that’s that’s something that people who are listening to a podcast episode, but video, they really want to know, like more about how to show it because that I think a lot of people that I talked to you about video are put off by the idea that they have to go on camera. And that’s what like, that’s what it’s all about. So, can you tell me a little bit about you know, what fears that people have that you talk to you about showing up on camera, and how you can help them with that?

Alicia Henderson  31:23

Well, a lot of times, I noticed that, it’s really about how they look. So we start with that, especially with women, it’s, you know, I don’t know how to do makeup, or I’m afraid that I look too big or too small, or my hair and all these things. A lot of those things you can easily fix if you don’t want to put makeup on, you could put eyelash extensions or eyelashes and be about your day, make sure your face is moisturize. You don’t have a lot of oil put onto lipstick and be done. A lot of times, it’s they don’t know what to wear. So you could work with a stylist or we work with someone where I bring in and say, hey, this person would like to know how to look on camera, can you give them some pointers. And another time, it’s they’re not sure how to set up their camera, where it’s very easy to do, you could just get a camera stand, I have one that sits on my desk, it’s here all the time. In fact, I have probably have four different cameras stands off the top of my head that I can think of right now. But you have a camera stand you put your phone there, you show up you have a ring light if you need to, I always recommend natural light. But if the weather’s wonky, a ring light will help you to show up on camera. If you have a established personal brand already. And you know how that looks when it comes to your clothes, making sure that you are on brand. So for instance, if you are someone who’s in the fitness world, and maybe you’re all the time wearing workout clothes, athleisure then show up on video with that, that’s okay, if you’re someone that calls yourself a unicorn person and you like bright colors, show up on camera with bright colors.  Do not let the way that you look hinder you from showing up on camera. A lot of these things, these roadblocks we put in our heads, there’s a solution for every single one of them. You just have to say, Okay, if I don’t like the way my hair looks, maybe I should go get a haircut, you know, those are the things that you can change to show up. But, you know, let’s not let those be a hindrance to not doing video at all. So there’s some things that I recommend anyone can do. Like I mentioned the eyelashes for women, if they wanted to, I recommend lipstick if they want to get into camera stand a ring light, also making sure that the camera is at eye level and not down here. Because a lot of people have this thing where they don’t like when they look on camera, but they don’t have good angles. So you got to have good angles, right? You don’t want someone looking up your lips at all. And I see that happen a lot.

Alastair McDermott  33:44

Yeah.

Alicia Henderson  33:48

I see that a lot. Like on TV even I’m watching the news. And like, why do they have their thing up their nose? That’s terrible, like and then, like, a lot of people don’t like double chins, but yet you have the angle like that. And that doesn’t work doesn’t look right. So it’s really just working on angles. It’s really just saying, How can I be comfortable? How can I show up best, my best or on brand. And then taking a deep breath and smiling before you get on camera and hitting the record button. So it’s really all about that and not having again, that mindset of I don’t look good on camera. So that’s why I’m not going to show up. If you just really take the time and say I’m gonna plan out what I’m gonna wear, I’m gonna comb my hair, I am going to if you need to put on cologne, if you’re you know, for men, if they make some filter, whatever you have to do to make yourself feel good. Do that before you hit record.

Alastair McDermott  34:38

Yeah. And it just strikes me because I just recorded and published an episode with a lady called anti armor. And we were talking about mindset and just about how maybe like 80% of success is mindset and the rest is actually you know, your intelligence and execution, but much of it is actually in our own heads and and If you really want to, you will find 1000 different excuses not to do video, it’s very easy to find excuses not to do it. But I think you’ve got to push through those. And I know like it, uh, speaking as, as a man, it’s much easier for us, we got a free pass on a lot of the, the appearance stuff that women don’t get. That’s, that’s unfortunate. But, but ultimately, people aren’t looking at your videos on LinkedIn for your appearance, they’re looking at it for the knowledge that you can share. And if you can share it, people really won’t care. Ultimately, how you look, it’ll be about you know, was this useful for them? Does it help them in some way?

Alicia Henderson  35:36

Absolutely.

Alastair McDermott  35:37

Is there knowledge? Or have they been entertained? A little bit? Is there knowledge, but bigger subject area a little bit more? Now? Have you helped them solve a problem? That’s what they really care about?

Alicia Henderson  35:47

Absolutely. I agree with that. 100%.

Alastair McDermott  35:50

Yeah, the, the other thing. And I think, you know, the only thing I think about video is, it’s one of these things that it takes a while to get going. And you really just need to start doing it. And you will improve over time. And, and your first videos will be embarrassing after you’ve done 100. After I’ve done 100 podcast episodes, I listened back to some of my first episodes, and yeah, they’re not as good as I would hope. But that’s, that’s life, you know, people improve over time, if you do something, enough times you put enough reps in, you’re gonna get better. So I think you do have to start.  The other thing that both of us talked about, just before the start of the show, we both adjusted our lighting in the rooms. And I’m my approach, I take a different approach to you with the with the natural lighting, I don’t trust the natural lighting around here. So I actually blocked the windows in my office. And I just use lighting that I can control. So because the because the the sun whatever way my house, my home offices, the sun changes dramatically during the day and the office is lit from to the two different ends. And so if I don’t block the light, it just really messes with my life. And I think that lighting is far more important than a lot of people give credit for a lot of people will talk about the camera quality that they’re using, but they don’t think about the light. And I think that lighting is so important.

Alicia Henderson  37:14

It is. It’s very important. I’m a stickler for lighting for myself, I’m always hold on, let me you know, like I was before, let me make sure this is down or up. But you know, it’s very important that you have lighting because no one wants to be trying to find you in a video that you’re recording. So you want to make sure the natural light for me is always best. But I do agree that depending on where the sun is, or if you had a storm like we did yesterday, and go in and out the clouds can you know cover the light. So having that green light there as an option. Whether it’s just one that stands on the on the floor, you can have the soft boxes that are clip onto your desk, or a ring light that clips onto your computer, or your lens that always works. And it is something that people don’t talk about a lot. Just because people assume that you would go ahead and get a ring light. But if you have never done a video, you wouldn’t know this. So we can’t just glance over the fact that bring in lighting is important. But natural lighting is always good. But if you know your lighting is not great, and you’re recording in the evening, or it’s going in and out, always a ring light will help you in it. It’s one of my things for myself. And I’m always like, Oh, how does this look? Is it look too dark? Or is it okay? I’m always stressing about my own lighting.

Alastair McDermott  38:28

Yeah, and it’s just one of these things you learn over time you figure it out, hey, that video looked a bit better when I had this light turned on or this light turned off. You know, there’s there’s the standard overhead light in my office, which I never ever have turned on. But I recorded a video with it turned on, just to show I’m turning off my regular lights, just to show the difference between between that lighting and the lighting that I do have setup when I’m doing video. And it’s a world of difference. And I think that, you know, when people start out, they don’t realize that there’s, there’s these little things that you can tweak and and sometimes just adding a couple of lights, like I have lights behind my monitors, which I’m looking at right now. And they’re they’re pointing up in towards the ceiling. So they’re not lighting me directly. But they do add a lot because that indirect light coming on to me from from it bouncing off the ceiling is is is almost like natural light. But I think that you know, sometimes a couple of a couple of 20 or $30 lights will be a $500 camera.

Alicia Henderson  39:34

Yeah, because difference maker.

Alastair McDermott  39:37

Yeah. So. Okay, so that’s enough on that. I think. I do think though, you will find a thousand different excuses. So you know, just just do it. It’s…

Alicia Henderson  39:49

Definitely.

Alastair McDermott  39:50

You also mentioned scripts that convert and you talk about you know, the difference between people maybe wanting to sell things like online courses or promoting like get an email list or things like that. Can you talk a little bit about the actual calls to action that you recommend people use on videos and, and habit? Like, how do you think about that? What like what, what, what effects which call to action you’d recommend that people use?

Alicia Henderson  40:13

With a good one. You know, just telling someone, if you liked this video, and you want to find out more about X, Y, and Z, download my freebie, this that will help you do this, this and that. It’s very simple, because you’re telling them I have something else that you can get if you like this, and that person is going to take the next step, if they enjoyed the content that you gave them on that video. So you’re going to tell them, I have this available for you. And you just have to download it, obviously, they’re gonna put their email address in and then they’re gonna get what you said that they’re going to get, and they’re gonna learn more. So then you can continue to cultivate and nurture, you have that attraction marketing, and you have a nurture marketing, you can nurture them, and to become a client.  So always saying any type of call to action that says, here’s this, did you like this? Oh, but I have something better get this. And it’s going to help you take and literally, that thing that you’re telling them to do is going to give them the next steps. And so ultimately, the end step is to work with us client. So I like that type of CTA. I also like this call to actions where you’re telling them to leave a comment down in the comments, okay. And this works really, really well when it comes to the two to five minute videos, but especially on the LinkedIn lives. So you’re telling them, Hey, dude, has this happened to you. So bringing that relatability. So any conflict call to action that has anything that is relatable to what they’ve experienced with the content in the messaging that you are talking about in your videos, that will drive them to comment right away.  One thing I do want to say, though, is that when you are using video, please don’t get stuck on the video, if you do not have a lot of comments. It’s absolutely okay. Because LinkedIn is a platform where people are observed first before they start commenting, and liking. So you get a lot of people who engage, and you get a lot of people who go straight to the DMS, or they go straight to your website, and they purchase. So if you don’t get a lot of comments, that’s okay, because someone is observing you. And they’re going to tell you, Oh, I saw your video. You posted it a couple of months ago. But I finally came in, you know, I have a chance to book a call with you or sign up for your services. So any type of call to action, though, but you’re telling them hey, could you relate? Tell me about a time where you this happened to you. That’s one of my favorite ones, because that’s going to get them to comment. And then the ones that are really good on LinkedIn live now these call to actions are a little bit different, because they happen all the time during your LinkedIn live.  Remember that LinkedIn live is a conversation, any video that you’re recording it always remember, if you get stuck up on like, oh my gosh, I gotta remember, I gotta say, remember, it’s a conversation. But LinkedIn live is really a conversation where you’re talking back and forth with your audience, even if they are not there. So you are saying to them, Hey, did you ever stub your toe in the middle of trying to walk in the to your bathroom in the middle of a night? Let me know which toe Did you stub was it a big toe or the pinky toe, they’re gonna do that, because they’re probably gonna chuckle and then they’re gonna laugh, and they’re gonna like this happened to me last night. Those are the call to actions that you’re giving them because you are being like, relatable, they can relate to that. And then also, they’re going to be so prime to whatever it is that you’re selling. At the end, they’re gonna say, Okay, that was so funny, or that was so relatable, I had a good time watching him or her. Let me go see what they have. So those call to actions, because you’re asking them to comment, you’re asking them to place an emoji, those call to actions are within your LinkedIn live. And then at the end, you can give them any type of, you know, call to action, and they’ll take action on it.

Alastair McDermott  44:00

Yeah. And that just reminds me, you know, that. One thing about about this type of video is it doesn’t have to be an information dump. It doesn’t have to be you just teaching all the time. And I think that’s something that I know that I have fallen foul of that before where I’ve just tried to cram as much information as possible, and done this information dump that that really wasn’t all that entertaining for, you know, an kind of maybe it’s just like information overload. How do you think about that?

Alicia Henderson  44:31

I love that you really thought about that, because we don’t want to really give them so much. Its analysis. I don’t want to say it’s kind of like analysis paralysis, because then all sudden, you’re giving them all this information. It’s like, Well, which one worked? Or which one should I do? First? We really want to make sure that if that conversation where it takes out of the educational type of content and to be quite honest, right now, the How to content is not converting as it should because As you what you’re doing when you have how to content is you’re saying, here’s how to do this. And if you keep saying this over and over again, they’re gonna say, hey, well, I don’t need you, if you’re gonna keep telling me how to do something. But if you tell someone what not to do, then they’re going to perk up and they’re going to listen, and then it’s not going to be over. So I ran into this to where I’m always giving how to tips. And those don’t really work as well. And I’m like, Why didn’t my video not convert? Why didn’t anyone take action was because I kept telling them how to do something. And we don’t want to tell them how to do something.  We also don’t want to continue to do videos where so much education overload, because on LinkedIn, everyone is educating. And we don’t want to take that, like that stance of let me educate my audience all the time on how to do something. Let me tell them what not to do. Let me talk about some myths. Let me talk about like some mistakes. Those are the things we want to talk about versus always held to coming from a standpoint of teaching. And then why would they need us anyways, so less information overload, and more conversation more relatability, more of that personal branding field more of that, getting to know your audience, so that when we’re developing it know, like, and trust.

Alastair McDermott  46:14

Awesome, I love it. Okay, so we’re coming in short on time. So I want to ask you a couple of questions that I always ask everybody at what is the number one tip that you would give to somebody who wants to build their authority?

Alicia Henderson  46:27

The number one tip would be to start doing it and be consistent, you have to show up, no one’s going to know that you’re an authority if you don’t say anything. So you have to start showing up to talking about it over and over again, and stand in your power. If someone may not agree with what you said. And that’s perfectly fine. But be consistent with your messaging, be consistent with what you’re talking about. Someone is going to see you as an expert and an authority. So show up, start sharing your content your time, start sharing your message, start sharing that expertise, and be consistent with it!

Alastair McDermott  46:59

Awesome. Is there a business mistake or failure that you’ve experienced that you could tell us about?

Alicia Henderson  47:05

Not moving quick enough. So making decisions, taking three to six months to make a decision, and now that somebody else is doing what I want to do, or not offering a program that I should have, and people have been asking me for it. So taking too long to make decisions, because I’m in my mind, and I’m not, you know, I’m thinking that’s not going to work when I should just do it. So it all comes back to that mindset thing.

Alastair McDermott  47:28

I love and actually, this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, because I’m right now I’m in one of those periods where I’ve been in my shell. And I’ve been kind of doing stuff behind the scenes, and not doing a whole lot. But I have been thinking about that. And I actually just launched a new short form podcast called Accelerating Your Authority. And it’s because I’m thinking about that acceleration, the acceleration effect of actually just doing doing more stuff and doing things quicker. I think there’s actually a big advantage to that, in part simply that you’re putting out more stuff. So…  For example, this is coming up on episode 100 of this podcast. And actually, at the end of the first 100 episodes, I’m going to take a short hiatus hiatus, that’s going to be season one, I’m gonna take a few weeks off. But I if I had taken instead of a weekly release schedule, if I’d taken a monthly release schedule, then we would only be up on episode 25 or so. So it’s just the difference between 25 and 100 episodes out there working for me and my business, is that, you know, if we had gone daily, well, who knows? I probably would have burned out but you know, some people have managed to daily podcast don’t John Lee Dumas says the the kind of the flagbearer for that. But you know doing things doing more stuff and doing things quicker? I think there’s there’s a big advantage to that. So that is certainly something I really hear you on that one.

Alicia Henderson  48:03

Right.

Alastair McDermott  48:55

Last questions are about books because I love books. Is there a business book or some other kind of resource that’s been important for you or that you would recommend?

Alicia Henderson  49:02

There’s two. The first one is “They Ask You Answer” and it’s by Marcus Sheridan. And it’s about creating content where people are basically asking you and you’re creating the content in the way that you know, you want to create it. So we’re talking about video. So if someone’s always asking you questions, you turn around and create videos with the answers. So that is one of my favorite ones. And in fact, I like mull over the chapters over and over again, just to make sure that I’m like hitting it, because I want to make sure that I’m answering and I’m following those steps, you know, because it’s it’s very important. I don’t wanna waste time, like we said, acceleration, I want to execute and accelerate. So I love that book. I listened to it on audio and I also have it in you know, hardback, so that’s how obsessed I am with that book. And then the other one

Alastair McDermott  49:49

You and the listener, you and the listener can also listen to episode 50 of this show, which is “How Content Can Save Your Business with Marcus Sheridan” because I actually interviewed him 50 episodes ago. So there you go. Okay, great, because I might add that to my list too. I thank you for mentioning that. I mean, I just that book is just the thing like, yeah, if you’re not Really, really smart guy, great book. Yeah, absolutely.

Alicia Henderson  50:15

Great book.

Alastair McDermott  50:16

And then another book, Sorry, I interrupted, interrupted.

Alicia Henderson  50:18

Oh, no, no, the other book is “Reset Your Mindset” by Natalie Eckdahl. And that is important, especially if you we talked about mindset issues, and we can’t get past them all the time. It talks about addressing the issues and then working through them, and realizing that it may not be an overnight success, it may not be something where we, you know, bust down the mindset right then and there. It may be that we’re going over the mindset over and over again, it but recognizing if we start to fill those roadblocks come up, how to deal with them, how to address them, and how to quickly move past the mindset block right there. So that’s another book that I recommend for business.

Alastair McDermott  50:59

That’s awesome. I didn’t know about that book. But actually, I do listen to Natalie’s podcast. And she’s somebody I’d love to get on the show. So she has two podcasts. One is called the Bizchix podcast. And I’m not sure what the other podcast is called. But I also listen…

Alicia Henderson  51:13

“Stacking Your Team”

Alastair McDermott  51:14

Well!

Alicia Henderson  51:14

Yes

Alastair McDermott  51:15

There ya go!

Alicia Henderson  51:15

Yeah that’s what it is, Stacking Your Team!

Alastair McDermott  51:16

And that’s the reason I didn’t remember the name because I don’t think about team building as much. But I certainly to Bizchix a lot. And despite the name, it’s still relevant for men. So yeah, I love I love Natalie’s… Natalie’s podcast, and and that book is definitely going on my list, so thank you!  Okay, so then the other thing I’d like to ask about is about fiction books. Is there? Is there a fiction book do you have? Do you read fiction, do you have a favorite?

Alicia Henderson  51:42

I do have fiction books that I read, I don’t have a favorite. And I don’t have a favorite. I started getting more into sci fi and paranormal stuff, like last couple of years. But I do have an app that I read books on called good novel. And that is from, you know, different authors around the world. And they talk about different things. So if you are someone who was a part of the Twilight error, which I wasn’t really into, into after the fact, but if you like those type of those type of books, or that type of movie, then those are the type of books that are on that app. I am going to read the “Wheel of Time”, because I got into the series on amazon video. And I thought, oh my gosh, what a great series. So I’m going to read that book and then “The Witcher” I started getting into that on Netflix as well. So I’m gonna start reading the books.

Alastair McDermott  52:35

Awesome. Well, I have I started reading the Wheel of Time, I think around book eight. And I pretty much reread the entire series every time a new book came out, which is a bit silly when I think about how much time I spent. But yeah, I love that series. There’s a couple of books in the middle. Now, like for anybody listen to this, I’m talking about, you know, 1.5 million words or something like that. This series is absolutely massive. You know, the books printed are about as high as a person. But people are coming, coming coming in for the first time and The Witcher is great series as well. Yeah, so really cool. And I’m glad somebody out there is, is also reading sci fi and fantasy. So I’ve been, I’ve been I’ve been a sci fi and fantasy nerd since I since I was a kid, you know, with Isaac Asimov and Lord of the Rings and Things like that. So. So at least, where can people find you if they want to learn more?

Alicia Henderson  53:35

Well, if you want to learn more, you can always find me on LinkedIn. So just look up Alicia Henderson, and send me requests, hit me up and follow. I always like to talk on the DMS. So I normally send someone a video where I’m, you know, welcoming to them, you know, networking with me, asking them to know more about them. And if you’re an Instagram fan, same thing, look me up at AliciaHendersonBiz, and I share my more behind the scenes there.

Alastair McDermott  54:03

Awesome. Well, it’s been a pleasure to chat today. Thank you for coming on the show.

Alicia Henderson  54:07

Thank you for having me. It was fun.

Alastair McDermott  54:12

Thanks for listening. If you gained any insights or tips from this episode, please share it with somebody. It might just be the thing to help someone in your network. If you share the show notes link. It’ll include the podcast player and all the other information from today’s episode.

Voiceover  54:27

Thanks for listening to The Recognized Authority with Alastair McDermott. Subscribe today and don’t miss an episode. Find out more at TheRecognizedAuthority.com