Record yourself

It is genuine

Anyone can generate a page of words in four seconds. It is much harder to fake a person talking about their own work. When people see you, they know it is real.

People connect with a person

They hear how you talk, see what you know and meet who they would be working with, before they ever get in touch.

Trust comes first

Nobody buys from a business they have never heard from or one that sounds fake. A minute of you on video does more for trust than a page of polished copy.

It does not have to be polished

You are not making a film. You are answering a question about your work, the way you would answer a customer. The pauses are you thinking. They sound like a real person.

One recording, many pieces

A few minutes of you talking becomes a post for your website, short clips for your socials and an email to your customers, all in your own words.

You may already have it

A talk you gave, a workshop you ran or a meeting you recorded. Those can be cut into short clips without recording anything new.

Before you press record

• Film somewhere quiet, with the phone a metre or more away. Sound matters more than picture and a little distance gets you, your hands and where you work in the shot.
• Be in the shot, phone sideways, as if meeting someone new. People trust a face, sideways fits any screen and this is the hello you already give a new customer.
• Make sure you do a meaningful stop before you start.
• Reread the questions, then just be you. Say it the way you would to a customer and stop. Do not overthink it.

Three mechanical notes

• Put a window in front of you, not behind you. Face the light. That one thing is most of what people mean when they say a video looks professional.
• Turn the phone sideways. Everything you might want to do with this later is easier if it was shot sideways.
• Your eyes stay on the lens, not on the object. Point at it, touch it, turn it round, all of that is good. Look at the camera while you do it.

How long

Thirty seconds. That is not a minimum. It is permission to stop.

It can be thirty minutes if you like. That is fine if you can do the edits and crops.

Short on purpose. One answer is easier to give than a speech and it uploads quickly from a phone. Most people have very little time to watch something and make sense of it, so less really is more. Do not let the clock be a problem: if one answer is not enough, record another one and make it about something different. You end up with more to share, which is a win.

Do it in a single take

A single take is best. If you record for thirty minutes, that is not a single take. It is a series of single takes.

Video is one option

If being on camera is not for you, that is fine. The big list of tips has plenty of other ways to show the real you.