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[00:00:10] James Marland: Hello and welcome to the scaling therapy practice. This is James Marlind, your host. This is the show where we empower mission-driven leaders and helpers to launch life-changing online courses. So glad that you're joining me today. Today, we're going to be talking about. Tips for taking the fear out of recording your online course, if you're anything like me, One of the most stress inducing things you can do. Is hit the record button. For an online course. Well, it doesn't have to be that way again, promise that I'm going to take all.
[00:00:45] James Marland: I will. All the fear and trepidation that you might have. But following some of these tips, you're going to be able to record easier, better, faster, and be more proud of what you produce. Before we get into the nuts and bolts. I wanted to just share my, my big tip. This is my big tip. If you listen to only one part of this show, listen to this. Is that the first time, the big tip for recording your show, especially the first time that you're recording your online course is the first time you do something is not going to be the best time you do something.
[00:01:20] James Marland: In fact, It's probably going to be the worst time you do something. Recording. And speaking. And making sure you're following your notes and sounding how you want to sound and getting everything. Lined up is a skill that takes time. Not everybody can just talk off the top of their head or make their notes sound. You know, radio ready or. Or presentables. So you're not, you're probably not going to like the first time you do something. And that is one of the things that keep us from even starting like, oh, I'm not going to like it. I don't, I don't like how I sound.
[00:02:02] James Marland: I'm going to stumble. I'm going to say I'm a lot. There's going to be a lot of silences as I move from point to point.
[00:02:11] James Marland: Your first time you do something is going to be difficult and it's going to be the hardest time you do it. But. You have to do those things. To get better. That's one of the, the, the mental tricks that I, as I started podcasting, I know. I I stumble. I say I'm a lot. Uh, I have, um, fear over just recording.
[00:02:36] James Marland: Like, how am I going to sound? Uh, my first. Uh, I'm 70 episodes in my first episode, not my best episode, but I'm getting better and I'm still not as good as I'm going to be a year from now, but I have to do the work I have to put in the reps. I have to keep producing the things to get to the result that I want. You know, in five years, Uh, this, this. Show is going to be a much different show because I'm going to be a different podcast or a different presenter. Only because I've put in the work.
[00:03:11] James Marland: So remember your first time you do something. It's going to be difficult. It's not going to be your best. You might. You probably won't even like it. But you got to do it to get to the good stuff you got to push through that. That uncomfortableness to get to where you want to go.
[00:03:27] James Marland: The other part about this is don't compare yourself to others. They had to start exactly where you are. All the people you look up to, whether they're online courses or podcasters. They all started right where you are doing their first episode, struggling to hit record. So. Don't compare yourself. Don't compare your beginning to somebody else's middle. Do the hard work get, get in your reps and you are going to improve.
[00:04:00] James Marland: So that's, that's my big tip for recording your content. The second tip. Uh, For, for the beginning of the episode, before we get into the nuts and bolts is record in chunks. What do I mean by that? If you have an hour long online course, and you can record it all. Um, Uh, offline, not live. You're not recording it live. Take your main points and record one main point at a time, you know, 10 to 15 minutes. Re record that. Get it to where you want and then move on. Sometimes that means you have to do multiple retakes.
[00:04:39] James Marland: Sometimes that means. You're um, Um, you're you. You you rerecord things. But it's better to have five to 10 minutes of awesome audio then. An hour, get it, getting it done and realizing, oh, I got to spend 20 minutes editing this. This con this. Course together.
[00:05:05] James Marland: From one long take long takes. Now it is getting easier and easier to edit video. With these, the AI tools in a program, I use descript. But it's easier to just stitch together five good 10 minute segments than to try to edit an hour and a half of retakes and reshoots and, um, redo in those things. So. You don't have to be perfect for an hour.
[00:05:33] James Marland: Just try to be really good for five minutes and then put those five minutes together. And the natural breaks are around. Your main points.
[00:05:44] James Marland: So, those are my big tips for recording. I'm going to get into, you know, how do I record my stuff in the next segment?
[00:05:53] James Marland: So the, the next, the next tip is, choose your recording method. You know, how are you going to record? What, how are you going to. Um,
[00:06:04] James Marland: Record your.
[00:06:08] James Marland: Course there's three main ways to do this. There's talking head voiceover slides in a combination of talking head with slides. The talking head is just, you. In front of the camera, teaching your lessons. That's uh, that's no slides, no text. Just youth speaking, either sitting in a chair or standing. Um, this, this is really great.
[00:06:34] James Marland: When you need to build personal connection, you are the main attraction of your show. And. You are just. Uh, speaking to the camera. Um, There, the another advantage is there's no slides to prepare often, sometimes graphics and slides and adding one more program to the mix. Adds some complexity that you don't want or don't need. Uh, if you can teach your topic without slides and that's the best way to do it. Then use the talking cat it's you and the camera. The next way is just the opposite, which is a voiceover.
[00:07:14] James Marland: The slides. The next way to record is your voice. Behind some slides. You're you're narrating the visual content, what people are seeing you, and you're adding your notes to that. The advantage is they can focus directly on the con. Uh, content and you don't have to worry about your visual appearance. What you're looking at. Editing is also easier because when you're editing. Uh, people's faces and video.
[00:07:45] James Marland: If you're, if you're cutting out a word or two. People move on the camera so it can look jerky. If you have a lot of edits. With the voiceover slides.
[00:07:58] James Marland: Uh, a lot of times I like, uh, voiceover slides with, um, lists. Uh, I do a lot of courses with lists or steps. And so I have my face on the slide, but I have the steps and then I'm talking through the, the steps, the. The slides are. Anne. Aid to the student. They're not the main course. What I'm presenting is the main course.
[00:08:22] James Marland: So. Um,
[00:08:26] James Marland: Use use slides when, uh, doing, uh, lists or, or charts or graphs or complex. Uh, information, the voice over slides. The next way to do it is just the combination talking head with slides. So that's. You and your face in the corner. With the content. Uh, up on the screen. So that's a voiceover slides with slides in the background. So when you think about the three methods, the first, you know, the, one of the tips you got to do is you have to. Choose which way you're going to record.
[00:09:01] James Marland: Are you going to do talking hat? Are you going to do voiceover slides? You're going to do a combination. That the idea is what, what would work best for your content when you're recording? What is the best way to record? These this, this content for your audience.
[00:09:18] James Marland: Uh, the next tip is your audio equipment, your room and your audio equipment.
[00:09:24] James Marland: I recommend not using your onboard laptop, Mike, or your onboard computer mic, or even the onboard mic that came with your camera. I have a logic tech. Uh, Breo camera and it does have a microphone. But the camera's about three feet away from my face. And my laptop's about three or four feet away. And so the audio that would be. Received from that. Transmission would be hollow and echoey and it would pick up extra room noise.
[00:09:53] James Marland: They're not designed for, uh, This type of speech. So I would buy, I would invest in some sort of external microphone. I use logic tech, pro products and a, the blue Yeti brand. There are more expensive kinds and there's LASIK expensive kinds. Uh, I just. Have ha had friends say that this was their entry-level. Mike.
[00:10:18] James Marland: And that's what I bought. I think I bought it on sale for. 60 or $80. So that's, um, if you're looking for a microphone, you can do that. If you record with your iPhone, I, I bought it $20 lavalier Loggly or is that how you say it? Microphone that plugs into the base. And it's wireless and it has a pop filter on it and it works pretty well.
[00:10:41] James Marland: You do have to, you can't turn your head to the left or throw the right too much. But if you're talking directly on it's. It really improves the sound of recording. From the iPhone. The other thing. Uh, about a recording and the tip for recording is to minimize background noise. Try to record in a quiet room, close the windows and doors. Uh, improve your acoustics by adding. Um, things that absorb noise. Uh, for example, if you're, if you have a, um, Hardwood floor.
[00:11:12] James Marland: You might want to put down some carpet. Uh, you ever wonder why recorded people record in a closet while the closet has actually good acoustics? Because if you record your audio directly in. In a closed room with a lot of clothes, the clothes absorb the audio that would bounce from wall to wall. I'm actually in a room right now where it's relatively small and it, without any furniture, the room is just really hollow.
[00:11:40] James Marland: Echoey. And so I put up it's my office. So right in front of me, I have some foam that. The audio goes from the microphone and into the wall and hits the foam. So it's less and I've carpet and just some furniture in the room that absorbs sound. So see what you can do, do a test. And see how your room sounds and then do you a. You know, add some things that absorb sound doesn't always have to be the ugly foam you can buy. Art that is foam absorbent.
[00:12:14] James Marland: It's like it's art put on top of. Uh, foam padding that absorbs the sound. Um, make sure that, uh, you know, the, the, the, the doors close, you don't get extra sound. Um, Just minimize the background noise, do a task to see what it sounds like. And. Make sure that you have the best sounding audio. And my, um,
[00:12:43] James Marland: My preference.
[00:12:44] James Marland: If I'm going to choose on great visuals or great audio, I'll always choose great audio. It's really hard to finish listening to somebody if their audio isn't great. So. There's many different. YouTube channels and podcasts. On having great audio. So just type in the problem that you're having. I have a small room and then, you know, type in, how do you solve an audio problem for a small room? And you will find some excellent solutions for that.
[00:13:15] James Marland: So what do you need to do to prepare your room? You know, you gotta make sure you're you have a great microphone. You gotta have some extra noise canceling thing. Uh, what do you got to do to prepare for your awesome. Audio content.
[00:13:30] James Marland: What are the tools? So the next tip is a record in a tool with a tool that you know, how to use, and you're going to actually do it. So it's. It doesn't do you any good to buy? Um, Adobe, uh, man, what's the Adobe product that does, um, podcasts. Uh, I forget. But it does no good to buy the Adobe product.
[00:13:52] James Marland: That's a professional grade. Product, if you're not going to use it, if it's too complex to you. So my tip for selecting the right recording tools is use the tool that you're or buy the tool that you're going to use. Um, I use a program called the script. I'll include a link to it in the show notes. It's awesome. It does a lot of things that I need it to do.
[00:14:15] James Marland: Um, it records audio records, video, it transcribes my audio. So that I can throw it into AI and create show notes. Does timestamps for those types of things, I can upload it to YouTube with a click of a button. I can also create social media posts from it, with their AI tool. Now you do get some. You do have to pay for the AI tool.
[00:14:39] James Marland: The more you use it, but for somebody recording one to four times a month, um, the free to low pay version is what you need there. Uh, the other thing that I like about it is it, it has studio sound. So studio sound is a button that. Um, Reduces room noise and makes it sound better. So my, my audio without the studio sound or Descript is like an 80, 75 to an 80%.
[00:15:07] James Marland: I'll if I would give it a grade. But with the audio, with the. The studio sound button. I think it bumps my audio to a 89 to a 95. Like. It's really that good. It's remarkably different. Then what. What I give it. So, uh, that's one of the reasons why I love the Descript program. Uh, it also includes some sound effects in and B roll video footage. Um, So, yeah. Uh, the script is a relatively inexpensive program. Um, it does also include a program called squad cast with the D scripts subscription, where I can send people to a link that are far away from me. And they can record and I can record, uh, an interview show. With them.
[00:15:56] James Marland: And the cool thing is. The, if anybody has internet issues or drops, the program takes care of that. Because it records the audio on their computer and then uploads it into the cloud. And then when I edit the show, I can just grab their good audio. And my good audio. So I've, I've had bad audio before from guests. But while we're recording, but when I download there, there. File from squad cast. It's a good file.
[00:16:30] James Marland: It's good audio. So if you're having audio issues with guests, look into the Descript program. The other two places to record. It's a shared screen, um, with zoom, a lot of people do the zoom recordings, you know how to use it. It's easy to do. The issue with zoom is if you don't pay for the extra services, the, the recording quality is low.
[00:16:53] James Marland: Like. I don't know, it's just lower res when people send me files to edit that they've done on zoom. It's a, it's not HD. Um, it's like seven 20. Pea or something, which isn't bad for smartphones, but if you blow up the video at all, it gets pixelated. So just watch out for that. But if you know how to use it, and it's your first course, and you're wanting to record it. Zoom's a perfectly good.
[00:17:20] James Marland: Uh, option. Now my friend, um, Sent me some slides to edit on Canva. She did her PowerPoint or her pre her slide presentation in Canva. And did the presenter view and this did an awesome. Uh, canvas has nice, pretty slides and with some. Animations and different things that you can do with that. And it did the, um, her head over the slides and it did that automatically. And it was easy to edit.
[00:17:52] James Marland: She just sent me the files. Um, and then also in Canva, there's the presenter view where you can have your notes. And you can be looking at the screen and the students can see the slides and you can see the notes. And so you can kind of read your slides like that. So it, it helps you keep eye contact while looking at the. Uh, notes.
[00:18:15] James Marland: So, uh, those are three options. Uh, canvas zoom and Descript. What program do you think you'll be editing in? Do you have a program that you use right now? Um,
[00:18:27] James Marland: What, where. What program would be easiest for you to get it done and not a barrier for you? You can always rerecord it and upgrade, but what are you, what are you going to use to record your first course?
[00:18:42] James Marland: Uh, The last is just some recording and editing tips. The last tip here. Uh, The big tip here is do a test before you actually hit record. Last week. I think I recorded 20 or 30 minutes of a podcast of a content. And the microphone. Was on it wasn't muted, but the, somehow the computer program had switched the recording devices.
[00:19:10] James Marland: And so I recorded 30 minutes of my face talk and things, but no audio. I was. I was heartbroken because I'm on a deadline. Like I had stuff to do. And I love podcasting and love sharing, but I don't like recording the same thing two and three times. So do yourself a favor test or microphone? Do you, uh, before you re jump into a long 20 minute. 30 minute, one hour course. Hit hit record.
[00:19:37] James Marland: Do you test one, test two, test three. Decide how you sound. Do you need to move the mic closer, further away. Turn up the gain. Turn up the volume. Okay. It's good. Hit record. You're going to save yourself so much time. If you do a test recording. Beforehand. The other thing for prep is set up the environment.
[00:19:57] James Marland: Make sure the windows are shut. The doors are shut. Um, if somebody is in the house, make sure they know that you are recording. Um,
[00:20:10] James Marland: Uh, I gave this tip in the beginning about recording, but record in chunks. If you can, if you're not recording a live show. Do you do it in chunks? Record 10 good minutes. And give yourself a break. Read your next notes practice, then record 10 more. Good minutes. Uh, you're going to review and improve. As you go. Now to edit your content.
[00:20:37] James Marland: Uh, the thing about editing is, uh, it can take just as much time as recording. So if you can get out.
[00:20:46] James Marland: Your, your course in. In with 30 good minutes or 15 good minutes and stop, and then stitch it together. That's easier than finding the errors, cutting things out, clipping it to make it sound and look good. So the, the big tip here is if it's, if it's going to take you. 20 minutes to edit a 15 minute scrapped.
[00:21:12] James Marland: Please, please just rerecord it.
[00:21:15] James Marland: You'll be happier with it. You'll probably do a better job. You'll sound better. Just rerecord. The other, the other thing to do is just use an easy editing tool. Now I do have premiere pro that Adobe product. That's the professional game product. But I also often like 99% of the time, I find myself editing my courses and content in de script. Y because these script transcripts. Transcribes my files and I can edit the. Content like a word document. And it's a pretty easy program.
[00:21:48] James Marland: It's easy to share. I use it way more than I would. The hard program. Now. The more, I learn about premiere pro for editing. It is. They are adding some of the, um, edit by transcription and some of the other features that I liked from Descript. But I'm, I'm pretty much ingrained in this program. Um, the script that does all these things for me, it also has the AI. So that's the big thing.
[00:22:15] James Marland: Find the tool you're going to use and pay for that, you know, invest in that tool.
[00:22:23] James Marland: Um,
[00:22:27] James Marland: And when you, when you use the, when you find the tool you used, you're just going to get better and better at it. And you don't have to have the, the, the, you know, the hundred dollar program. If the $10 program works. So. In recap.
[00:22:49] James Marland: Remember. The first time you, you record something is not going to be your best time. Everybody starts there, put in the work, put in the reps and you're going to come out with things that you like. Record in small chunks record in record in five to 10 minute increments, or is. You know, one point and then stitch the points together. It's much easier to be able to record. 10 good minutes than to record.
[00:23:19] James Marland: An hour of great content with no ums.
[00:23:22] James Marland: No, ah, Oz. No. Stuttering. No finding your place. That's that's difficult. So do yourself a favor and shrink the amount of time. Shrink the segments of time. You're recording. You will get better. You will start recording in 15 minute segments or 30 minute segments, or even 60 minute segments with very few errors. But give yourself some grace and break it up in chunks. For the best quality. Uh, audio. And video, uh, use good recording equipment.
[00:23:55] James Marland: Use a good microphone. Uh, limit the background noise, set up your environment. Before you get begin. Also do a test recording, a test, a. A test screening for of your microphone and your setup so that you don't have to have the agony of rerecording something that you're like, oh, I really hit it. This is really great.
[00:24:15] James Marland: Oh, There's no audio or there's no video. So, um, make sure you do the test recording.
[00:24:23] James Marland: So I'd love to hear what you're doing. Um, I want you to try out these tips and send me an email and say, did, did any of these tips work for you? And, um, what, what did you find most useful?
[00:24:38] James Marland: This is James for scaling therapy. Practice. Go put your mission in motion.
