The impact of the Coronavirus has been felt around the world. It has forced businesses to close, cities to into lock down and people into isolation. The way we do business has been forced to change. One of the biggest changes is the use of technology to host meetings, events and connect with others. 

One of the fastest growing and most popular platforms is Zoom. In this week's episode my guest Warwick Merry runs you through the keys to success with using Zoom. Whether you are a seasoned presenter who is trying to transition to online, or someone who is nervous about technology and how to make this all work for your business, this episode is for you. 

00:00:11:21 - 00:00:30:04
Warwick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast. The show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success. And now here's your host Paul McCarthy.

00:00:30:07 - 00:01:04:29
Paul: Welcome to episode 33 of the marketers club podcast. I am your host Paul McCarthy and I'm here to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. And it's a very different world that we live in today. It's great to have your company again as we all work together to face the challenges of the covid 19 disease that is ravishing the planet. I mean the whole world has almost ground to a halt as we try to bunkered down and stop the spread of this terrible disease that is taking so many lives and threatens to take so many more.

00:01:05:01 - 00:02:14:13
Paul: So I hope that I find you and your family safe and well at this point and that we are going to use this podcast in all my future podcasts as a springboard to help you to do everything you can to make sure your business is up and going and surviving. I know that you certainly don't have to catch the covid 19 disease to have felt its impact and that's certainly true if you're a business owner and as many businesses that are hurting some that have been forced to close their doors because it's simply not possible for them to trade others that are madly trying to pivot and figure out how they can continue to do some form of business. And we have all been forced back to our homes working from home in isolation most of us are already in that place. So it's about how are we going to stay healthy. Not just physically healthy mentally healthy. How we're gonna keep the businesses healthy. How are we going to ensure that we keep revenue flowing through the door. So I've been focused on recording programs for year that are gonna be practical helpful and help you to steer your way through this. Corona virus crisis that we find ourselves in. It's an unprecedented time in our history and we are all trying to figure our way through this.

00:02:14:15 - 00:03:37:05
Paul: So I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that I'm bringing you the best ideas and strategies to help you to survive all the various challenges that come along with this disease having to work in isolation perhaps having a business that may be forced to close trying to find ways to pivot what it is that you do how to communicate your message in a market where everybody's just talking about a corona virus. These are all the challenges that we face as business owners and so the podcast is gonna be dedicated to helping you to work your way through that. Now one of the resources that I've already created and made available is my book The survival trap. Now I originally wrote the survival trap in 2008 in response to the economic crisis that the world fell into at that time and was really exploring why some businesses thrive and others really struggled to survive in tough economic times. So what I've done is rework that book and really repackaged it so that it's available for you to download. And I've also recorded the audio vision so whether you prefer the audio version or the text version they're both available for free for you. And it's been getting downloaded by hundreds and hundreds of business owners I'm getting great feedback and people appreciating the messages that it brings in terms of how you can start to rewire your thinking so if you haven't grabbed a copy of the survival trap please go and grab that from marketersclubacademy.com/survival trap.

00:03:37:07 - 00:04:40:09
Paul: So it's marketersclubacademy.com/survivaltrap you can grab your complimentary copy there and books about 80 pages. As I say there's an audio version of it for you so that you can dive into whichever you prefer. And it's really packed with practical ideas to help you navigate your way through this challenging time you know as Charles Darwin said it's not really the smartest the strongest of the species it's really the one that is most adaptable to change and we're all gonna have to change incredibly rapidly at the moment. So that is a resource that's available for you. And now this week's episode is also dedicated to helping you in one of the transition points and that is many people are going to have to start doing a lot more business online and perhaps you know the most popular platform to do that is Zoom. Now it's exploding in terms of people using that but perhaps you are new to it. Perhaps you've never done anything online before and you need to know how to make that transition. So I've asked my friend Warwick Mary who's a highly experienced speaker on one of the best emcees in Australia.

00:04:40:14 - 00:05:25:21
Paul: So obviously not doing much of that sort of work but he's also incredibly gifted when it comes to the I.T. side. He knows his technology. He would be a self-confessed nerd and he loves all the tech stuff and you will recognize perhaps the voice when you hear. WARWICK When I introduced him in a moment because he he's also the voice of the introduction for my show. So I've known work for a long time and he's a great guy and he's got some great strategies and ideas for you about how you can make the switch over to using Zoom. From a business point of view hey get on there and use it really really well. So we're going to dive into a conversation with Warwick and I want to keep you waiting any longer. Let's get to it and find out how we can start using zoom to drive your business. So Warwick Mary welcome to the markets club. That's great to have you on the show.

00:05:26:04 - 00:05:31:15
Warwick: Absolute pleasure to be here back in the embrace of Paul McCarthy.

00:05:31:24 - 00:06:50:01
Paul: Right now as we all know living in a strange brave new world where people are being forced back home and certainly is going to deliver business from home. And one of the things that where many people are going to have to learn to do is have to present on from home using different technologies to create content and get it out to the world from the comforts of their own home and many people that will be brand new. This whole idea of technology that they have to present from this medium. The people who don't know you're a highly highly experienced speaker one of the best emcees in the business. So you've been doing presenting for a long time but you've also got really strong chops in the technical world. You understand this stuff we've been podcasting you've been doing webinars and shows so I thought no one better we could talk to about giving us some insights about this transition. So we're gonna be talking about two groups of people I think that are going to be listening to this show. Somebody who is comfortable presenting but has never done it online and people that are both not comfortable as a presenter all along I so they're going to be kind of juggling but so if we're starting out I don't know anything about getting online and I'm not a confident presenter. Where am I going to begin this job.

00:06:50:03 - 00:07:59:08
Warwick: The very first step is take a deep breath and then just slowly let it out. It's all okay and that's not it's all going to be okay. It is okay it is. We have so much technology available to us so everything is fine. And as with all things it's not about the technology. The most important skills you'll have your people skills. We just have a new modality of actually communicating it through. We've been talking about for the last couple of years about how we're going to make having holograms at conventions and some people spend big money on it. But at the end of the day you can go whoo. That's an amazing technology but the questions are always what are the delegate take away. What did they do differently how has it changed their life. Who cares whether it's a hologram a poster or something virtual like we're doing here today. So don't get too hung up on the technology and in fact as a presenter you'll want to be familiar with most technologies that are out there so the very popular one that many people are getting to is Zoom. Zoom has really exploded in the last couple of months for reasons that are obvious.

00:07:59:12 - 00:09:07:21
But there's also some of the corporates use things like Adobe Connect or go to webinar or go to meeting and they're all very very similar. If you do I've done a lot of work with Redback conferencing over and back connect to a large company who do big conferences a very different approach. But the features are very similar. So don't get too hung up on the technology. You've got to be familiar with it but don't get too hung up on the technology it's not about the technology. If you are thinking oh that's my cable what should I use. I would suggest Zoom Zoom because it's easy there's a free version that you can use. Yes like all things free it's limited but you it doesn't cost a great deal to go to the professional package if you need some of the features. The thing with the zoom is so many people are using it nowadays that people are familiar with it. So you've got rid of that barrier of how do I use this straightaway. And it doesn't take months to come up to speed. So Zoom is going to be the very first if you're looking at one way use. Start with zone and other people will use other things and that's great. But start with Zoom and I'm gonna tell you in this time of social distancing Zoom is brilliant for cocktail parties.

00:09:07:24 - 00:09:31:21
Warwick: We've we've had so many cocktail parties with friends all around the country and the joy of it is my wife and I having a great time chatting with our friends. But I'm playing with Zoom at the same time and learning how to use it in front of an audience. We don't care if all of a sudden I disconnect them. We don't care if my green screen falls down you know so you can be a really good way to have a very safe audience to trial out your skills using the software as well.

00:09:32:05 - 00:09:49:26
Paul: I think that's great advice. A chance for us to get familiar with the piece of technology while we're having fun with friends. And there's nothing really at stake. I think that's great advice for all of us. All right so I presume that a good starting point for us in terms of the basic package what sort of things can people do there

00:09:50:02 - 00:11:51:21
Warwick: In the free package what you can do is you can have one on one conversations with people that are pretty much endless and not time limited if you get. I think it's over about three people. It does cut you off at 40 minutes and 40 minutes is quite long enough. That's one of the things with going online if you're used to doing a say a 60 minute presentation you really want to half it going online because there's less energy in the room. I don't know if people mean watching the sport lately but without a crowd it feels like an amateur game that you're watching then local footy part it's the crowd and the audience or the energy that I bring you don't have it. It lacks a certain something. So way to get around that is really compress what you're doing so the other thing with it is you can still record so you can do some great recordings if you want to do some audio recordings. To be honest we're recording this podcast now using zoom so you can do some awesome audio recordings you can do video recordings if you have been thinking I really must get a video calls out there. Zoom is brilliant to do that because you can share the screen you can create a PowerPoint you can show your PowerPoint you can share your videos you can share whatever you want to do using this zoom and it produces a MP4 file as well as an audio file that you can then edit to your heart's content afterwards. That's some of the stuff that I can do. You can do some meetings if you're having the two or three people in the meetings you can do breakouts as well so breakout rooms are very powerful. What a breakout remains is it. Let's say you've got 10 people on the call. You can say hey we're going to break up into groups of three. Well you can talk about something for five minutes and then I'll get you all back to the main room and it just gives a. It's like you're sitting at a table with someone and like turn to the person next to you and say What do you think about Warwick's haircut. You know you can do that kind of stuff. And as the moderator you can drop into each room and give advice and give instructions. So it's a very powerful thing that you can do as well. So look here the main things. But basically anything that you want to do which is pretty much going to be communicate your message get people to go a little bit hands on look for different ways to engage. You can do that out of the free version.

00:11:51:23 - 00:12:06:03
Paul: So in terms of video in a lot of people perhaps never put themselves in front of a video camera without like being on video. Do I have to do that when I'm on site. Do I have to have a camera. Can I use it in a different way. What's your advice.

00:12:06:06 - 00:13:26:06
Warwick: The secret to a successful session online is engagement. It has to be about engagement and when you're talking to someone face to face the best way to engage them is to look them in the eye. So why wouldn't you do the same here. One of the key things is is to keep an eye on where the camera is because the camera is not where the images are portrayed so often you're looking at your screen to look at the person you're speaking to but that's not where they're looking because you're going to be looking at the camera. We're looking through their eyes. So one of the most advanced pieces of technology that will help you is a post it note with a little arrow on it and the words look here and stick that on you and it or put it next to your web camera or whatever DVD to remind you. This is where I look. So what I've heard a little tricky is when you are talking look to the camera when you're listening you can look at the person on the screen. It's a new skill it's a new habit and it's taken a while to get the hang of it. I got to tell you it's so much more engaging when the speaker is looking down the barrel of the camera and then other people watching the screen feel that they're being looked at. So it's powerful to engage but you don't have to use the camera. You can use slides you can use imagery you can use virtual backgrounds to sort of engage with people and you don't have to be in any of that if you don't want to.

00:13:26:11 - 00:14:07:02
Warwick: But we live in a very visual age and so many of the younger generation are used to doing face times or you know tick talks and all this kind of stuff which has the person in it. So you really just have to if you don't like the look of yourself now is not the time for you because you have to get used to that. So I just I find it easier because I'm not the most glamorous person to look at. So I found a good to do sort of detach from myself and go oh that's the speaker. It just happens to be me. And so if you can if you're if you're one of these people you know some people get more sense of my voice. I hate it. You've got to get over it. Because in this environment you'll be hearing it a lot. And so if you could just detach from yourself somehow that's going to help you a little bit as well.

00:14:07:12 - 00:14:32:12
Paul: Well I did an interview with Louise Mahler some time ago which she talked about the power of the voice and I'll put up a link to that episode in the show that reminded the people two things I can do and develop their voice and also I bring that out. But I think you're right. We just gotta get over ourselves. Doesn't matter we're not an oil painting or have some beautiful voice. We just have to start creating the content and getting it out there.

00:14:32:27 - 00:16:14:12
Warwick: Yeah. And look I think the number one secret to all the online learning stuff that your listeners will be doing is it's not about you. It is all about the audience. It's all about serving the audience. It's all about how do I make this amazing for them. Don't worry about it because people have to look at you and listen to you anyway. So get over that and look at how do we make it about them. And so part of it being is this I'm going to roll into if you don't mind a couple of tips on how you can actually host and run a session online that'll just make it a bit better for the people who are listening. And the first one is you've got to engage people from the very get go. I've seen a lot of sessions start of light where they'll share a timer on the screen where there's a count down or they'll do something whereas I find I will always get on about 10 minutes beforehand and just talk to whoever comes on. Put it some an innocuous thing behind me on my green screen and just be saying hey we're going to get started in five minutes and just channel my inner radio deejay. So there's nonstop conversation. If it's in the webinar format then I'll get them to type stuff into the chat box. If it's in a meeting format then I'll be talking with them because what it's doing is it's breaking down barriers before you get started. It's just that it's a nice warm start. It's a soft entrance. So we're having this conversation. I respect the time line that's so important but it's I'm starting that warm up because there's always people who are getting on early. It's also a technical bonus because with so many people who are running these sessions they will typically do them on the hour. So by me jumping on five or 10 minutes beforehand it secures my line so to speak.

00:16:14:14 - 00:17:22:15
Warwick: And just when it's not rush hour so it just makes it a bit smoother getting in as well so do what it takes to engage to start with and you could do things like what city are you from what's the weather like there. What coffee do you drink. What are you drinking tonight. And I've seen some really great things this I'm Marty Wilson who I'm not sure you had on the show. He did a great. He has a Friday night drinks with a group of friends and he put this little video out there where he'd say Now I've taken orders. Who was having what. And someone said I had the red one. So we'd pretend to pick up the glass of red wine and pass it off screen and then the next person would then drag their red one from side screen to bring. Thanks for that. So it was like he was handing it to them. So having a bit of fun and way of engaging that kind of thing will get the people listening and laughing and focused on you so that's such an important way to start is to really go for that kind of engagement and continue to like people. There's the chat box that's available on most systems or Q&A use that and use it as your trying to speak as well so we can type it in or get your producer if you have one to type in some commentary or running commentary. It gets people engaged and involve the more involved they are the more they'll listen the more enjoy it.

00:17:22:29 - 00:18:14:05
Paul: Wawrick just in relation to that if if people do have someone who is helping them acting as a bit of a producer and that might be if that's available to you a good thing to do. So it allows you as a presenter to stay focused on presenting and getting the content and information to people because it can be when particularly starting when you've got lots of moving parts and those people's questions popping up and you're in the middle of saying something in your eyes drawn to this thing and so there are lots of moving parts to it. So if somebody does have the ability to get someone to help them produce and manage those questions if you're coming through does that person have to be in a room with you at one point five meters away from you. Do they do that. Can I just be on the chat themselves and in another space I could be in another area. Just explain how that works.

00:18:14:08 - 00:19:19:00
Warwick: So there's a couple of things you can do you can if you've got it let's say you've got one of your children or one of your partners because you might have many partners who are good with this kind of stuff. You might have them on a computer near you helping you. You may also have someone in a completely different area that you can assign co-host level access to. So they have the same ability as a host as you do and what you may choose to do and I've done this is I was hosting an event where we had 200 people on the seminar and I said to the hosts I'm gonna use. I used WhatsApp you could use Facebook Messenger you could use whatever you want but I said What's up. This is our back channel I'll have my phone sitting here at the front with that open. So if you got any messages for me do WhatsApp because it'll come up and notify me. But you're in charge of the chat. Anything that comes through in the chat you type it but if there's a question I really want to see either put it in the queue and I. So it comes up and I see it or send me a message on what's that. And that worked really well because it was a specific channel that was just a producer and I. And so anything that was going on I could address that but as well as they were handling a of the chat.

00:19:19:02 - 00:19:59:08
Warwick: Now I was involved in the chat as well. There are times when you're delivering your presentation you get a bit distracted if you're trying to look at three things at once it is possible but it comes across a lot more informal. So if you want a formal presentation it is more of a challenge to do that but a producer can do a great job in terms of doing that. And we don't have to have any say a highly skilled or practice producer it's really someone who understands and they're watching the flow of these questions coming through and directing and saying look I've seen sessions get together and we get together that's great. Hi I'm Julie you're on the call Julie. Can you look after the chat. If anything comes up just you know open your mike and talk to me. And so one person has been delegated that it's really quite simple it's nothing too sophisticated.

00:19:59:15 - 00:20:55:18
Paul: So you've given us already a few really great tips one about looking at the camera when we are talking to the audience rather than looking at the screen which is below the camera often if we're doing it off the camera not on our laptops to make it about our audience and to focus our energy on them rather than be talking about ourselves. And you've given us some great ideas about engagement at the beginning and it's almost like what you're suggesting I guess is as it as I like it in the old days when we used to meet people in rooms. I would always have a habit of walking around and shaking hands with people and introducing myself and saying hi. So I kind of made some friends in the room before we'd even started. So it's that sort of same idea. But just doing it now in these virtual worlds. They've given us some great tips there. What what are the other things you're suggesting in terms of doing this entire process.

00:20:55:20 - 00:22:01:27
Warwick: I think it's so funny I feel like I've given the 15 number one tips because the next number one tip is get the audio right. People will put up with bad video because you know particularly in Australia because now NBN is interesting at the best of times and we'll put up with bad video. We will not tolerate bad audio because if you think of some of the podcast you might listen to or you know you'll get a tape that was your favourite you've played it so much it gets to a point I just can't listen to this anymore. It hurts. So you've got to get the audio right. What that means is you really can't use the audio that comes with your laptop. It's just the microphones. Rubbish. But what you can do is sometimes just the headset that you get with your phone. That kit that's a little microphone and that can be pretty good audio as a video are you going to be looking you know white little streamers coming down your head or you might have the white plugs in your ears if you're one of the trendy people it's worthwhile getting a decent microphone. Now I'm also believe and I've seen so many people. Right. Well I've got to buy stuff and I'll buy the best and it's by look at what you've already got you to start with.

00:22:01:29 - 00:22:48:17
Warwick: If you to this used what you've already got some webcams will have a logic tech external webcam will have decent microphones using them. They may be good enough so don't feel you have to go out and spend a truckload of money. For me I had an old microphone that I got to use with my old. Apple iPhone. But now when they changed you got rid of the three point five mil Jack it no longer worked but it is the perfect microphone for when I run my webinars because it's a nice double shotgun mike. I just had to spend about eight bucks on a cable to connect it to my hub. Perfect. It works delightfully for me. So look at what microphones you've got. As I say sometimes it might just be that your headphone microphones that comes with your phone are going to be good enough but try and get the sound right. It's really important.

00:22:48:19 - 00:24:28:06
Paul: I'll return to my conversation with Warwick Mary in just a moment but first I wanted to talk to you about a very special webinar that I'm going to be hosting that's coming up on the 16th of April. I know that a lot of business owners are really struggling with the idea of how do they market their business effectively during the corona virus. What should they be focusing on. How did they change the narrative how did they start to build a new conversation. So I going to deliver a complimentary webinar so there's no cost to come and join me for this webinar. I'm going to just walk you through a whole bunch of strategies that are going to help you to improve the way you are currently building a marketing message for your business. In this current climate we're going to work on really showing you how to update and adjust your marketing strategy so you can be successful. So to be able to register for the webinar simply go to marketersclubacademy.com/covid19marketing. So again, it's marketersclubacademy.com/covid19marketing it's the number one nine. And if you go there you can register for the webinar and join me on the 16th that's Thursday the 16th of April. And I will walk you through some strategies that can help you to improve your marketing so make sure you're on that call. If you really want to start working proactively on your marketing I'll step you through exactly what you need to do to be able to get more attention in this Corona driven marketplace so that your business can stand tall and make sure that it's still around when this crisis ends. So simply go to marketersclubacademy.com/covid19marketing to register today.

00:24:28:10 - 00:24:30:24
Paul: What other things can we do to make sure we're going to be successful.

00:24:30:26 - 00:25:36:19
Warwick: Make it short and sweet. I said it before you want it to be less is more. I've seen too many people not quite know what they're going to say next. So you see them waffle and ramble on and we're sort of like come on. I have a personal habit is often all registered for a webinar but wait for the recording. That way I can watch at double speed because I'm just some people just waffle way too much. So get to the gritty bits straight away. If you are using PowerPoint slides or keynote presentations whatever it is no animation keep them a lot more slides. You want to change slides more often and I know for me if I'm doing a half hour power session like I do typically I'll have 30 slides. So you're talking one slide a minute now some of those slides are only up to 30 seconds and then I move to the next one but it's more slides and simpler slides. Big bold words big bold images don't read to people it's never been a favorite of mine when you are doing normal presentations even worse when you're doing it online. So. And definitely no animations. Some people will try and share video as well. If you're going to show video you must have a very high up speed on your internet in Australia.

00:25:36:21 - 00:27:10:21
Warwick: Not many places do so I would advise against it. What I would say to people is if you're inviting someone to an event and you have a video you want to use as a reference send them a link to the YouTube or Vimeo link and just say Hi here's a video I'm going to be talking about please check it out beforehand or send it afterwards saying he's that video I was talking about so people can watch that at that time because if you're going to try and stream a video you've got to download it then uploaded it and it just choose your Internet up and you can't really afford to do it. The other thing is have lots of energy. My theory is you've got to give if you want them to receive a lot of energy you've got to give like 110 percent for them to get 70 percent and walk away with 50 percent so you have to be energetic. Now for some people if you're not naturally energetic put a few twist on it maybe crack a few more jokes in there or have some funny props to go with it or do something that's going to keep the attention focused on you. You can't afford to be a monotone delivery for a half hour presentation you will lose people and it's quite soul destroying to watch you number of attendees slowly decline as you progressing forward. It's like when people just start walking out of the room you're like oh I don't want that to be really energetic or engaging or I use more facial expressions. We've got to close the zoom on your face so use your facial expressions. Go to some whispers every now and again use some voice modulation. Louise Mahler is the master and mistress whenever she issues the legend of voice. I'm sure she's giving you some great tips there and from that link to the show notes. Have a listen to what she says about how you can get more power out of your voice.

00:27:10:23 - 00:28:06:09
Paul: These are great tips but loving this stuff so I think as seasoned presenters we have been exposed to people who try to kill us with power points and lots of words on paper pages and screens and what have you. So keeping it really clear getting rid of the animation and I think as a marketer I wanted to take that advice. There is no waffling or not what I would call as a copywriter burying the lead but make sure the meaty stuff is right up front. Give it to people straight away so you're going to maintain their interest and let them know what they're going to be diving into. I don't wait and save all the good stuff till later 15 20 minutes in because they've already left the building and got better things. Because this is the reality is that in a live workshop environment people are more self conscious about getting up and walking out. When you're in your own home I have no hesitation of stepping away.

00:28:06:11 - 00:29:22:21
Warwick: And also now we know that everyone does because we're working from home because we're trying to teach the kids from home and schooling from home and because we've got stuff that way it's easy to do from home. There's a lot more distractions than ever before and if you are not in a room you are not here for the sole purpose of I'm here to learn from the Master Paul McCarthy. Today it's like I am when I see them they see what it's like and I continue my video often I could just leave the computer running and leave and no one will know that I'm here. So therefore it's going to have something to engage us to engage your audience. So part of that is build that into your presentation. Use polling use use have some breaks and say Okay I'm going to stop here. I want to know what questions have you got and you know generate some questions have some questions that you thought the audience might want to ask. Get them doing something. Use some of like it's about and I'll do silly things in terms of I'll get people to stop and do a stretch or to scrunch their toes in the carpet or you know like John McCain out of out of thought hard hat I get a laugh I'm going to tell you it gets a laugh. You see people laughing as I say it but it also stops them and changes their state. And so all of a sudden they're not willing to stay with you. So you're making it interactive and stopping every 10 to 15 minutes really is a must.

00:29:22:23 - 00:30:25:15
Paul: Again great advice. The idea of state changes is really important. As a presenter you understand the power of state changes and the needed for that because people's concentration waives and they can only stay with one idea for so long and they're going to need to shift. So part of the state change will be an emotional state generally as you're suggesting that we get people to physically do something different they might change in terms of whether we're showing a video another video showing our screen to PowerPoint back to us and moving so that the imagery or the what people are looking at so we can keep changing things up get people's attention attention and interest. I think one of the things you talked about which is going to be really important particularly for people that are getting into this space for the very first time is the preparation that they need to do before they get on and do the presentation. Are any tips for us in terms of how we can prepare and make sure that we're not waffling or not burying the lead that we're not just doing all that saying how do we that we're in a good space to present.

00:30:25:19 - 00:31:27:13
Warwick: Yeah. And look that's a great question. So far so many people it's like I've got a presentation you're going to be focused on what's the outcome on after. I've always considered you know the work I've done with you Paul about you know for what purpose. What am I doing this for. And is it I want them to sign up to my latest deal isn't I want them to buy my book is it I'm contributing to my community is it whatever it is that you want and then be out to track backing. Okay. So how do I lead them there. What's the process. What are the points I want to get through. You know manage your time because you're running this on a computer. I've got three clocks showing to me as I'm doing this so I can easily manage my time and I know I've got 30 minutes. I've got 30 slides so I'm gonna be at about the minute mark. Per slide number save I'm at Slide 15 and I'm only at twenty past. I'm like Okay I need to go a bit faster so you can manage that progress through it. But again like great presentations are not made up on the spot great presentations are practiced and rehearsed so why wouldn't you do the same here. The route. The same rules apply if you want.

00:31:27:15 - 00:32:51:01
Warwick: So you're building in some time for that engagement you're building in some time for questions you're building in some time for it and you've got a process you want to take them through so why wouldn't you rehearse that if you were the kind of person that's locked at home with the kids they're going to be a great audience if you can keep your kids engaged and entertained then and it helps you simplify your message like a great trial audience. If not that I use my dog and he just loves it every presentation I give is he's vibrant he does me so like all the disease that get get practiced at doing it because you do it. And again it's like that you know as I said before I'm using zoom for some of the dinner parties and stuff and I'm doing some community things and trying different things because if I stuff it up there it doesn't matter but if I'm wanting people to spend money with me I want to get it right. And so you want to be pretty prepared before you go on so you're confident with the technology you're confident on what to do when the technology stuffs up as it will. I was running a session last night and my green screen for whatever reason didn't work and I'd project my slides on the green screen and all of a sudden I'm just seeing green behind me. And I was confident nothing I can fix this. And if I can't fix it we'll continue on it's fine. And so I just said to the host Hey can you just take on a stick. Why fix this up and he made a few comments. I turned it off and turned it on again and worked again right. And then a way you win. So it's a confidence to know that when it stops up you can keep moving forward. I think all those are going to help you be better prepared to present.

00:32:51:08 - 00:33:31:04
Paul: Well we've covered some really great ground I think that some really great advice for people who are getting started I guess just a couple of other thoughts or questions around the technology we've talked about. Zoom is probably the most logical starting point for people that can get onto a free level and test it out and say that we talked about the fact audio is going to be critical so making sure we've got decent audio that we may need to invest in something there but let's check out what we've got first. Any other elements to the online presenting side that we need to think about that will enhance the quality of our ability to deliver a good presentation through zoom?

00:33:31:26 - 00:34:05:27
Lighting is important as well. It's not as important as sound and a lot of the cameras will adjust for it but having and you've probably seen there's lots of written lines every day bring light to day lights are brilliant because they're cheap to run and they don't run hot. There's plenty of stuff and you get them off a buy for somewhere between 20 to 60 bucks. But again if you've got a couple of strong early day lights or strong torches and stuff you can light different things around three point lighting is what professional videographers look about. If you jump on YouTube and just google three what is three point writing.

00:34:06:00 - 00:35:06:25
Warwick: Lighting is a ton of you. YouTube clips about it. Now for here you don't necessarily need three point but you do not need to make sure that you have some good lighting. Be careful with sunlight particularly if it's going to be a stormy day. Because what'll happen is you'll have light coming in the window and then the cloud will go past and the light will drop and it just changes things around. They're really the main technical things. And the other key thing really is internet speed get the eye when I've signed up to the NBN. I got the top speed. I'm a geek and I do a lot of video and I do a lot of uploading. But what it means is I don't have any buffering. And the other thing with that is don't use Wi-Fi connect via LAN cable if you got an eight minute cable connect by that because that is 100 percent reliable it's not going to drop. It's not going to fight out on you. It's a much faster connection speed. Some people don't realise that you can have the fastest speed you want connected to the internet but if your Wi-Fi is not working very well it doesn't matter because that's the that's the bottleneck. So they would be the technical things that you'd want to get right.

00:35:06:28 - 00:35:18:26
Paul: And you mentioned one thing that people may be curious about I think in terms of a lot of three you mentioned your green screen not working. So maybe just give us a quick overview of what that means. What's green screen. How does that work.

00:35:18:28 - 00:36:29:20
Warwick: You've seen all the latest blockbusters with these amazing you know special effects that there's no way you can actually do in real life you know blowing up downtown New York. So what they do is they use what's called a green screen which is a solid color that you can project an image onto. Now if you've got a relatively new computer you actually don't need the green cloth either actually has the smarts to look behind you and cut that out and put in what zoom calls a virtual background. If like me you have an older one I actually have the green bit of cloth because it just it's a solid color that I can project stuff on. So what I do is I create my slide deck and to the right of the slide I leave a great big space because that's where I'm going to be. Then with my slide deck I projected I export it Sorry as jpeg file small resolution and they then get uploaded as my virtual background. So they become the slide so I can sit to one side and they still see my full head and shoulders and then I'll also see whatever the image of the content is that I've got on the slide zoom called a virtual background. And again it's worth playing around if you've got kids how love this because they can look like they're floating in space and doing all the fun stuff.

00:36:29:22 - 00:37:15:01
Warwick: And you can if you've got some great holiday snaps I know for me I'll do some of my business stuff I'll have some office window corporate looking background if possible get a green screen. It does reduce the amount of computer processing power you need and looks a little bit nicer. It's not a problem that Paul and I have. But if you have very frizzy hair it also goes a bit weird around the edges so you sometimes see the weirdness around the edges but it means that you can if you've got a messy office like mine it's not the tiniest means you don't have to show that in the background you can have the green screen look it's catch 22 I've seen some people do some really nice shots they just run off the kitchen bench and because they've got a beautiful backyard and stuff it looks really great. You get that depth of field but whatever works. But that's the virtual background or green screen.

00:37:15:06 - 00:37:55:08
Paul: I knew that not having hair would eventually come in handy. So you beauty no fuzzy hair on my green screen. Mate it's been a pleasure and really really informative. Lots of great advice and I know that you are now helping people to figure out this whole becoming a presenter online developing those skills and I suspect a lot of the listeners are going to want to know how to do that better. Want to know how to really develop that skill. I want to spend a bit more time with an expert like you helping them to learn how to do that. So what's the best way for people to connect with you and learn from.

00:37:55:10 - 00:38:18:01
Warwick: Look the best way to connect with me and learn from me is I've actually set up on my website a page with some additional resources and stuff and some stuff you can sign up to and some stuff that's free and links to my blog posts about it. So if you go to Warwickmerry.com/presentingonline that link again Warwickmerry.com/presentingonline go now you'll love it.

00:38:18:03 - 00:38:48:02
Paul: That's great. That's it. Thanks again for taking some time. I know that many of us have got a little bit more time on our hands than we used to have and that's kind of not a bad thing sometimes that we now get the chance to maybe work on some projects and so my advice to people is that there is a chance to really sort of dive into becoming much better marketers getting our content material and putting our focus on a bunch of things that can be really proactive in helping us move forward. So thanks again for taking the time to share your wisdom with us today.

00:38:48:04 - 00:38:58:06
Warwick: My absolute pleasure to be here. Thank you and good luck to everyone who's listening. It's interesting times but I think there's some some real positives that will come with it if we focus on them. So thanks for having me here.

00:38:58:08 - 00:40:09:16
Paul: So I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Warwick Merry and got lots of ideas and strategies about how you can make the transition over to using a tool like Zoom. As we pointed out you can begin with a free version you don't have to spend any money to get started. There is a basic version that can get you up and running and maybe the best place to start is just doing it socially getting online with family friends connecting with people and figuring out how to use the technology in a safe environment like that again whether you're a practiced presenter and trying to figure out how to do it with energy or whether you're a first time presenter feeling nervous about it. The key is we just got to get over ourselves. We can't sit around waiting for everything to be perfect is a little bit of ready fire aim required here we need to start taking some action and doing some things and everybody's kind of in the same boat. So it's okay not to be perfect it's just about getting moving with this so that you can start getting your business going again. You can start building conversations attracting an audience and this is a really powerful way to do that and we're really going to need to start innovating some of our approaches we need to be able to work in isolation from home. Got to be able to reach out to people and this is just one of the tools that many many people are going to need to learn how to master.

00:40:09:28 - 00:41:31:00
Paul: So I hope you enjoyed that chat. I think that work share some great strategies and put it really simply about the things that you need to focus on what matters and the stuff that you can just play around with as well. You're going gonna be back next week with a another episode wearing a refocusing again online and I'm gonna be sharing with you I've brought on man by the name of John Lynch who is the man behind the software that drives my business. Does all of the marketing machine behind my business I'm gonna pull the curtain back and show you exactly the tool that I'm using and the key tools you're gonna need to drive your business as an online business as we move more and more online. We're gonna have to have some key assets that we use and that we can build online. And John's going to walk you through exactly how to do that he's an incredibly experienced online marketer and built a whole package a program that does that. This is the system that I use and I'm going to reveal that and walk you through it next week. So be sure to join me for episode 33 next week when we dive into the marketing machine that I use to drive my marketing. So until we meet again next time I hope that you will stay safe and well that you will stay Corona virus free and that you and your family stay healthy. So I wish you all the very very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives. Take care. Bye for now.