Easily Create Amazing Summit Video Presentations with Holly Gillen

Jenn: 00:00:03

Welcome to Virtual Summit Success.

Jenn: 00:00:04

I'm Jenn, founder of Virtual Summit Search, and you're in the right place

Jenn: 00:00:07

if you want to make the most of your virtual summit experience, whether

Jenn: 00:00:10

you're a host or virtual summit speaker.

Jenn: 00:00:13

Let's get going with your next step to virtual summit success.

Jenn: 00:00:18

You're listening to a snippet of another Sell With a Summit: Speaker

Jenn: 00:00:21

Edition session from Holly Gillen.

Jenn: 00:00:23

Since videos are almost always a requirement for summit speakers

Jenn: 00:00:26

- though not always - we're talking about how to make sure your summit

Jenn: 00:00:29

videos stand out, even in the lineup of other amazing summit speakers.

Jenn: 00:00:33

Let's jump in!

Jenn: 00:00:35

If you're stressing about how your summit presentation is going to look - stop.

Jenn: 00:00:39

In this session, we're going to be talking all about how to make your presentation

Jenn: 00:00:43

POP by improving your filming techniques.

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

: 00:00:45

Speaker Edition, and I'm excited to

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

: 00:00:49

introduce you to the wonderful Holly Gillen, creator of From Start to Star

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

: 00:00:52

and Video Made Easy, and an industry pro who has worked with companies

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

: 00:00:55

like HBO and the Sundance Channel.

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

: 00:00:58

Thank you so much for being here, Holly!

Holly Gillen: 00:00:59

Thank you so much for having me, Jenn!

Holly Gillen: 00:01:01

I'm super excited to dig in to this subject.

Jenn: 00:01:04

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:01:05

This is definitely something that I know a lot of folks struggle with

Jenn: 00:01:07

because we've gone into so much virtual video, especially in the last year,

Jenn: 00:01:12

but there's still so many little things that you can do to make it look better.

Jenn: 00:01:16

So before we dive into all the details of how to improve your summit filming

Jenn: 00:01:20

strategy, can you give us kind of a quick overview of your philosophy around

Jenn: 00:01:23

business cinema and that type of stuff?

Holly Gillen: 00:01:25

Sure.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:25

Absolutely.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:26

So the way that I describe business cinema is video with a plan,

Holly Gillen: 00:01:31

purpose, system, and strategy.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:33

So it's video, not just willy-nilly videos, but videos that actually

Holly Gillen: 00:01:37

help move your business forward and increase your bottom line.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:40

So you're coming at it from.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:42

A planning perspective, a systems perspective and a strategic perspective

Holly Gillen: 00:01:46

where you're reverse engineering, the content you're creating.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:49

So you're not just making video for the sake of making video.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:52

There's a reason behind it.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:53

There's a purpose behind it.

Holly Gillen: 00:01:54

And there's a plan and a system and a strategy.

Jenn: 00:01:57

I know a lot of times we go into video and we just kind of start talking

Jenn: 00:02:01

and especially with summit presentations, that's not what we want to do.

Jenn: 00:02:04

So what are some of the biggest ways that you tend to see people kind of

Jenn: 00:02:08

go wrong or miss the mark a little bit when it comes to preparing to

Jenn: 00:02:11

film their summit presentation video?

Holly Gillen: 00:02:14

Not preparing at all.

Holly Gillen: 00:02:16

That's like the biggest thing, like not preparing and then not really having

Holly Gillen: 00:02:21

a process for recording in place.

Holly Gillen: 00:02:27

So let's the way I kind of break it down: first and foremost, you want

Holly Gillen: 00:02:30

to always make sure you're following the specific requirements that the

Holly Gillen: 00:02:36

summit presenter has given you.

Holly Gillen: 00:02:38

So if it's they need you to do a certain thing a certain way, you want to make sure

Holly Gillen: 00:02:41

you know what all of those are, because you don't want to submit your presentation

Holly Gillen: 00:02:44

already recorded and with a bow on top and then you send it in and they're like,

Holly Gillen: 00:02:48

"no, this is not what we asked for."

Holly Gillen: 00:02:50

So first and foremost, make sure that you know what's your what's required of

Holly Gillen: 00:02:55

you; length of time for the presentation.

Holly Gillen: 00:02:58

You don't want to be too succinct or too short, you know, you kind of want

Holly Gillen: 00:03:01

to hit that window because there's a reason why you're being asked to hit

Holly Gillen: 00:03:04

that window for reasons that the summit presenter has already determined;

Holly Gillen: 00:03:08

they need things a certain length.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:10

If that's not an issue, then try to be as succinct as possible.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:14

People are busy.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:15

You don't need to add a lot of extra fluff or unnecessary content.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:21

I know from the perspective of a viewer of a summit, I appreciate

Holly Gillen: 00:03:25

when the presenter isn't wasting my time with a lot of information

Holly Gillen: 00:03:29

or stuff that I don't need to know.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:31

I like you to get straight to the point.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:33

Give me actionable takeaways, give me a plan, give me the meat.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:38

I don't need the fluff.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:40

I need the meat!

Holly Gillen: 00:03:40

And the way you do this is through pre-production.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:44

So part of pre-production is understanding those requirements.

Holly Gillen: 00:03:47

Also, what is the delivery method that's required from the summit presenter?

Holly Gillen: 00:03:51

Are you going to be doing an interview like Jenn and I are doing here?

Holly Gillen: 00:03:55

Is it going to be a video interview?

Holly Gillen: 00:03:56

Is it going to just be an audio interview?

Holly Gillen: 00:03:57

So, you could show up in your pajamas and it's not really going to matter, right?

Holly Gillen: 00:04:01

You don't want to show up in your pajamas for a video interview and be like, "oh,

Holly Gillen: 00:04:05

I thought this was an audio interview."

Holly Gillen: 00:04:07

So just being clear on all of the details, right?

Holly Gillen: 00:04:12

That's super important.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:13

And if you're not clear on details you could really go wrong.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:16

So that's one place where people go wrong, is not being clear on the details

Holly Gillen: 00:04:19

of what's being required of them.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:20

The next thing is with understanding the delivery method.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:23

So if you're going to be doing face-to-camera, if you're going to

Holly Gillen: 00:04:26

be doing screen-share, if you're just going to be doing slides, or you're

Holly Gillen: 00:04:29

going to be doing a combination of all of those things, just planning, all

Holly Gillen: 00:04:34

of that out is super, super important.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:37

I break it down into a couple of different ways: so if you're doing

Holly Gillen: 00:04:39

face-to-camera there's four different areas that you want to prep.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:42

So you want to prep your equipment, you want to prep yourself, you

Holly Gillen: 00:04:45

want to prep your set, and you want to prep for the shoot.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:50

So four different areas that you're going to prep.

Holly Gillen: 00:04:52

And these could also be applied to screen recordings if you're doing

Holly Gillen: 00:04:57

face-to-camera and cutting back and forth, or you're doing slides and you're

Holly Gillen: 00:05:02

cutting back to face-to-camera recordings.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:05

You want to make sure that you have a vision of what that final

Holly Gillen: 00:05:10

video is going to look like.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:12

And that is all in the pre-production.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:14

So you're planning out like, "okay, I know I want to do like an intro.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:17

So I know that I want the intro part of the presentation to be

Holly Gillen: 00:05:20

face-to-camera And then maybe I want to come back in after a few slides

Holly Gillen: 00:05:25

and do another face-to-camera part."

Holly Gillen: 00:05:27

So you're not going to just record that first part, then do the slides and then

Holly Gillen: 00:05:30

go back to hair and makeup and do that.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:32

You want to make sure you're batching all of the combined parts together.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:38

So if you're doing a bunch of face-to-camera even though it's not

Holly Gillen: 00:05:40

sequential, you want to make sure you're recording all of that at the same time.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:44

And then when you're doing your slides, you want to make sure you're

Holly Gillen: 00:05:46

creating all of your slides and all of the things that you want to

Holly Gillen: 00:05:49

add to the video at the same time.

Holly Gillen: 00:05:51

And you're going to put them together in post production, but this is all

Holly Gillen: 00:05:53

planned out in the pre-production phase, before you ever even start recording

Holly Gillen: 00:05:58

anything, you plot this all out.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:00

You have a vision of what you want to do.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:04

A big mistake I see, just generally when people are recording,

Holly Gillen: 00:06:07

videos is not doing this.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:08

This is 60-65% of the process and this is why people end up having a hard time when

Holly Gillen: 00:06:15

they're editing their video, because they didn't do the front-end preparation work.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:20

They didn't plan it out.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:21

So now they're just like, "oh, I forgot to record this part.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:23

I have to go back and I have to redo this, and oh, I didn't do

Holly Gillen: 00:06:26

the slide and oh, oh, oh, oh no."

Holly Gillen: 00:06:31

So, you know, having a plan for all of the things that you're going to be recording.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:34

So along with that information, I do want to put out there.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:37

that You don't have to create this perfect presentation.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:43

There's no such thing as perfect.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:44

I say that all the time to people I'm like, "raise your hand if you're perfect.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:47

Oh, look around.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:48

Nobody has their hand raised because nobody's perfect and nobody's

Holly Gillen: 00:06:50

expecting you to be perfect either."

Holly Gillen: 00:06:52

So it's okay if there are slight imperfections.

Holly Gillen: 00:06:57

And the other thing is like what you consider a slight imperfection

Holly Gillen: 00:06:59

and what somebody else considers a slight imperfection could be

Holly Gillen: 00:07:02

two completely different things.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:03

We are so hard on ourselves.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:06

and so judgmental of our own work that it can be something

Holly Gillen: 00:07:11

that hinders your progress.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:13

And I know everybody listening to this has something valuable and important to share.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:18

You are here to help people and they are waiting for you to show

Holly Gillen: 00:07:21

up in only the way that you can.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:23

So don't let that hold you back.

Jenn: 00:07:26

So I know we've covered a lot.

Jenn: 00:07:28

And what would you say that the most important action step that someone

Jenn: 00:07:33

could take right away to start improving their summit presentation

Jenn: 00:07:36

production quality would be?

Holly Gillen: 00:07:38

Well, I can answer this question in a couple

Holly Gillen: 00:07:40

of different ways, actually.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:42

So when you said one specific thing, I would say, you always

Holly Gillen: 00:07:48

want to be improving you, 'cause no matter where you go there you are.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:51

And that means you as a presenter, but you as the person who's doing

Holly Gillen: 00:07:56

the things behind the scenes as well.

Holly Gillen: 00:07:58

So all of those roads actually all do point back to pre-production.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:03

When you have the right plan in place, everything else becomes super easy.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:08

And if you aren't comfortable on camera - like you as a presenter - I would say

Holly Gillen: 00:08:13

first and foremost, that is foundational.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:15

You have to work on you, in that sense, being comfortable and

Holly Gillen: 00:08:18

confident in front of the camera.

Jenn: 00:08:20

And I know you also have the Get Started Video Block Party to help

Jenn: 00:08:24

us take all of this even further, so can you tell us a bit more about that?

Holly Gillen: 00:08:28

Sure.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:28

So the Get Started Video Block Party - was like a play on words right?

Holly Gillen: 00:08:31

So in the summer here in the United States - if you're not in the United States and

Holly Gillen: 00:08:34

you're unfamiliar with block parties - is people get together with their

Holly Gillen: 00:08:37

neighbors and they have a block party.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:39

So it was like a play on words, but it's also related to blocks - video

Holly Gillen: 00:08:43

blocks - things that are blocking people from actually getting started

Holly Gillen: 00:08:46

and taking action with using video in their business, being able to push past

Holly Gillen: 00:08:51

those uncomfortable issues of mindset things, just blocks that kind of come up.

Holly Gillen: 00:08:58

So it's all about getting started.

Holly Gillen: 00:09:01

So, what do you need to do to literally get started right now?

Holly Gillen: 00:09:04

How do you 'look natural' on camera?

Holly Gillen: 00:09:07

And I use 'look natural' in air quotes because there's a secret

Holly Gillen: 00:09:10

to looking natural on camera and it's not what you think.

Holly Gillen: 00:09:13

And then how to actually make your videos look more professional; so what are

Holly Gillen: 00:09:17

the things that you can do to make your videos look more professional so you feel

Holly Gillen: 00:09:20

more confident and proud to show those videos off to people and not like, "oh

Holly Gillen: 00:09:24

my God, I hope no one sees that video."

Holly Gillen: 00:09:27

So get started, look natural, go pro, eliminate your video blocks.

Holly Gillen: 00:09:31

Come to the Get Started Video Block Party.

Jenn: 00:09:33

Love that - mindset blocks are a huge part of it and I know

Jenn: 00:09:36

a lot of folks struggle with that.

Jenn: 00:09:37

So make sure to go grab the Block Party.

Jenn: 00:09:40

Thank you so much for being here and sharing all of this.

Jenn: 00:09:42

I know This is going to help so many folks improve their confidence with

Jenn: 00:09:46

their videos and probably take it beyond just the summits too, 'cause

Jenn: 00:09:50

there's a lot that overlaps with doing this for other platforms too.

Jenn: 00:09:54

So I'm excited to see all of the things that everybody does with this afterwards.

Holly Gillen: 00:09:59

Awesome.

Holly Gillen: 00:09:59

Thank you so much for having me on this has been a pleasure.

Holly Gillen: 00:10:01

I could talk about video all day.

Jenn: 00:10:05

I hope you got as much out of this episode as I did.

Jenn: 00:10:07

There were so many aha moments, especially in the full presentation where Holly

Jenn: 00:10:11

shared even more tips on how to make sure that your summit videos stand out,

Jenn: 00:10:16

so make sure to get access to that and all of the other fantastic sessions

Jenn: 00:10:19

at sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition.

Jenn: 00:10:23

And what's going to be your first step in prepping for your next

Jenn: 00:10:25

summit video - or video in general?

Jenn: 00:10:28

Leave a review and let me and Holly know!

Jenn: 00:10:32

Thanks for listening to Virtual Summit Success.

Jenn: 00:10:34

Don't forget to leave a review and let others know your biggest

Jenn: 00:10:37

takeaways from this episode.

Jenn: 00:10:38

Every review helps others find us, and the more successful virtual

Jenn: 00:10:42

summits there are, the more tips we'll have to share with you.

Jenn: 00:10:45

For show notes, links, and other resources, go to virtualsummitsuccess.live