171 – How to Master Your Videos with Dr. Jennifer Cameron

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 171

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello, I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is Episode 171 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up the family of programs where we teach women simple relationship, heart based LinkedIn marketing, a simple system that gets you on the phone consistently with people who can change your business, your life and your bank account forever. We create wealthy women of influence in our she’s linked up family, digital marketing with the human touch. Remember that human to human marketing actually talking to people. That’s where the money is. That’s where the big opportunities are. That’s what we love to focus on. So if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, you know that we love to hear from you. So make sure that you’re subscribing to the show, wherever you’re listening to it. We would love a review. If you’re feeling there’s something in particular that you heard that you’d love to tell us about. We’d love for you to share this episode on social media, use the hashtag good girls get rich, take a quick screenshot, maybe share it on your stories. tag me I’m at Karen Yankovich tag Jenny Cameron, who is our guest today. And we of course will share your post with our audiences. And then we all get more visibility, we have show notes, you can check that out at Karen Yankovich comm slash 171. You don’t even have to take notes as you go through this because we do all that in our show notes. You can you know there’s a link there for speakpipe where you can leave us an audio message, it can be a review, it can be an idea for a guest it can be you know a idea for a show, right? If it’s something in particularly love for me to talk about, I’d love to hear your audio review. So just go to Karen Yankovich comm slash 171 you’ll see the blog for this page, you’ll see the link to the speakpipe and all the other stuff we’re talking about here today. So I think I told you a few weeks back that if you’re if you’ve been listening, that we get a lot of requests for guests for this show. And you know, I’m sure that many of them are amazing. And of course we bring a lot of them on the show for you. And I was looking at the people that are a part of our she’s linked up family and I realized we have brilliant, amazing people in this program and I want to showcase them because a lot of times these are people just like you, right like Jenny Cameron, Jenny Cameron is a teacher, right? She’s a teacher started a side gig, she can tell you all about it. And you know, a couple little tweaks and everything changed for her. So I can’t wait for you to meet Jenny and you know, listen support. Our guests share this and tag them which we mentioned earlier so that they get more visibility, and then will in turn do the same for you. Okay, so without further ado, meet Jenny Cameron. We are here today with Jenny Cameron and Dr. Jennifer Cameron is an educational instructional video coach and strategist. She has taught middle and high school language arts, Communications and Video Production for the past 13 years, and has recently become an Instructional Technology coach for K to two teachers. But what most people don’t know about her is before becoming a teacher at your camera worked close to 10 years in video production, film, live television. She loves finding innovative way to include video and technology into her teaching and her coaching. And when she’s not teaching, you can find out your Cameron recording episodes for her podcast, the automated classroom recording YouTube tutorials writing blog posts for her site teaching with Jenny calm and are working on her soon to be available. Of course the automated classroom workshop. And Jenny Cameron is a student in our she’s linked up accelerator program. And I think I mentioned to you guys on the show a couple weeks ago, I get people sending me applications all the time to be a guest on the show. And I was like I there’s so many amazing people in my program. I want to you know, I want to showcase them over people. I don’t know, right? And doesn’t mean I don’t want your applications because I do. But I also want you to meet the cool people that are already in my life. So Jenny, I’m so excited to have you here today.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 4:06
Oh, Karen, thank you so much for having me. I have listened to your podcast a long time before I was one of your students. And this is really a special moment for me. So thank you so much for having me.

Karen Yankovich 4:16
Oh, I am it’s my absolute pleasure to have you shoot you. I loved learning about you and what you’re doing. So tell us take a minute, take a step back. We read your bio, but tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you go tell us about your time in video production and then how you move from video production to teaching.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 4:32
So I went to school for I was an English teacher originally Well, I went to school and I have an English degree and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it and I kind of stumbled into television. I worked first creating commercials and then I was working on a very popular all live home shopping network. I was working there originally on their floor and as a floor manager and then working on their commercials associate producer and I loved it. But every time you want to get promoted, you were put on the night shift. And you work nowadays. And, you know, I wanted to have a family and I wanted to have a life, right? Because I loved what I was doing. I met really cool people, lots of celebrities. I, you know, I have stories that seem unbelievable now when I think back on it, but, you know, ultimately, it was my entire life. And I, like I said, I knew I wanted to have a family, I wanted to get married. So when I met my husband, who was working as a teacher, and I kind of naturally always kind of had a teaching side of me, and everyone kind of my life was like, yeah, we were waiting for you to realize you were a teacher at heart. So Oh, that’s so cute. So funny. So I went back to school, to be a teacher. But while I was going back to school, I actually stumbled into a position to help with video broadcasting for high school with some old teachers that had been their student years ago. And I just loved it. And from there, I really was one of the organic things where I just kept getting different positions kept coming up from video production until language arts, and then I fell into the middle school classroom for a long time and loved it COVID hit, and I was kind of stuck. And that’s when I joined your program. Because I was stuck. I knew I needed to be doing more, I knew I had all these skills, but I didn’t know how to share them with everybody. And COVID hit and everybody was making instructional videos or zooming or trying to and for me, that was second nature. I just felt.

Karen Yankovich 6:26
Right. I mean, and for so many, it’s just completely foreign

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 6:31
it was. And it was one of those things where I was kind of like, I felt like I had so much to share with the world, I went and got my doctorate in education as well in educational leadership. And while I was doing that, I had my son, you know, my husband, and I, you know, we were establishing our family. And I was just kind of like stuck. And we’ll have a lot more to share with people, but I didn’t know like how to do it or what it was. And when. And I was reading a lot of things for my blog posts and just trying to help teachers. And when COVID hit, I was like, This is what I’m good at. And this is how I and you know, it’s kind of in history since then. I mean, I just realized that a lot of my colleagues were struggling with getting online being comfortable in line, you know, creating videos. And that was really kind of when I started honing on how to help teachers create videos, because I saw all of this resistance to helping people using video, there’s always a reason why they couldn’t get online, or they couldn’t shoot that video, or they didn’t know, they thought students weren’t watching it or they weren’t good enough, or they didn’t have the right equipment. So I’ve been spending a lot of times past year talking to teachers about how to use screencasting. Because screencasting is really probably the lowest barrier entry for anyone, either professional or educational person to get involved in video because all you need is a laptop, a and a camera on your laptop to get started along with like a free extended extension for a video screening program like screencastify or loom or screencast o Matic that’s all you need to start getting your genius and the world. And I realized to me, that seemed easy, but for a lot of people, they just didn’t realize how easy it was to get started if somebody needed a great camera or might period lighting kit. And so I really talked to people about how to get started right away with screencasting. And you know, I talked to a lot of educators but other people in the professional world as well about because this really transcends to anyone who wants to help others about basic things you can do to create more video confidence, and how to just get started and just get it done. And experience and things will come.

Karen Yankovich 8:48
So then you so you started to look at that though, as a side business, right? It was just you were doing it kind of naturally, but but helping other people then started to become a side business. So how did that happen? Because I know there’s a lot of you that listen to this show that are looking to make the transition from a full time job to like a side gig, whether you’re leaving your job or not leaving your job right. In fact, we did Episode 166 is all about that. Right? So tell us a little bit about that. Like how did you Where do you find the time to do it all?

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 9:20
Well, as you probably know, like I’m, you know, I’m a mom, and a wife and a teacher and I run my own business and so it is a lot and I would say I’m still on the journey. This is still it’s become a huge part of my life. It is still a side hustle. It is integrating into everything I do in my life though. I’m now you know as one big when I had in your course was I knew I needed to get my GED. I knew that square professionals word I was trying to reach professionals not that social media doesn’t have professionals but I knew there was a certain type of person I was trying to reach people who are professionals that want to use their genius to help other people and I knew LinkedIn was the place to do it, but I didn’t know really know how to get started. And I know I shared this when in your group that once I started going through your course and you know, following your recommendations and getting health score to people in your group, I think I was in your question about six weeks and my boss’s boss, the top level in my, in my education world, messaged me on a Sunday and said, I had just posted a small video about how to help teachers how to help students focus by using by encouraging them to wear earbuds. And it’s really simple little tip that I had put out there. Because I wrote about it in my, my weekly newsletter, I thought, Oh, well, I’ll post this in LinkedIn. And messaged me, he was like, we need to talk on Monday, I have an opportunity for you. And it was that quick, I had been stuck in the same position for 12 years, I had applied for a ton of jobs. But it was LinkedIn. In the video that I posted there. That got me an instructional coach position. So that is what…

Karen Yankovich 10:59
And as much as I would love to take all the credit for that I have to give you credit. Because what you did, what I saw you do was shift your energy, right? You were like, I don’t know, I do these videos, I have this thing and you shifted your energy to I am the CEO of this, this, you know this business, I have a business, right. And when you shifted your energy and created a LinkedIn profile that really positioned you, as somebody influential, not just somebody that knows how to create videos, I think to me, that was the shift. And that is that is the shift. It’s it’s, as you know, listen, we teach strategy. But it’s the mindset piece that I think is the first piece that that our students, but everyone that’s doing this needs to really accept, right that you’ve got ambitions, but like, if you’re if your ambitions are up here, and your mindset is down here, it’s just not gonna happen. But when you brought your mindset up to match your ambitions, and like, I can do this, I can show up like that. You people started taking notice. I mean, not just you’re not just your boss. Right, but your family and and and your neighbors, right.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 11:58
Yeah. I mean, we were laughing as I said that I had a mayor of my town, saw one of my videos, I didn’t even realize we were friends on LinkedIn. And he came to my house and knocked on my door. Talk to me. laughing because you know, you just don’t you don’t know who you touch sometimes, yes, yes. needs help, can we keep so much inside? And you know, you just don’t know who you’re gonna connect with. And I think it’s taking those risks. And like you said, the mindset piece, I’m always been a confident person. I’m comfortable on camera, I’m comfortable being the first person to volunteer for things. I’m comfortable. I talked in front of a live audience every day all day long. And for my job this year, especially since I was online and in person. I mean, it was like being on a talk show all day long. I’m uncomfortable in that zone. So I thought, well, I’m competent person. I don’t have mindset issues. Was I wrong? I’m sorry, you’re my history here. I’m at home right now. But I was so wrong. I had mindset issues we all do them is? Yes. Don’t we have to work through that. And I love that you always come back to that. And I know that some people think oh, mindset is kind of a woowoo thing. But it’s not it’s a real thing. We all have mindset issues. We all have mindset issues around money around confidence, achievement. You know, no matter how good you look on paper, if you’re not getting your vibes out into the world, if you’re not trying to help people, it doesn’t matter what your resume looks like. And that’s where I was wrong. I thought LinkedIn was about your resume. Right. And I worked through your program. And what I really needed was, it’s, it’s not your resume, it’s who you are, and who you could be, who you’re meant to be. If he wanted me,

Karen Yankovich 13:43
to bring you a little bit of a tear to my Jenny. It’s so true. It’s so true. And that’s why I wanted to have you on here, because it doesn’t matter. I mean, of course, I want people to know about your services. But I think that, that shift, making that shift is doable for anybody, regardless of where you are now and where you want to be. It’s doable, no matter what I mean, we had a we had a conversation earlier today, actually, on the q&a call for the program. And we’re talking about the fact that like, mindset and negativity, like if you hold on to that, and you have to be right about being negative, or being realistic or whatever, you’re just going to be stuck there forever. But if you open your eyes to the possibility and why not you right, why not Jenny Cameron, as the you know, the person taking the lead on helping schools use video in a more educational way, and in a way that is, you know, easy for the teachers to implement and, and, you know, great for the students to help them learn more, why not? You be that person that champions that Yeah, somebody’s got to do it.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 14:44
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, as you were talking, I was just kind of thinking back to you know, I’m kind of a very visual person and I had like this vision board for this year with COVID. And I have to this first year of my life that I have achieved almost everything on that board, and it’s a good feeling but one of the last things I had is I wanted to start transitioning not only into speaking, I’ve already transitioned into coaching teachers and educators and professionals on video have already transitioned this year into really getting my genies out, I was already doing it, but I wasn’t owning it before. But I also wanted to kind of we talked a lot about getting to the college level and helping people at that level as well and university and reaching out to professionals in that way. And what’s funny, I was literally at a, like a park event this weekend. It was like, you know, a celebration for the Fourth of July. And I bumped into somebody, and I gave them and we got talking and she worked at a local university here as I’d love to come start teaching. And she’s like, Oh, yeah, you know, and I was like, yeah, people, we get talking, we realize we need some people, but I handed my card with my LinkedIn. Mm. Oh, she looked me up about five minutes later, right? Yeah, yeah, my information Five minutes later to people about me possibly coming there to talk or teach. And the amazing thing about LinkedIn is, unlike other social media platforms, unlike your website, you have the ability to just like we said, Put everything You are everything you want to be, you know, I have for this class from your group, I wouldn’t have known to do this, but I have my, you know, my videos on there, I have things about local conferences I’m doing, I have my history, my background groups involvement, all of a sudden, somebody gets a quick bead on who you are and what you have to offer. And that is not being offered anywhere else in other social media.

Karen Yankovich 16:35
It’s it’s so true. It’s so true. And you know, it is it is, as you’re saying this, I’m thinking that so Jenny joined our program, proceeded to get promoted. Right. So after we wrote her whole profile, it now needed to be updated. And I don’t even think you’ve done I don’t even think we’ve done the updates yet, right? Like so. So you’re even working off a profile that isn’t even the most updated because she, you know, she had success so fast that we couldn’t even keep up with it on her profile. So as you’re saying, like you’re handing out your card, and people seeing your profile, it isn’t even showcasing I think your best self, I think there’s like another level that we’ve got to hit. Because you because of the you know, the the changes that have happened in your life. And that’s what I love. But what I want to just like kind of share about that is it is always a living, breathing thing, like your LinkedIn profile isn’t one and done. But when it’s done, when you take the time to do it, right, I mean, you take the time to showcase it to the point where the mayor of the town is knocking on your door, you can always just tweak it from there, right? Like you can’t, you know, like, it’s not, it doesn’t have to be state, it doesn’t have to stay forever. That way, you can always tweak it. Like, for example, a lot of the things we’re talking about now, and I don’t know if we did this in your profile, but you know, if you if what you do, like let’s if what you do, if you can help people that are transitioning back to the office, because of COVID. Or if you’re you know, if there’s a pandemic related things to what you do talk about that on your LinkedIn profile. But obviously, God willing, you know, sometime in the near future, that’s not going to be relevant anymore. So you can take it off. Right? So but showcasing what’s valuable now, and then updating it as that happens, but I love but you’re right, because it’s it is about how you show up. And, you know, people don’t realize how many times people throw your name in a Google search, and your LinkedIn profile is gonna show up. So why not just take even if you don’t do anything with your profile, which I want people to do something with their profile, but even if you don’t do anything with your profile, at least take the time to create a great profile. And the funny thing is, I talk to people a lot, obviously, about this, and they’re like, I like my profile was really good. And what I basically say now is well, it’s not hurting you, you know, it’s not hurting you It looks great, it’s professional, but it’s not helping you because it’s written like a resume, you know, like so it’s not so you know, why what having a profile that talks about what, what you do for the world, as opposed to I know word an Excel, right? Then people are like, wow, we need this, we need to connect with this person. And we need to work with this person, because they’ve got this kind of credit and, and the conferences and the, you know, and the different places that you’re speaking, they’ll also give you more credibility. And I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve talked to where they’re like, oh, I’ve done a lot of that stuff. I don’t, I should put that on my profile. Like, yeah, you need to put that on your profile, because people don’t have a magic wand, right? Like you might be really great at what you do. But if you don’t share those things with the world, how are people going to know? And especially as women, how, you know, we’re the ones that are like, well, I don’t want to brag, well, please brag, right? Or own it, as you say, own it, like as you know, like just own it like all that you did all these great things. So now you’re getting some speaking, more speaking engagements, right in this world that you’re you’re shifting into. So tell us a little bit about that. How have you done that?

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 19:42
Well, you know, and just I wanted to kind of backtrack a little bit into what we’re talking about. But you know, it’s funny you were saying about like your LinkedIn profile being a resume and, you know, I want to say to your listeners, like Karen was very clear, she’s like, this is not a this is not a commercial for my group. But that is a lot of our relationship. And so I can’t To help but go back to some of your teachings and stuff. Because, you know, I want anybody who’s on the fence listening to this, you know, to dive in with both feet when it comes to like them, because it’s a living, breathing thing. It is not like you said, it’s not a resume, it’s not, it’s not one dimensional. You know, it’s only one dimensional if you let it be. And if you listen to this today, and the only thing you get out of it is that you should get involved in LinkedIn. And you don’t have a picture of yourself or a banner or a headline, like, go do it as soon as today. But I’m talking about my conferences. Karen, I spent a year or two before I really dove in and started getting my things online, especially through LinkedIn, those things. And I was asking for these engagements, I was making these connections, and I wasn’t hearing back. But when I got online, when I started really engaging with people, when I started posting my videos, it’s helping people for free. You know, when I was learning something, I just would make a quick tutorial. Like if I learned something new. I got on there, I made a quick tutorial, and I just put it out there. And so and you know, and we have this vanity of like, Oh, no, no, no, let people watch it. Hey, well, first don’t watch it. I probably

Karen Yankovich 21:10
Yes, yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, think about like, if 10. People watch it, if somebody asked you to speak in front of a room of 10 people, you’d be happy to do that. Right? So yes, the numbers don’t matter. It’s impacting the people. I love that you’re saying that?

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 21:23
Yeah, it’s like, you kind of have to get past that, like, oh, now when people are watching. And, you know, one thing I talk about when I coach people is, I’m a big component of putting things on YouTube. And one of the reasons you know, and everything, I think everybody should have a YouTube channel. That doesn’t mean that you have to have a public YouTube channel that everybody searches and finds you. But um, we’re going to talk a little bit about getting started with video. Today, I’m gonna end talking with telling you a little bit about why you need to have a YouTube channel, and you shouldn’t be scared of it. Everybody should have one. And I’ll tell you a little bit about why that is we get to the end of the end of our little presentation here. So I know you want me to talk a little bit about myself.

Karen Yankovich 22:05
Yes. So please do that talk. I will tell everybody a little bit about what you do and how you help people and why we should you know, because what you’re talking what you’re teaching teachers, we all are on zoom. Right? We are all doing more video than we ever thought we were gonna do. Yeah, I have spent more money on makeup in the pandemic than I did a video all day long every day. Pickle now Gosh, am I out of mascara again? You know, so? Yeah. So tell us a little bit about how we can get some tips for our video.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 22:32
Absolutely. I mean, pre pandemic, we’re still waiting for like statistics now. But pre pandemic, they were already saying about 80% of people are visual learners, visual or auditory auditory learners. So if you are getting your genius out there, people and you are not using video or audio, you’re missing a huge crowd of people. So that is something you really need to think about. Because now that we’ve all been on zoom, we’ve all been on scenes, people they want video. And the thing is that we can’t always be live on zoom all the time. So I really talked to a lot of people about using screencasting. And using screencasting. Like I said before, because it’s a very low barrier of entry, right, we get a lot of people like, oh, I’ve got to get the right phone, or I’ve got to buy some equipment, you just need a laptop with a camera, which I think almost every laptop comes with a nowadays, or even an iPad with a camera to get started with this. So the three reasons I hear from educators and professionals in general about why they don’t make videos. As far as they don’t know what tools they need to get started. And number two, they don’t like the way they look or sound on video. And we’re going to talk a little bit about some really quick tips you can do to prove the way you look and a little understanding about how you sound on video. And I hear that from women especially, we are so hard on ourselves, we are so hard on ourselves. And we’re always like, Oh my god, ah, do I sound annoying, I can’t make a video. And it’s not about it’s not about that we’re gonna talk a little bit about that about the way you sound. And the last bit is what we talked a little bit about. People don’t know where to put their videos to be watched, or they don’t think they’re being watched. Or they don’t have a real understanding of what a successful video really is. It doesn’t have to go viral to be successful. If you help too few people, you’re making great video content, you know, and you only get better by doing. So let’s talk a little bit about I’m just going to dive in and talk a little quickly for those of you guys who this is a time that if you are at home listening or something, grab that little notebook so you can jot down a few things. If you’re in the car,

Karen Yankovich 24:31
you’re such a teacher.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 24:35
But come back, you know come back to this make sure you absolutely have time. So if you’re in the car because I know I lived with my podcast in the car, or I’m walking the dog. Make note that you got to come back and jot these things down. But the first thing to think about is screencasting is basically recording your screen if you’re not familiar with screencasting you can record your screen it was string casting you were record yourself, you can record Your screen was a little small picture. If you ever seen people, they do conferences, and there’s a little picture of them in the corner, right. So you have three options, we screencast, which is really nice, because depending on the content that we’re giving, you may want different forms of communicating with video, and you need to build to mic into your own computer, you’ll also need a webcam, and you need a screencasting extension. Now, the one that I recommend to all my students is screencastify. And I’ll say that again

Karen Yankovich 25:27
and we’ll put links in the show notes to all of this stuff.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 25:30
Why, because it has free extension to it, it has a free component, it’s ridiculously easy to use, and you can get started like that. So and one thing I like about screencastify is a lot of other screencasting groups were for different industries. screencastify was for education was for instruction from the get go. And a really cool thing that screencastify has that other programs are kind of catching up and trying to have is they have free courses that you can take and they’re not long, they’re half an hour an hour free courses to be certified in how to use them better. And they have fantastic tips in there. So you can go through their free course, if you really want to get a little extra, you don’t need a course to do it. But you can get that. And they also offer one for your students. So if you’re listening right now, and you’re an instructor, and you want your students to use screencasting, there’s a 10 minute tutorial that they already have prepared for you to listen to have your students take. So I really love screencastify for those reasons, you just have to literally go into Google, go to Google extensions, type in screencast by click on it, and it downloads right into your taskbar. And then it’s a few steps and you’re good to go. So let’s talk about it integrates really well with Google. And so I know everybody’s gonna using Google nowadays, if you’re using Microsoft team, it still works with that. But the thing I like about it is when you go to export in screencastify, you can export right to YouTube and publish right to YouTube. You can share it to Google Classroom, you can download it, you can make it an mp4, you can make it an mp3 so you can make you can actually make a podcast, you can make it a gift. So literally free tool. And this all the things you can do. Because even if you have a feature on your recording, like the difference between recording on your phone is that you need to this gives you so many different options to get it out into the world right away. And you make screencasts because you want to get your genius out to the world right away. Yeah, yeah, I worked for a few years as a video editor. I love video editing. I do very little if no editing on my videos, because I need to get my genius out people need to see it.

Karen Yankovich 27:35
I agree. If you I would rather take a little bit of time upfront to create a process that allows it to be easy to do when I got to do it. Yeah, I agree. Absolutely. And you know what I mean? You said this a few times. I want to emphasize it. People don’t expect it to be more than that. Like we especially women, we are like no, we have it, you probably have to edit it I have to do like no you don’t. You don’t. You know, like it’s not it doesn’t have to be perfect. It will be great. With just a little pre planning and then just whacking them out.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 28:06
Absolutely. And I’m glad that you brought that up because I want to bring up that one thing I’ve noticed like I follow a lot of people, big industry online people, James Wedmore, you know, Amy Porterfield, Jenna krisha, all those people who have been online for a long time as entrepreneurs, if you know any of those, I have noticed that they used to make expensive videos they used to I would see doing

Karen Yankovich 28:30
James Wedmore was all about video a lot of years, right.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 28:34
Um, but I noticed with his most recent launch, about a year or two ago, he was doing these polished almost like films, as his training videos as his hope to get you to join his program. And I was Wow, one day, but I can hire a team, I’m gonna have videos and they were clever and witty, and he’s a very smart entrepreneur. And because he’s a very smart entrepreneur, I realized this launch, he’s going back to basics. He’s screencasting and using his phone, you know, that’s what people want. Exactly, exactly what they want real. They want real. So if you’re like, I don’t look, you know, we’re going to talk about the way you look and feel. But if you’re like, Oh, I don’t have any polished or you know, I’m, I’m a mom, during the pandemic, my husband’s a teacher, too. We were teaching, we had kids online, we had dogs barking, it was real and you know, um, you know, I wanted to get things out to people and it wasn’t perfect. But yeah, you know, people want real.

Karen Yankovich 29:32
I agree. I love that.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 29:33
So if you are holding back because, you know, you don’t have the perfect setting. You know, don’t let that hold you back. People want to know you. And that’s the way they get to know you. So everybody wants to look good. So we’re going to talk about a few tips now here. So if you have your notepads time jump down or come back to us a little bit, listen to this again. But um, let’s talk a little bit about lighting and some basic things you can do in your home or office to improve your lighting. ultimately improve the way you look on camera, right. So you want to, you don’t need to buy a bunch of expensive lighting equipment. Although when you’re at that point, that’s a really great point to be at. But you want to go into a room that has light and bright pink colors, light colors into it, you ultimately, you want to think about setting up in front of a window, like I have a window right here, or you set up to the window is like your laptop is looking at you and you can look out the window, okay, cuz that that will fill your face, right, that type of lighting will fill your face, fill in the creases in your face, you won’t have as many dark shadows. And you want to use, you want to set up in front of a window, you don’t want your back to the to the window that is called backlighting. And that’s going to create a lot of harsh shadows. So the windows are your friends, find a light room with light paint, find a window that you can set up in front of and it will fill your face with light and automatically your videos would be better. Um, let’s talk about if you do need a little lighting. So inexpensive ring light. Now you see a lot of people who say beauty and glamour lights, but you can get a little ring light that actually clips right onto the top of your computer that you can get for like under 20 bucks. I know I have one on my computer right now it’s from five below. So you might see them as they might be called glamour. They might be called glamour lighting for your iPhone. So something like that is a simple way to add just a little extra light to your face. And those are great ways to just improve the way you look automatically on video, my secret, my little secret tip that I want to give you guys that I don’t hear anybody talking about this. But I use this all the time, I use a white poster board. So if you’re like on a budget, right? Put it down on whatever surface you are doing your video on. So if you’re at a desk with me in a dark brown desk right now, now that color is gonna reflect into my face, right? So I need to I put a white poster board down and I don’t have that same reflection, it just bounces the light from the room onto my face. So it’s really simple. So if you’re like, I can’t get started. We can all afford a poster board, right? Yeah, yeah. Yep. And earlier this year, we were in pandemic mode. It was like snow storm. And of course, there’s no snow days anymore for teachers. And my husband was teaching upstairs, my son was in the living room on class and I had our Christmas red Christmas club table on my dining room, which was a teaching crumb. And I noticed one of my students like Dr. Cameron, you’re really red in the face today. Big Red tablecloth reflecting into my face. So I looked up my poster board and put it down. And it made a huge difference.

Karen Yankovich 32:43
Such a great tip. I mean, just buy a piece and have it so that if you if you’re in your dining room or whatever have it you know, that’s such a great tip, Jenny, I love that I actually bought in the pandemic. Also, one of the things that I bought during the pandemic was an actual desktop setup, as opposed to a laptop, because I do most of my work from here and even non pandemic time. So I bought a great, you know, fast computer and a couple monitors. It’s a little bit like NASA in here. But I have a light called a loom cube. Have you heard of those? Yes, yeah. And it’s smacks to the back of my monitor. And my problem is the monitors are bright, but that’s not the right color bright. Do you know what I mean? So I don’t tend to have my I don’t look dark. But I look and I’m not you know, I look bright from the because I have these big gigantic monitors here. But the lung cube softens it just changes the color of the light. And I don’t use it all that often. But it’s just there. And what I love about it most is it’s not like I have a ring light, but I rang and I do have the Clippy ones too, which I love. But the big ring light needs to be on a stand and then a stand needs to be behind your desk and then there’s plugs and cables and cords and this is just snaps to the back of my computer and then plugs into a USB port and it always works. So that was one of my like pandemic buys. I love this little cube again because it wasn’t that I needed to brighten my face but the color was just making washing me out because it was just all of this LED, you know,

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 34:03
yeah, and you want to like I like the lean cubes as well. You want that kind of white light you don’t want like a yellowish light, like your lamp light might have a yellowish yellowish right? That’s what do you want that like white light that is balanced on All right.

Karen Yankovich 34:17
All right, we’re going so long on this What’s next?

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 34:19
Alright, what’s next? Um, okay, if this is the probably one of my best tips is to get a computer stand if you don’t have one. So I don’t know how many times I have gone to a conference great idea. Listen to someone on a zoom call or listen to someone and authority in their field. They are a leader in their field and I look it up their notes because all it is I’m looking at Yeah, and I can’t hear what they have to say because you know, it’s just a simple computer Stan, you can get 120 bucks you want or if even if you can’t go that route. If you’re just starting out. A little milk crate I have one day I was filming at the library because I have kids. So sometimes I have to go where it’s quiet. And I forgot my stand. I was like my whole setup over here. And I grabbed

Karen Yankovich 35:08
library right books. I’ve done that for years. I did books. For years, I did books. Yeah, I get it, I get it. We’re recording this right now on my iPad. So that’s very low. So I’m like, she’s looking at my nose right now. But whatever it is just, I get it. And I’ve seen like, somebody, even our program recently did some videos, and they were great. And I just I hesitated to even say, because I don’t want to make her think like, I was criticizing it. But I was just like, if you just move the camera up, and you know what I mean? And it’s gonna be such a better visual for you, you know? So I don’t know if you were involved in that conversation or not. But it was, uh, I don’t remember who even who it was. But I remember looking at the videos and thinking, Oh, my gosh, if just the angle was changed, that would make such a big difference on this.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 35:51
Absolutely. And to say that the other way around. I have like a leader that I follow on the teacher space, and she is phenomenal. But she has that. Okay, I can say this, because I know there are a lot of women listening to this there. Yes, we want this to be real. So let’s say we put that phone up, we put it up high, because we look thinner. Do not put your camera up too high. Because she had this camera that’s up Hi, this this, I love this woman, I follow her. She’s fantastic. I will continue to follow her. But I always feel like she’s broadcasting from NASA, I can see the top of her screen camera up here. I feel like we’re in a control. So you want it to be personal. Whether you’re in a live call or through recording, do you want to feel personal. So not only do you want to and I’ll give you another quick tip that is kind of juicy that I share with people when I do zoom coaching because I also coach people on helping them more comfortable in zoom. When it’s your turn to talk. Or if you are recording and you’re talking to someone, you want to look straight into the camera. We want to look at the person on the screen that’s asking the question because that’s natural. But it gives us the feeling that we’re not looking them in the eye. And even though it doesn’t feel natural to look right into the camera, when you’re talking, it gives the person on the other end the feeling that you’re connecting with them. And that has a lot to do with our brain chemistry and our ability to make a communication loop and connection. So if you’re on a live call with someone, or if you’re recording a video, don’t be looking down at your screen when you’re addressing people look up as much as you can into the camera. Because although you can’t see the reaction, we all want to see the reaction the person’s face, it will make the person on the other end feel more emotional connected to you. And that’s really what you want.

Karen Yankovich 37:36
Yeah, so that’s a good tip. I know, that’s a hard one to learn. Because you just want to watch the person, you want to watch the people you’re talking to, like, you feel like you need to be looking them in the eye. But then they feel like you’re not looking them in the eye.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 37:46
Yes, they feel less. Right. Right, you know, and they don’t feel as connected to you. And that’s ultimately like, video is such a powerful thing. But if you don’t use it correctly, it can have the opposite effect make people feel disengaged, rather more, right. That’s what we want.

Karen Yankovich 38:03
And these little tips make such a big difference to the quality of your video, way more than an expensive camera or anything like that, like these little tips are much more important than those kinds of things.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 38:15
Absolutely, absolutely. One, let’s go hit the next one is a simple tip. But you know, it always stands repeating your background, like I hopped in our car real quick, and I have my husband’s music sheets in the background here. But like, make sure you don’t have anything inappropriate, or I don’t want people to see, if you don’t want the world to see pictures of your kids, then don’t know your kids, because you’re not going to want to what’s gonna happen later is when you realize you made a fantastic video, but you and your husband or wife talked about you don’t want your kids on the internet, you’re not gonna post that video.

Karen Yankovich 38:49
Right? This is another great tip that for me during the pandemic, I started out with my green screen. And it’s gigantic. It’s gigantic, it would be like Actually, it was having construction done in my office. So I was in my dining room and I had the green screen in the dining room. And it’s just like it’s too big to move every day or put away every day. And then it’s out all the time. So one of the things I did when I redid my office was I kind of just was intentional about what was behind me so that I could just turn the camera on and talk. Right so you know it is sometimes because like I do have to sometimes double check because like my office is where I’ll leave the dog when I’m not home. So sometimes there’s like a doggie pee pad like it just in case pad interview. So I need to double check when I turn the camera on that there’s nothing in the view of of that, you know, but um, but yeah, it made such a big difference to be able to just turn the camera on or jump on zoom with someone and not be like, hold on. Let me find the green screen. Let me do like I just didn’t do it as much because it was too complicated. So just by having like a simple a simple like behind like, again, I have a desktop so it’s at my desk and behind me you know where that this is where my normal camera is, is is tends to be it’s so much easier. It makes it easier for me to do more videos. Right And that’s really the goal. I mean, I don’t need to be candidates to make things more complicated for myself. I love that. Yeah.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 40:05
If you’re listening right now, I just have given away all my best tips here. But yes, my way out there for you, if you’re listening to this, and you’re probably like me, like when I’m at work my office, I have a great setup. You know, I like what’s in the background. It represents me, I have children’s books behind me all kinds of things that have to do with what I do as an instructional coach. And when I I’m really confident when I’m on zoom there, or I’m recording a video there because I know what’s behind me really represents who I am. But in my home, I have a small home. I have kids, I have dogs. I have a husband. We have junk everywhere. I mean, we’re living room. We’re living that lifestyle right now. Yeah. I can’t have that picture perfect house right now one day, but I don’t you know, and let’s get real most of us don’t. And most Yeah, we can do and, and we don’t realize it right off camera is all their junk, right? Yes. Perfect. don’t have that space. One trick that I would recommend for you. I was following a girl in yoga that was doing this. So ingenious. One day when she showed me her backdrop. She literally bought a with like a collapsible little like room divider, you know, pretty ones. Oh, yeah. screen share online, she put it behind her because she lived in a little, like a little apartment she did. She put it behind her. And she put a couple of little hooks, where she put some like yoga, little yoga like mantras and posters up behind her. I said she’s a yoga studio, I thought she was right. Beautiful place.

Karen Yankovich 41:35
She’s genius, right? And it’s probably 20 bucks, 50 bucks, maybe to do that. And it saves you. And by the way, when you’re doing more videos, you’re making more money, right? So, you know, it’s just as a fact, is a fact people connect with you more and, you know, so anything you can do to simplify it, and so that you show up more professional, but also, you know, like an app where you can connect with people. Like anything you do to make it simple. It’s so much It’s so cool.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 42:03
You’re so right. And yeah, that was her little setup was is she had this little room divider and actually filled up and she put it under her bed, which was amazing it Oh, that’s perfect. I mean, um, so you know, if you’re feeling like, I can’t do this, I don’t have the perfect space. Very few of us really do. Right? Especially if you don’t have your own office and stuff like that. So think you know, you gotta be here, think about how can you be like kind of ingenuitive with that, right? So your background matters. Let’s just talk about sound really quickly with your voice. No, I hear this from women. I actually don’t think I’ve ever heard this from a man before. Although gentlemen, if you’re listening, maybe you have this problem, you just haven’t voiced it to me. But I hear this from women all of time. I hate the way I sound. I don’t sound like myself. I sound annoying. I can’t put this video out there because I cringe listening to myself on it. And that keeps people from posting videos, if you’re their credit, these daily cringe listings themselves? Well, there’s little science behind that. And the science behind that is when you’re listening to yourself, you actually hear the reverberation of your voice in your skull. So you actually truly don’t hear yourself the way everybody else hears you. So when you hear your voice played back, especially if you don’t listen to yourself all the time, they care, I’m sure because you listened to your podcast all the time, you’re used to the waist down. But a lot of people when it’s your first time recording, they may not be used to the sound of their voice. And then it keeps them from posting the videos because they’re like, Oh, no, people are gonna stumble and say the are still a lot. And so the first thing is, you can’t help that you can’t change that. But I felt when I embraced that, that understanding, it helped me get past a little bit more. And the second part is, you don’t have to write an entire script. But if you’re going to do a screencast It is very advisable to write out what you want to say first, even if it’s just bullet points, and practice it a couple of times. Yeah, I practice in the car a lot because like I said, I’m a busy mom. So when I get that moment when I’m actually by myself or the kids have the ear buds in and they’re you know doing videos in the back of a car, I will just talk to myself and talk about my podcast, check out my video that I want to make. And you know that’s how I find time to do that. So when I am recording is not the first time I’ve talked about this. Um, and the other thing is I people is always started like a zillion times but keep starting with a finish. If you’re in the middle of upgrading instructional video, and you know you’re giving value and you mess up, just stop for a second. Close your eyes. take a pause, keep going. You don’t have to go back and edit that because remember is real and people want real.

Karen Yankovich 44:46
Yeah, yeah. They want the content more than they want to wait until it’s perfect.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 44:52
Yeah. Kinda like to see the people are falling, being perfect sometimes to real, your advice is more real. They’re talking to their friend, they’re not, you know, listening and talking to their friend not like you know, somebody that’s unattainable. So just pause, close your eyes for a second, and then starting here. And, um, you know, it’s funny, I think I took that original ways from, like Amy Porterfield back in the, you know, several years. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do that. Because she’s, you know, she’s always, you know, yeah, she’s fantastic podcast and Devon, I hear

Karen Yankovich 45:21
when she shares it. It’s not she’s not comfortable always doing this stuff, right. So, you know, here’s the thing, like, I get that I’ve felt that way, too. And what I basically said to myself is, listen, I don’t know, if I don’t, I may not like the sound of my voice. But this is how other people hear me all the time. You know, so I have to get over it. Because this is what I sound like. So I can either, you know, like, it’s not like I changed the way I talk when I talk into a microphone, right? It’s the same way I talk when I’m talking to somebody in the street. So, you know, this is how they hear me all the time. It’s just, I have to just get over the fact that I don’t like it, you know, and because this is what I sound like. So yeah, so And the same with video. The same with video. I mean, obviously, angles and lighting and things like that are important. But at the end of the day, this is what I look like, you know, so I had to just kind of get over that. And, and, and keep telling myself that this is people hear all the time anyway. So I can sit here and not do it and not make any money or I can start doing videos and start building my business with them.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 46:19
And you’re absolutely right, because that’s that’s what makes you money. Right. Getting out there. That’s great. Right? Right. That hesitation that holds you back. Well, this a hesitation that makes you that 1% that does it while everybody else is sitting on the sidelines saying they wish they could,

Karen Yankovich 46:33
yes. And thinking and you know, here’s the thing, like you have a podcast, I have a podcast, anybody can have a podcast, right? But because we have a podcast, it gives us some credibility over people that are sitting on their couch saying I need to do a podcast, right? So that credibility helps you land clients and helps you get the bigger opportunities, right. So it’s, it’s you just got to do it. You just got to start doing it.

I love that. And I think I love that.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 46:57
Video and audio create trust, yes, we want people to trust you. Yeah, trusting you with their money. They’re trusting you with their vulnerability. Yeah, hear your voice or see your face. They don’t trust you. And I like to my teachers who make videos all the time. One big thing. And when I work with teachers, we talked about making videos that are sustainable, that you can use over and over again. And you can use to automate your teaching. So talk about making videos to answer the questions that you’re asked 100 times a day, and not only make the video to save you time, but when you have that parent who’s desperate on a Sunday night, and they can’t figure out how to turn in their kids assignment and the kids crying at the table and they’re frustrated. And they’re gonna send you that hail melee, Hail Mary email, like, how do I do this? Instead, they can just go to your video, or Yes, and they hear your voice and they see your face salutely for our 24 seven customer service, when you’re there, it feels like they’re getting you all the time. But you’re not there all the time.

Karen Yankovich 47:57
So Jenny, I want to just tell you like a quick funny story about backgrounds before we because I when you’re talking about different backgrounds, it reminded me of like when I moved as the house I live in now I completely gutted the house. Like every piece of trim every piece of carpet, everything was gutted in the house. And the first room that I rebuilt was the bedroom because I needed to sleep in there. Alright, I need to be able to breathe and not be dusty, whatever. So I did a lot of videos against a white wall and you know, a light wall in the bedroom. And if you came over, you would have no totally looked at it and said, Oh yeah, she’s doing videos in front of the white wall. But there was a day that my parents were coming over. And I thank God, I walked into my bedroom, and I saw the bed with the camera over it. And I was like, Oh my God, because the camera was at the end of the bed facing the wall. Right. But all I saw was the camera at the end of the bed. And I I couldn’t stop laughing like for two days. I was like, oh my god. Like they already think like she does some internet thing. You know what I mean? So they already don’t know what I do. Because my parents are all teacher. My family is all teachers. So they don’t know what I do. It was the funniest thing. And I was like, Oh my god, they’re gonna walk in here and see the camera over the bed and go, this is how she makes her money. Right? It was the only white wall I had in my whole house. Oh my god, it was the funniest thing. So that’s what I mean, you got to improvise. I also had a time where I was doing. I was doing videos for like a sales page. So they were kind of scripted. And so I have like my iPad with a app or that it plays the words for you. I can’t even think what it’s called right now. Yeah, that thing, like I wanted that to be right by the camera. So I had a ladder with the paint cam thing. And I had the iPad sitting on the paint cam thing next to the like so anything you got to do and then sometimes you need books underneath of your, you know your tripod so that it’s high enough that it matches the thing like I have gone through everything in my house to make the camera and everything be at the level but when you what you see is just, you know me, but it’s what people do. You don’t need to buy these fancy things. You don’t need to buy anything fancy. So Jenny, tell us what you’re doing now and how people can continually get tips from you.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 49:54
Oh, awesome. Hello. I am actually this summer. I am kind of in full launch mode. I’m actually Well, I will be probably by the time you’re listening to this, but I am actually you can go to my website teaching with Jenny calm. And I will have there at that time I’m working on it right now, I will be getting, I have a free training for you to take. And if you like a lot of these tips, a lot of them will be in the free training. And ultimately, free training is honestly to encourage you to take my course. And of course, it’s called the automated classroom. But if you are professional, and you’re not a teacher, I would say that this is definitely still of course that you could take where I talk about my philosophy around three videos you need to make to automate your life. And both your instruction. I am also available for private coaching online, so you can reach out to me through LinkedIn.

Karen Yankovich 50:42
And I will link in the show notes. Awesome.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 50:45
You know, just having that person to talk to you sometimes. If you’re listening to this, you probably have a lot of people in your life that don’t know what the heck you were doing. Right? Like Carolyn, you were saying, you know, yeah, you need that community, you need the help you need those people to run that by so I help with zoom coaching. I help people do presentations, if they’re nervous about doing their presentations, helping them through everything they need to know for their zoom. Also, I coach for screencasting helping you make instructional videos. You can find me on Facebook lender teaching with Jenny calm Instagram with

Karen Yankovich 51:17
Yeah, well, we will link all of that stuff. Ultimately, what you’re doing is you’re helping people become more successful with little like the little tips you taught here today. You know, with little tips like that, that when we were trying to think of before I Jenny was teleprompter. So anyway, for those of you that were hanging like a clip of what we were trying to think of before the word was teleprompter to funny. So Jenny, this has been so awesome. I cannot wait to see. So what’s next for you? What’s next? Your courses? Next? What else is on the horizon? You’re available for speaking at conferences, right and podcasts interviews, what else

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 51:51
many conferences and you know, next for me is my podcast is launching this summer, which really excited about and that’s going to be using automated tips to integrate technology into your teaching and instruction. So I’m really excited for that. That’s going to be by the time hopefully you listen to this while I will be you will be able to go over and listen to my podcast as well. So yeah, being available, speak at conferences, I have my course out, I will most likely have another zoom course out in the future because I you know if you if you’re thinking like video is dead, it’s not dead, right? Like people are like, oh, pandemics over, we can go back to our regular…

Karen Yankovich 52:26
Zoom fatigue. Right?

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 52:28
Yeah, we’re all little containers of of the truth of the matter is, it’s a really efficient and productive way. Yes.

Karen Yankovich 52:34
Yes, it really is. I got to go to so many like Chamber of Commerce meetings that I never would have driven to. right there’s I’m so I’m hoping that there’s still going to be like a virtual component to a lot of the networking things that are available to us. So I agree with you. I don’t think video is going anywhere. And I think the the better we are that, you know, listen, like you said when you met that person and you gave her your card and they saw your LinkedIn profile, the better first impression you make, the better chance you have and the faster you grow your success. Right. So take the time to create a great first impression whether it’s video or your LinkedIn profile, or both, right, so Oh my gosh, awesome.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 53:14
Yeah, absolutely can’t wait. I can just say real quick for people get your videos on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is a little ahead of the curve where they play your video in the feed. So let’s feed stopping, you know, if you want to use like an Insta stories, they have a place where you can do the same type of thing. LinkedIn, LinkedIn gives you 20 seconds, that’s more than any other social media gives you. Yeah, they’re just they really are a little ahead of everybody in the video. And I kind of feel like they’re their best kept secret in town.

Karen Yankovich 53:44
I agree, which is why I’m doing what I do. And you know what the one last plug on those LinkedIn stories you can see on LinkedIn stories, you have a swipe up immediately. So you can get Swipe up to your to your content. You don’t need to have 10,000 followers to have swipe up. So cool. All right, Jenny, this has been so good to have you here today. I am so excited to see what’s next for you. Thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing all those amazing tips. I’m saying all those nice things about about what you’ve learned from us because we love watching you shine.

Dr. Jennifer Cameron 54:12
And thank you so much for having me Karen. It was absolutely a dream to be on your show.

Karen Yankovich 54:16
Come on. Was she not amazing? is Dr. Jennifer Cameron not amazing? You know I am so honored to have people like Jenny in my world. Right she is I’m so proud of her I you know I honestly want to like hang her blinked in Provo, my refrigerator like my kids report cards right? So proud of her. I’m so amazed at what she’s doing. And I hope that her story inspired you to understand how some simple little shifts in what you’re doing can really put you on the path to great success. You know that I’m here to support you with this right? I do this show every week for you to have hopefully some takeaways and some Jenny gave us some tips as well. So hopefully that’s going to help you. You know, I also have a free masterclass. People like Jenny The first step to their success was watching this masterclass they watch the masterclass we don’t sell anything on the masterclass it’s all content. It’s how to shift your energy on your on your branding on your profile from from like resume. Here’s all the things they do to brand and how powerful that can be when you start to make those shifts. So if you have not checked that out yet go to Karen Yankovich comm slash masterclass. If you want to learn more about what it’s like to be a part of our shoes linked up family, first watch the masterclass at the end, we give you a link that you can book a call with us and we can talk I mean, obviously no obligation, we just want to support you. And those calls are very valuable. They’re an hour long, why spend an hour with you? Okay, so if you want to talk to me in person, watch the masterclass book a call and let’s jump on the phone together and see what we can do to get some changes in your life the way the changes have happened in Jenny’s life. I do this show to to support you. I would love for you to support me. If you can just share this on your social media tag me tag Jenny, we will share it with our audiences and we all get more visibility. And that is just the true definition of women supporting women and building virality into the work that we do. And you know what a rising tide lifts all boats right. So I help you I’d love for you to support me by doing this and I will be back here again next week with another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.