More Course Recording Tricks

tech Oct 05, 2020

Introduction

In the previous lesson we talked about your teaching style, how to theme your slides and some tricks for not overwhelming your audience.

In this lesson we’re going to dig into recording tricks.

>> Click here to get a FREE instant download of the PDF version of this post... I'll throw in my audio narration as a free bonus.

You’re going to learn:

All the technology you need to record your course (hint: there’s only 3)
How to avoid burn out as you record your course
How to record your course in Camtasia (step-by-step)
How to upload your course to New Kajabi (step-by-step)

The Video Fail

So I have a really funny story to share about major recording fails. When my wife and I got married we hired a budget videographer.

This guy had great reviews but he wasn't charging and arm and a leg to record our wedding. So after reviewing his portfolio and interviewing him we hired him and checked that off our wedding planning checklist.

Well, guess what happened? Wedding day comes around and our videographer is there recording all the scenes. He's walked in a crouched position as he's recording the first dance... and getting the cake cutting ceremonies and all that...

So a few days after the wedding passes he hits us up with some bad news. He basically said he thought he was recording because the red recording light was on but he never actually hit the record button!

We were like WHAT THE ::censored::!

This chuckle head said he thought he was recording but most of the time he was just looking into a viewfinder... and nothing was being saved.

Let's just say wifey and I were pissed off... these are moments you can't get back.

The funny thing is I've actually made the same mistake when recording content for my online courses! So who am I to judge right?

Anyway, in this lesson I want to give you my best tips for recording your course content so you don't make the silly mistakes me and my videographer made.

Check this out!

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Tools you’ll Need

When it comes to recording your course you really only need three things. You don’t need tons of equipment or tons of professional gear. All you need is slide deck software, a good microphone and a way to edit what you recorded.

Of the years I’ve used many tools including Adobe Premiere Pro, Camtasia and others. But the good news is you really don't need a huge pallet of tools to paint your online masterpiece.

I’ve weeded down everything you need into just three tools:

And this is how it works:

You build your slide deck in Powerpoint, record your voice overs with your Blue Yeti Mic and then edit the presentation in Camtasia.

Then we just upload the video to New Kajabi and call it a day. It’s really that simple.

Let’s dig into this a little deeper:

Avoiding Burnout

Don’t record more than 2 or 3 lessons per day. If you try to record more than that, you'll start messing up and making stupid mistakes.

The other thing that’s really helpful that will keep you from burning out is to pause whenever you mess up.

Dealing with Mistakes

When I record my courses I often mess up what I’m saying. I’ll stutter by accident or a loud noise will interrupt my recording (ahem, like my son crying in the background!). The way you can handle this without getting upset or losing your flow is to simply wait for the sound to go away and then pause and be completely silent for 3 seconds.

This is actually really awesome because when you go back and edit your content in Camtasia or Screenflow you’ll actually see the audio wave pattern flatline at random points in your recording. This is a hint that these are the sections where you messed up. This means you’ll be able to quickly get in there and delete those sections without having to listen to the entire recording! This is a huge time saver and I still use this technique today when I record my courses.

Beating The Perfectionist

One little trick: often times after you record your videos you’ll start editing and you might be wondering when to stop editing.

We are all perfectionists so if you hate the way your voice sounds just get over it. You’re too focused on yourself and not your audiences needs.

But if you think you are saying "um" too much then just edit those out. If you find that you’re saying it too much just take a deep breath, slow down and think about what you’re saying while you’re saying it.

A few "ums" are okay (shows you’re human) but try to avoid this habit so you don’t end up reducing the quality of your recordings.

Schedule Your Recording Dates

It’s also nice to plan the days you’ll be recording.

Remember you don’t want to record more than 2 or 3 lessons per day. So get out your calendar, treat your course like a project and set aside the hours and days you’ll be recording.

Recording With Camtasia

Now I want to show you how easy it is to record with Camtasia. You can also use Screenflow but I love Camtasia so that’s what I’ll be showing you today.

Remember you should only do this step after you’ve finished creating all your slides. You need to know your deck inside and out before you record otherwise you’ll sound unorganized, confused and uncertain. That’s not something you want to bleed into your training material.

So the first thing we need to do is get Camtasia. Go sign-up for the free trial and get rolling now:

> Start your Camtasia free trial now

Step 1: (Record the Slide Deck)

After you install Camtasia, open it up and click Record in the upper left corner. Your version of Camtasia might look a little different than mine (depending on when you're reading this) so if you can't find the Record button just press Ctrl or Cmd + r.

By the way, don't be intimidated by the crazy looking interface (you don't need to use half of the stuff here... I'm going to tell you the bare minimum of exactly what you need to get started)

A little recording box will popup.

Here's a few tips I've learned from years of trial and error: in the box below you'll see three options in the "Recorded inputs" section.

Make sure "Camera off" looks like mine so your webcam doesn't try to record you. Even if you're doing direct-to-camera video you don't want to use your webcam for the video because the quality isn't as good as your smartphone.

Secondly, you want to plug in your Blue Yeti Microphone into the USB port of your computer. Wait a few seconds and then click the little down arrow to the right of the "Audio on" button so you can make sure your voice audio is going through your Blue Yeti and not your crappy laptop speakers.

Finally, open your Powerpoint slide, hit the record button and do your thing.

Here's a few more tricks I've learned from doing these:

If you're doing this on a budget and from a laptop, you're going to want to get an extra monitor so you can have the Presenter View displayed on one monitor and the slide deck you're showing your audience in full-screen on your laptop. This will enable you to record the full-screen view in Camtasia while at the same time having your slide notes and upcoming slides on your monitor.

This might not seem like a big deal but it really helps to see the next slide coming up and read the notes you have as you're recording these things. It'll give you way more confidence and help your course to flow more professionally.

The graphic below shows the course slides in Presenter View.

To turn it on just click the "Slide Show" tab in Powerpoint and then make sure "Use Presenter View" is checked under the "Monitors" section of the ribbon.

Step 2: (Edit the Video)

When it comes to editing the video it's really up to you how you want to do that. You can look at how I build my videos in the courses I sell on this Vonimus.com but the general idea is you want to keep it simple. Don't use stupid zoom effects, or tiny font for text, or tons of colors.

I would encourage you to take 2 hours today just to play around with Camtasia and what it can do. The best way to learn it is to play with it hands-on. I promise it's not as scary as it looks.

Just use a color theme with 2 colors max, 2 fonts max and 2 font sizes max. I know this might feel restrictive but remember this isn't about you having fun as much as it is about your audience getting results. I know I keep saying that but if you keep that in the forefront of your mind you'll produce a great product.

Step 3: (Save for New Kajabi Export)

The last step is to save the video. Save it in the highest available format (1080p 30fps if possible) and then wait for it to render. Depending on the size of your project this could take many many hours. When I'm building my online courses I usually let this run overnight and then upload to New Kajabi the following morning.

Uploading to New Kajabi

Once you have your lessons recorded uploading them to New Kajabi is a cinch

Log into New Kajabi now. If you haven’t already signed up for your free New Kajabi trial do so now so you can follow along.

> Sign-up for your New Kajabi trial now

To upload your content into New Kajabi, just type "new product" into the Kajabi Assistant search box at the top of the screen then pick your product type (i.e., mini course, membership course, online course) and click "Generate".

Kajabi will then automatically build out the course template for you so all you'll need to do is open a post, upload your video and save it.

The graphic below shows a behind the scenes peek inside my SGX Flagship course.

You can see I basically just transferred my outline into New Kajabi...

And then I drilled into a single "post" where I can upload the video I edited in Camtasia.

>> Click here to get a FREE instant download of the PDF version of this post... I'll throw in my audio narration as a free bonus.

If any of this stuff feels difficult please let me know. I've been doing this for years so it's second nature for me (which means I might have left out some steps). If that's the case, feel free to join my email list so we can talk one-on-one and I'll have you up and running in no time :)

Quick Action Result

Your quick action result is to buy all the tools you need to record your lessons:

While you’re waiting for your microphone to arrive via Amazon I want you to open Camtasia and record your first test lesson.

Create a quick two slide presentation of something silly like what you need to do today and then save the file. The purpose of this exercise is to get you a little more comfortable using the technology and showing you how easy it is to get things rolling.

In the next lesson we’ll dig into your Beta Release!

Oh, and if you have any questions shoot me a note in the comments below and I'll help you out. Thanks!