Enthusiastically Self-Employed: business tips, marketing tips, and LinkedIn tips for coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, solopreneurs & small business owners

Presenting Over Video with Shep Sheperdigian Ep 120

• Brenda Meller • Season 1 • Episode 120

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Unlock the secrets to creating standout virtual presentations with our latest episode of "Enthusiastically Self-Employed." Join me as I chat with my VIP guest Shep, Vice President of Technical Services at Rose Pest Solutions, as we uncover practical tips to enhance your on-screen presence.

Originally aired: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 12:05 pm ET.
Watch it on YouTube (pardon the audio & tech hiccups!)

CONNECT WITH SHEP:
➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shep-sheperdigian/
➡️ Website: https://www.rosepestsolutions.com/
➡️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RosePestSolutions

From perfecting your background setup to mastering the art of lighting, Shep shares essential advice that will make your digital presentations not only professional but engaging.

Discover how strategic use of natural daylight and understanding the nuances of LED light temperatures can transform your video quality. We delve into optimizing your presentation setup, covering everything from camera angles to the use of props like whiteboards and affordable photography lights. 

Shep explains the importance of positioning your camera at eye level and creating a backdrop that's interesting but not distracting, using plants and books as effective tools. Don't miss our Q&A segment where common technical concerns are addressed, ensuring you're fully prepared for your next virtual meeting.

Finally, we discuss when it's worth investing in additional equipment such as microphones and lighting kits to boost your production value. Learn how a simple whiteboard can double as a light reflector and a note holder, enhancing both your lighting and presentation quality. 

Shep wraps up the episode with tips on sharing your video presentations effectively on LinkedIn, encouraging you to maintain a positive demeanor and engage your network. Tune in for actionable insights that will make your virtual presentations truly shine!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome. My name is Brenda Muller and I want to welcome all of you for joining and watching today. This is my show, which I call Enthusiastically Self-Employed, where I bring on experts. We have Shep with us here today to talk about business and strategy tips for those of you who are self-employed, whether you are a coach consultant, speaker and or author. Whether you are a coach consultant, speaker and or author and I'm delighted to have with me I want to ask Shep to take a moment to introduce yourself Now. Shep, you and I met at a training I did for your team at Rose Pest Solutions back in November. So, shep, tell us a bit about yourself.

Speaker 2:

Sure, Brenda Shepardigian. My name is. I go by Shep, my gummit name is Mark Shepardigian, but only my mother calls me Mark. It's distinctive but it suits me. I work for Rose Pest Solutions, where we run the programs that protect America from pests and other vermin, so urban pest management is what I do. But as a vice president of technical services, which is a very proud title, I'm in charge of the technology to keep us at the leading edge of pest management technology, which means I do a lot of training and presenting. So I find myself frequently having to get my point across, which generally lends to things like this Great.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for that, and thank you for all the work that you and your team do to keep all of us pest free. That's great and it's ironic. When we were talking about bringing you on the show, I said we're really. This show is really for people who are self-employed. It's really for people who are self-employed, and I know you frequently speak at conferences and in advance. Right now, what I'd like to do is turn the floor over to you and let's get started. What tips do you have for our audience, for those that are looking to do more presenting over video?

Speaker 2:

There are a few tips. I do confess that it may be a little rudimentary for some of you and maybe nothing new, but for me, I had to learn much of this the hard way as a video presenter, and ever since COVID and the Zoom revolution, we we find ourselves presenting ourselves digitally and, of course, what we really want to do is make our biggest impact with the message we have. So what kinds of things can we do to improve that? You don't have to watch a whole lot of YouTube or other streaming events to realize there's a lot of people who aren't very good at this, and it's a different platform than speaking live. And I can tell you, if you're going to present live, you better be prepared to present to your laptop, to a monitor. It is so different than presenting to a live audience. It can be incredible, but there's a few things you can do. Number one remember, this is visual, so it's all about what it looks like, and the first thing you want to do is make sure that your background is proper. Now they have a lot of these cool avatars and digital backgrounds and crazy filters. That is not for presenting. There's a whole what a whole ethos around attending meetings digitally but concealing where you really are that kind of thing with digital backgrounds or blurring your background. If you're going to do your best at getting your message through, don't blur about. Use the background behind you and pay attention to it, because it makes a difference. Perhaps you've seen the news when they have correspondents coming in and they always seem to have very interesting bookshelves behind them that are just packed with all these books and have you ever found yourself looking at the books and deciding have I read that? Did he write that or she write that? Saw one just yesterday. All the books had the little yellow used book tag on it. He set that up just for the shot. I don't recommend using books. Your background should be not bland like this. This is bland. I didn't do this on purpose. We had another place. We were going to do this, but the technology prevented. So this is where I am. Either way, your background should be interesting, but not more interesting than you. Don't put stuff on there that they're going to spend their time reading instead of listening, because that'll detract from what you're trying to do.

Speaker 2:

The other thing is background color is important because this is all going to come down to lighting. You need to be well lit. Cameras work on light and the more light you have, the better focus you get and the better exposure and your background may influence that. A neutral background is best. That's I got this one. It's pretty neutral. If you have a really light background, light reflects off of it and then it's like being backlit, which is bad. Don't let yourself get backlit, or you become silhouetted or you lose the definition in your face and you become this blurry, moving face on a properly exposed background. Dark backgrounds aren't, unless your lighting is harsh and then you wash out. But it's always good to check that first. So what you do is pay attention to your background so that you're well lit and it's not distracting.

Speaker 2:

The best place to set up if you don't have a best place the studio. If you don't have that in front of a window, so that there's a window right behind the computer, you're staring at that. Nothing like natural daylight to light you up. It doesn't work at night. If you're going to do this at night, you might want, want a different lighting source. On lighting sources, you can get all kinds. I just turn the light on, do remember.

Speaker 2:

And now, with LED, this is really important. There is temperature to light. Different lights have different light temperatures. It's a little confusing because they give it to you when you buy the lights in degrees and now hang on. The higher the degrees, the cooler the light. What's up with that? Who decided that that's just the way it is? So warm light is lower degrees, everything golden and sun, drenched and gooey. But you modify the light so you like the way you look best because, after all, that's you out there and you want to put your best forward. You want to show yourself in the best light. Anyway, background, you want to make sure that it's always looking good and that the camera's working well. Understand that there are different cameras out there. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute before I run out of time. But do be sure that you're properly exposed and that you're looking good.

Speaker 2:

Sound is also important and while most laptops have microphones that are passable some are very good Most laptops have microphones that are passable, some are very good. You can't beat some of the external microphones that are really pretty reasonable price-wise. And do remember, if you're only going to do this, like once, I'm not sure how much extra equipment I would invest If you're going to do this on a regular basis. If you are going to be invited to speak in places digitally, a few dollars spent on an external microphone might have a lot to do. And you've heard some of the people who phone it in and you get the tinny sound like they're coming through a tin can on a wire. You want a good microphone and get one that does well, that suits you well, so that you know how it's going to work. And then you'll you well, so that you know how it's going to work, and then you'll have to trial them so you know how it works. Otherwise, I had this great microphone but I can't make it work. That's it. It's not much help. Getting your sound right is usually a matter of practice, and it doesn't take too long before you figure out where to put it, where to put the microphone so that it's picking you up properly and not picking up background noises. While you're doing this, do keep a bottle of water handy, one of these, because you never know when you yeah see, you might get a tickle in the throat.

Speaker 2:

A good external camera or a microphone comes with a cough button. It's a little self-mute thing on the button and so all I have to do is push it and you'll there and you push it back and it turns back on. Isn't that great. What that's for is, if you had to cough, people don't know what to do. Oh, watched a colleague present recently with a bad infection and he gutted his way through it. I would recommend you don't do that. Reschedule if you must, but don't go on there every few seconds having to clear your throat and do other do things like that. So use the cough button if you have to cough, because it's better than muting the. You could mute the microphone if you don't on your computer. It just takes a whole lot longer. You can mute an external mic really quickly and then Let me jump in.

Speaker 1:

I am not hearing any audio at all right now and I'm just testing on my phone. I'm not hearing any audio coming through on my phone either. Okay, now where did I leave off.

Speaker 1:

There we go. I am not sure because our audience. I heard you talking about where we're at. We were talking about microphone quality and then the audio went. It was at the point where you were talking about the coughing on the microphone. You muted yourself and then you came back on and it muted for me entirely and I didn't hear anything after that. So I'm a little concerned that we may not have heard anything from that point, so what a good segue. And I want to ask our audience thank you so much for your patience.

Speaker 2:

What a great segue into the most important point I'm going to bring out. So we'll write this down Don't do anything for the first time on live camera Rehearse. And so if you are going to use the cough button and be very cool and say I got a cough button here and it'll just video and that or the audio, and come right back on, you better make darn sure that you can turn it back on, because if it slips and you go back off, then you'll be silent like I just was. Sorry, but it makes the point. If you're sure this is going to work, then you should be happy to rehearse it once or twice, because, man, things just never work the same when you're in the moment, when you're live and online.

Speaker 2:

I was talking about light when I got that. If you don't have enough light, there are things you can do to put more light on. You can. You can use a big white board. I have a big white board here. It's it's that's a good core. But if you have a white board, if you're sitting in a shadow and you want more light to come in, you can set a whiteboard up there and shine a light at that, and that can help you out, or you can, if you were doing this all the time a couple of bucks you can. They're like 30 or $40. You can get these little photography camera lights and practice setting those around so that you get what you want around. So that you get what you want. Oh, let's see. Once you've done all that, it's up to the technology, and you never know what the technology is going to do If your host disappears. That kind of thing happens with regularity and sometimes there's nothing anybody can do about it. So you learn to go punches and go right. See, there we go, she's back. That's the beauty of being prepared for what's about to happen.

Speaker 2:

Setting yourself up the camera's on your laptop. If that thing's going to be showing you, make sure it's a good camera I'm used. This is my personal laptop. My business laptop has the camera Camera. Instead of up here, it's mounted down at the bottom of the screen, which is affectionately referred to as a nose cam, because it puts you in a perspective.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you don't want to be remembered like that. Do pay attention. And the other thing is aspect. If you got the laptop on your desk and you're sitting way above it, it's a low angle you find you're happier with looking at you straight on. So I have my laptop set up on a box so that I'm just about eye level with the camera. That's an important thing to do. That I'm just about eye level with the camera. That's an important thing to do. The other thing is to remember that there's a tilt and you can tilt it. Oh, this is the famous iceberg view of people who are on video chats and stuff and they think this is just fine, and sometimes it's like this. Don't do that. Make sure that you are filling up the frame and if it looks funny to you, it. Frequently the platforms will reverse your frame so that you point one way and image of you on the screen is pointing the other way, and that's. That's not a bad thing. It's just showing you what you look like to your audience.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, cameras up and down, oh and done for See. Sometimes you can change what's in your background just by swiveling your laptop, and sometimes that's the right thing to do to really control how your background looks. Now you should try all this on your own before you start. There's a couple ways to do that. I either do it with a Zoom empty meeting. You can do that on Teams. You start a meeting with nobody invited but you, and then it puts you on there and you get to adjust the audio. You get to adjust your video. You know what you're going to look like If you don't have any of that video. You know what you're going to look like If you don't have any of that.

Speaker 2:

Your camera function. There's a camera app on your computers. Most computers have a camera app that will go to the camera on the computer. So you just type in the search for the app says camera and it'll come up. Turn it on and then you can see what you're going to look like in that camera. You have to adjust the light. It helps you adjust the background and those kinds of things.

Speaker 2:

One other thing is, when you're done, turn off the camera. If you just click away, you will find that your platform Zoom or StreamYard or anything else won't be able to access your camera because it's being used, and then what you'll get is one of those oh my gosh, my camera's not coming out and I don't know why. That's why. So be sure to turn that thing off after you've used it, and just a matter of taking a little time, doing a little rehearsal, a little practice, and that'll get you there. There's still a lot of things that you'll want to pay attention to as you actually present, but I don't think we have time for all of that, so this should get us there. Does that make sense? Are there questions I can answer?

Speaker 1:

Awesome, and good timing. We'll actually segue into our Q&A. Steph, I do have a few questions for you because you're such a pro, first of all, and I want to thank you for your patience and your understanding and working through issues when we're presenting over video. The reality of the situation is that sometimes you're at the mercy of technology. But I do have a few questions for you, shep, if it's okay, on some of the points that you covered, would that be okay with you? Oh, yeah, okay, you had mentioned in here to be intentional about your background not bland, but not too busy. Now, when we're in a situation where we are presenting over video and we're presenting to an audience, I sometimes get bored as a presenter looking at the same background of myself over and over again. So sometimes I will stage look at a plant over here, another little flower here, photo of my book. Is it okay to have some items in the background as long as they're intentional, or would you err more towards cleaner overall?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I think between the two backgrounds yours is just about perfect. Mine's a little bland, but you certainly have done that. You've got enough in the background that says a comfortable, clean place to present without so much that people are going to try and read the books on your shelf or pay more attention to that than you. You are putting the good example on how to best do a background.

Speaker 1:

All right, great Thank you, and you also shared a tip to be intentional about lighting, to be well lit Now, and I appreciated when you were talking about microphones. You said if you're just doing a one-off thing, it might not be worth investing in a microphone, because I think those can be a bit more expensive than lighting kits, if I'm not mistaken. But what do you think? When should we think about investing in a ring light or a lighting kit, in your opinion?

Speaker 2:

When you know you're going to be doing more than a couple of videos coming up, that's when it's time to invest and look at the value of what it is you're going to be saying and the audience you're speaking to. How important is it to you to put your very best foot forward? If it is, and if you're going to be one of many, you want to be the best, and the way to do that is to have the best audio and the best picture. That'll get you to stand out right away. So if you're going to be I don't know two, three, four a year, that would be enough to make it worth it.

Speaker 2:

Remember, the most expensive thing you own is a thing you paid five bucks for and never used it. If you look at it in dollars per use, that's how you you'll get a much better idea of what to buy and how good to buy you should. For I don't know 100 bucks, you should be able to get a really good microphone. For a box or more or less, you should be able to get a pretty good lighting unit to help you with lighting those kinds of things. As you, once you become what more proficient, more professional, you might want to really invest in some studio equipment, especially if you're going to do a regular broadcast, regular podcast. That's when you really want the good equipment so you sound your best and look your best.

Speaker 1:

All right, awesome. My next question for you, shep, was involving the big whiteboard, and I think the point you were making is to reflect more light on you. So are you saying, mount the whiteboard in front of you so the light is bouncing back, or can you talk to us a bit more about how you use a whiteboard to help with lighting?

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely. If you've got a big white wall in front of you and you aren't able to get enough light, you will see the light reflect right off the back. Now I use mine for double duty In other video presentation tips. You need to know what you're going to say, and if you're going to read it, you shouldn't be looking like you're reading it. So what you might want to do is get your notes and tape them to a big white board.

Speaker 2:

If you're going to talk about the whiteboard, you can turn it around and say it's just a white board, but really it's where all my notes are, so I don't forget anything. And if I have this posted right in front of me, the light shines right back and it can really make the difference between me sitting in shadow and getting enough light to make a good video. That happens that there's a place in our office that I often have to be on video from, and it's a really unfortunate place for where there's a backlight that leaves me shadowed. So I just set up a whiteboard and turn on an auxiliary light and it lights things right up.

Speaker 1:

All right, and we'll start to wrap up our conversation here today, shep, and what I want to start with is I know that we're here talking about your expertise as a speaker, but if people you mentioned in the beginning you work for Rose Pest Solutions, so if they're interested in learning more about Rose Pest Solutions, can you give us a high level overview of how they can get ahold of you and what are the services that your organization provides?

Speaker 2:

Oh, of course, because I'm never beyond giving a shameless plug. Rose Pest Solutions provides pest management residential as well as commercial properties, so wherever there's pests you can give us a call. We are a full service pest management firm, so anytime you have any kind of pest, we're able to deal with that.

Speaker 1:

And do you work with both residential as well as businesses, or is it mainly on the business side?

Speaker 2:

We are predominantly a commercial company, but we do have a healthy residential clientele, so we do both and we also do like property management. So multi-unit housing. So what is that? Is that commercial or is it residential? It's residential that comes in commercial or something like that? So we do everything and if you're looking for a really great career, you might enjoy urban pest management. We go everywhere, we see everything. Just a tremendous opportunity to help people out, and if you like meeting a lot of people and you don't like sitting at a desk, that would be a great alternative career for you.

Speaker 1:

Just saying that's awesome, and so many of your team members when I did the training for you guys back in November. So many of your team members have been with Rose Pest Solutions for years, a significant amount of time, which I think is really a testament to the culture and the work experience that you provide there and the stability of an organization and you're a buyer of pest management solutions, I think, out there in the industry. Right now I'm showing with you on screen Shep's profile and, as I'm showing that Shep, could you remind us are you open to connecting with individuals if they want to connect with you on LinkedIn?

Speaker 2:

I am. I wouldn't say I connect with anybody. I have a lot of connections who aren't pest management related. Yeah, I'm open and available for whatever. However, I can be helpful.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Shep, so much I value your time and your expertise. Any final comments for us before we wrap up on presenting over video, Shep, that you'd like to share with our audience.

Speaker 2:

I think that ought to about do it, but give it your best shot. Keep smiling and you're going to do well.

Speaker 1:

All right, Awesome. As we wrap up today, if you did enjoy this discussion, we'd love it if you could share the video along. If you're watching this on LinkedIn, as soon as the live stream stops, at the bottom of the video, there'll be a little share icon you can click to share this video as a LinkedIn post. It's a really great thing to do if you have not yet shared on LinkedIn this past week, this past month or maybe even in the past year, and maybe tell people why they should watch the video if there's some great tips that were helpful for you. If you tag Shep and I in your post, we will comment back. Use a little at sign to tag us in on there and we will look for that. With that said, I hope that all of you that are enthusiastically self-employed are walking away with some great tips about presenting over video today, and I want to thank Shep for joining me and have a wonderful rest of the day.

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