Avoid These Recording Mistakes (Beginner-Friendly Tips) | Ep. 37

Before you hit record on your next YouTube video or video podcast, here are some easy mistakes to avoid! You might not even realize some of these topics are mistakes, but if you're making them now, they could be hindering your ability to grow on YouTube.

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Transcript

37 recording mistakes on 2025-01-10 at 11.48.46

[00:00:00] Perfection might be a little too high of a bar for YouTube videos honestly unless you are a professional videographer. I prefer polished over perfection, but there are some simple mistakes, recording mistakes that can trip you up without you even realizing it that could hinder your ability to create a polished YouTube video.

So let's talk about it here on episode 37 of Video Brand Infusion.

My name is Meredith and I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can build your audience consistently and generate revenue consistently.

And around here we do that by creating YouTube videos.

I've been doing this for 10 years. I'm in my 10th year of creating videos starting from absolute scratch. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know how to talk to a camera. I just saw other people doing it and thought, I guess I could try that. But I came across this question in a podcasting Facebook [00:01:00] group where someone was asking about video podcasts.

And this applies to just regular YouTube videos as well. But they wanted to know, some tips for maintaining eye contact with the camera so that the end result of their video is to be perfect, is to create a perfect video.

And I understand why, of course, you want your videos to be perfect. You don't want to make a fool of yourself. You don't want to, you know, embarrass yourself. You want people to hold you in high esteem, right?

You want to look good. You want to sound good. You want to feel good.

But the reality is perfection is not human, right? There is no human that's perfect and having a conversation with another human means that Unless in rare cases, some people are like this, but usually you're not maintaining eye contact consistently 100 percent of the time. So why would you do that in your videos?

That's not going to make a [00:02:00] perfect video. That's going to make a kind of awkward video.

we're not going for perfection here. We're going for polished. We're going for presentable.

so I have a handful of tips I want to give you. If you're a beginner talking to the camera, these are mistakes to avoid, easy mistakes to avoid as you are getting more comfortable talking to a camera. Eye contact is one of them. So I brought up the fact that person asking the question thought that they need to maintain eye contact consistently 100 percent of the time and there's AI that will do that for you.

Personally, I think it's weird and wonky and awkward and I don't recommend it because it's just not human. I'm, you know, you see me recording this video right now. I have some notes in front of me. I'm not reading from a script. It's just kind of an outline. I'm looking there. I'm looking over here. I'm looking out the blinds of my window because that's just how it is when you're having a [00:03:00] normal conversation.

So you don't have to lock eyes with the camera, but it's a good idea to look at the camera lens every once in a while because That's, that's how you would have a conversation. So when you look at the lens as the creator of the video, when you look at the lens, the effect on the other end for the person who's watching the video is that they feel like you're looking at them.

It's like the equivalent of eye contact through video.

But one really easy mistake, and this can actually turn into a habit that is hard to break, is looking at yourself either on your screen, if you're recording on your screen and you can see yourself talking, or on your camera screen, if you have your camera screen out and you can see yourself there, looking at yourself the whole time.

that you are talking is a really bad habit.

If you do interviews [00:04:00] for your videos or your video podcast, you want to look at the person that you're interviewing because that makes you feel good. You feel connected to that person because you're looking at them. But keep in mind that you're not looking at. at them, right? You're looking at them on your screen.

They're not receiving that connection, that feeling that you're looking at them anyway. So it's a good idea to look wherever you need to where it's going to be natural if you are having an in person conversation. That's the thing that makes video marketing so powerful. And I think so much more powerful than any other kind of marketing because it's sort of like the next best thing to being in person with somebody.

I think putting your face on video is the, I guess like the antidote to AI replacing all of us You know, I could create an AI of [00:05:00] me. I don't think it's going to come off quite the same. I don't think it's going to come off quite as authentic and natural because it's not authentic and natural. And on video, it's going to be really easy to tell. And so that's why I think video is so powerful and one of the reasons why your videos don't have to be perfect and you don't have to be constantly looking at your lens the entire time.

number two, a lot of people don't want to hear this. My clients, students, members inside Video Brand Academy, They don't like hearing this. Even I don't like doing this sometimes, but the truth is your videos will be more polished and more presentable and received more favorably by your audience.

If you come up with your title and your thumbnail before you hit record,

if that sounds backwards to you, hear me out.

Have you ever [00:06:00] gone shopping at like Walmart or Target with a kid in the toy aisle, or if you're into makeup and things like that, do you ever go to Sephora and Alta and notice how impactful the packaging is for the products?

Often the packaging is way bigger than the product itself. It's flashier. It feels good. It's, uh, you know, the paper of the packaging has some, like, texture and it's part of the branding. And before a kid or you even has that like end result product in your hand, it feels good to have the packaging in your hand.

Like before you even buy it, it feels good because you connected with the, with the packaging.

And the same thing has to happen with your YouTube video. The viewers, the ideal viewer, ideal client customer that you are trying to [00:07:00] reach with your content has to feel good about the packaging of the video in order for them to click play and actually watch it. and so coming up with the title and the thumbnail before you hit record will ensure that you're crafting this intriguing package and then putting your content inside of it so that people care what's inside.

You have to make people care what's inside. So I like to think of the title and thumbnail working in combination with each other. And I teach this inside Video Brand Academy. I have a little tool to help my members figure out what goes in, like what words go in the title and what words go in the title.

the thumbnail, if any. And I like to think of them working together in combination. So the thumbnail is there to get people's attention and the title is there to generate [00:08:00] interest and together they create the sense of intrigue

some curiosity and create a, like a bit of a gap that your ideal viewer has to click and watch the video to close that gap, to satisfy that curiosity.

But most of the time it's, it's sort of like the natural thing is to do the opposite, right? You create the content and then you figure out what's the best title for this video and then what's the best thumbnail for this title.

And when you do it that way, You're approaching your content creation, you're hitting record from your perspective as the person with the knowledge, as the expert on that topic. So this is actually mistake number three is recording your videos without thinking of your audience's perspective in mind, meaning what do they want to see?

What do they [00:09:00] need to see in your title, in your thumbnail, in your topics? What are they already interested in? And create your content out of that from their perspective, not necessarily from your perspective as the expert of like, Oh, these are the things that I know that my audience needs to know. Even though you know that they need to know, you have to make them care about it and you do that by, before you hit record, figure out why this is going to matter, why this topic matters, or why what you have to say about this topic matters to your ideal viewers from the perspective of what they need to see and what they want to see and hear from you.

And when You come at it from the perspective of the viewer, of your ideal viewer, of your ideal clients and customers, and then create packaging that's going to generate intrigue and curiosity for them. First, then [00:10:00] you can't go wrong with your video because you've crafted it specifically to meet the needs of your ideal audience.

that was a couple different mistakes wrapped into one, but before you hit record, I challenge you to Come up with your title, come up with your thumbnail, and come up with reasons why this is going to matter. That this topic and what you have to say about this topic matters to your audience. Before you hit record so you can bake that stuff into the video that you're creating.

And then what about scripting? Or having an outline? Or just riffing? Go Personally, I don't think there is, um, it's hard to make a mistake with this one because the thing is like, when you're sitting down to hit record, you have to be in a space in your head where you're confident and comfortable [00:11:00] in talking to the camera, right?

You have to be confident and comfortable with how these words are going to come out of your mouth. And for some people, having word for word in a script is the first like baby step towards feeling confident and comfortable with what comes out of your mouth. And for other people, having a word for word script is going to take from their confidence because they feel like they have to make it perfect and hit every word.

And they have thoughts coming out of their head, trying to come out of their mouth and it doesn't fit into the script and it causes more anxiety and stress. So I don't think there is a wrong way. Scripting, not scripting, outlining, riffing. There's no wrong way to do it. But what I will say is this.

There are certain ways of phrasing. Certain parts of your video. So, for example, the first part of your video really needs to be a good, strong [00:12:00] hook. You need your ideal viewer, when they do become intrigued by your packaging, and they hit play, you want them to keep watching. You need them to keep watching.

In order for this time and effort and work you put into this video to actually do something for you. You need those viewers to keep watching that video. And so the first 10 seconds, 30 seconds, minute are really important to keeping them interested in continuing to watch the video.

And a really easy way to accomplish this is by using good, strong, clear hooks. that connect with the audience. And I have a bunch of hooks that I put inside of the YouTube Roadmap Planner, but most people are not born knowing how to craft a hook. I didn't know what a hook was until, you know, a couple years into my YouTube [00:13:00] journey.

I was just doing my YouTube intros the same way that I saw other people doing them. It wasn't until a couple years after I first started that I realized there, there was psychology behind it. there's a science to creating intrigue and interest and curiosity gaps.

And so I think whether you script your videos word for word, use an outline, or just want to riff the whole way through, knowing how to craft. your 10 seconds, 30 seconds intro, for example, to make it hook worthy is still absolutely invaluable. And I often riff lately. I've been doing a lot of riffing, but I'm still writing my initial hook.

And if there's something specific that I will want to make sure that I'm really clear about, um, In my content, I will write it. Word for word, I'll write it. I may not say it [00:14:00] word for word, but I want to have the words in front of me so that I'm not just, uh, so my brain's not just drawing blanks the whole way through this content, especially if it's something important that I want to make sure to communicate clearly with you.

And I've gone back and forth in the last 10 years on scripting, not scripting, outlining, not outlining, and there was a point maybe like 5, 6 years ago that I wanted to be better at scripting. I wanted to learn. Scripting, storytelling, hooks, uh, more in depth. And so in order for me to learn it, I had to practice it, which meant I had to write it.

And so I did do a lot of like word for word scripted videos with the help of a teleprompter. And I still do sometimes, but one of my, uh, I guess goals or focus is not really a goal. It's just like a skill that I am looking to improve on [00:15:00] now. Now that I've done the work to write scripts, learn storytelling, learn hooks.

Now the skill I want to learn is to be a better refer. I want to be more confident and comfortable trusting the words that come out of my mouth, trusting my brain. to get the right words out of my mouth in the right order because it does take less time if you're gonna riff. Now, riffing could make a lot of room for errors and mistakes and things that need to be edited out and that's one of the reasons why I'm making a conscious decision to focus on it.

To not just riff because I think, oh, this is going to save me so much time because I don't have to script or write out my video or anything, but to actually develop a skill of crafting sentences on the fly without making mistakes or letting the mistakes roll into cohesive sentences that [00:16:00] don't require to spend like an hour or two or three or four getting rid of all of those mistakes when I'm editing.

So if you go into your YouTube analytics and you open up, you know, your latest video or a video that you've done recently that you're really proud of, you liked how it turned out, you spent a lot of time on it, take a look at how much of that video your audience is actually watching. You'll have an average view duration, which gives you an actual time, you know, 30 minutes three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, whatever it is.

And you'll have a percentage.

If you have like 20 percent retention or less, I would say, give or take, it kind of depends, depends on your niche and it depends on how long your videos are. But generally like 20 percent or less. I think a really good skill for you to learn would be how to script a video to keep people [00:17:00] watching. And once you learn that skill, you don't have to script everything word for word.

You'll be a better riffer and you'll be a better, uh, on the fly video recorder. But in order to learn the skill, you might have to learn how to script a video. It's not a bad skill to learn if you're using video marketing and YouTube as your main platform for audience building and, uh, business growth.

Let's talk about a couple of technical mistakes and, uh, technical hurdles. Some of this is going to sound like a no brainer, but I'm going to tell you this based on experience of being in my 10th year of talking to a camera. Make sure your mic is on, make sure your mic batteries are charged if you have mic batteries, make sure your camera battery is charged if you have camera batteries, and make sure that they work.

is such a pain in the butt step to Do a [00:18:00] quick, like, 5 second recording and then watch it back just to make sure that you are picking up your microphone and it is playing. Everything is being recorded the way that it is. And I'll be honest with you. I didn't do any kind of a check or anything before I hit record on this video.

I'm just kind of, uh, trusting my setup here and I'm recording with Ecamm live right now. So I'm just going to double check that I can see that I have, uh, my little like mic meter so I can see it is, it is picking up my audio. But there have been. probably like 10 ish times over the last 10 years that I have recorded something that either my microphone was on mute or the battery died part way through or there was something just not, you know, not connected right and the settings were wrong or whatever which meant that [00:19:00] any time that I spent Recording a video turned out to be for nothing.

It's a little bit easier now, especially these days, because it's never been simpler, honestly, to record your videos directly into your computer. Like I said, I'm using Ecamm Live to just record Directly to my computer. I have my camera connected to my computer. I have my microphone Connected to my computer.

It's really easy to hit record for three seconds and just double check that that recording actually looks good and sounds good but

Even if you're recording directly into your camera and you have say a lapel mic or something you can make sure if your camera settings are the way that mine are you can have your audio meter and you can see it moving and you can make sure it's actually picking up some audio as you record so that you don't waste your time and have to re record something.

And coming up in one of my future videos I'm gonna do a whole Set up explanation of how I'm using a [00:20:00] real camera with a high quality lens, but also affordable and a really good microphone. This microphone actually costs more than the camera, uh, and perhaps more than the lens, not combined. Um, I'm going to do a whole setup walkthrough of how I have all of that set up to create polished videos simply and easily in my YouTubicle with my computer so I don't have to worry about like charging the mic batteries and making sure the camera is charged because it's plugged into an outlet.

So if you have questions about setup, cameras, lighting, microphone gear, that kind of thing, let me know down in the comments of this video.

Now there's a really big mistake that I want you to think about before you hit record that has to do not so much with the video itself, but how, what that video is going to do in your business to make sure that your videos are actually growing your audience and building your business. So I'll get to that in just a second, but there's one more thing I want to mention because [00:21:00] It's a mistake that I continue to make time and time again, and if you go and binge watch all of my videos, you'll probably see this mistake, um, probably, uh, like once every five or six videos, but that is to check what's going on behind you in your frame.

sometimes I throw stuff on this chair, like, uh, like an open Amazon box, or random papers, or, uh, anything at all. I mean, there was a time a couple years ago, like, probably like, Five, six years ago, I had, like, eaten lunch at my desk and then recorded a video and I put my empty plate back here and I recorded a whole video with the empty plate.

I re recorded that video because, like, I could do messy Amazon boxes or things that you can't really see what it is, but the empty plate was, like, glaringly obvious that, like, my dirty dishes were behind me in the [00:22:00] video.

I'm not a huge, um advocate for using like uh, like AI blurred backgrounds. I actually don't like that look at all. I think it's really distracting. I would rather see, I want to see what's in your background. I want to see the real life behind you. Um, I do like using a lens that creates a naturally blurred background, which we can talk about in the future, but

just make sure you don't have weird wonky stuff behind you that you don't. really intend to have in your video behind you. Just do a quick check. You're doing a mic check, making sure your camera's working, making sure that what's going on behind you is what you expect to be going on behind you.

And lastly, a mistake that I see that is an easy fix before you hit record is know what this video is going to do for your business. What role does this video play [00:23:00] in your business? Like I already mentioned, you want to know what.

you know, how you need to package the video to make your audience care about this content that you are creating, but you are also creating the video to grow your audience, to grow your business. And if you don't have a strategy before you hit record for how this video fits into growing your audience or your business, then there's a good chance that it's not going to fit.

It's not going to fit. grow your audience or your business. So this can be as simple as do you have a freebie? Do you have a lead magnet that you can mention throughout your video and then use that as a call to action at the end?

If you're using YouTube to build your audience, to build your business, that means you must be using YouTube to build your list. It's like, it's a no brainer. It's [00:24:00] like, you gotta, you gotta do it.

And if the video you're creating just absolutely does not fit with any of your lead magnets or any, uh, anything with your list building, at the very least, you can create a call to action, letting your viewers know what to watch next on your channel. What's the next obvious video for them to watch so that you can hand off to that video.

Ideally, you can do both. You can say, Hey, here's how you get my lead magnet. And if you like this video, you're probably going to enjoy this other video over here on X, Y, and Z topic. I'll link that up for you. And then you use your end screen when you upload your video to find the video you're handing off to, and it will show up as a clickable thumbnail link in your video for the viewers who stay till the end.

You can also send your viewers to a playlist. And when you do this, only a fraction of the [00:25:00] people who hit play are going to make it to the end. Obviously you want it to be 100%. That is like a dream world scenario. But there are going to be a fraction of people who do stay until the very end. And those are the people that you want to keep watching more and more of your videos.

They're like your most engaged viewers.

And, Some of them might have already watched all of your other videos. Uh, maybe there's some videos that they like to rewatch or some things they might want to refresh their memory on. But for the people who are just finding you for the first time, where else are you going to send them, send them to more of your content, send them to a playlist and please send them to a lead magnet so that you can build your list.

of topics I covered in this video are the kinds of questions and topics that we discuss inside of video brand Academy every month inside of our meetups. And I took these tips and threw them into the YouTube roadmap planner [00:26:00] as well. So there is a checklist for what to do before you upload a video, but now there's going to be a checklist of things to check off before you record your next video.

plus there's a bunch of worksheets and step by step guides for developing your YouTube strategy, your spider web strategy, and all the other growth strategies inside of Video Brand Academy. So I'll put a link to that down in the show notes so that you can get more info on that so you can start growing your audience and generating consistent revenue and YouTube ifying your business.