How To Level Up Your Video Content with Aaron Francis

November 2, 2023

I joined the Level Up Creators team to shares tips and tricks for creating high-quality content, from the initial recording process to the final editing stages.
Watch on YouTube →

Transcript

Amanda
00:00:00 – 00:00:09
Hey. Hey. You're listening to the LevelUp Creator's podcast. Amanda Northcutt here, founder and CEO. We help digital creators build thriving, sustainable businesses they love.
Amanda
00:00:09 – 00:00:35
We're so glad you're here. Welcome. And my guest today is Aaron Francis, an amazing creator and keynote speaker who is best known on the Internet for his kindness, expertise with MySQL, Shedquarters, and, of course, screencasting.com, his new digi digital course where Aaron walks you through how to seriously up level your screencast, AKA any video content you make whatsoever. And he is joining us actually from my hometown, Dallas, Texas. Welcome, Aaron.
Aaron
00:00:35 – 00:00:38
Hey, thank you. That's quite an intro. Thanks for having me.
Amanda
00:00:38 – 00:00:51
Yeah. I'm so excited for this conversation. I think it's gonna help anyone who listens for sure. But before we dive into our main topic today, which is how to make high quality video content, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your journey so far as a creator?
Aaron
00:00:52 – 00:01:13
Yeah. Absolutely. I'm I'm reading over or listening to that intro you just gave me, best known for kindness, expertise with my sequel and shed quarters, which is just such a random it's just such a random collection of things. But, yeah, I am let's see. I'm a software developer and have been for a super long time.
Aaron
00:01:13 – 00:01:50
And as of, like, the past maybe 2 or 3 years, I've really kind of started to, like, put myself out there publicly on the Internet, and that has kind of been, I guess, the catalyst for a lot of what's happening, in my life today up to and including launching screencasting.com. So I've just kinda had this turn of, like, man, what do I wanna do with my life, and what's stopping me? And I found a lot of what was stopping me was, like, fear of what other people would think of me. And so I just have kind of pushed past that, and the world has opened up before me.
Amanda
00:01:51 – 00:02:13
Nice. And that's why we're here today, actually. I'm so glad that you have been sharing on the Internet and that you came up with screencasting.com. And, that's actually how you and I got connected was, we were starting a video podcast, which here we are with LevelUp Creators. And, I was pretty, overwhelmed and nervous about my video and lighting setup.
Amanda
00:02:13 – 00:02:31
And, you have been an audio to I guess the full AV thing. You have been so incredibly helpful and specific. And this was far less of intimidating, an intimidating undertaking after, getting your advice. So thank you. I've personally benefited and love your course.
Amanda
00:02:31 – 00:02:43
And just thank you. Thank you for putting out there and pushing past the fear and walking straight into the pain of, especially putting yourself out there out there on Twitter or x. Do you say Twitter or x?
Aaron
00:02:43 – 00:02:51
Are you what do you I'm, I I know that that dates me as an old person, but x is a ridiculous name, so I will continue to say Twitter.
Amanda
00:02:52 – 00:03:01
Touche. I totally agree. Okay. So what exactly is screencasting.com? And, tell us a little bit more about what prompted you to create this course specifically.
Amanda
00:03:01 – 00:03:06
You have so many different areas of expertise. So how in the world did you land on this?
Aaron
00:03:06 – 00:03:39
Yeah. So this is kinda like my my meta course. So I I've done several video courses, screencast series, that sort of thing, and they've been more specifically in my other areas of expertise. And so I've created one on the database called, MySQL for the company that I work for, PlanetScale, and that was, like, a 65 video, 8 hour course, just teaching people how to use this tool that I know and love. And that was, I think, maybe my 3rd or 4th video course that I'd ever done.
Aaron
00:03:39 – 00:03:50
And after I did that, you know, people would ask me this was earlier in this year. People would come up to me and be like, hey. The course was great. Love the content. By the way, can you teach me how to make courses like that?
Aaron
00:03:50 – 00:04:22
Can you teach me how to do screen cast? Can you teach me how to do video? And I was like, this is really this is really interesting because I had never thought I had never thought that I would be the one to teach people how to make video, but I think I realized that I had a lot of expertise in making video after all these years. And and I think I had a point of view, which was like, anyone can teach you how to make video or maybe not even anyone. Several people can teach you how to make video.
Aaron
00:04:22 – 00:04:46
Only I can teach you how to make video the way I make video, which is, like, with a focus on how do we do this? Like, how do we do this efficiently? Because we got other stuff we gotta do. But how do we, like, how do we do it in a, like, a high quality way by just, like, knowing the 5 or 10 things you gotta look out for. Like, it's not that hard to go from a from, like, a c plus to an a.
Aaron
00:04:47 – 00:04:59
You just gotta know, like, alright. I gotta make sure that I do these 5 things. And so that's when I realized, wait. Maybe, you know, the market is speaking here, and I should just put this all into a course. And so that's that's what I did.
Amanda
00:04:59 – 00:05:30
Nice. That's awesome. And one thing that I really appreciate about about you is you will pursue whole wholeheartedly any area of interest that you have, and it is so cool that you then share your learnings with your following on Twitter, which has been growing quite quickly as is your new YouTube channel. And I think that's great because people who have great things to say and to teach others deserve a platform and an audience. And, you know, you are just a perfect example of a modern creator who is building a following around a number of area of interest.
Amanda
00:05:30 – 00:05:50
But I love the the commonality and, actually want to talk about your rules for Twitter also really quickly. But the commonality seems to be that you are this Internet nice guy, you know, you are this antithesis to tech bro. And, people really resonate with that, which you wouldn't think honestly with Twitter being your primary platform at this point. So
Aaron
00:05:50 – 00:05:50
Yep.
Amanda
00:05:51 – 00:05:53
Tell us about your Twitter participation rules.
Aaron
00:05:54 – 00:06:23
Yeah. So I have I'll pull them up here. I have, like, actual written down specific rules that I have, you know, tweeted and pinned to my profile and been like, this is, you know, if I'm going to show up on this platform, this is this is how I'm going to do it. And I'll read those out in a second. But just generally, I think, you know, I think there's there's a lot of cynicism, especially in kind of the circles that I run-in, which is a lot of, like, engineering and developing.
Aaron
00:06:23 – 00:06:57
And, like, there's just a lot of people really trying to prove, I guess, how smart they are. And so there's a like, when you put something out there, oftentimes, people are gonna come back with, like, the reasons it won't work or a way in which you screwed it up or, you know, I've actually done that before before you did. And this happened to me actually just yesterday. So I I've reached this point where I'm, you know, anytime I I learn something new or discover something, I try to, like, think, alright. How can I how can I share this?
Aaron
00:06:57 – 00:07:25
And so I tweeted one out yesterday and somebody replied and said, why are people surprised by this? You could do this in Fortran, which is, like, some super old thing that I I have never used in my life. He's like, why why does anybody care? You could do this, you know, for the past 20 years. And my response to him was just, yeah, I just learned about it today, and that means that maybe the odds are good that other people don't know about it.
Aaron
00:07:25 – 00:07:58
And so, like, if I learned it today, maybe other people don't know about it, and I'll share it. And I think I finished with, like, you could say that I'm, like, pro learning. Like, I just I thought it was cool. And so my my, like, point of view on on putting yourself out there, especially on Twitter, is there are a lot of people there are a lot of people that don't know the things that you know. And I think we start to surround ourselves with, like, other experts, and we start to think like, oh, everybody knows everything that I know or worse.
Aaron
00:07:58 – 00:08:25
Everybody is smarter than me, and I have nothing to say. And we forget that, like, the world is huge. Like, the world is enormous, and the Internet is enormous. And there are tons of people behind you on on the road or in the journey that are like, man, I wish people would would share more because I don't know anything. And so that's kinda, like, part of my part of my, philosophy on, like, what I share, but then these rules.
Aaron
00:08:25 – 00:08:48
So I'll read these rules out. There are 3 of them. The first one is encourage other people, saying if you like the work that someone is doing, tell them. Because because it is a reality that most people get, critical or cynical feedback, If you see something that you like and you tell the person, you're gonna make their day. So that's the first one.
Aaron
00:08:48 – 00:09:02
The other one is be positive. A feed full of negativity is 0 fun to follow. And, like, this is, like, 50% life advice and 50% content strategy. Like, it's a good thing to be positive. Of course.
Aaron
00:09:02 – 00:09:25
Also, I'm not gonna follow somebody who's always complaining about everything. And so that's kinda like the the life advice content strategy. If you're always moaning about how a fortune 50 company has made your life harder because of the emails that they send or the baggage that they lost. Like, I'm sorry. That's just I that bums me out, and I don't wanna follow somebody who's always moaning about everything.
Aaron
00:09:26 – 00:09:34
Like, life is hard. I agree. That's what your group texts are for. That's what your your private group text with your friends to complain about American Airlines. Definitely do that.
Aaron
00:09:34 – 00:09:58
I'm just not that interested in seeing that. And then the last one is share what you're working on because people are drawn to other people in motion. And, like, I think this is probably the most important for, like, deciding what content you wanna share. Just share what you're doing. Because I think we're you know, once we get in the trenches, we're like, man, none of this is interesting because I'm, like, seeing how everything is done.
Aaron
00:09:59 – 00:10:29
But to the outsider, they just wanna see cool stuff happening. Like, we just wanna watch other people do things partly because in our, like, in our deepest heart, we want to be doing things ourselves, And there's some part of like, oh man, I can watch other people do it. And that makes me feel like a little bit like I I'm doing it. And the other thing is like, it can inspire other people to actually do things and be like, wait. That guy, Aaron, he just posts whatever he's working on that day and whatever he found interesting.
Aaron
00:10:29 – 00:10:37
Like, that's not that hard. Like, it doesn't take a super genius to figure that out. Mhmm. And, hopefully, that, like, pushes other people to say, yeah. I do stuff.
Aaron
00:10:37 – 00:10:39
Why don't I just talk about it more?
Amanda
00:10:40 – 00:11:08
I love that. I love all those rules, and I think they're could be full on applied for rules to live by. And I've got so many things running through my head here. Like, what's the saying, nobody know, nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. I'm thinking about the FDR quote that Brene Brown cites a lot about, you know, if you're not in the arena, if you're not down here in the middle of the arena on the floor with this huge audience, breathing down your neck, like shut up.
Amanda
00:11:08 – 00:11:10
If you're not showing up and bringing it,
Aaron
00:11:11 – 00:11:14
stop. Like, I won't I was
Amanda
00:11:14 – 00:11:37
gonna make a joke about being in your mom's basement. I'll leave that there, though. But, you know, I love, I love the approach that you take to sharing content online. And it is really inspiring to other people and then and kind of seeing a regular guy, other people I don't think see you as a regular guy because you have an audience and are creating content and putting yourself out there. But you, in some ways, like you're a dad, you're a family guy.
Amanda
00:11:37 – 00:11:59
And, I just love that you share what you do. And I think you teach other people and man, that comment that the guy made about the platform that you mentioned, I have no idea. I'm not a software engineer or anything close. You don't want me anywhere near any code. But the lack of empathy in a in a comment like that is just, that makes me so frustrated.
Aaron
00:12:00 – 00:12:21
I've realized, like, I think I it used to be I don't get in fights online. I just don't I just don't do it. And I think part of the reason why is because I've realized, like, when a guy when it's it's always a guy. When a guy makes a comment like that, that's like, why does why did you share this, or why is anyone resonating with this? I already knew that.
Aaron
00:12:22 – 00:12:47
The only thing that that person the only thing that that person wants is to feel special and feel validated and feel like they are worthy. And so, like, I just respond. I don't wanna I don't wanna fight with them. I don't wanna say, like, I I don't wanna get into a nitty gritty debate over details or or anything like that. I just wanna say, like, yeah, other other people don't know that.
Aaron
00:12:47 – 00:12:54
Like, you do know that. That's awesome. Congratulations. Other people don't know that. And I it's really disarming.
Aaron
00:12:55 – 00:13:20
I think it's really disarming to approach that kind of, like, negative reply guy with that's really great. I honestly didn't know that until this very day. So, like, you've got, you've got a leg up on me. And that's the thing that's really, I think that's the, like, meta principle here is, honestly, it doesn't matter who knows the most. Like and this this can be really frustrating for hyper analytical people.
Aaron
00:13:21 – 00:13:47
It doesn't matter if you know more than someone else. It doesn't matter if your product is better than somebody else's. It doesn't matter if your anything is better. What matters in the outsized the outsized benefits accrue to the people who are doing it publicly. And so there are engineers, There are scores and and thousands of engineers that are way smarter than me everywhere.
Aaron
00:13:47 – 00:14:18
Even in the company that I work at, I'm probably one of the the dumbest engineers, and I say that without false humility. Like, I just am. But the perception of me in the public in the public eyes that I'm really smart and this great, like, database guy. And it's just like, well, there just aren't that many database people talking publicly. And so you attribute to me being really smart, but honestly, I'm not that I'm not that good at it, and I just talk about it a whole lot more than other people.
Aaron
00:14:18 – 00:14:40
And so that's, like, the unfair thing that is the reality of how the world slash the marketplace works is, yeah, the marketplace doesn't reward your your hidden knowledge. It just doesn't. And that's what I realized a few years ago. You say I'm a normal guy. Like, 3 years ago, I think I had a 1,000 followers on Twitter, and now I have 24,000.
Aaron
00:14:40 – 00:14:47
And it's like, I'm still the same guy. Like, nothing changed except that I started putting it out there more.
Amanda
00:14:48 – 00:15:06
I like that. And I really appreciate your growth mindset and your willingness to go out and solve problems and do that publicly and fail publicly. And, yeah, it's like a kind of a group learning social experiment, almost. I mean, your whole Twitter account. But yeah, alright, I'm gonna pull us back in here to screencasting.
Amanda
00:15:07 – 00:15:28
Because I think we could talk about how to behave on the internet and how not to behave on the internet all day. But alright, so I approached you, I came to you because I was pretty overwhelmed with the whole, you know, getting started thing. And so recording video online. And so, it requires camera setup, lighting, microphone, and the right technology. Editing can be a really big headache.
Amanda
00:15:28 – 00:15:34
What are the biggest barriers to video production that you are seeing, and how did you address those in your course?
Aaron
00:15:35 – 00:15:51
Yeah. I think the biggest barriers are it feels like so most people that wanna create video are they are a technical expert in some field. Right? So they're a software developer. They're a, a Notion expert, they're a wizard with Excel or something.
Aaron
00:15:52 – 00:16:24
And so they're they're like really, really good and technical in a certain vertical. And then they look at video and they're like, oh, this is not my field of expertise. This is a new, like, this is a new technical field of expertise I will have to gain, and it's a new medium that I haven't conquered yet. Right? And so I feel like the big the big holdup for most people is they look at they they jump to big video editors and they jump to complicated video and audio setups.
Aaron
00:16:24 – 00:16:44
And they're like, man, this is this is a lot. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not the theater kid who knows all of this, like, in my blood from high school or whatever. Like, I gotta learn this all from scratch. And so I think that's a big hang up. I think the other hang up is putting yourself on video.
Aaron
00:16:44 – 00:17:18
Like, if you don't like listening to your own voice, boy, are you gonna hate looking at your own face. Like, that's even, like, that's even even worse. And so recording video and then editing video of you feels really cringe. But once you, like, once you push past that and you realize the kind of like connection that you can make with the audience by actually showing your face, I feel like you start to understand the benefits of it and you kind of just leave the cringe part behind. But the gear, the gear is a big, like you gotta like, like you said, you didn't know what all to pick.
Aaron
00:17:18 – 00:17:25
And so that's a big thing that I address is like, hey. Here are some levels. Here's good, better, best. Pick anything and just move on.
Amanda
00:17:26 – 00:17:39
I like that. I like the good, better, best model a lot, actually. And I really like about your course that you GTFP with everything. I mean, I am a very, very busy person. I'm very tight on time.
Amanda
00:17:40 – 00:18:19
And just the hunting and gathering that would have been required online for me to go and figure this out on my own. I mean, that's just a nonstarter. Like, I don't I don't have the time to dedicate to that. And so to have a trusted expert who's put all the information together, and then some and has put it into well organized bite sized chunks with this good, better, best model, total game changer for me and that just reduces the barrier to entry so significantly. And I'm a big fan of talking to experts and, trying to get as much of their knowledge squeeze as much of their knowledge out of them as humanly possible in a short amount of time as possible.
Amanda
00:18:19 – 00:18:43
Because that's I think how you move the quickest in business and in life. And so, you came into my life at exactly the right time, and I super appreciate it. Okay, so let's get into what we've talked about barriers to entry, I think people probably feel that viscerally and it is pretty anxiety producing thing if you haven't done video production before. So, let's talk about key ingredients for producing high quality video.
Aaron
00:18:43 – 00:19:08
Yeah. Yeah. So I think there are I think there are a few and they start way before the camera, microphone, ready, set, go. I think it starts all the way back with, like, who is your audience and what is your angle? And, honestly, this is something I messed up for the course at the beginning because my I I had viewed my audience as primarily developers.
Aaron
00:19:08 – 00:19:26
And then I think after we talked several times, I thought, wait. My audience could be way broader. It could be, like, content creators, experts in any field. And so that was one thing that, like, I had recorded a video on defining your audience for the course, and then I was like, oh, shoot. I defined my audience way wrong.
Aaron
00:19:26 – 00:20:11
And so I think defining your audience and picking your angle are super important up front. And so, like, defining your audience could be, you know, picking, let's say attorneys or stay at home moms or, you know, developers or whatever, just saying, like, who are you teaching and then kind of ranking them on what's their, like, current level of expertise with my thing. Right? So what is if I'm teaching beginners in like, if I'm teaching attorneys who don't know anything about Microsoft Excel, that's going to shape your content quite a bit versus attorneys who are pretty good with Excel but want to get really good because they're going into some specialized field in in the legal field. I don't know anything about attorneys.
Aaron
00:20:11 – 00:20:29
So I think determining, like, who they are and where they kind of rank on the scale is good. And then, like, what is your what is that that can help define what your angle is. Like, is your angle bookkeeping for disorganized people or bookkeeping for people with ADHD? Like, hey, that's a pretty good angle. Right?
Aaron
00:20:29 – 00:20:34
And so if you can define those things upfront, I just came up with that ADHD angle. That's a great
Amanda
00:20:34 – 00:20:35
good one.
Aaron
00:20:35 – 00:21:02
If if you can define those things upfront, that'll really help you plan your content better, and it'll help you market better because somebody that's like, yeah, I've got ADHD, and you better believe my books are a mess right now. And so this course must be for me. I think those are those are really important things upfront, to help define, like, what was the question? What key ingredient for producing high quality videos? You start you gotta start with knowing what you're gonna say.
Aaron
00:21:02 – 00:21:05
I feel like that's pretty important. Yeah.
Amanda
00:21:05 – 00:21:24
I love that. That's, right offer, right time, right way, right price point, all those kinds of things. So, yeah, getting getting it together on that front and meeting people where they're at. So, content is still king because if you're producing beautiful videos that, the content is is, well, dismal, you're not gonna get anywhere. So, yeah, I love that.
Amanda
00:21:24 – 00:21:25
That's a great
Aaron
00:21:25 – 00:21:42
starting point. The best screen cast on in-depth Excel for attorneys, and then you take it to the market and attorneys are like, hey. So what's the sum function do? Like, it's a total mismatch, and the attorneys are gonna be like, this is I need a beginner's course, and then you're you're hosed.
Amanda
00:21:42 – 00:21:44
Yeah. So first things first.
Aaron
00:21:44 – 00:21:45
Yeah.
Amanda
00:21:45 – 00:21:46
Alright. What else?
Aaron
00:21:47 – 00:22:15
Yeah. I think beyond that, so, like, you you've defined your content. I think it's really important to to have a research phase at some point, and that can look really different if you already are the domain expert. It's Like, I did a I did a video course once on, it was accounting. I was a accounting major back in college, and I took all of my time at school, which I spent 3 or 4 years tutoring this one specific class, and I recorded a video course on that.
Aaron
00:22:15 – 00:22:50
And my research phase for that was, like, 3 or 4 years tutoring that specific class. So that was really easy. But for the database course, I did a ton of research, and I just read a bunch of books and, like, read a bunch of blog posts. And anytime I found something that I was like, this kind of fits the shape of the angle that I'm going for, I just wrote it down. And then after I had, like, a huge text document of, like, ideas and little half ideas, I started to kind of, like, coalesce and merge those into a linear structure of like, well, we'll start here.
Aaron
00:22:50 – 00:23:13
We'll work our way through and we'll end here. And so that research phase is really important. But you can't do that without knowing who you're teaching, of course. And then after that, you turn on, you know, you turn on the lights camera and you start recording, and there are a bunch of little things that you can do to make your screen cast feel really high quality. And it's stupid stuff like, okay.
Aaron
00:23:14 – 00:23:51
Don't show the clock, and don't show the menu bar, and don't show the dock, and, like, hide your desktop icons, and don't have a family photo as your background. Like, all of this stuff that takes it from, oh, Aaron is recording his screen in his bedroom to, oh, this guy, you know, they elevate you. This guy is a professional teaching me with professional videos, and it's like, this I'm the exact same guy. This is still a room off the kitchen. But now because I've, like, thought about a few things, you feel like I'm some big guy in a studio, and it's like, I'm not, but I'm glad you think so.
Amanda
00:23:52 – 00:23:54
Of the kitchen. I didn't know that. That's great.
Aaron
00:23:54 – 00:24:00
Yeah. This is a kitchen. This is a double doors right there. So this is this is the kids' nap time, which is why it's so quiet.
Amanda
00:24:01 – 00:24:05
I figured. Yeah. I thought as much. And you no longer you just moved. Right?
Amanda
00:24:05 – 00:24:08
And so you no longer have your shed quarters to retreat to.
Aaron
00:24:08 – 00:24:19
Big detached building, 10 by 20 building in the backyard that was air gapped from all the chaos and no. No more. Just 2 little glass doors right there that are incredibly permeable.
Amanda
00:24:20 – 00:24:22
You're working it out though. You look and sound like a pro. No worries.
Aaron
00:24:22 – 00:24:24
See? That's what I'm saying.
Amanda
00:24:24 – 00:24:28
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And I want to circle back for just a second.
Amanda
00:24:29 – 00:24:48
You made a quick offhanded comment a few minutes ago, that I think spoke to sort of your philosophy about sharing online. And I can't remember the exact line that you delivered, but it was something about you know, kind of putting yourself out there increases your chances of luck.
Aaron
00:24:48 – 00:24:49
Can you
Amanda
00:24:49 – 00:24:50
tell us more about that?
Aaron
00:24:50 – 00:25:09
Yeah. Sure. I mean, this is another one of those, like, seemingly unfair things that when you when you, like, peel it open, it's it's it's very obvious. And so a lot of where I am today is because of luck and good fortune. And that is, like, that's just incontrovertible fact.
Aaron
00:25:09 – 00:25:42
I just I got lucky a bunch of times. The thing that most people don't realize is that, like, the amount of luck in your life is controllable. The form it takes or, like, I can't force, like, myself to win the lottery, but I can, like, point things in the correct direction such that unexpected opportunities come my way. So, like, what does that mean for me? Well, I started sharing like, I started sharing that I was working on this, like, little open source library, and I didn't know where that was gonna go.
Aaron
00:25:42 – 00:26:02
Right? But I started talking about it and putting it on Twitter, and somebody that runs a conference reached out and was like, hey. Do do you want to do a talk on this, on this thing that I've been watching you do? And it's like, wow, that's really lucky. And, yeah, you better believe it's lucky, but it would have never happened if I wasn't being public about the work that I was doing.
Aaron
00:26:03 – 00:26:14
And so I think where a lot of people get hung up is they're like, oh, man. I would love for a conference organizer to reach out to me. I'm like, yeah. It's it's awesome. Why would they reach out to you?
Aaron
00:26:14 – 00:26:32
Like, what what have you done and what have you shown that, like, puts yourself in the way of a conference organizer noticing I need somebody to speak. Oh, that person is doing something. Well, let's just have them speak. And, you know, from there, it's like, all right. I spoke at that conference, and then I submitted that video to a different conference.
Aaron
00:26:32 – 00:26:40
And then I have these, you know, this little body of work that's like, hey. I've done some speaking. You know, I could do some speaking. And then you start to apply proactively. You're like, hey.
Aaron
00:26:40 – 00:26:45
Look. This I promise I'm good at stuff. And you apply, and they're like, yeah. You look good at stuff. We'll have you come do the thing.
Aaron
00:26:45 – 00:27:13
And from there, it just kinda, like, it it snowballs. And the more, like, the more that you put yourself out there, the more chances you have of somebody random finding your stuff at the exact right moment and literally sending you a DM on Twitter being like, hey. Do you wanna come work at our company? Which is how I got this the job that I'm currently at. So I work at PlanetScale, and I was just writing these articles about MySQL, because I was planning to build a course on my own.
Aaron
00:27:13 – 00:27:25
And then the CEO was reading these articles, which I didn't know. I couldn't have known that. And he was reading these articles, and he sent me a DM, and he was like, hey. Why don't you just come do this for us? It's like, ah, cool.
Aaron
00:27:26 – 00:27:42
Couldn't have planned it. Couldn't have made it happen. But by putting myself out there, it happened. And that's, again, like, the same thing with, you know, publishing video. It's like people are gonna see it, and they're going to ascribe to you almost unmerited expertise.
Aaron
00:27:43 – 00:27:56
Merited or not, it doesn't matter. They're gonna think of you as like, oh, they must be a leading voice in the field because who else does video? Only leading voices. And you're like, you could do it too.
Amanda
00:27:58 – 00:28:19
Yeah. Oh, man. Let me talk we talked a little bit about reducing barrier to entry on video, and that's the reason this whole course exists, right? You want to help other creators, no matter your domain expertise, do video because it's almost like you've increased your personal SEO quotient. I don't think that's a real thing.
Amanda
00:28:19 – 00:28:49
But like you have put yourself out there in a way that makes you discoverable and public. And yeah, I love the the concept of the snowball effects, too. I mean, I've heard more of your story than what you just shared, but it is a pretty incredible ride that you're on right now. And it seems like there's no end in sight to the snowball effect that you have put in motion by positioning yourself to capture the luck that is out there to be had. And it seems like that started with sharing content and then sharing video content specifically.
Aaron
00:28:50 – 00:29:13
Yep. Yep. And I'm out here, like, I'm out here trying to tell everybody all the secrets and tell you, like, if I've been very public along the entire journey Mhmm. And so if you wanna check the notes, you can go all the way back to, like, podcasts I was on years ago talking about, hey, this is my strategy. This is how I'm gonna do it.
Aaron
00:29:13 – 00:29:38
This is what I'm doing. This is why I think it's working. So I'm trying to share, like, all along the way, y'all, this is totally doable and here's the secret. And it's it's I I don't even know if it's a secret anymore, but it's still really hard to just get over, like, the the fear of, like, being public. But once once you do that, it everything is available to you.
Amanda
00:29:39 – 00:29:51
I totally agree. There's a book that a now famous, psychiatrist wrote. I think he's like a celebrity. Oh, there's a Netflix, documentary. He's like Jonah.
Amanda
00:29:51 – 00:30:10
I can't remember this guy's name. Oh, my gosh. Super famous actor. They did a documentary on him on Netflix, and I just read his book called The Tools and one of the I think the number 5 tool is walk straight into the pain. And if you can walk straight into the pain and face your fears, there's no end to what you can do and accomplish and conquer.
Amanda
00:30:10 – 00:30:41
And so I think he was citing that as advice he'd given to actors repeatedly. But, I've actually been teaching our 12 year old son about this specific tool. And, if you're not afraid of a failure or you know, what could go wrong, or the twists and turns or the unknowns or anything like that, there's the whole entire world, I feel like we'll just open up to you. I mean, I've been a behind the scenes executive for years at this point and consultant and coach to other, CEOs. And now I find myself in this seat.
Amanda
00:30:42 – 00:31:14
And it's totally about just swallow that fear on down and walk straight on through it, because that's what needs to happen. And, you know, LevelUp creators, our mission is also to reduce barrier to entry for subject matter experts who have something to say, people are listening to them, to take them to new heights and help people, create their own luck, create generational wealth. And I feel like, you know, we have a lot of oh, I can't think of another word besides synergy. I don't like that word at all. But Synergy
Aaron
00:31:14 – 00:31:15
synergy works.
Amanda
00:31:16 – 00:32:05
Screencasting and level up do because we're kind of in this business of helping creators level up, do better, reduce the barrier to entry, go out there, put your knowledge into the world because you know, there are going to be the jerks on the internet who are like, Well, I knew that you could do that for 20 years, like you mentioned earlier. But guess what, your information is always going to be novel to someone. And so again, going back to like, obviously, audio and video stuff, I've done a couple of audio only podcasts in years past. But again, that seemingly huge insurmountable wall in front of me going from audio to video was so big, and you just knocked it right off in front of me. And so yeah, it's just, it's just so much easier after just taking your advice and spending 90 minutes going through what I needed from your course.
Amanda
00:32:06 – 00:32:21
Okay, we're getting sidetracked again. And I have more questions for you so we can, again, reduce that barrier to entry. But, yeah, sorry. What do people most often get wrong when re when recording video? Like, what could what are the easiest things to to make better?
Aaron
00:32:22 – 00:32:45
I think one of the easiest things to make better is just go faster. I think, you know, like you said earlier, like, the whole course is really get to the point. And that's one of the things I value really highly is respecting, like, the viewer's time. And so, one, I don't I don't do long, rambly, like, intros. I just I just start.
Aaron
00:32:45 – 00:33:12
So go go faster because you you have that person, boy, you have them for a few seconds before before they start to wander. And then, I also will, will be ruthless about like, redoing it. If I if I feel that I'm rambling or I do something wrong, I'm like, no. That's, you know, that's not good enough. I'm just gonna I now I know what I wanna say having messed up the video 5 times.
Aaron
00:33:12 – 00:33:27
So now I know what I wanna say. Now I'm gonna do it. And there are strategies in the course of, like, how to cut that time down. But I think respecting the viewer's time and and getting to the point as fast as possible is a big one. And then there are a lot of little technical gotchas.
Aaron
00:33:27 – 00:33:56
Like, the thing I talked about, like, hiding the desktop icons, and you're like, boy, That doesn't matter at all. What a silly, like, what a silly thing to care about. Agreed. However, if you add up 5 silly things, 10 silly things, suddenly you look at a you look at a video and you think, I can't quite put my finger on it, but this is really good. And that's the same thing, like, that's the same thing that, like, really good physical products have.
Aaron
00:33:56 – 00:34:06
Right? So anytime you pick up an Apple product, you're like, I don't I don't know. It's good, though. Like, I I like it. And that's the thing where it's like, they've thought about a 1000000 little things.
Aaron
00:34:06 – 00:34:19
Right? I'm just asking you to think about 5 or 10, hide a few things, change the background to something that's pleasing. When you're doing your cuts, Don't have long, awkward pauses. Like, cut it down. Make it shorter.
Aaron
00:34:19 – 00:34:47
And so I think that's that's the thing that once you are, once you are made aware of it, it's really easy to do and really easy to see, but that's what a lot of, a lot of people miss is they're just never, they're just never aware of it. And so I come in with, like, a lot of, a lot of experience, but also a whole lot of opinions. Like, if you don't like my opinions, of course, isn't gonna benefit you. But I have a lot of opinions. And so I come in and say, do these things.
Aaron
00:34:47 – 00:34:51
And that's where you're like, all right, I can just, I'll just do those things. And that I feel like that's really helpful.
Amanda
00:34:53 – 00:35:21
It is definitely helpful. And yeah, like you're talking about this kind of like intangible quality of like what makes that video so good, an Apple product is a fantastic analogy there. But all these things that you talk about in your course, and the few things that you just mentioned, they're all additive. And so you can take your video very quickly from pretty amateur, verging on and professional to quite professional, by all these little tips and tricks, you know, they add up to a pretty significant difference in your your finished product.
Aaron
00:35:21 – 00:35:21
So,
Amanda
00:35:21 – 00:35:33
yeah. And real quick, you mentioned, you will just record a video over and over until you know what you want to say. And then you've got it. Do you use a script? Or how did how what's your workflow?
Aaron
00:35:33 – 00:35:49
Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the that's one of the things where, like, I say at the beginning of the course, hey. I'm about to tell you all my opinions. With the script, no script thing, I try to represent both sides as fairly as possible because I know it's such a, like, almost maybe even divide.
Aaron
00:35:50 – 00:36:07
My the way that I do it is no script, but that doesn't mean I don't know what I'm going to say ahead of time. And so the way that I do it now is, you know, I go through that research phase. I parcel out, like, these are the topics. Here's, like, here's the video that I'm gonna record. So I already know.
Aaron
00:36:08 – 00:36:21
Alright. I'm gonna hit these 3, 4, 5 main bullet points. Right? The thing that is hard for me is figuring out, like, okay, I've got the 3 I've got the 3 signposts. How do I get from one to the next?
Aaron
00:36:21 – 00:36:40
Right? What's my connective tissue? What's, like, my what's my turn of phrase or my transition to bring the viewer along with me, but also we gotta move on. And those are the things that I can't figure out for the life of me. I can't figure out without actually starting, like, pretending to take the video.
Aaron
00:36:41 – 00:37:19
So I think there are some people that, like, they wanna sit down and write a script, and that really works for them. Does not work for me even a little bit. What does work for me is turning on the microphone. I've I've come up with a new process in the past year or so where I turn on the microphone and I open a Google Doc and I hit, you know, transcribe, and I just pretend like I'm giving the video. And that's really helpful for me because I don't actually have to, like, turn on the lights and the camera and and actually do the screen recording, but it gets those first one, 2, or 3 bad takes out of my system, and it puts it in text.
Aaron
00:37:19 – 00:37:35
And so I can go in and be like, actually, that block needs to move down, and then I can see the whole thing. And then what I do is I'll look at this doc that I've transcribed, and I'll read through it and be like, okay. Yeah. That was my connection from a to b to c. Alright.
Aaron
00:37:35 – 00:37:51
Here we go. Turn on the camera and do it, like, do it fresh. And so that helps me because I know the path that I'm gonna take, but you still get that, like, energy of this is not canned. And so that's how I do it. A lot of people do it with a script and it turns out wonderful.
Aaron
00:37:51 – 00:37:55
I just I just can't do it without it coming off, like, really stilted.
Amanda
00:37:57 – 00:38:13
I appreciate that. I mean, everybody's got their own unique process. And sometimes that takes some trial and error to get there. I, for 1, love writing, writing is a great clarifier of my thoughts. And so I typically start with outline that, you know, flesh out into a full fledged script.
Amanda
00:38:13 – 00:38:28
And then I may go way off script for, you know, podcast recording or video recording or whatever. But, I have a great degree of confidence if I do have something resembling a script in front of me, so I at least hit, you know, my key points and know that I've fully fleshed out the idea in my head. So,
Aaron
00:38:28 – 00:38:29
yeah. Yeah.
Amanda
00:38:29 – 00:38:30
Lots of different ways to go about it.
Aaron
00:38:30 – 00:38:31
Yep.
Amanda
00:38:32 – 00:38:39
Alright. Walk me through a basic lighting, audio and camera setup. What are must haves versus nice to haves?
Aaron
00:38:40 – 00:39:02
Must have is external microphone. So do not if you're doing video or just straight audio, my strong encouragement would be do not ever record with something built in. So if you have a laptop, you're like, oh, it's got a microphone on it. You're gonna sound like you're talking through a potato. So don't do that.
Aaron
00:39:02 – 00:39:25
And, honestly, AirPods are the same AirPods are the same way. Because because of the way Bluetooth works, you're it's gonna just it's gonna sound so crunchy. You're gonna sound terrible. So my my must have is, is a microphone, external microphone. And there are a few, I think it's like the AT 2 1,005 USB and the Shure MV 7.
Aaron
00:39:25 – 00:39:37
You can put them in the show notes. But there are a few external microphones that I would recommend. I would start with just straight plug and play USB microphone. Yep. That's totally, totally good enough.
Aaron
00:39:37 – 00:39:56
You do not need to go into, like, audio engineer territory. I'm I'm not even in that territory. That's just a space that I don't need to go to. Then you start thinking about, like, what's a nice to have? I think my encouragement is always going to be show your face on video because people will connect with you better, and so you'll need some kind of camera.
Aaron
00:39:56 – 00:40:13
There are really, really, really good webcams for, like, 1.50, $200, maybe $300. And a lot of the Elgato products, they have, I think, 2 line 2 face cams. It's like Facecam and Facecam Pro. They're both awesome. I would totally go with that.
Aaron
00:40:13 – 00:40:26
If you already have a decent webcam, just stick with that. Stick with that until you feel like, okay. I'm I'm in this for real. Let's, you know, let's level up to borrow a name. Let's level up here and get something better.
Aaron
00:40:27 – 00:41:02
Beyond that, I think maybe having an external light. So I don't rely on overhead lights because it's, you know, directly above me, and it makes me look really dead. And so I've got I've got a couple of lights in here, but I think even just one light that, like, fills you up so I can turn off I can turn off, all of the other lights besides this big guy right here. And even that just makes me look like it just makes me look dramatic and well lit, and it helps my camera a whole lot to have, like, a, like, a hearty adequate source of light. And so that's kind of the levels.
Aaron
00:41:02 – 00:41:31
Like, definitely get an external microphone. Put it on an arm so that, like, when you're, you know, when you're tapping on your desk, it's not, like, shaking around. So get an external microphone, put it on an arm, get it as close to your mouth as possible, then use whatever camera you have or grab something in the low end the high end of webcams, but the low end of cameras in general. And then if you really want to grab grab a light that can be, softer on your face than something like an overhead light would be.
Amanda
00:41:33 – 00:41:35
Yeah. Totally. Alright. Cool. Yeah.
Amanda
00:41:35 – 00:41:46
And you've totally run me, won me over to the whole Elgato, suite of products. I mean, that's I've got, like, their key light, key light mini, key light mini, the little hair light with the highlights here.
Aaron
00:41:46 – 00:41:46
Yep.
Amanda
00:41:46 – 00:41:51
And then the cool LEDs on the bookshelf. Yep. I feel like it's a total game changer.
Aaron
00:41:51 – 00:41:52
Yeah. They're light.
Amanda
00:41:52 – 00:42:01
Yeah. And I mean, I'll I'll show real quick, like, just even this backlight, let's see. Huge difference, right?
Aaron
00:42:01 – 00:42:02
But you know Huge difference.
Amanda
00:42:03 – 00:42:12
On and off. And so I appreciate the extra tip on that. That was a really inexpensive way to just completely change the whole camera frame. And so, yes. Thank you for
Aaron
00:42:12 – 00:42:13
that. Yeah.
Amanda
00:42:14 – 00:42:36
All right. And you of course speak at length about equipment in your course. But what are maybe you've mentioned a few products, but let's kind of like Yeah. Distill that down to a few that, you know, if you're gonna if you're gonna go, what's kind of the maybe in the good, better, best lineup? What's maybe the better option for light camera and mic?
Aaron
00:42:36 – 00:42:56
Yeah. So the better option. So the middle middle of the road before you reach into, like, I'm a video producer. So I think the Shure microphone, which is what I'm using here, the Shure microphones are named incredibly bad. I think there's an MV 7 and an MB 7, which is just insane to me.
Aaron
00:42:56 – 00:43:08
So I think it's it's the cheaper of the 2, the one that has the USB interface. I think it's like a $250 microphone. Very, very good. Highly recommended USB. Plug it straight in, move on.
Aaron
00:43:08 – 00:43:40
If you want to graduate out of webcams, which the that El Gato face cam will take you such a long way. But if you wanna graduate out of webcams into DSLRs, so those big bulky cameras with the actual lenses on it, I would recommend the Canon M5050. That's what I'm using right here, and it works great as a webcam. You can just plug it plug it in through, like a camera capture card by Elgato called the Cam Link, and then you just plug that into your computer as USB. It's like, oh, it just shows up as a webcam.
Aaron
00:43:41 – 00:44:01
And I have a different lens on this camera. It's a sigma 16 millimeter lens, which makes the the background blurry. And this room truly is tiny. This is a 9 foot by 9 foot room, and so it's really small. And so that that extra background blur that I get makes makes the room feel a little deeper.
Aaron
00:44:01 – 00:44:25
And that all comes that all comes directly from the lens. And then for the lighting, I would recommend going with all Elgato products. So they've got a key light, key light air, key light mini. I think I behind me have a key light mini, and you can kind of see the effects there. But I would recommend doing that and getting, you know, maybe a big fill light on one side and a little light on the other.
Aaron
00:44:25 – 00:44:46
That would probably be that would probably be good. I do like again, because it's a small room, I do like having this, like, this little ring effect on you know, from the light behind me. Mhmm. But you and I are very extra, and we, you know, it's kinda fun at that point. So I would, you know, at least get a big light on 1 or both sides of you.
Amanda
00:44:47 – 00:44:57
Yeah. And I think you told me to get that Shure microphone, and I ended up getting a different one. It says Audio Technica. I don't know
Aaron
00:44:57 – 00:45:04
if that's The 82,005 Yeah. USB. Yeah. $80, I think. I think they have sales where it's, like, $70.
Amanda
00:45:05 – 00:45:05
Wow. Yeah.
Aaron
00:45:05 – 00:45:22
Yeah. And if you're graduating out of, like, AirPods or built in microphone, that at that at 2005 USB is the microphone I used for, like, 5 years. And it was it was fine. And then, you know, I got some gift card and was like, hey. I'm gonna buy a new microphone.
Aaron
00:45:22 – 00:45:25
So I didn't even really need it. I just wanted it.
Amanda
00:45:26 – 00:45:31
Yeah. Totally. And it's a beautiful microphone as well, but you do a good job hiding it in your videos. Yeah. Thanks.
Amanda
00:45:31 – 00:45:48
And, I mean, I spent $700 maybe. I happen to already have the, I think, good, better, best, better version of the webcam that you recommended. But then yeah, I just got the Key Light, Key Light Mini, Key Light Mini, a mic, and the microphone stand arm. What's it
Aaron
00:45:48 – 00:45:50
called? Yeah. Mic arm.
Amanda
00:45:50 – 00:45:51
Mic arm. Okay.
Aaron
00:45:51 – 00:45:57
Which Elgato also has. I should have mentioned that. Yeah. They have a wave arm, and that's the brand name wave, and it's it's very good. That's what I use.
Amanda
00:45:58 – 00:46:05
Yeah, it was fairly easy to set up and everything is controlled from one little control panel panel on my desktop.
Aaron
00:46:05 – 00:46:05
And it's
Amanda
00:46:06 – 00:46:16
like, really, really simple. And I'm not a super technical person. I mean, like, fairly, but not software developer level. And so you don't have to be at software developer level to get this set up for yourself. So
Aaron
00:46:17 – 00:46:19
Yep. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Thanks for
Amanda
00:46:19 – 00:46:19
the test.
Aaron
00:46:19 – 00:47:02
It just takes it from, like, like, really, like, really harsh, clearly recording on, like Mhmm. Basically, you know, a home office Zoom call kinda quality to, like, a professional video quality. And it it honestly, it takes several few $100 and some thought, and you go from, like, like, harsh shadows with, you know, weird lighting in the background to everything's a little bit softer, and your skin tone is right. And even if all you do is video calls, I think it's worth investing, you know, even if all you do is video calls, I think it's worth investing, you know, 3 to $500 to make yourself look super good on camera.
Amanda
00:47:03 – 00:47:23
I fully agree. It is just a complete game changer. And I think that, like you said earlier, the perception of the person that you are watching on camera or in a Zoom call with or whatever, You see them in a different light, pun intended. And so, yeah, I fully agree with you. And do you know how much that DSLR camera is that you recommend?
Amanda
00:47:23 – 00:47:23
Yeah.
Aaron
00:47:23 – 00:47:32
I think this Canon M50 that comes with a lens, not the lens I have, but it comes with a lens, I think, is 550. Okay.
Amanda
00:47:32 – 00:47:33
And that's a pretty significant.
Aaron
00:47:34 – 00:47:40
Yeah. It's a big jump. Step up. Yeah. And the face cams I mean, the face cams are very good.
Aaron
00:47:40 – 00:47:59
And so at that point, you're only doing it because you're like, well, I really wanna start playing around with the lens and the background blur and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I would stay out of that unless unless that's going to be partly a hobby for you is to be like, I wanna do the camera thing. So yeah. Okay.
Amanda
00:47:59 – 00:48:06
Got it. I think that's my next step. Next step from here. Maybe next podcast season, I'll I'll move up to the DSLR. But then
Aaron
00:48:06 – 00:48:10
you also write off when it's a write off, you're like, oh, my god. It's a business expense.
Amanda
00:48:10 – 00:48:12
Like, just whatever. 30% less.
Aaron
00:48:12 – 00:48:13
Yeah. Exactly.
Amanda
00:48:14 – 00:48:21
So yeah. And you also have your camera on its own tripod. Right? It's not, like, attached to your monitor or your desk?
Aaron
00:48:21 – 00:48:43
I do. Yeah. I my desk is relatively shaky. It's like a, you know, 8 year old standing desk, and so it's not quite as stable as it once was. And what I found is when I was typing, when I had this big heavy camera, like, on my desk, it kinda just, like, wobbled, and it was fine, except the background wobbles a lot more, right, because of perception.
Aaron
00:48:43 – 00:49:10
And so what I have now is I have my my webcam, which is this Canon mounted on a tripod that sits on the floor, not attached to my desk at all. Yeah. And that was just like the camera's heavy, the desk is kinda wobbly, and maybe I'm a aggressive typer. But that was one of those things where I noticed, oh, this is a little bit it's a little bit disorienting and nauseating to watch, so I can fix that.
Amanda
00:49:10 – 00:49:14
Yeah. Yeah. It was a good call. I wouldn't have thought of that. That's a good pro tip for sure.
Amanda
00:49:15 – 00:49:23
Alright. Let's talk about editing. And in your course, you talk about kind of this concept of beginning with the end in mind. And so, you talk about ways to record your screencasts
Aaron
00:49:24 – 00:49:24
in
Amanda
00:49:24 – 00:49:30
a way that makes it much easier to edit and edit faster. Can you share a couple of tips and tricks?
Aaron
00:49:30 – 00:49:57
Faster. Fast fast and high quality is the goal, and it seems like those, are diametrically opposed. But by thinking about those things up front, like those 5, 10, 15 things up front, we have eliminated a lot of the problematic areas when it comes to editing. Right? So a benefit of hiding everything that you're not focused on while recording is it keeps the viewer, like, focused on the thing you're teaching them.
Aaron
00:49:57 – 00:50:47
A secondary benefit is it's a lot easier to edit when there's only one thing going on on the screen. Right? If you've got a bunch of windows on the screen and you're dragging them all around, there's a 0% chance those are going to stay in the right spot if you have to kind of hide something or cut out a chunk later and you redo a part and you're like, oh, I can't I can't set these windows all up the exact same way. So, like, minimize everything that you don't need on the screen. I think another thing is, like, when you're recording, if you have if if you know the structure of your video and you know where you're gonna switch between, like, talking head and screen or you're gonna change what's showing on the screen, you can start to, like, while you're recording, basically do some of the editing work just mentally.
Aaron
00:50:48 – 00:51:08
And that's by thinking, okay, I know for this portion of the video, it's just me, just full on, full screen talking head. I got to nail this part. Right? Because what I don't like to see, I don't like to see the YouTube style where every 2 and a half seconds is a cut. Like, that I'm maybe I'm too old, but that I find that distracting.
Aaron
00:51:08 – 00:51:35
And, like, I want to see, you know, 15, 30 seconds, a minute of, like, just talk to me and tell me exactly what's going on. Don't, like, chop it altogether. And so if it's a big talking head, I know, all right, I gotta nail this part. Maybe it's 30 seconds and maybe it takes me 6 tries, but I would rather do the 6 tries than spend 10 minutes in editing, trying to, you know, chop out all my mistakes. I'd rather just be like, forget that.
Aaron
00:51:35 – 00:52:00
I'm just gonna do it again. Because at that point, I know what I'm gonna say. I just have to do it without flubbing, and I can do that for 30 seconds. And then when I'm, you know, when you're recording the screen, I like to just just record in chunks as much as possible. So I know what, like, when I get to my next signpost, like, my next point that I'm about to transition, I can just kinda stop there for a second and know that I got that last chunk down.
Aaron
00:52:00 – 00:52:11
Like, I nailed it. And I can just stop there and think, like, okay. I know what my transition is. I know where I'm going. And if I'm on the screen, like, if my face is on screen, I just hold still.
Aaron
00:52:11 – 00:52:20
It looks insane, but I just hold super still, and I'm like, okay. The next thing is this. Alright. And here we go. And I start, like, that chunk or that part, the next part.
Aaron
00:52:21 – 00:52:50
If I'm not on screen, it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier to just edit the screen without your face on video because you don't notice jumps whatsoever. And so doing a lot of that thought upfront, like, makes the editing process really easy. And then there are several technical ways to cover edits and make it seem like it was all one consistent take. And those those are the best because then, like, it's not it doesn't feel like you did any editing at all.
Aaron
00:52:50 – 00:52:59
It just feels like, oh, now they're switching back to the screen. And now he's gonna explain something with his hands, and now he's switching back to the screen, and it just feels very, very smooth.
Amanda
00:53:00 – 00:53:02
Now he's gonna explain something with his hands.
Aaron
00:53:03 – 00:53:04
Yes. I do that a lot.
Amanda
00:53:05 – 00:53:16
You know, they say about people that gesticulate a lot, their brain is working so fast, and they can't get the words out of their mouth fast enough. So I think it's a sign of intelligence if you're gesticulating.
Aaron
00:53:16 – 00:53:17
I love that.
Amanda
00:53:18 – 00:53:19
Yeah, let's just go with that. Okay.
Aaron
00:53:19 – 00:53:21
It's good for me. So yeah, I agree.
Amanda
00:53:22 – 00:53:45
Cool. And I mean, I have a short checklist that I follow before we start recording any of these shows. And, yeah, just like minimizing windows and distractions and turning your phone off and headaches in your editing time. So you're talking about 10 minutes of editing. I'm sitting here thinking, oh, my gosh, that's super fast.
Aaron
00:53:46 – 00:54:08
Yeah. I mean, the process is crazy if you do this, like, like, if you basically, if you spread the load over recording and editing, then you get to the editing part. And the first thing you do is you look at all of, like you look at the entire video and you can see, like, the waveforms and you see where it gets silent. And you just go in and you're like, oh, that was a bad take. Jump to the next one.
Aaron
00:54:08 – 00:54:21
Oh, that was a bad take. Oh, here's the good take. And I chop all of it out. And so you do this rough cut pass where you're like, alright, take you know, it's usually the last take because why would I do another take if that one was good? So I jumped to, like, the last take, and I'm like, there's the good chunk.
Aaron
00:54:21 – 00:54:30
There's a good chunk. There's a good chunk. All the rest of that garbage, I barely even watch it. And then I have those, like, 3 or 4 chunks, and I'm like, alright. Let's fine tune here.
Aaron
00:54:30 – 00:54:41
Oh, let's cover this little mistake here, and we're done. And so spreading that load over the recording and editing section just, just makes my life so much easier.
Amanda
00:54:42 – 00:54:46
Yeah, I mean, that is a great tip in and of itself to ensure that you're leaving adequate pauses.
Aaron
00:54:47 – 00:54:47
You
Amanda
00:54:47 – 00:54:57
know, when you know that you're gonna need to edit a section out. So, yeah, that's a great tip as well. I like that. I like the idea of going through and just doing a quick run, removing those. Yeah.
Amanda
00:54:57 – 00:54:59
Okay. That's great.
Aaron
00:54:59 – 00:55:17
And I I always encourage people to do the rough cut. I call it the rough cut pass. Do the rough cut immediately after you finish recording because it's still fresh on your mind. Like, oh, I know that this part I messed up. So I'm just gonna, like I'm gonna do the rough cut, and as you do it, you get you can kinda, like, watch it back.
Aaron
00:55:17 – 00:55:40
And maybe 1 out of 10 times, I decide, I just really didn't explain that very well. Like, that's just a bad video, but I'm still in the zone, right? I'm still in the mindset of this particular video. So I will do the rough cut and then not do the fine tuning or anything and move on to recording. But sometimes I do the rough cut, and I'm like, this is garbage.
Aaron
00:55:40 – 00:55:57
And I just rerecord the entire thing, and much better to decide that in the moment than a week later when you're like, alright. Now it's time to do all my editing. I'm free of recording, and you realize, oh, this was bad, but I really don't wanna record again. And so you leave the bad version. It's like, ah, shoot.
Aaron
00:55:57 – 00:56:03
So do the rough cut immediately after you're done recording. And if it's good enough, then you can move on to the next video.
Amanda
00:56:03 – 00:56:14
That's a great idea because it's so fresh and things move so much faster when they're fresh in your mind. And you have great self awareness too. I like that. You're always thinking about it from the the viewer and the customer's perspective.
Aaron
00:56:15 – 00:56:15
So as
Amanda
00:56:15 – 00:56:17
a customer, I appreciate that.
Aaron
00:56:17 – 00:56:39
Yeah. I just watched so many courses where it's or videos where they'll say something wrong, and then they, like, put the text on the screen of, hey. Wait. Actually, I meant to say this thing here. And I'm like, that I I totally understand that trade offs need to be made, but I just paid, like, $500 for your course, and you're you're pasting in text descriptions about how you messed up.
Aaron
00:56:39 – 00:56:57
I'm like, could you just have maybe reshot that one video? So that I just that's, you know, one of my opinions that I bring to this is, hey, I want if somebody is gonna buy a thing that I make, you better believe I'm gonna try to make it as good as I can. And sometimes that means redoing stuff.
Amanda
00:56:57 – 00:57:10
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Especially for things that you are selling for real dollars. I think there's a little bit more tolerance for error in humanity and just regular old Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter content. 100%.
Aaron
00:57:10 – 00:57:11
Yep.
Amanda
00:57:11 – 00:57:15
Different ballgame with the long form videos and anything you are asking people to pay for.
Aaron
00:57:15 – 00:57:17
So Yeah, I think so.
Amanda
00:57:17 – 00:57:35
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Aaron, and for sharing so much of your knowledge with us. If you, listener, make content online, do not skip this course. Go to screencasting.com and buy it now. It's like 3 or $400 and you'll save that much in a heartbeat on the equipment that Aaron recommends.
Amanda
00:57:36 – 00:57:44
And, Aaron, we're excited to see where your creator journey takes you next. I cannot wait to see what luck comes around the corner, in 2024
Aaron
00:57:46 – 00:57:54
for you. Where can our listeners find you online? First of all, thank you so much for having me. This has been super fun. I love talking about this kind of stuff.
Aaron
00:57:54 – 00:58:08
People can find me on Twitter at Aaron d Francis, d as in Daniel, or let's see, Aaron Francis dotcom, either place, but mostly mostly Twitter. That's where I spend, too much of my time.
Amanda
00:58:09 – 00:58:23
Alright. We'll give Aaron a follow, and we'll link all of these recommendations up in the show notes. And we know that time is precious. Thank you so much for sharing yours with us. LevelUp Creators exist to amplify the voice, reach, and impact of creators making a positive impact in the world.
Amanda
00:58:23 – 00:58:43
With your expertise as our focus, our team of strategists, marketers, sales pros, product developers, administrators, and tech gurus handle the heavy lifting of building and optimizing a profitable business that will transform your life for good. Subscribe to the show and check out welevelupcreators.com for more info and resources for creators just like you. See you next time on the Level Up Creators podcast.
Me

Thanks for reading! My name is Aaron and I write, make videos, and generally try really hard.

If you ever have any questions or want to chat, I'm always on Twitter.

You can find me on YouTube on my personal channel or the Try Hard Studios channel.

If you love podcasts, I got you covered. You can listen to me on Mostly Technical.