Why (LinkedIn) Live Video Is Easier Than You Think to Build Your Personal Brand: Get Confident and Go Live with Gillian Whitney

Are you camera shy? Do you shudder at the thought of appearing on video or a live video but know you need to be more visible with your personal brand?

Answer:

In this week's personal brand therapy session, my expert guest, Gillian Whitey, a LinkedIn Live Stream Strategist & Coach who helps B2B professionals use LinkedIn Live to leverage the power of live video to be discovered, noticed, and recognized on LinkedIn. 

Here latest book, "How to Feel More Comfortable on Camera" teaches you how to shatter imposter syndrome and truly embrace the power of live video on platforms like LinkedIn Live to build instant connection and reliability with your audience.

We discuss strategies, starting from getting comfortable on camera to repurposing your live streams for micro-content and how to take action for a more confident on-camera presence while building a strong personal brand.

LINKS
Connect with Gillian Whitney on LinkedIn
Gillians' Book on Amazon

Michelle B Griffin is a thought leadership-focused personal brand and PR strategist and founder of Standout Women Media who positions established women experts and authors into visible industry authorities.

If you're ready to up-level, a powerful personal & PR brand foundation are key. Become clear, confident, and cohesive in your branding, positioning, messaging, LinkedIn, and PR strategy in 30 days with my Visible Brand Authority Accelerator™.

Learn more MichelleBGriffin.com

WORK WITH ME: Launch Your Authority Brand in 30 Days
SPEAKING: Thought Leadership & Empowerment for Women
MY NEW BOOK: Sign Up for VIP Updates (Oct 15, 2024)
READ MY BOOK: The LinkedIn Branding Book
JOIN: My LinkedIn Branding Community
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, it is Michelle. Welcome to this week's episode, and this is just a quick take away on what to expect. My conversation with my guest, jillian Whitney, is all about how to be confident on camera, and I promise you you're going to get so much empowerment, actionable tips and strategies and we'll just absolutely adore Jillian. She is someone I've looked up to for several years now on how to do LinkedIn live streams. She's really here to help all of us get super confident and super comfortable on camera, and she does that with her LinkedIn easy peasy approach as well as her business appropriately named LinkedIn easy peasy. Now, one of the things I like about her is that she tells you to it straight, no fluff, and she recently published a book on how to be confident on camera all about imposter syndrome If you're an introvert. All the things that she actually faced herself I faced too, and if you face it, you can be very empowered to tackle it.

Speaker 1: 1:04

If you were wanting to get on video and you're just like me, my goodness, every time I try to do a video on myself, I overthink it, I scrutinize. We just overthink too much when we do our own videos, but when you get on a LinkedIn live or a live stream, you're having a conversation and it's just in the moment. It's so relatable, it's so real and, as I say in the show, in this stage of AI, we need more human connection. There is no faking a live stream Plus, there's many ways that you can use the content later to build your brand. You will find so much value from Jillian Whitney and her official title is LinkedIn live stream strategist and coach and that she is where she really helps me to be professionals. Use LinkedIn live to leverage the power of live video to be discovered, noticed and recognized on LinkedIn. So tune in to this quick, actionable and relatable episode, enjoy it and let me know what you think. All right, let's get going with today's show.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Hey there, it's the brand therapist, michelle B Griffin, and welcome to your weekly personal brand therapy session. This is the podcast that helps solo experts like you get unstuck and get on your way with a brand that takes your places. I'm super excited you're here. Now let's get going with today's session.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Welcome to the show everyone. I'm Michelle B Griffin, the brand therapist, and today we are tackling the problem of. I want to put myself out there but I am so scared to be on camera. So I want to welcome to the show my go to on how to be confident camera, jillian Whitney. Welcome to the show, jillian.

Speaker 3: 2:50

I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Absolutely, and you have some really timely news, exactly the topic we're going to talk about. Can you lift up what we're going to be talking about?

Speaker 3: 3:01

So I publish this wee little book called how to Feel More Comfortable on Camera and it's just a go to guide to help everybody get through the struggles that we have with being on camera, and three years ago I needed this book. It didn't exist, so I'm just trying to help people shorten the learning curve.

Speaker 1: 3:22

And you did and I love it. It's a quick read but it is so. It's everything you need and nothing you don't need. I'm all about let's just give me the foundation no fluff, and it nails it. So I highly recommend it. And I know that you said three years ago you needed it. There was nothing out there, but you know what I uncovered reading the book? Which people are gonna be blown away. That you truly consider yourself an extrovert. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 3: 3:46

But look at you, I'm an introvert introvert. Oh, I'm sorry, I meant introvert, introvert.

Speaker 1: 3:50

And hey, this is live, this is real, this is relatable. Made a big mistake Not editing that out introvert. You consider yourself an introvert which, looking at you, you're writing the book about it. That doesn't seem possible, jillian. What changed?

Speaker 3: 4:05

It's absolutely possible. And remember being an introvert and being an introvert is really about your energy level and do things like being on stage, being in front of people do they charge you or do they discharge you? And I have to like, totally come on and be a different person. When I'm live, I'm still the same person, but I have to change my energy and I have to be a lot more whoo than I normally would, just to push it. And I'm going to tell you a secret Even after doing lives for three years now, I still get nervous before a live and people are like, oh, it's got to be secondhand, like not a big deal. No, it's always a big deal, because anything can happen. And we still just feel like, oh, we're putting ourselves out there, but you do it anyways. You feel the fear and you do it anyway.

Speaker 1: 4:58

You fight through it. Yeah, and one of the beautiful things about your book it has so many amazing quotes, and not just the ones you've heard about, that everyone puts in social media. You got some really good ones to inspire you. So today is all about inspiring those on the sidelines who want to put themselves out there. I think it's obvious. While we know getting on camera and video is important, right, but let's break down LinkedIn live. That's what really pushed me out of my comfort zone in 2021. My whole year of saying I'm PYOT.

Speaker 1: 5:27

I decided to post every day in LinkedIn, but I knew I needed to take it up a notch and so I said I'm going to start a LinkedIn live stream show. Do you remember a couple of years ago you had to apply and get approved. Yeah, that was like the barrier was smart, but now anyone with 150 connections or something in U-turn and crater mode has this. It's all the level playing field. So I remember I know you were recently on Michelle Raymond's show and you talked about all the things and she talked about her big flub up Her first show. She actually gave people the guest link to join and same thing happened to me, but I lived to tell it and it just makes us human and real and chatting. Pre-show. You and I both agreed yes, video is important, but why do we love live streams so much? Let's talk about that and encourage more people to do it.

Speaker 3: 6:17

First of all, it's so forgiving. It's so forgiving it's and it's connecting and people get to see who you really are. So, if we put it in a brand perspective of what you do, michelle, you think about it and it's every time you go live. You can't outsource me, I can't have somebody else. Why don't you just step in and be me for today and make me look really good? I have to show up and be the expert that I am and be able to talk about it intelligently and forgive myself that occasionally I'm going to goof up and I'm going to say you know what? I don't really remember that stat and it allows people to Overly said get to know and trust you and that's what I like about Alive. You're being you and you have permission to be the human side.

Speaker 1: 7:10

And that's exactly what the right people are drawn to us. And I believe in this day and age, with the advent of chat, GPD and generative AI, everything can be just a flick of a button. This keeps our humanity intact, and I think we need to work this in this day and age and I'm not knocking anyone who uses Ghostwriters. People use Ghostwriters. You never know what's the real them. We hope it's the real them, but there is no lying. You are real and hopefully super relatable. So let's break into some of the parts of the book where you really just say here's how to do it. You walk us through it. So if anyone's listening today because my whole mission mantra is to put yourself out there and prosper in so many levels let's talk about how we can encourage them, fast track them on LinkedIn Lives.

Speaker 3: 7:57

So the first thing is just say yes to the grand experiment and know that people will be rooting for you, and it doesn't matter whether you have a huge audience or you have a small audience. You said it a minute ago you need 150 connections, followers, whatever we choose to call them and you can go live from your company page or you can go live from your personal profile, and I always tell people start with a baby step, and maybe your baby step is when I work with my clients. I tell them to do this. Go live to YouTube and do it privately so that you know how to work the tech, Because I've seen people go live and they've got a beautiful overlay up and they went live and they didn't add themselves to the live stream. So they're sitting down there in the bottom in the green room and they're going. Why is no one hearing me? Because you didn't know how to work the tech. You had all the enthusiasm but you didn't really know what to do yet. So that's the first step Go live in private.

Speaker 3: 9:02

If you're a Facebook person, go live to your Facebook group, Start small in a safe space and then move up. But if you have a small audience and say you just want to go live on LinkedIn, set an intention of what you want to talk about, Because you don't want to just get on and ramble, you want to go in and have a purpose. So get that one idea and maybe you want to go pick a book. Pick a book. I could go live and talk about my book and just say, hey, I launched this book, here's why I wrote this book. That one idea go live and do it. So those are the kind of things. But we talked earlier and the nice thing about going live is that you can repurpose those lives. And then you have micro content. You have micro videos. So think about it. You could go live for 30 minutes and get 20 videos out of it that are short form and you've got content for a couple of months.

Speaker 1: 9:56

It's great, absolutely. I call it the top of the content food chain. It just all trickles down from there, and then you and I both this is actually a live recording of Ask the Brand Therapist I put it on the podcast platforms. I know you do the same. I think you recently just started. You didn't always put yours to a podcast, right. No, I did it a year ago. I did it a year ago and I figured, ok, take a theme.

Speaker 3: 10:19

I didn't do all my lives, I went back through all of my lives and then I just went OK, this all represents LinkedIn Easy Peasy, because it's the LinkedIn Easy Peasy podcast. And then I just went ahead and I set them to the date of when they were actual lives and pushed them all out and it was like a great way to have a podcast. Just boom, I just got it going and it was fantastic. No-transcript. I have a system I go live on this day, publish the podcast the next day, do an audiogram. It's all worked out. So I don't have to think anymore, it's all just easy peasy.

Speaker 1: 10:53

You have a strategy. You could actually write a whole another book on how the technical stuff like your first book, it's all about the empowerment and some high-level things. You have so many ideas Just right here. I know it could be another book, but I'm going to encourage you and I did this too do your LinkedIn Lies, but also download your videos right away. Put them in Google Drive or whatever, because I know StreamYard only lets you have so many hours. I also bookmark them or copy the links to all my LinkedIn lives so I can go back and get them. I also put mine I haven't done this entirely yet, but I linked to them on the training page on my website, so I'll just link straight to that and also in the show notes, because this will be a podcast.

Speaker 1: 11:31

I just linked this to my show notes so people can watch us. So there's so many ways, because another thing is, people learn differently. Of course they want to hear us, but we've just been a little bit more accessible now to make an audio and then we'll have the transcript, so I want to really plug the accessibility. I think this should be doing captions as well. Now, here we are in live time. I'm going to ask you this question. Am I seeing the captions or will they be back on the reply? Jillian, I cannot remember.

Speaker 3: 11:59

The captions are going to be live on LinkedIn and, I believe, on YouTube, but I actually have never gone back and watched live while I'm doing a live on YouTube. But I know on LinkedIn they will automatically see the captions because we're speaking in English, I think. If you are a different language, that doesn't happen. The captions will be there. We can't edit them. That's the only thing. They're going to be auto-corruption, but they're better than nothing. They're better than nothing.

Speaker 3: 12:25

And then YouTube, of course, if you co-stream to YouTube, you will get the captions there as well. They'll both close captions in both instances, which is just brilliant and it's nice, because on LinkedIn I like to bring, I go one extra step in that I do LinkedIn articles and I do here's all of my guests, and so I take for the month here's my guests, and then I go ahead and embed the YouTube because I I co-stream to YouTube. So I embed that video into my LinkedIn article and the captions appear and it's embedded and they can watch it and they don't leave LinkedIn. It's all in one nice tiny little article so smart.

Speaker 1: 13:06

You have so many helpful tips. That's why I love we're talking empowerment, we're talking strategy and we're talking the tactics and the tips. I love that. So, yeah, we've just given you some really high in ways to use LinkedIn lives. And I want to talk about one thing that really this isn't like something we can change. But I don't want people to think, oh, I don't have a big audience or I have to have all these people Like, I am positioning this live recording as a live recording, my podcast.

Speaker 1: 13:32

So the first few I did, I just called them a pop-up. I'm not concerned that I have all the people in the world listening. And there's another way to do it. You can have a LinkedIn live show where you're having Q and A, bring the questions, but because we're recording the podcast, it's virtually impossible for me to chat with you, give you my full attention and then talk. But I encourage people like please come or catch the replay and share your insights about it. Let us know it's an audience interaction, but we just not going to be able to interact in live time. So what's your take on some of the ways that people can do these things, depending on their strategies?

Speaker 3: 14:09

I think exactly what you're doing. Everybody has to go and do this in the way that works best for them, and the nice thing is we can go back in now afterwards and we can address every single comment. That's. The nice thing about doing this as a LinkedIn live is that people can come and watch the replay. So I personally will be monitoring these comments till the end of time. I will make sure that I am going back in and responding to comments and letting people know I heard you. I'll answer your questions. I encourage people to go to these lives and network with other people, because this is a way for you to build your own brand by just being an audience member, because if you're showing up at a live and other people are there, that you share a common interest, because you're here for the same topic and so you can get to know each other. You can connect with other people through live. So it's a wonderful experience for the attendees and, of course, for the guest and for the host as well. So many great things.

Speaker 1: 15:09

I have always said LinkedIn lives and LinkedIn audios for that matter One of the best ways to go in the circles of fishing holes you want to see, be seen and see the people you're here to see because you're sharing a common thing and that's a good point to bring. If you said this earlier, you want a LinkedIn live stream. It's really probably to your best advantage to have some kind of theme, premise, topic, and the more specific or problem oriented the better. Like I titled this one, how to be more confident on camera.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Okay, now, that's probably a huge problem that many people have, and so if we just say I'm going to do a live stream on marketing that could be so many things I don't think that's going to get the level of engagement. I always say specificity sells right, it sells the attention and sells the engagement and sells the curiosity. So what are some of your best ways if you were wanting to get out there? So what are some higher level things that people can do to catch their and we're talking personal brands here? What are some of the tips that, when you're working with clients on LinkedIn lives, what are some of the best tips you give them for building their brand through LinkedIn lives?

Speaker 3: 16:14

The first one is identifying who are you going, who's your audience, who are you going live for? And even if you begin, I'll tell you quite honestly the first time I went live, nobody came. It's just me. It was just me and my friend. I called a friend and nobody came. And if I had said I'm never going to go live again, I didn't get a great audience and nobody commented, nobody even liked it. It was like maybe I got one and you just keep going.

Speaker 3: 16:42

But I think first of all figure out and it's like any marketing tactic and like in your wonderful book, your wonderful the LinkedIn branding book, you guys nailed it where it's know who your target audience is, because you are not going live to everyone on LinkedIn, you are going live to the people that will resonate for you, that you resonate for. So I always have that ideal client, that ideal person you want to help on the other side of the video really helps you not be uncomfortable, because then you're focused on them and less focused on you. So know your ideal client and then also to figure out what do you want to accomplish with what you're doing. Do you just want to do occasional pop up lives or do you want to have a regular weekly show, monthly show? Do you want to turn it into a podcast? Because if you do that, you're going to go with different sets of goals, because you're going to record for the year.

Speaker 3: 17:41

I record for the year and I don't like my guests to come on and start showing PowerPoints because then I'm thinking that's not going to work on a podcast. So you need to know those goals in advance. And then the last thing is set what your intention is in when will you be showing up and make that commitment? Whether you say, okay, I'm going to own Wednesday 10am, that's my time. I started in Israel at eight o'clock on Tuesday night but I knew it would work well for people in the United States. Then, when I came back from Israel to the United States, 10am was a lot better. I own that little corner of the internet.

Speaker 1: 18:24

I love that and I think Wednesdays at noon was my time back in 2021. And here I am again. It took me like a few weeks to get pivot back to getting there, but I'm booking now out to the rest of the year with my guests and I'm really excited about that. It's just quick 30 minutes and we've talked about this. But just to interject this, for personal branding, it is so much easier for me to just show up live and talk than I have tried and cringed on just trying to record videos on my iPhone and me.

Speaker 1: 18:52

I will overjudge, overanalyze. I'm a perfectionist, so this helps me get rid of my perfectionism route. So I'm forced to do it. I'm forced to end the moment and it's forgiving and people don't expect you to be perfect. We're not YouTube perfect videos. Here we're two people talking and hopefully our energy bubbles up. That's the intended way to get it and I think the more energy you can bring. I think the guest selection is really good. Like, how do you gauge when you interview people they're going to be good on live? If you ever had guests I don't think you probably want to say this too much, but what do you have? A guest who just like the deer in the headlight or falls flat. Has that ever happened to you and how do you get out of?

Speaker 3: 19:31

that I've never had that. I've never had that, and that's because I'm choosy. Choosy mothers choose Jeff. I'm the same way. I'm very choosy about who I have on my show. I have a very clear parameters of what I'm looking for in terms of how will they benefit my audience. I know who my audience is and if they're not a good fit for my audience then I won't have them on, no matter how wonderful they are.

Speaker 3: 19:58

I don't care about the size of their network. I have had a lot of people that just had teeny, teeny little networks. I've had a lot of first timers and they've never even done a live before. But I use it as an educational tool and I get them comfortable. But what I will do is, first of all, I either have to know them personally, so I have to have maybe met them on Zoom and had some sort of session with them just to get to know you thing and or if I can go and see their videos, so if I can go see that you seem very personable and I could envision chatting with you, and if I feel like I can do that, then they do well, and I've never, ever had a guess that I went. Oh my gosh, this will this ever end.

Speaker 1: 20:45

Because you really do have to do your homework, because it is live and we've all been in the real world faced with people that you have a conversation and just it's a one-sided thing. They're just not engaging for whatever reason. So I really think that is important. I get pitched a lot on my web, on my podcast, rather, and I've repos. I have a guest form.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Now it's hey, I'm looking for expert guests, but can you solve a personal branding problem? And I do have them. Show me some of the stuff, if I've never met them before, because there are people who believe it or not, their pitching is maybe not that good, but what they're bringing to the table but you're so right, I don't care that you're did this and this. Most pitches are horrible because the person talks about how great they are and it's not relatable and it's not relatable to my audience and the problem I'm trying to solve. So that's another part of the LinkedIn Live experience. People are going to try to hit you up to get on your show, but you have to have real good parameters on what you want to let on the show, because that's your brand overall.

Speaker 1: 21:41

And every impression matters. Okay, so we're on LinkedIn Live. We're doing our thing. What are some of the drawing from the book which is so good? What are some of the other ways that you're we're gonna help our ideal listener, the person who wants to live stream? How else we? What's the next step and what are the ways to get out there? Let's say, let's challenge them in the next month, let's take that first step to get out there. What would you say?

Speaker 3: 22:05

I'd say just set an intention, set a goal that you want to just do this as an experiment, and what I would suggest is, if you feel called to do a live, start Becoming a student of other people's lives. Go to watch lives like this, take notes and say this is what I like, this is what. Look at the formula, reverse engineer it. How does Michelle introduce her guess? What does she do? How much are they talking together? Go and make notes and start to look at the shows that you like and and as if I like interviews some people. They just get on and they screen share and they do different things.

Speaker 3: 22:47

Go see what you like and then just say how could I do this with my expertise? And just know Everybody has a message and is waiting for you and push past your fears because, sitting on the sidelines, they're gonna choose someone else and that's probably what got me going on. Doing lives is. I saw other people Doing it and I didn't like the way they were doing it and I thought they're not helpful. I will be more helpful, I will make it more fun, and that's been my goal is just to make it fun, serve my audience and create value.

Speaker 1: 23:31

And it comes through so well. I do like how you mentioned that in the book and you're so right, and that's why I do what I do to help people who are on the sidelines, who have that mission, the burning desire to get out there, to better themselves, better on themselves. We can't know you unless you get out there and you've got to choose your way. You may be listening this and saying this is great, michelle and Jillian, but this is never for me, and that's okay too, because we're just giving you options and telling you if this is the way you want to put yourself out there, you want to put yourself out there. At the end of the day, you should try it.

Speaker 1: 24:00

I always say you should try something three times, maybe, maybe LinkedIn lives. Three times would be a stretch, but at least once in this context, because you don't know. It's like saying I don't like a food and sometimes we try and, oh, I just thought I didn't like it, but I really like it, it's not so bad. So you got to try because you don't know and, in your case, we are so glad you took that step three years ago, so that was in 2020. You started this, jillian. Yes, you're been out of this like way more in three years. You're so pro. You were probably a pro when you started, but you've just refined it and I know you're gonna be speaking overseas about it and uplift live, so it has gotten you on bigger stages as well, see, thank you.

Speaker 3: 24:39

Yeah, it does, and I think that's the thing. There's nothing that will make you more visible on, faster than go that, faster than doing video and, to be honest with you, linkedin lives are a lot easier than LinkedIn videos. Just saying so, if you want the easy peasy route, just go live. It's amazing.

Speaker 1: 25:00

Just go live. You need to make a shirt, just go live. You need some merch? Yes, exactly, I'll give you credit.

Speaker 3: 25:06

I'll give you a credit.

Speaker 1: 25:07

Yes, I want one. I definitely want one. I couldn't be happier for your book. Do you want to hold it up again so people can see the cover? Yep. There we go, and I think it's international Amazon rights, not just yeah, all the bases and again, it's just another thing having little books and stuff like that.

Speaker 3: 25:24

It's just another people, a way for people to get to know and trust you. But this is a baby book because we need to not overthink this, and that's why it is a short read, because you should just read it and Then get on with it, because we all have a message to share. Doing video gets you in front of the people that you can help and if you don't do it, your Competitors are so get busy.

Speaker 1: 25:49

We are so in the same page and what we do, so this is a perfect segue to each episode, each personal brainy therapy session. I have an action, do it thing. And for you, what is the one thing you want listeners to do? To take action to get over their fear and become more confident on camera.

Speaker 3: 26:08

Just say yes. Just say yes and think about you.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Give yourself permission to go change the world and we're giving you permission today, right now too and I'm gonna add to because I love your tip about going to do the homework you can go to the event tab, your event tab on your profile. You It'll be on the left hit events and you will see the ones you've said yes to, and there's a whole World of LinkedIn events there. So go, that's where you can go, find all the events You're like where do I find the events? That's where they are and Start bookmarking the ones you like so you can come back and check. But that is the best way to start. Do a little bit of research. But I want to caution you because I'm an over researcher. Don't let that stop. You Don't just said I'm researching and that's all you ever do. Take action.

Speaker 1: 26:55

So, julianne so we couldn't be more thrilled that you took action and you are here with us. You wrote that book for us, so thank you again for that. I encourage everyone to check out Jillian. If you are not following her, go follow her.

Speaker 3: 27:07

Tell us again when your shows are on LinkedIn live every Tuesday morning at 10 am Pacific, which I think if you do the math, you'll figure out your time zone.

Speaker 1: 27:18

Yeah, exactly, but. And you'll have it at the replay and then, if you don't want to really watch it the beautiful thing too you can also have it Podcast form and all the major podcasts. So check it out, go follow her. You're gonna learn something every time you see her. She is the epitome of just class and grace and just teaching everybody so many good things.

Speaker 1: 27:37

So, that being said, I just want to thank you all for listening today and, if you would like to be in a future ask a brand therapist show, if you have a question you want me to answer, I have links and I'll put them on again in the show notes so you can submit a question and I'm gonna live time, support you on my podcast. If you're an expert guest that can solve a personal branding question, we would love to interview you. So put that in there and those links. You'll find it. But, that being said, I just want to say keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share and people to impact. I'll be back next week with another guest. Thanks again, everyone. I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2: 28:15

Bye, bye. That's a wrap for today's brand therapy session. Need help with your personal branding journey? Then head on over to the brand therapists I owe and grab my free resources to get going today with your brand and, until next time, keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share and people to impact. Take care everyone. I'll talk to you soon.