Confidence & Communication: Mike Allton

[1:11] Together, we can go live!

[1:13] Ian: Hello and welcome back to the confident live marketing podcast. This season is all about confidence and communication journeys. We're all on a journey. The first time I ever went in front of the camera was pretty embarrassing. It's still out there somewhere and you can find out but you know, we were all progressing and we're all learning things every time.

[1:31] And that's what this is. Season is all about because we've all got a message. We've all got something that we want to communicate in our businesses. And sometimes it's that lack of confidence or that struggle with communication that can get in the way. I'm really excited to bring back my friend, Mike Alton.

[1:47] He was on the show in the last season talking about his studio and he is been creating content, video content and podcasts and blogs for a very long time. Mike. Welcome back. It's great to have you here. So you've been doing this for a while, and I know you talked about this a little bit in the last episode, but tell us what you, when you first started to create video or podcast content.

[2:11] Tell us when you first started, blogging and writing content and then how long it was before you started to create audio and video content. And just tell us a little bit about your, your background and your content creation journey.

[2:23] Mike: Yeah. So I started the social media hat in 2011 and I started it because I've been writing about social media for my web development company before then. And that company and that content wasn't getting an attraction, but I discovered I really enjoy teaching people how to use social media and I was teaching people how to use Hootsuite in particular back then.

[2:43] So I started writing about Hootsuite in 2011 and within the first year or so That a lot of that content in that blog, I got asked to speak to a group of attorneys on how to use Hootsuite for social media. And that was my first time delivering any kind of content over video. And I freaked the heck out.

[3:04] I am an introvert. I wasn't comfortable speaking in front of people. I hadn't done much of that. In my career, I've been mostly an it guy and a salesperson. So I had some familiarity with speaking to people. I'd actually had a lot of sales training in a previous life, really selling swimming pools and hot tubs, but getting on camera and talking to people was not something I'd ever done before.

[3:26] And it was terrifying to me. Absolutely terrifying. Plus to be in front of attorneys. Oh, it was not something that I would have normally said, yeah, I should go do that. But. They offered to pay me money. So I said, okay, I'll go ahead and do that. So that was in 2012, if I recall correctly. And over the next few years, you'll remember one of the hot social platforms at the time was Google plus.

[3:51] And for those of you listening, you might not have even heard of Google plus, but. You also might not know that they were one of the very first pioneers when it came to live video, the Google plus hangouts on air were revolutionary at the time, there was no other place you could go and connect to multiple people on a video at the same time and have them.

[4:12] Broadcasting live to a social network and seeing comments come in. We take that for granted today because it's built into all the social platforms were back then that wasn't the case. There was no Facebook live. There was no LinkedIn live. There weren't a lot of other platforms. Blab came along.

[4:27] Later, some of the other platforms came along later, but Google plus was this place, this platform where people could create content on video. And I recognized early on how powerful that was. And it wasn't so much me creating my own content on video as it was me coming on other people's shows, Mia Val.

[4:47] Is a great example. She was doing a regular Friday show. There were others as well who were doing regular shows eventually social media examiners are doing their own regular weekly show talking about content that related to their audience. And I started becoming a guest on these shows. And that was my first kind of foray into becoming more comfortable on camera was as a guest on these shows.

[5:11] Ian: Yeah. I remember the Google Plus days. And so I think that was probably my first experience getting in front of the camera. And I was petrified. I remember somebody asking me to come onto a Google Plus show, Google Hangouts on it. And I was. I had high levels of anxiety. So let's go back.

[5:28] And it's so funny, because like we're doing this all the time. And it's not to say, that we don't get nervous. Still today, I still get nervous, I still have, a little bit of that level of anxiety, but nowhere near what it was like back then. Can you've mentioned that time with the attorneys, has there been like another time, getting in front of the camera when you've really struggled with?

[5:48] confidence or, that voice in your head that's telling you, I don't know, negative things like, you're going to make a fool of yourself, has there been any challenges that you can remember and how did you overcome those things? Because you obviously did because you're, you're doing it all the time now.

[6:02] Mike: What you mean like last week

[6:04] Ian: yeah.

[6:04] Mike: I still struggle with this to your point. I have accustomed myself to being on camera, to speaking to people. I have trained myself. I have gone through courses and challenges and that sort of thing. And I've also just gotten to the point where my mind. Can fight those inner demons and fight that imposter syndrome.

[6:26] But literally a week ago, I was interviewing someone from Tik TOK on a live broadcast. So there was a lot of anxiety going into that. There's the normal anxieties of, Oh crap, this is a live broadcast. A lot can go wrong and things do go wrong. I even actually posted about this to social media because I thought it was so apropos.

[6:45] This was a live webinar show that I do for Agorapulse on the Martech show. And we were interviewing one of tick tocks agency team leaders. So this was an important show. We had hundreds of people who'd registered for this webinar and that particular show, we were simulcasting into our private Facebook group.

[7:03] So we were using a stream yard to push that signal into sequel, which is our webinar platform and a Facebook group. Both of those were using RTMP signals. And the moment I went live. Stream yard threw up a warning and error message in my face that said, one of the streams broke. And I was in the midst of delivering my opening dialogue, which I do for all these shows.

[7:26] I set the stage for everyone. Then I bring on the guests and proceed from there. So I had to keep going and speaking this opening dialogue for a good 60, 120 seconds before I could interview the guests, ask the first question, bring them on camera and then look to see what the heck had just gone wrong. I share that to say, these are the normal things that happen when we're doing video production, unless you're just bidding yourself in your studio and it's not live and you could just do take it to take, if it's any kind of a live recording, stuff will happen, stuff will go wrong.

[7:56] And. The first lesson that I want to share is just to realize things will go wrong. The more often you do it, the more comfortable you'll be, the more experience you'll have dealing with those kinds of issues. In this case, I knew I'm still recording. So worst case scenario, we didn't go live in the webinar.

[8:14] We didn't go live in the group, but I'm still recording and I can share this video. Afterwards that went through my brain, that thought within moments, because I'd been there, I'd done that before I'd had those kinds of issues before it turns out it was the Facebook group that broke because Facebook groups suck.

[8:29] And so we were still broadcasting to the webinar, which is where the bulk of the audience was. So that was fine. But I think the other big key is to get started, try to put yourself in positions where you can be as successful as possible. Don't agree to talk about, or don't ask to talk about things that you're not very knowledgeable about. The more successful I am, it's because I'm talking about topics I've talked about before, or I've written about before. Writing is a fantastic preparer, by the way. For this kind of presentation, because if you write, you are forcing yourself to think about that topic and put those thoughts into words that are written out, whether you publish it or not, doesn't really matter, but that exercise is a thought exercise Ann Hanley talks about this a lot.

[9:14] That's why she's so anti AI for writing. Not that she has anything about against artificial intelligence, but if you're using the AI to create the content, that means you're not really going through the active part of thinking and putting your own perspectives into it.

[9:26] Ian: That's really interesting. You're tempting me down a rabbit hole, Mike, here. Oh my goodness, with that one, because that's an interesting one about the AI thing, because I totally agree with that on that. But I sometimes will use AI to help me think in terms of brainstorming. So I'll have a conversation with AI to try and I've got all this mangle of kind of thoughts.

[9:46] And I have a conversation. So I think that can help. But I think yes, the idea of writing things down is I know it's served you really well, and we think with video that it's completely different to writing. I think you do need to do that planning. That planning stage is so important. And thank you for being honest, because I think most of us still have that level of anxiety.

[10:08] I still have that today, even though it's a lot easier because I'm doing it more often and I'm more experienced. And perhaps We're just mad, Mike, because, I can only speak for myself here, but you'd think we, we would just hire somebody to do all the the producing for us, so we don't need to worry about the RTMP going down.

[10:26] But no, we do it all ourselves, don't we? Because we love the stress. So you do have the option you could like, you could get somebody else to do that, but on the other hand, I think it's important to, to understand all the nuts and bolts to understand how everything is working in the same way that I think it's a good idea to edit your own podcast to begin with before you farm it out to somebody else so that you understand what it is that you're wanting to do.

[10:50] To do. I know I've said a lot of things. Am I any thoughts on what I've just said?

[10:54] Mike: No, I couldn't agree more. I would rather not be doing all the live production when I'm also the one hosting and moderating and speaking. In fact, when we had a previous show at Agorapulse, I volunteered to be the remote live producer for that show so that the host could focus on being the host and interviewing the guests.

[11:11] But now that I'm doing most of the video shows at Agorapulse and most of the podcasts, I just do it all. I do find that it's a little bit easier where I know what I have, Control over, not just in the live setting but in the setup. And that gives me a bit of additional confidence, right?

[11:27] I'm not doubting that A, B, and C have been done. I've got a checklist. I know personally they've been done. I'm the one who set them up. I know that I set up the RTMP servers and I know what those are, which is an important part of going live today. You may not always be live streaming directly to a social platform that accepts it.

[11:43] Sometimes. Particularly in business, we have situations where we need to think about a creative solution to a problem because maybe the tools don't do exactly what we do. And this is a great example. The webinar platform that we're using has a studio and I tried it once and it didn't do everything I wanted it to do.

[12:00] I wasn't able to replicate a lot of the things that I wanted to be able to do to make the kind of content that I wanted to create. Bringing in videos on the fly and changing camera angles and doing these kinds of things that I'm used to be doing. Cause like I said, I've been doing video production now for many years, but I knew that I could use a different live studio.

[12:18] Platform in that case, StreamYard and broadcast it in via RTMP. Ecamm could do the exact same thing. So having that knowledge gives you the ability to troubleshoot the ability to create creative workarounds, but also that confidence to know that things are actually going to work the way that you intend them to work.

[12:38] Most of the time.

[12:39] Ian: Yeah. Most of the time. And that's the key, isn't it? So what is the difference between Mike back in, say, when was it? 2012, 2013, whatever it was that first time getting in front of the camera. This might not be the case. Has there been like a pivotal moment or a decision that's helped you with your confidence or has it just been, you've just kept on going, you plodded along and now modern day Mike is a lot more confident.

[13:01] Yeah, there's still that level of anxiety, particularly when things go wrong. But yeah how would you compare yourself and has there been any kind of pivotal moments that has helped you with your confidence journey?

[13:13] Mike: There's three things that I'm thinking about as an answer to this question. One difference, not a pivotal moment, just one difference between now and back then was that I'm able to convey and broadcast confidence far better than I ever was, whether I'm feeling it or not. I convey Confidence and I do that on purpose because most of the time I'm the one doing the interviewing and I want my guests to be calm and most of the time my guests are not calm.

[13:40] Most of the time I'm interviewing people who have never been interviewed before. That's their first time coming onto a live show or a podcast and they're understandably anxious. I have been in their shoes. So I have trained myself To be calm, to speak with a low, slow voice and to convey confidence and not freak out even if something is going wrong because I know better.

[14:01] And it was funny because I do that so well. I have a cohost on the Martech show. Robin diamond, who's fantastic. She had no idea until recently that. I feel stress and anxiety going into these live broadcasts still to this day. She's you don't look at, you don't sound it. I'm like thank you.

[14:17] I don't want to sound freaking out when I'm bringing on a new guest to this show, because how's that going to make them feel they're going to be freaking out. So that's one big difference. I think over time,

[14:27] Ian: Yeah. Yeah it's so just to interrupt that it's almost treading water, like you're in swimming, you might seem like you're not doing any, there's no stress there, but underneath you can go, ah, it's a bit like that. Maybe I don't know.

[14:38] Mike: Like that. There's definitely that, duck treading water, whatever that analogy is. Cause there's a lot going on, whether you're just doing an interview or just doing a recording, or you're doing a live broadcast, the complexity goes up and up each time.

[14:50] The stress level goes up accordingly. So I still feel stress and anxiety when I'm going into those scenarios. Another thing that's changed over time is as I've gotten more experience speaking to people, whether it's on camera or in person. It's given me an awareness that this is something that I can do well.

[15:09] And it's not necessarily something that I trained for. I have to be transparent here. I have some innate skill in being able to speak to people clearly. I'm able to enunciate. I'm not feeling every sentence with ums and ahs and other kinds of filler words, as I'm thinking, I have some skill at being able to communicate in a relatively clear way.

[15:30] And. The recognition of that fact has given me confidence to be able to Come on camera or go on stage and know that I will be able to do that kind of thing again. And that was the final key point for me was I don't remember what year, but I was in Lima, Ohio at Jessica Phillips event, social media week Lima.

[15:50] And I went on stage for that event, big stage, hundreds of people in the audience and delivered what I was told was a fantastic presentation. Months later, I went through a training exercise that where you think about what makes you nervous in this case We're talking about coming on camera or speaking or both and you think about a time in the past when you've done it really well. So my case it was social media week Lima. I delivered a flawless presentation Received a fantastic ovation. It was not just audience of marketing professionals, there were peers and colleagues in the audience, other speakers, in the back watching and cheering me on and, congratulating me afterwards, that sort of thing.

[16:33] So you think about that thing that you've done in the past, that instance where you did it really well. And you go through this concept and this exercise called anchoring, where you program yourself when you get nervous doing a similar thing in the future to be able to think back to that time and to be able to channel that success and turn that into confidence for the next time you're going to, in this case, come on camera.

[16:57] Ian: That's fantastic advice. Because so often that, that part of the brain can Just feed us lies. So if you're saying to the, saying to that part of the brain, actually look, I did a really good job back then. It's you're channeling that confidence that you had back then. I've I had some advice a while back about personifying or coming up with a personality of your anxiety.

[17:18] So for me, my anxiety is a librarian called Lawrence and he wants the best for me, but he. He wants to protect me and for example, I was speaking at an event this week and I was having all this anxiety thinking it was going to go really badly and all this kind of stuff, imposter syndrome, and I realized that all I needed to do is say to Lawrence, it's all right, we've done this before I've spoke at events and they've gone really well.

[17:42] And it's the same in front of the camera to we've done this before. And what's the worst that's going to happen? So it's I think, I think that's really important, thinking about what you just said, thinking about a time in the past when things have gone well, and you've been told, so you've been told by people that was an amazing speech that you gave.

[18:01] Yeah, I think that's a really important thing. Now, you mentioned before, Mike, that you would call yourself an introvert. I want you to talk about personality, because we've all got different personalities And perhaps introvert, extrovert, bold and shy, those are very we're putting people in boxes and I think it's a sliding scale.

[18:19] But how does your personality affect the way you turn up on camera? And what have you learned about yourself through this process of getting in front of the camera?

[18:31] Mike: Oh, this is a great question. Because. One of the key truths about presenting, whether you're in person or on camera, is that you have to exaggerate everything you have to exaggerate your voice, your body language, your energy, you have to deliver more energy because this is going to sound a little woo woo, but the energy that you're projecting needs to go into the audience so that they feel it and they intake it.

[18:56] And that's going to get them to pay more attention to you. And the words that you're saying, if you come on camera and you're just Soft spoken. You're not even necessarily making eye contact and you're just delivering some interesting words. I might put you to sleep. This could be a great AMSR video, but it's not going to impact the audience the way that I might want or the way that you might want if that's your intention.

[19:20] So that means you have to realize, understand that you have to show up with more energy than you Normally would in real life. And that's been a real shift in my personality. If you and I are hanging out at the Hyatt bar, this is not how I talk. I am a little bit more reserved, right? I'm not quite so outspoken and energetic, and I'm not quite so energetic with my hand motions and that sort of thing.

[19:42] It's something I've trained myself to do. It's something that I'm very aware of when I, and this is really interesting. I don't know that people notice this but if you're trained in public speaking and in these kinds of things, you would be aware when I am interviewing somebody for a podcast, it's very important to me that I start the podcast out with my introduction and that I introduced them.

[20:00] I do not ask them to introduce themselves. I might ask them to say a little bit more about themselves to get them more comfortable, but I don't. Let them introduce themselves. I do that. And I'm probably just reading the bio that they gave me. I will have read it first and I may have edited it because I'm going to read it with as much power and energy and inflection as I possibly can.

[20:19] Folks, this is Ian Anderson Gray coming to you from the United Kingdom. He just got off the stage at TubeFest and he is going to be telling us all about how to be confident. And empowering in the words that we use and the presence that we have on camera and on stage, I am creating a very powerful moment for you.

[20:35] I'm creating a lot of energy and I want to hand that off to you as the next speaker, the people are going to hear, and you're going to come over the way that you're going to come over. And it might not be with a lot of power and energy, particularly if you're not comfortable and you're not accustomed to being on camera or on stage, but.

[20:52] I'm going to set you up for as much success as I possibly can. I'm going to bring that energy. I'm going to try to pull that energy out of you as the guest.

[20:59] Ian: Yeah, I think that's so important stuff. I call this heightened authenticity, because the thing is and obviously we've hung out quite a few times over the years I can guarantee people who are watching and listening. This is not an inauthentic Mike that we're seeing currently, it might be more energetic than if you meet him in the Hyatt bar in San Diego, but it's still you, Mike, isn't it?

[21:21] And I think that's really important that the authenticity is still there, because I've seen some people who, Put so much energy into it that they become less of themselves and that's not good because particularly you know, one of the powers of video and live video in particular is that You are giving yourself.

[21:39] It's a raw and authentic expression of you and then if people if your clients potential clients meet you in person after later on and they think Meet you and you're completely different. That's not a good sign, is it?

[21:51] Mike: Yeah, personally, particularly in a social environment, I am a quiet, soft spoken listener. I don't necessarily ask a lot of questions. I don't necessarily talk a lot about myself. I'm not going to carry the conversation very well. That's not really my style. But, I do feel like I have a sense of humor, so I like to smile and joke around and inject some sarcasm here and there.

[22:12] So this is definitely me. This is how I am, but definitely if you meet me in person, it's a much quieter version of myself. And that's where the introverted part, particularly if it is in a busy social setting with a lot of people, although Similarly, I have also trained myself in some of those situations to become more extroverted, often refer to myself as an ambivert where I know when I'm on camera or I'm in a social situation, a networking situation, which is really what I'm thinking of in this particular example, I know I need to step up, I know I need to be more energetic, I need to be more active and engaged to the people around me.

[22:47] I can't necessarily sit in the corner with a drink and focus on one person. That's not why I'm there. Afterwards, I can go to my hotel room and I can relax and just chill out in, in, in quiet, dark solitude.

[22:58] Ian: and that's the thing. So I think we're probably fairly similar with this. I would definitely class myself as an introvert. It's not that I, I can put a lot of energy into these and into talks and into conversations, but I find that there are consequences.

[23:11] So again, I was at this event TubeFest in Birmingham and I became an extrovert for a day with, but then there's payback time, like this weekend I've had to have a few afternoon naps and rest and recoup that energy that I put out. And again, I find that With video and live video in particular.

[23:28] I've actually this year I'm doing fewer live videos than I have in the past because It's just a busy time in our lives and I'm wanting to create a lot of other content and I just know Personally that I don't have those energy reserves to be able to do that So I think it's really important and it's great that you've been able to realize that about yourself and you've developed those tips those kind of You There's ways to present yourself in front of the camera where you're still being yourself, but you're putting more energy into it.

[23:57] So as we finish, Mike, what advice have you got for somebody watching or listening who they feel they've got so much to say? Or maybe they don't even think they've got enough to say because there's this barrier of getting in front of the camera. They're worried about them maybe being shy or introverted or making a fool of themselves.

[24:18] What would you say to them to just make that first step or the second or third step because they've done it already and it didn't go very well. What would you say to them?

[24:27] Mike: The first point I want to make is just to underscore something you just mentioned. The reason I said that we're bringing more energy was very. Specific. I didn't say be excited. I didn't say be emotional. I used the word energy and then you really touched on it. Cause you talked about energy reserves and that's why we talk about energy because it is a finite thing.

[24:48] We only have so much energy. Just think about your car. You only have so much gas that you can get to a certain point before you need to refill. And that's something that as a presenter on camera or on stage, that's something you need to be mindful of. You only have so much energy that you can expend.

[25:03] And that's something You need to expand a lot if you're going to show up and deliver, but then you also need to allow for time afterwards to replenish that energy, whatever that looks like for you. And that's something you'll have to learn for yourselves as to what that really means for you. How much energy am I going to expend on a live video or recording or something along those lines?

[25:22] And what does replenishing that even look like for me? Maybe that's watching some TV or reading a book or listening to this music or going for a walk. I don't know. You'll have to figure that out. Okay. While you're doing that, you also need to be thinking about what it is that you want to say, and I'm not going to be one to sit here and say, Oh, just push the button and start talking because for an introvert.

[25:42] No, that is. That is not a good answer. That never worked for me. At least hearing that from other people. No, thank you, sir. I am not going to just hit the button and start. Talking I need to know in advance what it is that I want to convey now. Maybe that's entirely scripted Maybe it's an outline. Maybe it's just a topic. It depends on the use case I think I would probably recommend that people just start small start with a short 60 second video that you can post to Instagram reels or Facebook reels or YouTube shorts or tick tock start with a reel For 60 seconds or less where you're talking about a topic that is important to you that you know a lot about if you want to script it out in advance, script it out in advance, no one's commenting on other people's videos saying, I think you had this written out in advance.

[26:30] Nobody cares. That's a story we're telling ourselves. So think about something that you want to talk about. That's either related to you personally or your business. It's a lot of it's up to you. Depends on the channel. Maybe if you've got an Instagram account, that's for your business. Then think about a topic that's tangential to your business that you want to share an opinion on and create just a 30 to 60 second video about that topic and then publish it.

[26:54] And then move on to the next one and the next one and the next one, because that's how you'll start to develop this confidence. I know. And I'm sure this is something you've talked about many times that repetition is what we need to develop these muscles to develop that confidence. So start small.

[27:08] Ian: That was amazing advice, Mike. Wow. Thank you so much. That is, that's what we need to do. And just keep going. And I hope that you feel encouraged to get started or just to carry on with your video creation because it is tough, but we've all been there. Haven't we, Mike? As we finish how can people find out a little bit more about you and.

[27:29] Tell us a little bit about what you're working on at the moment. So obviously you've got these podcasts you're working on as well. What else are you doing?

[27:36] Mike: Yeah. What I'm going to tell you folks is to go to the social media hat. com. And start going through my site and looking for some content that might be helpful to you, whether it's setting up your studio, whether it's being aware of what it is that you want to talk about, there's resources and guides there.

[27:51] I talk about NLP, neurolinguistic processing and exercises that you can do to help train your mind, train your thoughts, train the things that you want to say. Personally, I'm working on a lot of podcasts for Agorapulse and I just launched AI and marketing unpacked a personal podcast, a personal journey to discover how AI is impacting all of us.

[28:08] As marketers.

[28:09] Ian: That sounds awesome. And is that a solo podcast or you bringing guests on? How's that working for you at the moment?

[28:14] Mike: I'm doing that both. So I decided very intentionally to launch with four initial episodes that are a bit of a primer for marketers. So the first episode just okay, what is a I today? What does that mean? Really? How is a I impacting social media? What are some tools and technologies that are kind of part of this a I?

[28:33] Revolution that we're going through. And then the fourth episode was, Oh, how do I build my first campaign using AI? So I went through all that and now we're going into a period of guests and every once in a while, I'll come back on when it's just me.

[28:45] Ian: That's great. Great stuff. I think that's having a mixture of guests and solo episodes is how I like to do it too. So thank you, Mike. It's been great to have you back on the show. We are out of time. I don't know how that, how we managed to, that to happen because it just feels like it just It was five minutes, but it hasn't been.

[29:01] Thank you so much for plugging us into our into our ears? Into your ears? That's how it works, isn't it? And or watching us on YouTube. Thank you so much. And we'll be back next time with another confidence and communication story. And until next time, I encourage you to level up your impact, authority, and profits to the power of Confident Live video.

[29:18] See you soon. Bye!

[29:19] Thanks for listening to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray. Make sure you subscribe at iag.me/podcast so you can continue to level up your impact, authority and profits through the power of live video. And until next time, Toodle