Launch Your Live Show & Podcast Now!
Confident Live Marketing Podcast
Episode 121
Episode Theme: Content & Marketing
August 13, 2021
Do you want to launch your live show NOW?
Are you struggling to understand exactly what steps you need to take to make it happen?
My main aim is to help people become more confident in launching and creating live content. And I know that one element holding people back from launching their live show or podcast is that they just aren’t sure what process they need to follow.
That’s why in this article I’m sharing a really practical, step-by-step process that you can put in place so that you can launch your live show and repurpose that into a podcast now.
A lot of the things that I’ll be covering in this article will be expanded upon in my Launch Your Live course, so if you are really serious about getting started then I recommend you find out more about that here.
This episode is sponsored by Restream
My Full Live Video Process...
Listen at [06:02]
My live video process consists of five stages, which I call the Five Ps of live video. These five stages are:
- Planning
- Pre-Promotion
- Production
- Post-Promotion
- Re(Purposing)
This forms the basis of my full live workflow, and I move through each of these stages for every single live video that I create.
In order to make sure that I move through every stage for a live show in order, I use a planning document, and this is the same document that I share in my Launch Your Live course.Click To TweetLet’s look at each of these stages in more detail to help you understand exactly what steps you need to take to actually get your show from concept to live show.
The Planning Stage...
Listen at [15:04]
Hands up if you hate planning! (*everyone raises their hand*).
Planning is something that I find extremely difficult due to my ADHD brain. I used to find it boring and time-consuming, and I really did everything that I could to avoid it.
I was able to grow my live show much more successfully when I decided to focus on the planning stage of the process.Click To TweetThere are a few steps in the planning process for my live show, so let’s look at these in more detail...
#1 Plan Your Show
I recommend that before you do anything else, you plan out the premise of your show as a whole.
You should create a document that outlines some key, need-to-know factors for your show including:
- A summary of what your show is about
- Who your audience is
- A little bit about yourself
- Introduction to the show
- The ‘show promise’ i.e. what will you deliver to your audience
This will solidify the purpose of your show and help you become laser-focused on your episodes.
This is absolutely vital in order to successfully engage with and grow your audience.
#2 Plan Your Next Episode
Once you’ve planned your show and know exactly what it is you are trying to achieve, it’s time to plan your next episode.
I do this using something called a ‘run of show’ document (I’ll share more of that with you later). But essentially, it’s an outline of the show, and all the elements required to make it come together.
I follow this on a teleprompter while I am live, however, I also print it out in hard copy form in case something goes wrong with the teleprompter while I am live.
#3 Book Your Guests
Planning on getting a guest involved?
You’ll need to get them booked in at a time and date that suits both you and them. I usually recommend that you send them a booking link via Calendy rather than going back and forth on email or phone. It’s a much quicker and more efficient way to get dates organised.
Once your guests have booked a date to be on your show, you can send them an email to confirm.
You might also want to book a test call with them if they are not familiar with Zoom or live shows. This might be less of a problem now, as more people are used to using live video platforms, but it might help them improve their confidence if they are not seasoned pros.
I also recommend that you send your guests a checklist at this point so they know what to expect. This also helps to eliminate the likelihood of any problems occurring.
#4 Create a Thumbnail Image
A thumbnail will help with brand recognition. This also ensures that your show is instantly recognisable on social media platforms.
You should create a thumbnail image in 1920 x 1080 size, as this will work for YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn Live. And you can use a free tool such as Canva or Easil to create a really professional and beautiful looking thumbnail.
I’ve actually commissioned a designer to create my templates. Using templates make it easy to switch out the images and change the text for each live show. It’s really easy and makes your images look really professional.
The Pre-Promotion Stage
Listen at [21:55]
After the planning stage, you could just hit the ‘go live’ button and get on with it.
However, it’s a really good idea to build-up to the main event and let your audience know what you are planning and when.
This will allow them to see if the live show is going to be relevant to them and to block out time to attend.
There are a couple of things that I do within this stage, so let’s look at these in a little more detail.
#1 Schedule Your Show
About a week before your show, it’s a good idea to schedule your broadcast with whatever tool you use, which could be Restream, Ecamm Live or OBS studio.
Facebook allows you to schedule your show up to a week in advance. With YouTube, you can schedule up to a year in advance. However, a week in advance is optimal as it’s enough time to let people know, and not so far in advance that they will forget.
You might not be used to scheduling live shows, however, one of the advantages of doing this is that you can promote your show across your social channels and email, and give more people the opportunity to watch.
#2 Schedule a Facebook Event
You can also schedule a Facebook event for your show, which allows you to invite anyone who follows your page.
#3 Send Guest Final Reminder
If you’re having a guest on, you will want to send them a final reminder to make sure they are ready for the show and to provide them with the link to join your live show.
#4 Schedule Social Media Content
The last piece to the Pre-Promotion stage is scheduling social media content. You can schedule posts to go out both before and after your live, which promotes both the live show and the replay.
Make sure that you tag guests in your social posts as this makes it super easy for them to help promote your show by sharing out your posts.
- Related content: How to use OBS studio with Restream
The Production Stage
Listen at [23:50]
It’s the day of your show and it’s time to broadcast out to the world. There are a few steps that you can take to ensure that everything runs smoothly during the show.
#1 Go LIVE
Now, it’s time for you to go live!
I use Restream, which is primarily a multi-streaming suite, meaning that it takes your broadcast and streams it to lots of different places at one time.
You could just broadcast to one platform, but why do that when you have the opportunity to proliferate your message across multiple channels, to multiple audiences all at once?
In the past, I would not have recommended that you stream to multiple platforms at once, as it fragments your audience.
However, one of the advantages of Restream is that you can see all of the comments from all the different platforms in Restream, so you can see who is watching and interact with them.
- Related content: Top Live Video Streaming Tools of 2021
#2 Hire a Comment Moderator
During the live, you’ll hopefully have lots of listener engagement and comments.
If you find that you’re getting too many comments to keep up with, you might want to consider hiring a moderator. They can help you organise and engage with the comments so that you’re not missing out on anything.
This also allows you to increase engagement and really helps with building a community - something that is really important for me.
- Related content: This is My Year of Community
#3 Download the Video & Audio
You’ll want to download the video and audio from whatever tool you used to live stream, whether that is OBS, Ecamm Live or Restream.
Once you’ve got this, you’ll be able to use it to repurpose your live show into a podcast and blog post. More on that later!
#4 Update Descriptions on Social Channels
One way that I really like to optimise the replays is by updating the descriptions to make them super valuable for future audiences. I like to update the summary with what I have talked about and add anything that may have been covered during the show that was not in my original show notes. You could even add timestamps so your listeners know at which point you talked about different aspects of the show.
The Post-Promotion Stage
Listen at [24:25]
This is usually the point where people lose interest and move onto the next new and shiny thing.
However, once you’ve finished with the planning and have gone live, it’s time to promote the show.
Promotion is a really important part of your live shows to ensure that you get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. You might have 3, 5 or 1000 people watching, but think of how many MORE people you can get to watch the replay!Click To TweetYou’ve got to think about three different audiences:
- Live audience
- Replay audience
- Podcast listeners (if you are repurposing it)
Let’s look at how you can promote your live show to these different audiences.
#1 Add Videos to Playlists
To further promote your show, it’s a good idea to use playlists on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
#2 Video Trimming
Next, I like to trim my videos on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. I usually trim off the first 5-6 minutes where I am just chatting with listeners. This ensures that replay listeners don;t have to listen to and/or watch the chat, they start right where I get into the topic of the show.
#3 Respond to Comments
You’ll want to go back to your social channels and respond to comments left by both your live and replay audience.
#3 Promote via Social Posts, Email and Ads
If you have not already scheduled social posts in advance, you’ll want to do that now so you can promote the replay on your social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Email is also a really important part of the post-promotional mix.
You’ve got a whole host of people who have signed up to hear from you, so take advantage of that and send your latest live show to them to watch.
The (Re)Purposing Stage
Listen at [26:14]
Now, you’ve finished the live show and promoted it out to your followers, so it’s time to move onto the next one right?
Not so fast. This is where the hard work really begins...
You’ve put a lot of work into creating the show so far, so why not reap the benefits of your hard work?
As great as your live show might be, not everyone has time to tune in and listen to the original broadcast, so it’s great to give them an easy option to listen to (or read) your show at a later date.Click To TweetRepurposing your show helps you really tap into those three audiences I mentioned earlier (live, replay and podcast). If you only focus on your live audience, the replay or podcast listeners won’t feel loved, so it’s a good idea to optimise the listening experience for them.
For my live show, there are a number of steps that I take post-production to ensure that it reaches as many possible future audiences, and optimise it for those people.
These steps include:
- Edit the audio to make it “podcast-ready”
- Create the podcast in Captivate
- Create a blog post from the live show
1. Edit the Audio for Podcast
First, I send the audio from my live show to my audio podcast creator, Music Radio Creative. They work their magic to turn my live show into a full podcast episode.
2. Upload the podcast to Descript & Captivate
After I receive the audio back from Music Radio Creative, I then upload the mp3 to both Descript and Captivate.
Descript is a powerful tool that does audio and video editing as well as transcription of my audio.
- Related content: Repurpose your Live Shows with Descript
Captivate is the tool that I use to create and host my podcast. This is where your podcast lives, but a podcast host will also send your feed to Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify and other podcast directories.
Using a podcast platform like Captivate.fm also allows people to subscribe to or follow your podcast, so it increases your listener base.
Creating a podcast from a live show does have its challenges, for example, I have to think about how to communicate any visual aids via audio. However, it’s something that I think is hugely valuable for tapping into a wider audience.
- Related content: What you Need to Create an Awesome Podcast from your Live Show
3. Create a Blog Post
Finally, I create a blog from the live show, which is really great for those who don’t like listening to podcasts or watching live shows.
My “Run of Show”
Listen at [29:50]
Now, I did promise that I’d give you a sneak peek of my own ‘run of show’ that I use in the planning stage. It’s a really simple document that I use to plan out each and every one of my shows.
My Run of Show outlines the title of my show, the episode number and the date that I’m going to go live.
I also include a blurb, which is basically the description for the show. I use this blurb on my social media channels when I schedule my live broadcast and also in my podcast episode.
It is important to start your blurb with a hook. A hook is simply a promise of what you are going to talk about and how you’ll be able to change the lives of your audience.
So for this show, I said: "You’ve launched a podcast from your live show, now how do you grow your audience and level up your impact?"
And then I talk about what I’m actually going to share on the show.
Next, I need to come up with my ‘run of show’, which is just bullet points outlining what I’m going to talk about and in what order. It usually includes:
- Countdown Timer
- A welcome to my show
- The first sentence, so I don’t have to think about what it will be
- I introduce my guest (if I’ve got one)
- Deliver my main hook
- 2-3 main sections (summarise what you’ve talked about at each section + remind people what show they are listening to and the topic of the show)
- Audience interaction (to make them feel loved and answer any questions)
- Final section (+ what is coming the following week when you go live, reminder to subscribe, end tagline, etc)
So, this is an example of what your show notes might look like. And, using a document like this really helps you to be more in control of your show for your live audience, your replay audience, and your podcast listeners.
And in general, having a process like this in place will ensure that you are prepared and feel confident and able to create your live show and podcast.
What else would you like to know about live broadcasting? Let me know in the comments below!
Watch Episode 121
Brought to you by Restream
Restream
Restream is the complete multi-streaming suite for entrepreneurs.
With Restream you can stream to multiple platforms all at the same time. They have a plethora of destinations including:
- LinkedIn Live
- Facebook Live
- YouTube Live
- Twitch
- Periscope and so much more
You can stream from another tool to Restream and Restream will take care of the multi-streaming for you really easily. Or you can broadcast directly from Restream to your platform of choice.
Restream also has chat, analytics and a scheduler. With the chat service you can view and engage with your audience from all the destinations you stream to.
I've been really blown away by the Analytics section - this shows your stream metrics - now many viewers, watched minutes, new followers and more.
And finally, the scheduler allows you to broadcast pre-recorded video live.
To sign up and have a play, visit iag.me/restream
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The Confident Live Marketing Show
The Confident Live Marketing Show is a weekly live video show and podcast. It’s aimed at established entrepreneurs who want to level up their impact, authority and profits through the power of live video, webinars and podcasts. We’ll focus on knocking down the 3 main barriers these entrepreneurs face when creating live content - camera confidence/mindset, tech/gear and content marketing.
It’s hosted by Ian Anderson Gray. He is the founder of the Confident Live Marketing Academy and is the host of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. He’s founder of Seriously Social - a blog focused on live video and social media tools. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK.
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About Ian Anderson Gray
Ian is the founder of the Confident Live Marketing Academy and is the host of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. He's a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, and trained as professional classical singer. He lives near Manchester in the UK. Find out more
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