How to Make Better Videos Without Overthinking It

One thing I see all the time with business owners is this.

They know video matters.
But they still avoid it.

In this episode, Michelle and I talk about why so many business owners struggle with video content and what really helps people become more comfortable showing up online.

I shared that I’ve worked with lots of businesses over the years where people would nearly rather stick a pin in their eye than record themselves on video. And honestly, I think many people will relate to that feeling.

Michelle explains why the video is not really about confidence or perfection. It’s about presence, connection, and learning how to communicate naturally in a way that builds trust.

We also talked about how online content is changing, why authentic content matters more than ever, and why simple videos often perform better than overly polished ones.

You’ll also learn:

✅ Why confidence usually comes after you start 
✅ How to stop overthinking your videos
✅ Why the first few seconds of a video matter so much
✅ Simple ways to structure short-form video content 
✅ Why imperfect content can build more trust
✅ How AI is changing online content and audience trust
✅ Why video views are not the metric that matters most

If video is something you’ve been avoiding or overcomplicating, this episode will help you approach it in a much simpler and more realistic way.

Also, if you want to use video to grow your business.. but don’t know what to say?

Michelle Kopper’s The Video Boost Blueprint shares a simple 3-step framework to help you create short, powerful videos that connect, resonate, and help your best clients engage.

👉 Grab the free The Video Boost Blueprint here.

Connect with Michelle Kopper on LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to my podcast because more like this is on the way!

If you'd like to book a call to see how I can support you head over to my website here. www.sellonsocialmedia.academy/hello

👉 WHAT'S NEW: I've built an AI-powered Digital Marketing Platform, SellOn.Social. This is not a training program. It's an AI platform that helps you stand out on social media and turn followers into real enquiries and paying clients.

And please connect on social media and let me know what you thought of this episode!

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Transcript

0:00

welcome to the Social Media Takeaway. I'm your host, Louise McDonnell, and this is the show for businesspeople who want to learn how to use social media more effectively to drive sales and leads for your business. If you enjoy the show, please make sure that you follow us, and if you enjoy this episode, which I'm sure you are going to, please make sure that you give it a five-star review. So today I'm delighted to be joined by Michelle Copper, and Michelle is CEO of The Inspired Voice, and Michelle helps coaches, speakers, and healers grow their visibility and revenue through aligned presence, messaging, strategy, and sales. So for over 30 years, she has guided experts to unleash their voice to create more income and impact. So Michelle says, and she's so right, you are your best business building asset, and your self-expression is your key to prosperity. Michelle, you're very welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation. So Michelle, your superpower is video. One of your superpowers. I know you have very many. But I know in this episode we're gonna talk about that video doesn't require confidence, it requires presence. Yeah. So tell me, like, why are you so passionate about video? Video, there's so many reasons. Diving in in terms of how it can help us to stand out, to resonate with our best clients the human voice, the human face, especially in our AI world, is a huge commodity. We're trained from infants to look for the face and to resonate with that voice, and it builds familiarity very quickly. Now, yes, we can have clones of ourselves, and we can do our videos that way today, so I know for sure that the power of video because of those things, we've all watched a television show where we've seen 22 seasons of the same characters, and the show may not even be that good, but you feel like you know them, and you wanna find out what happens to their story because we have seen their presence on camera, on video. So that's one of the reasons why I know that it is the most powerful tool. I will say that I think still being able to pop in with a live video we can talk about forms of video and all that as we get into it in the e- AI world that's the external reason why video is so powerful today. People watch it, the algorithms favor it, it works for, to build familiarity, know and trust, right? Those are the external reasons. And then there's the internal reasons, and this is about owning who we are, articulating our message, showing up with our unique, what I call your frequency factor. This is the combination of your story, maybe lifetimes of who you are and how you have become, and your expertise, and the challenges you've overcome, and your perspective, the way you put the puzzle together. I love to say that your voice, in the biggest sense of the word, not just the sensation and vibration of the physical sound, we can talk about that too, I was a voice performance teacher for many years. But also the message the calling on your heart, that work that you're here to share, the message you're here to share with the world is as unique as your fingerprints, right? Your DNA. Your vocal cords are as unique as your fingerprints too. So the internal work of really becoming more who we are, more fully self-expressed through sometimes the extreme vulnerability that we feel on video. We can talk about the law of magnification if you want too about why we feel so vulnerable on video. So the internal work of really allowing yourself to be fully present, to shine your light, your unique frequency fully, and the camera's ability to magnify it have both external and internal benefits and transformation. Okay, great. So I've worked with lots of businesses over the years and- Commonplace, right? Some people would rather get a pin and stick it in their eye- Most people, I would say Than to do some spammy video where they're, like, talking about what they do in some sort of fake creepy way or dancing on TikTok about it. Yeah. Exactly. So yeah, and so I actually say to people, "Look, if video... if it's not your superpower, fine, find something else," but it is so powerful. So for somebody who's listening in- who has avoided video, and they- Yeah ... want to get started, they want to show up on their LinkedIn or their Instagram or their TikTok, like- Yeah what what advice would you give them from starting from scratch? What should they do? Great. And so I agree with you that if you're gonna have PTSD every time you try and do a video, you can make... There's other ways to use video, right? You don't have to be in your videos. I do believe there is alchemy when you are in your videos, but if that's not gonna work for you, use video in another way. Even animating a simple text post is a video, right? So yes, please use video and honor yourself. And if you want to be using video, 'cause often there's that part of us that doesn't want to be holding back. We wish we were that bold, or we wish we were that confident, or we wish that we could say it that clearly or be as free and open as we think we see other people doing. So if that's on your heart the simplest way to get started, actually before that you may have heard the recommendation to just do 30 videos, right? And I know many people who have just done 30 videos or tried to many times, and it just gets worse, not better. Or you don't make it through the 30 videos. So if I can tell a quick story. I came to using video to help people grow their online presence about 10, 11 years ago now. My, one of my business coaches when I took my brick-and-mortar business that had been in New York City and then here in Portland, Oregon for 10 years in both places online to reach and serve more people. I wanted to make a bigger difference. I wanted to make more money. I wanted to scale. And so I took my business online, and I was recommended that I create a video program, because I had made my living doing TV commercials for a time, and did a couple of films, and I was a singer-songwriter, so I had this performance background. And I was like, " Okay. I know how But then I had to still figure out what am I gonna talk about and how do I talk about it so that people get it? And I don't wanna be some creepy, salesy, hypey weirdo, because I had been very busy judging other people's videos and thinking like, "I don't wanna look like that fool," right? Which was really a reflection of my own fear. Yeah. And so in... I did... I said,"Okay, I'm gonna do 30 videos in 30 days." I think I made it up. I hadn't seen anybody else doing it yet. This is early 2015. Maybe somebody had. I'm not taking credit for the idea, but it was like, I'm gonna just do it. I'm a gung-ho girl, right? And there was no live streaming. There was no quick editing tools. There was no... I didn't... I am not a techy person, okay? And so the goal was to do a quick three to five-minute video on a topic, and I had to create a - formula, some sort of system or framework to be able to figure out what I was gonna talk about. But immediately, I was confronted with one of my visibility challenges my whole life, even in my performance career, which was the vulnerability of talking about what I do, of sharing my gift, my voice, my vision, my style. As a songwriter it really crippled me for a time. I stopped singing altogether. There I was, sweating bullets, frankly. The blooper reel from that time is the best. Because I was like, blah, blah. The one th- but I did know some things about how to keep going. So I realized I had this skill set, but the first thing I discovered is I could sell products I didn't believe in at all if somebody told me what to say. I was very good at that. I had been trained. There is a skill to it. But if you're freaking out in shame and cringe when you're on camera, the camera captures it, and then you hate the way you look and sound, right? The freak-out, that's the law of magnification, is that the camera really does magnify everything. Even for speakers, you may be really comfortable in a room or at a networking group, but then this little box, this little frame where it's us and people can pause it and repeat it and zoom in and that's the law of magnification. So the camera can magnify your enthusiasm, your clarity, your contribution, your voice, the thing you're here to do, or it can magnify that self-doubt and that cringe and that, ah, contraction. So if you wanna get started, having a simple framework for how you're gonna structure what you talk about is very helpful. And so when I said about doing those 30 videos it's the first few probably took me four hours. Stopping and starting, redoing I really was trying I've been teaching for a long time, and talking and teaching is one of the ways that I play to my strength rather than writing and scripting everything out. We didn't have teleprompters. I taught people initially, and this is what I still recommend if you're just getting started, to, take a Post-it pad and write three big bullets of what you're gonna talk about. An opening question, your topic, I call them teeny-tiny teaching topics. We have a gift for your audience to dig into that today. and then some simple how you're gonna close, and that was it. And but the stopping and starting, and the redoing, and take after take, and then trying to edit, and figuring out the lighting, and some of them are grainy, and we just didn't have the tools we have today. But it was like trial by fire, and it's not for the faint of heart. This is after 20 years as a performance teacher and performer overcoming my own intrepid stage fright and cringe. So I brought all of that to those videos. So you don't have to start there today but I do want you to remember that the 30 videos, just do 30 videos, is easier said than done. And doing 30 videos over and over, and then having it get worse and worse, or not get better, is very challenging, and it can undermine your confidence instead of elevating it. And so having a simple framework for how you're gonna talk about stuff, knowing what you're gonna say at the beginning, and knowing what you're gonna say at the end. That's the only thing that I put on the Post-It besides the bullet points, right? And then there's some different techniques that I've used to help people if you're really cringing. One of them's called the record and release method.... Some of those tools are gonna be in the gift that we can share with you right now. So what is that record and release then, Michelle? Sometimes we hit record... I'm gonna grab my prop. We hit record, and everything flies out of our mind, right? And maybe there's a big body overwhelm that can happen, like a flight state, right? Where we just go blank. And often, right behind that is a whole bunch of self-judgment, right? What is wrong with me? I just need to get over myself and freaking do this, right? So the record and release method is what it is. It's exactly what it says. Hit the record button and say something. This is horrible. I feel so cringey and stupid. I have no idea what to say. I don't know what the words are. Hit the stop button and then delete it. just get that part over. Record and release, or you can do that two or three times in just 30 seconds, one minute. Don't watch them, right? You don't have to delete them. And what I have found again and again, when people are invited and emboldened and encouraged to just do it as bad as they possibly can, often it's freer, it's easier, they get off their back, and it goes more smoothly. So I have found that the second take is often the best take. And do- doing the third, fourth, 10th, 11th, and 12th get worse and not better, or you have now with all of the editing we can do, which I don't recommend it, you can just have too much content to sift and sort through, and then it becomes an editing project instead of a sharing your voice and your message project. Yeah? Yeah. One of the things I say to people as well, and I've done it myself, is that, In 2025, 2026 as we are now, I know what tends to work very well in video is fast-moving things ha- changing in the background. Yeah. So I remember for some videos I did and just recording like a line, but just changing my location for every line, so I didn't have to remember like everything I was gonna say. I just need to remember the next thing I wanted to say, I was just in my office. I moved from my office. I moved out of my office. I walked into my office. I was walking out of my office, and then I had five or six different lines that I just needed to stitch together. and it worked out really well, and it took the pressure off trying to try and get it all perfect, one take, so for somebody like that is starting or is recording video do you have any advice on like even lighting, sound? What do you recommend? Keep it simple figure it out, and have it set up and ready to go easily is my main advice. There's lots of technology. I encourage you to use what you have to begin. The tools that I use, I have a simple Blue Yeti mic in my office. I'll use a Bluetooth headset on my phone anywhere, and then I use a tool called Descript to just enhance to You let the AI make it sound a little better. There's a studio sound element. It's also a very easy editing tool. And it can give you layouts and things like that. my first recommendation is if you're not techy is to keep it so very simple. And I have a floor light. I like to have eliminate the the belief that we have to have a bunch of expensive, complicated technology in order to do the video. If you have a smartphone, you have a good enough camera.... In front of a window. We have gray, rainy days many of the days here in Oregon, like maybe like you. I'm in front of a window the light is decent. I don't even have my light on today. I have an, a second monitor that also bounces white light, and a desk lamp. Being mindful, paying attention, but most importantly, get what you need and- use it, right? Keep it simple. Have it ready to go. I've used a variety of different clip lights. I've used some of the ring lights. I really don't like it when the ring light shows in a reflection in the background. If my pictures in the back have a ring light on them, it just bugs me. Nobody else notices. So the simplest way, even a wired headset if it's not a Bluetooth headset, and you're on your phone you can see I have everything right here 'cause I do it all the time, right? my tripod's busted, so I've got it wedged with a little piece of paper. I need to get a new one. So have it handy. And overcast natural daylight in front of you is great, and keep it simple. That's my best recommendation. Brilliant. Okay, I'm always saying to people that when they record video, the first two or three seconds are incredibly important. And so- Absolutely ... my advice that I have been giving down through the years is please do not start your videos with," Hello, my name-" "Hi, I'm Michelle Coburn." "... today I'm gonna talk to you about," because you've got two or three seconds to get people's attention and hook them in. So have you any advice on how people can, start their videos? It's actually natural 'cause I know I give the advice, but even when I go to record my own video- Yeah ... it is natural to want to start off saying,"Hi, it's Louise here, and today I'm gonna give you da." Yeah. Yeah ... so what strong hooks are working right now? So I don't think of trending hooks personally because I'm so about your message, but I do believe this still works really well to open with a question, right? A top of mind question that's using the language of your client. Now, that's easy for me to say but that is the most elusive thing that I find people, as experts with expertise and wisdom, to articulate because we know what they need, and they're looking for what they want, what they think they need. And so finding those questions, we do have powerful tools with AI where that your AI can give you a list of questions that your clients might be thinking of when they wake up. I just gave you the prompt. These are my clients. What are they thinking when they wake up, right? And you have some powerful tools and magic I know to share on that as well. Opening with a question, is still working. It's just easy. It's just easy. And then there's a, an acting tip I can give you for how to make that natural. Like I think it's Harrison Ford who was a construction worker, okay? And he got pulled into some movie somehow. So like you can learn how to be an actor, and the first thing my acting teacher said when I was a professional actor in theater school when I was 17 years old was she gave us an exercise and she said we had to write who am I I had no idea. I wanted to be all the other people, right? So who you are speaks louder than the words that you say. All right? So the acting tip is to... It's called the moment before. It's from Stanislavski, who was founder of modern-day acting if we can still say that. It was a long time ago. But the moment before an actor speaks or a character in a story speaks, something happened, right? So acting is about reacting, and I'm not encouraging you to become actors. There's a point here, and it's not that complicated, okay? But if you're at a networking event or if you're talking to a potential client or you're at a cocktail party and someone says "What do you do?" Whatever one of the tools is to say do you know anybody who..." You're in a conversation with them. You're putting a question back to them. And so before you have your list of questions, and before you start your video, that moment before just imagine what that client said or what that potential client said. Think about that one person. I love to encourage people to have their favorite... If they have a great client who's been working with them for years and getting great results, printout, their picture from their social media profile, put it right next to your lens, and just talk to them as if they have asked you a question, they have made a statement, so that your question is actually in response to. And if you let your video... If it calms you down, all of a sudden, so what we focus on expands, and if we're focusing on serving that client and really their face, their dreams, their desires, all of a sudden this video is not about, "Am I gonna look and good sound good enough?" "And what are people gonna think? And am I a salesy weirdo, and are they gonna judge me?" So that moment before you can make friends with the lens, yeah? So if you can't find it, find the little circle on your phone or your device with your finger. When you cover it up, you go away. That's where to look. Sometimes I've even had people take those... You can still find the little circle stickers that used to go around three-ring binder paper sheets. Anything you need to do to find that lens and put that ideal dream potential previous current client in the lens, and let that first opening question be for them. What if I told you anyone could actually fall in love with doing video? Would you believe me? Probably not, but right? So that opening question and that moment before. Fantastic. okay, so you mentioned AI a few times during the conversation What do you think? I know I had a lady, and she's "I hate doing video, and I've just done a whole new program, and I just got AI, like it's all AI. I'm not there at all." I remember thinking,"Oh, God." Yeah. what do you think? I think we're in a wacky, wild time. And I was at an event recently talking to a brilliant marketer and technology enthusiast, and was able to help me be a little bit more open to this idea of actually building your own clone. Because you can't build a clone without being there. Your clone is made from you, your voice, your words, and your message. So I'm staying curious. Now, the problem happens when you're talking to people to sign them up and you're not perfect, right? or you're speaking on a stage, and it's IRL instead of the virtual you. And the other problem I see with AI is the lack of trust. People know it. People doubt the authenticity of everything already. And so when you rely on AI I think you're missing an opportunity for transparency and connection if you only rely on AI. For your sales pages or your sales letter, if you're using that and it gets it done, great. But again, we go back to that, when we're holding back a part of ourselves, people feel it. Yeah. So I don't know. That's my short answer to how I feel about AI. Yeah. I can tell you, I recently... So I'm a singer-songwriter, and there's a new AI out for musicians, and I go, when I work with my collaborative accompanist, I record on my phone. We run through songs. I write lyrics and melodies and chords, and then he's just a better piano player, and we talk ideas. So I have live recordings of these rehearsals, and I experimented with it just this week. And I took one of these and popped it into this AI, and in three minutes it turned it into a Broadway musical, like strings. It was not my voice. It was very vulnerable for me, because I'm all about voice, and I've overcome a lot to be able to sing and share my voice. And I'm still unsettled by it, but I am also excited by it, because one of the obstacles to me releasing over 60 songs that I've written, five albums worth, right? is the production. So I'm staying curious about- ... the AI. Yeah, I think curiosity is a strength in itself, yeah. that we don't rule things out. I would hate that people would think that they don't have to put themselves outside their comfort zone and try and- Exactly by just relying on an AI version of themselves. Because as you said, Like, AI on the surface is always fantastic, but there's nothing like human connection, and I don't think- Exactly ... I don't think it should replace you. I think- I don't think it will. I do think there's a generation of people who may come up with that being the only version of themselves. I think there's a possibility for people, like young people, I was just saw some commercial on my phone, some ad came through, and it was a younger social media influencer. And she was working her stuff, and it's so easy to have the look good- ... that the substance of who we are- ... we lose touch with it. this is where I think there's a, the, we'll see in the market, we already are, like a separation, like the middle realm is softening out, and anybody can put out some great information and some snappy content, and you can get it done quickly, and you can sell it for$27 or $97, and you can build a thing, and you can hustle it with ads, and it's this whole... But it's all surface. And so the premium actual human connection is becoming more and more valuable, and that's what I think will continue to happen, at least for the time being. And then there'll be, a generation of people seeking their own authenticity at some point. Or not, right? I think there's gonna be you can even see it. You see- Yeah ... your own newsfeed is more and more full of AI video and- you can tell at the moment by the sound. You can... if you listen to your- Yeah ... definitely AI can tell by the sound. But they're gonna figure out how to get over that fairly soon, yeah. The AI itself will figure it out. Yeah. It'll figure it out, and then, you're nearly down... I think people are looking down through their news feed and they're constantly questioning, " Is this real?" Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? So I think in a world where there's so much not real- Yeah I think, go, listen back to this podcast a few times to educate. A- and put yourself outside your comfort zone because- showing up, with the imperfect, with your imperfect hair and your imperfect makeup- Yes ... imperfect, looks is gonna help you be more authentic and create more connection than this- And more trustworthy more trustworthy. And I actually think that- If I put out a clone AI version of me, I think it would actually, in some ways, would it make people distrustful of you because it's not real? Yeah. I- if they're discerning, right? Yeah. I also think there's a... That's why I maintain... I- one of my earlier video courses was all about, when Facebook Live came out, I made a course about it, because going live is even scarier, right?"Oh, crap. There I am talking to people. What?" So I think that will have a new level of resonance and a new possibility. So getting good at being able to hop in with a quick value tip and say, "I'm gonna do this cool thing. Here's a free gift if you want it. This is what it's gonna get for you," whatever, even if it's marketing. But if it's you live, it says so. Yeah. And I think it's the stakes go up a little bit if you're gonna try and keep that under 30 seconds or 90 seconds, right? But I think that that's going to continue to be people who are really invested and curious and resonating, they will watch your lives. That's why I continue to do, we do a twice monthly live stream because it's happening there, and I'm warts and all, right? I may ramble. It's often very good when I do. Actually, I- But I might watch it back and go "Oh my God, I'm rambling on 50 different topics," but oh, " actually, I did a series of videos a few weeks ago. Nice. But I, yeah, so I did, okay, I said, "I'm gonna talk about this topic over the next number of videos." And at the end of each video, I said,"So the next video I'm gonna talk about this topic." Yeah. And on each video I said,"Video number one," and,"Video number two," and,"Video number three." Yeah. So it's, was a series of videos. And- Actually, did they go viral? No, they didn't go viral. They performed decently enough in relation- ... to the number of followers I have. But what struck me, Michelle, was the amount of people who have come up to me at an event and they're like, "I love your videos. I love your-" Nice. And I'm like- Nice ... really? And they're like, "Yes, I love your videos. I watched all your videos. They're really good." So sometimes as well, and this is for anyone listening in, that's maybe, starting out or maybe they're further on and sometimes you might put up a video and it gets a few hundred or a few thousand views and you're like, "Oh, "Is that it?" But actually, if 50 people watched your video to the very end and really took something from it, that's really powerful. It's huge. And 10 people... I had a client who did the live streaming program with me years ago, became a one-on-one client for years, and she had one Instagram reel that from the week she posted it, she h- booked a phone call. Now, this is about also having a system for how your content leads to clients- ... which I know is something I'm sure you've covered here many times. So it's not just about more video. I'm so glad we remembered, Irene, that came through just now because it's so important. It's not... People often think, I just need more visibility, and visibility that doesn't turn into conversations, clients, and cash flow is exhausting, and it can undermine your confidence 'cause you start to think nobody cares. Back to Ming, who did one video, and somebody reached out to her right away. It wasn't even a big call to action video. They were just like, "Love this." And she was like,"Cool, you wanna talk?" And she was like, "Yes." Turned into a $20,000 client. So she didn't have 50 people or 100 people at that time. She's since had hundreds of people watching a lot of her videos. But even her first videos, but that one in particular I'm really glad you brought that forward, right? And in the world today with information overload is real, it's only gonna get worse and more. and Google did their study, 7-11-4, you can Google it right? People are buying in a different way. So when they see you on video and they can hear you at an event and go, "Oh, she did videos? I'm wanna go look at her videos," or, "I met her. I'm scoping her out." Or They see you on social and they wanna go to the YouTube channel, you're connecting those dots. You have this ecosystem, and people need to hear you and be in your vibe and experience you for these seven hours of content consumption. Did they read your book? Did they watch your videos, right? And then see you across a couple of different platforms, Google says four, right? And Google has all the data, so this is just an average across all the data. But so powerful. And the videos are working for you around the clock around the world all the time. They're there. And so there's huge power in people getting to know and trust you, especially if it's really you showing up on video. It is, especially if it's really you. Can you tell us about the... gift you have for them. Oh, yeah. We're gonna gift you the Video Boost Blueprint, which has a beautiful guidebook that talks through some of this how do I figure out what to talk about, some simple ways to get set up get your systems set up with really simple technology, and that content structure I've, we've touched on here today. And then we have eight mini training videos with different tips on how to go through each step of that content and the record and release method and how to have confident presence on video and some of those things to get you started. Or if there's a particular thing, piece of that puzzle that's you kinda know what to do but you're not, if you actually do the things recommended in this simple It's got mini trainings, little juicy bits. If you do those things, your relationship to being on camera will shift, and you'll have a sense of what to talk about and how to take your expertise and turn it into a simple nugget of value and connection and resonance. Fantastic. Thank you so much for having come on the show, Michelle. I really enjoyed our conversation. Me too. Thank you for having me. Not at all. And if people want to find you on social media, where do you hang out? We've got a nice presence on Facebook. We have Instagram, our Give Voice to Your Vision channel on Instagram. You can find Michelle Copper on Facebook, and I'm on LinkedIn as well. All under my name, Michelle Copper, for the most part. You'll find The Inspired Voice too, but... Aw. Thanks so much, Michelle. It was great to chat. Thanks, Louise. Thanks for having me.