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How to Create a Simple Video for your Business

How to Create a Simple Video for your Business

How are YOU? It’s fall in Germany, the leaves are almost off the trees, it’s cold outside, the ground is covered with golden foliage and wet. What a good time to be greatful for having a warm home, a nice cup of tea and a cozy place to sit and work….ah life is good.

I am writing to you from this place of gratitude, with a view of my vision board and I thought you might be interested in ways to be more creative, self expressed and have fun creating more visibility for your business.

As a business coach I mingle with entrepreneurs like YOU, who would like to create more visibility for their business. One fun way is to create videos to post on youtube, but somehow it does not always happen 🙂

Why?

Techno-fear,
Fear of visibility
Fear to make a fool of yourself
Fear of not doing it right, also called PERFECTIONISM…..and on it goes

The common denominator is FEAR….. fear can be overcome… but that’s another blogpost: In this post I will help you to overcome only the techno-fear. So if you would like to create a simple video about your services or products and post it on youtube, this might help you do it.

Just a little story to start….when I began learning about online business and marketing strategies, my mentors suggested to create videos…

Needless to say I was scared… I suffered from “techno-phobia” and at that time…. I did not even know how to cut and paste…… yes indeed it was that bad.

That was about 5 years ago. When my mentor suggested videos I thought: impossible……I don’t know how to do it, I can’t, I never will…….. I’m not doing it.

But eventually I was willing to try new things and be uncomfortable……I started creating a simple video by using a series of images with motivating quotes in between and added music to finish up.

The software I used is called Animoto, it’s a simple program with a basic, free version.They offer different templates, you just have to add the images, the words and some of their music to make it professional. Voila….done and with having lot’s of fun 🙂

My dad actually helped me to do this….The next step is to create an account on youtube upload the video, done. You just created a simple video and posted it on youtube, congratulations!!!

Next you can experiment with creating a simple video presentation. Talk about something that is relevant to your business, or interview someone. For example, in my case: I created videos about vision boards and subjects that might be interesting and helpful to entrepreneurs.

What you need is:

Simple tripod, If you use an Iphone you need a tripod attachment for Iphone (google it)
Camera ( I use my Iphone or a minoHD camera
A simple editing software (moviemaker for PC, Imovie for Mac)
Something interesting to talk about
YouTube account

How to create a simple video

Set up a place with a good background, from where you present something
Set up the tripod, to capture you well
Make sure the light is good
Start talking and record
Load the video onto your computer
Edit
Upload to youtube
Give it a good title and write a description, use keywords, if you have a website or squeezepage add the URL
Embed on your website
Share on social media

Here some more details: Prepare it a little bit…..start by writing bulletpoints on a posterboad to remember what you want to talk about, otherwise you might end up rambling… yes it happens. Another idea is to write down the seperate scenes on post its…… yeah, kind of like a simplified screenplay.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember a long talk, so what you can do is: take short sections of video and then cut them together. Also when you record yourself, you have to cut out the parts, from pushing the record button to taking your position, which is easy to edit out.

Moviemaker provides themes which will make the cuts look professional and it can be a lot of fun to experiment. Movie maker is really easy to use. If you need help find some tutorials on youtube……if I can do it anybody can 🙂

Oh…one more thing that will give you a more professional look is: you can go to fiverr and order an “intro/extro” which you can add to the beginning and the end. They offer a variety of music and animations.

The service provider will want your logo and or business name. It’s a lot of fun and everything on fiverr costs only $5…. it’s ok to experiment, just allow yourself to play 🙂

Now try it…..be creative and have fun!!!!! I posted some of my videos, to give you an idea how simple it is. Did this help YOU? If you have anything to add or questions to ask, please post it in the comment box. I love to read them.

and pssst: Do you need more help? I would like to give YOU the gift of one free session. Just let me know.

Women over 40 and going through major life changes

Easy Vision Board Meditation

Simple Tips to Create More Visibility

Simple Tips to Create More Visibility

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful, happy summer with family and friends….. It's the beginning of September and a wet day in Germany. The rain is welcome after many, many hot weeks. Thursty trees and plants are soaking up the water and so am I. Are you ready for fall?

Ok, now lets talk about creating visibility for your business. I will share some of my strategies with you, which are easy enough for beginners or people who like to keep it to the basics.

Creating visibility online
Going out and meeting people

Today we will cover online visibility

Most of us know how to do it… many actually do it… some desire to do it… some talk about doing it… some never do it 🙂

Creating visibility online can be easy, but it’s good to have a simple strategy to get better results: how to effectively create visibility.

Writing posts and articles
Posting on social media
Creating videos

Writing blog posts and articles is a great way to share your expertise with others and get your tribe, (ideal customer) interested in your service or product. It’s very simple…. especially if you like to write. Before you start you should know a few things about your customer.

Who is your customer?
Where to find them online?
What is their problem?

Do your research by asking people, doing surveys and talking to experts… for example a social media or a business coach. …After you collect your information, write a blogpost about a subject that will help your customer with their problem.

Easy isn’t it? Let me give you a simple example: Let’s say you want to help people with their communication: your customer might be people who have “bad” communication skills, the solution to the problem could be a blog post or an article: How to learn effective ways to have better communication with your customers. The result for them would be a more peaceful life and happy customers, yippeeeee.

This is a very simple example, but I hope it makes it easy to understand. Now the next step is to post it. If you don’t have your own blog you can post it on other people’s blogs or on Ezine. If you are on LinkedIn you can use their publishing platform, which will be great for visibility.

Two more things before I forget: If you plan to post it on several platforms, make sure to change the title and some of the text. Google does not like exactly the same content posted on different sites.

Just in case you suffer from “perfectionism” and want to make sure that your spelling is right; find a professional editor on Fiverr, where everything costs $5, or Elance. Outsourcing some tasks is a great way to get help and get things done.

Creating simple, fun videos

This is one of my favorites. You can create simple videos by sharing information that relates to your business. In my case it’s anything that relates to coaching, or to help people live more successful, fulfilled, happy and balanced lives.

You can use your phone, or a simple HD flip camera, a tripod, and a simple editing program called moviemaker. Moviemaker is a free movie editing program that comes with windows. It’s very easy to use. I am not a technical geek, so when I say easy….. it’s easy.

Some of you might need extra hand holding, just look into a schedule at your local college or find a student who can help you until you feel more comfortable. After you created your video you have to upload your videos to youtube, or another hosting platform. When your done with it, post links to them on social media and embed the video on your blog.

Simple strategies to be visible on social media

Ok, now it can get a bit confusing, I will share some of my favorite sites and strategies with you. No matter what you use, start with creating an appealing profile, to tell people about who you are and what you do.

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest

In order to be effective on social media you have to use a strategy and post things that are of interest to your audience. Do not post: Buy my new product, look at me, I know this, I want to sell you this… click here… download this….. it does not work

I will just tell you about the most basic strategies I use. For more detailed knowledge check with an expert. All of them offer free training videos. I like Wendy McClelland and Amy Porterfield, Kim Garst, but there are man more.

Think about what inspires you and post things that inspire you and your audience or tribe. Something that will help them with their problem. Be social, be interested in others, connect and respond, be human, be fun, be kind, be creative. Make it about them, care about them.

Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites. People share other people’s posts and write some words to add a personal touch. You can like other people’s posts and maybe leave a nice comment. Make it personable and positive, nothing worse than people who spill their drama on social media.

If you want more visibility and post business related themes, it's a good idea to create a facebook page to post your business related content. Facebook has instructions on how to set up the page. Spend some time to find interesting videos on youtube, or podcasts, blogposts, audios and post links to them, along with links to your own material.

Once in a while you can share a post from your business page to your personal profile. In order to be more effective I would suggest to create a facebook ad in order to be more visible. Unfortunately facebook is limiting how many people can view your post. Paying for ads or boosted posts will get you more visibility. I will admit here that I have avoided advertising, although many experts say it works very well when done right.

Instagram

Instagram is one of my favorites. If you like to be creative and take pictures it might become your favorite too. It should reflect who you are, your desires, your personality, your creativity, how you express yourself. It took me a while to understand #hashtags, now I love to use them, actually I find it very creative.

They should represent the content of the image and your brand. I use: #dowhatyoulove #outwalking #lifeisgood #becreative #effectivecommunication #lifepurpose #behappy #makeyourlifework #instagood #createyourlife #healthylifestyle. The key is to have fun with it, lot’s of fun. Like with any other other social media, comment back when someone leaves a comment for you and when someone likes your image pay it back and go to their page and like some of theirs.

Pinterest is fun too, great for creative, visual people. First you create boards by themes and then you pin images onto the boards. Some of my boards are related to business with inspiring quotes, one is about vision boards, one is about music I love, one is about creative projects…Many creative ways to express yourself. You can also create a board with inspiration relating to your business and then post links to your blogpost in the text field. Be aware it can be addictive 🙂

Twitter

Twitter, is fast and you can only post 140 characters. Otherwise the strategies are the same. Retweet other people’s posts when you like them, reply to other people, thank them when they retweet your posts. Start conversations and create relationships.

Content ideas to post: inspirational quotes, business tips, links to your or other people’s blog posts, links to free offers, or to videos that you find interesting and which fit into my subject matter.

Hashtags are also a good way to be found by people who are interested in what you have to offer. #healthylifestyle #lifepurpose #businesscoaching #improvecommunication, whatever is relevant to your business. Make it fun, make it supportive, be there for people, be personable. Contact them personally when you see someone needs help, offer them support.

Ps: don’t buy twitter followers or facebook fans it will not help. Grow your followers using simple strategies, like follow your followers and engage in the conversation.

Oh wait ..one last tip to simplify posting on social media and save time is: Hootsuite. A great service to schedule your post on several different media sites from one dashboard. You can schedule your postings for several days. They offer a free and a paid version.

I hope these simple and fun tips to create more visibility in your business will help you. If you have some other suggestions please leave a comment.

Have fun with it alland please leave a comment.

Creating a Vision Board For Your Business

Creating a vision board for your business is a fun, creative and effective way to become clear about your intentions and it will help you discover, focus on and manifest your dreams.

It‘s way more fun than making a boring list and you can turn it into creative play. Playtime is always good isn't it?

Now let’s get started with a few questions!

("Play to Win" is one of my favorite coaching methods, it helps to change the attitude from having to work on something to a more enjoyful way of talking about things: "Play language" is an important part of it: business game stands for business goals, play your game for: work on your business, play to win for: achieve your goals.)

What’s your bigger purpose?

In order to win your game in business, as well as in life, it's good to know why you want to play. Life is a lot better when you can enjoy business related tasks, don’t you think so? Instead of saying: I have to do this social media posting and I hate it; you can practice saying: I will make some experiments with social media and see what happens…. If you find out that you still can’t enjoy it, you might want to hire someone who will do it for you. A positive attitude will help you win your game and have more fun.

What’s your bigger purpose?
What’s your desired outcome?
What actionsteps need to happen in order to get the desired results?

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked here, but now let’s come back to your purpose: why are you involved in this business?

What inspires you?
Who do you want to help,
Why do you want to do it?
How does it make you feel?

To be successful in business requires commitment and to be clear about your purpose will give you the energy to be inspired and motivated to play the game well and be persistant even through challenges.

Inspiration will be the fuel to propel you forward, so the more you can generate, the better it will be. It’s time well spent to be clear about your purpose.

When you have your purpose and it’s right for you, you will feel it in your body. That’s spirit letting you know:t you are on the right track 🙂

Examples for outcome could be:

Financial freedom
10 new clients
A certain certification
$100000 the first year in sales
Many satisfied, happy clients

Just replace this with whatever it is that YOU want to achieve.

Now you need to know what action steps you need to do in order to achieve the results that will get you to the desired outcome.

Talk to people
Make proposals
Hire help
Complete certain projects (website, biz cards etc.)

Now you need to find images representing these items, be creative with it, let it flow.

Materials

Images, representing your purpose, clients, outcomes, activities and more
Posterboard

Gluestick
Scissors
Large marker

Browse through the magazines and rip out the images that appeal to you. This is not a logical process it's more intuitive, go by what feels juicy, it's a subconscious process.

You will find the images in magazines (Money, Oprah, Vogue, National Geographic), books, calendars, online, or use your own images and print them out.

Look for images of people representing your ideal customers. If you want to write a book you can create a cover with a simple image editing software like "pic monkey", or go to fiverr and get something made for $5. Make up your own checks written to you from companies you would like to receive checks from, make them large numbers. Find images of your ideal office space, in the location you would like to be, the view you would like to see…..

On my business vision board I normally paste a picture of myself in the center of the poster board, looking happy and successful, doing my favorite business task.

Once you have the images, lay them out on the posterboard until you like the look of it and start to glue them down.

When all this is done, you can finish up with inspiring and motivating words. You can write them onto the board or you can type the text and print it out.

I make a great living doing what I love to do.
I love my work and get paid royally for doing it.
I am happy and fulfilled with my work.
I inspire and motivate others

When it's all done, hang it where you can look at it; in your office, above the desk would be the perfect place. In addition it's a good idea to take a photo of it, print and laminate a small version so you can have it in your purse. The more you look at it, the more you feel it, the more effective it will be. Remember: it's all energy and we attract the same energy into our lives that we send out.

Now I'm inspired and want to make my next one……….I hope you feel the same way, now have fun with it and good luck and play to win!!

Send me a picture of your vision board and let me know how it's going, if you have any questions, just ask me….. and if you are interested in business coaching let me know and we can set up a time for you to try a session, how much fun is that!!!

Why Is It So Hard To Try New Things?

Why Is It So Hard To Do New Things?

How do YOU feel when you desire to make changes in life. Do you feel ecstatic, do you feel anxious, or do you you feel neutral about it?

The fact is that changes are very hard for most people, that's why they rather stay in painful situations. Even if the change comes with the promise of a great life, it gets ignored and pushed onto the "famous back burner."

Do YOU know "someone" who stays in a miserable job, a bad marriage, hangs out with friends who are not a pleasure to be around, but holds on and on and complains and complains, but does not do anything about it?

Why is that? Sometimes the job isn't even paid well, so what the heck is going on? Could it be security, or better said the illusion of security? The job might be gone tomorrow, the company might be downsizing, the owner might be changing, the new boss might not like you. Job gone anyway…………………there is no security and it's better to face it.

Knowing this might help YOU with stepping out of YOUR comfort zone and experiment with new things. Maybe it's looking for another position, maybe it's finally creating the business YOU always wanted to have.

Yeah why not, it's good to face the fear head on and do it. Life is short and too precious to be lived in comfortable misery.

Find some helpful tips below, to be more courageous and start to initiate some life changes, even small ones.

Find a group of other people who want to do the same
Get some motivating inspiring books
Participate in some personal growth seminars
Get a coach
Don't tell you dream buster friends, you know the "ones" who don't dare and do not want their friends to dare either

It is very hard to do it alone, YOU need to have people who believe in YOU and support YOU. I myself initiated several major life changes in my life.

When I was 24 I moved from Germany to California, started 4 businesses. Around 52 I left my husband, started on a quest to find my life purpose and moved back to Germany when I was 58.

By the way in case YOU wonder….I found my life purpose 🙂

Every little step was scary as hell, but I did it and know that YOU can do it too.

Overcoming the fear and the resistance is the first step……………..This sounds weird but it's true, the fear and resistance will always be there, so there is nothing to get rid of or overcome. The only thing that can be done is to not let it stop YOU.

How can we do that?

Feel the fear, accept it welcome it and tell yourself that it's ok to try a little experiment, or venture out into new territory. It's ok, no lion will come and eat YOU 🙂

The more experiments YOU make the more empowered YOU will feel.

Really…. what do you have to lose, there is not security to hold on to, it’s an illusion.

Try a session with me and find out if YOU might get inspired to discover something new. Go to the contact tab and e mail me to schedule a 2 part session, it's my gift to you. I can't wait to meet YOU.