I hired a professional YouTube coach

Hey Greenblasters!

So sorry for being a day late. I’ll spare you the excuses.

This week, I’m not gonna share MY amazing wisdom with you:

I wanted to share with you some of the awesome advice I got from a professional YouTube coach I hired to help me launch my channel.

First of all, meet Finn McKenty.

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you might have seen him.

He also makes phenomenal content on LinkedIn, which is what convinced me to hire him.

I could do a whole breakdown of how his Linkedin CONTENT and PROFILE PAGE made me wanna hire him without ever meeting him.

Maybe I will? Please reply BREAKDOWN if you’d like that!

But this week, I’m gonna share:

5 lessons Finn gave me while watching my first attempt at a video, so you can use them to become a better speaker on video.

Let’s go:

1. “Smile more & laugh at yourself”

I can’t believe I needed to be told this one.

I always try to laugh at myself in conversation, and onstage, but because I’m NEW to making YouTube videos, my nervousness made me become WAY too serious on camera.

I tell my clients this all the time. This is a classic case of:

“You can’t do brain surgery on yourself.”

2. Less serious & polished

Look at my face here:

This was my face for way too much of the video (again, nerves).

I was trying to speak CLEARLY and POWERFULLY, which to Finn came across as TOO POLISHED, and therefore:

Not AUTHENTIC or RELATABLE.

3. Less formal “signposting”

When I was an English teacher, I taught adult students to pass the writing portion of the IELTS exam (an international standard for English).

There, I learned the term “signposting,” which refers to terms like:

First of all, Therefore, On the other hand, However, The next point I want to make is…

These “signpost” phrases help the reader or audience know WHERE WE ARE in the structure of this talk or essay.

One signpost phrase I used:

“This brings us to our next point:”

“WAY too formal,” says Finn, and I agree.

I’d change it to:

“Next,” or “Let’s talk about,” etc. Something shorter and more conversational.

4. “I know this is cheesy, but it works”

My top performing TikTok video (not bragging) is me sharing a WEIRD exercise to STOP MUMBLING:

@williamgreenblatt

How to fix MUMBLING (an actor’s technique) 🎬🎭 #publicspeaking #publicspeakingtips #clarity #entrepreneur #business #toronto

In this video, when I share the cheesy exercise, I say, smiling:

“This SOUNDS ridiculous, LOOKS ridiculous, and IS ridiculous, but it really works.”

Often acknowledgement helps the audience get over their hesitation to do something that seems weird, and I was reminded to bring that to my YouTube video!

You can also do this if you’re running a group activity in a meeting or workshop.

5. Make clear that you’re not Alex Hormozi, Andrew Tate, Jeremy Miner, or Grant Cardone

If you don’t know who those guys are, I’m jealous.

All 4 are different versions of the “alpha-male entrepreneurship sales-bro,” and even if they do have some good business advice, they all seem like terrible people and extremely manipulative.

But they, and their clones, are EVERYWHERE on YouTube.

So Finn, who’s gotten to know me, knows that even though I’m a young-ish dude making communication content for entrepreneurs, I want to be an ANTIDOTE to this type of content.

He advised me to make this CLEAR and EXPLICIT whenever I can

Making it clear who you are NOT helps people get to know who you ARE quickly.

For context, this charming gentleman is Grant Cardone (I dislike him immensely):

@grantcardone

My Daughter Sabrina Will Be A Millionaire When She Is 20 Years Old

So, TL:DR:

1. “Smile more & laugh at yourself”

2. Less serious & polished

3. Less formal “signposting”

4. Acknowledge: “I know this is cheesy, but it works”

5. Make it clear who you’re NOT

THAT’S IT fir this week!

I hope this wasn’t too much, and that you found it valuable. And sorry for being a day late.

P.S. Please reply YES if this newsletter was too long for you, I’m really trying to learn what you’re interested in!

P.P.S