devrelshow episode 22 - Ryan Blunden  ## Metadata - Author: [[Frédéric Harper]] - Full Title: devrelshow episode 22 - Ryan Blunden - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [DeveloperRelations, VideoContent, OpenSource, ContentCreation] - DeveloperRelations - VideoContent - OpenSource Author: Ryan Blunden Source: devrelshow episode 22 - Ryan Blunden Reference: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHnnEYSylY) date created: 2024-09-12 14:30 --- # Title: Creating Effective Technical Video Content with Ryan Blunden ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#📝-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#📖-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#🗒️-notes) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#🗣️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#📰-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#✅-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#🧪-hypotheses) - [❓ Questions](#❓-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#🔮-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#💡-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#🧠-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#📊-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#🌍-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#✅-logical-validity) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#🔍-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#🎯-conclusion) ## 📝 Summary: In the devrelshow episode 22, Ryan Blunden shares his insights into creating technical video content, emphasizing the importance of connecting with the audience. He discusses the need for authenticity, scripting, and optimizing video content for developers. Ryan also touches on gear recommendations, video production techniques, and creating educational resources that resonate with a developer audience. ## 📖 Main Content: Ryan's discussion centers around the challenges of creating developer-facing content. He talks about the balance between educating and promoting a product, noting that the best video content isn't overly marketing-focused but instead prioritizes the user's needs. He also covers: - The importance of authenticity in video content. - The role of scripting to ensure smooth delivery and reduce editing time. - Tips for lighting, microphone use, and the benefits of using a shotgun mic for natural sound. - Practical advice for using tools like Jitter for motion graphics to enhance videos. - How to maintain audience engagement by balancing between talking head sections and screen recordings. ### 🗒️ Notes - **Authenticity is key**: Focus on being yourself rather than imitating others. - **Scripting**: Write scripts that sound natural to you, not overly polished or "marketing-y." - **Gear recommendations**: Invest in good lighting and audio first before upgrading to a camera. - **Editing for succinctness**: Keep content focused and ensure smooth transitions between demos and explanations. - **Use motion graphics strategically**: They help illustrate complex concepts and break up long explanations. ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: - Original: "People don't want to be sold to, especially developers. They want to understand how your product works and why it matters." - Paraphrase: "Developers prefer content that explains the value and functionality of your product, rather than overt sales pitches." - Original: "When it comes to video quality, it's more about eliminating distractions than having the best equipment." - Paraphrase: "High-quality video focuses on reducing distractions for the audience, not necessarily relying on top-tier gear." ## 📰 Newsletter: 📢 **In this week’s WordPress Community Newsletter** 📢: If you’re looking to sharpen your web development skills, we've got you covered! Learn how to create engaging video content from developer advocate Ryan Blunden, and discover new plugins that streamline workflow efficiency. Stay updated with recent WordPress enhancements, including exciting features and a sneak peek into the upcoming WordCamp! Plus, don’t miss out on community spotlights and plugin reviews. Let’s keep building a stronger, more innovative WordPress ecosystem together! 🌟 ## ✅ Action Items: - Emphasize authenticity and avoid a sales-heavy approach in video content creation. - For those in developer relations, blend technical depth with engaging delivery. - Consider offering video coaching services, helping clients or teams deliver their own high-quality video content. - Ensure video content aligns with open-source advocacy and emphasizes transparency. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - If companies invest in high-quality educational content, they will see increased developer engagement with their products. - Developers who incorporate motion graphics in their technical videos will experience better viewer retention. ### ❓ Questions: - How does content quality influence developer trust in a product? - Can companies that emphasize authenticity in developer relations outperform more marketing-driven approaches? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore the impact of different video presentation styles (formal vs. casual) on developer engagement. - Investigate the role of video tutorials in open-source project contributions. ### 💡 Implications: Research into developer-facing content creation could influence how tech companies engage with their communities, making them more effective at onboarding contributors and users. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: 1. **Visual Learners**: - **Present**: Demonstrations and motion graphics. - **Improve**: Incorporate more diagrams or visual aids to illustrate coding concepts. 2. **Aural Learners**: - **Present**: Clear, thoughtful voiceovers. - **Improve**: Provide podcast-like summaries of key points. 3. **Verbal Learners**: - **Present**: Rich use of technical language. - **Improve**: Include links to related articles or documentation for deeper exploration. 4. **Physical Learners**: - **Improve**: Suggest real-world coding exercises for viewers to try after watching. 5. **Logical Learners**: - **Present**: Detailed explanations of tools and their logic. - **Improve**: Include more step-by-step breakdowns. 6. **Social Learners**: - **Improve**: Engage with live Q&A sessions or forums after the video. 7. **Solitary Learners**: - **Improve**: Offer reflection prompts or journaling activities. 8. **Naturalistic Learners**: - **Improve**: Provide analogies relating technical concepts to real-world systems. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Reader Compatibility**: Ensure all visual content has descriptive alt-text. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Test whether content can be navigated solely by keyboard. - **Contrast and Readability**: Ensure high contrast for viewers with visual impairments. ### 🌍 DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Assessment: - **Cultural Relevance**: Avoid cultural bias in examples and case studies. - **Inclusive Language**: Use gender-neutral terms and avoid exclusionary jargon. - **Neurodiversity Support**: Break up long segments with headers and use clear, concise language. ### ✅ Logical Validity: The main argument is that developers prefer authentic, educational content over marketing-heavy approaches. Ryan supports this with logical reasoning: - **Strong Deductive Reasoning**: His point about authenticity fostering trust is backed by examples of developer engagement with content. - **Appeal to Facts/Evidence**: Anecdotes from his work demonstrate how focusing on educational value leads to better engagement. ### 🔍 SEO Evaluation: 1. **Keywords**: Use of relevant developer-related keywords is natural. 2. **Meta Description**: Include a meta description with a call to action for developers to explore video content creation. 3. **Content Length**: The content is detailed but succinct, providing valuable insights. ## 🎯 Conclusion: Ryan Blunden's insights emphasize the importance of authenticity, scripting, and practical tips for creating effective developer-facing video content. His advice offers a strong foundation for those in DevRel roles looking to improve their video and educational outreach. Short Summary for [devrelshow episode 22 - Ryan Blunden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHnnEYSylY) by [Merlin](https://merlin.foyer.work/) Title: Creating Great Technical Video Content with Ryan Blunden on devrelshow - Frédéric Harper [00:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHnnEYSylY&t=14) Discussion on creating great technical video content. [03:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch - Document Tags: [[developer marketing]] [[devrel]] [[open source]] - Summary: In the devrelshow episode with Ryan Blunden, he discusses the importance of being yourself and showing your passion when creating content. He emphasizes the need to be familiar with your product and to communicate effectively while presenting. Ryan also shares tips on improving presentation skills and engaging with your audience. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHnnEYSylY a [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes yes yes that was so bad I was talking with my M my mic mute uh let's talk about it's it's a good segue for uh the topic we're going to talk today about creating great technical video content um technology is hard so I was saying hello lovely people welcome to the death that's that's ridiculous but it doesn't beat the um one time I was doing a live stream at Cube first and I uh forgot to press uh go live so the first we had to redo the first 10 minutes of of the show with my guest um I was um I was a little bit ashamed so at least we were live with no sound so again welcome beautiful people to the Deo show uh it's a different day different time today but uh as you know I try to do those on Thursday 3 pm my time Eastern time but I always adjust with uh my guest time zone but also my schedule uh because on Thursday I'm going to be in a direction to the airport to go to Berlin for SEO navigate so by the way if you are in Berlin let me know I may have a little bit of free time to meet some local friends and even better if you go to SEO navigate it's going to be an amazing conference U I've been there uh the last one in North America so they alternate one in North America one in Europe and they change places which is pretty cool too uh next one's in Berlin it's been a while didn't go there love the place anyway if you are at SEO Navigate please let me know but again welcome to the show hopefully you're going to be able to join us live uh even if I change the schedule a little bit for this episode and if not um as I was saying before when my mic was muted I'm still welcoming you to the show Even if you watch the recording because there's a recording you can watch the show later so on that note I will stop babbling about things and I would like to welcome Ryan to the show welcome to the show Ryan how's life's pretty hectic at the moment uh moved house a few days ago so getting everything set up and um you know Works a bit crazy but uh mate I'm I'm good and I'm happy to be chatting with you I I I totally feel you I mean like uh every people's situation is different but moving is moving and I moved to a new place about three months ago and I forgot how much work it is to move to a new place it is crazy yeah it's just the the like packing the boxes just never seems to end um but yeah at least we're here now and it's definitely easy to like unpack as opposed to pack H so yeah we're making good progress and so so much fun like actually maybe not fun but like I really prefer to unpack uh and and this is where I take the time to like see if I want to keep things if I want to if things are not good enough it like throw a them in the garbage or if I sell them or if I give them to people uh like I know some people do this before to put things in the boxes for me I put everything in boxes and after that when I have the time when I'm at new place I take the time to do that but you know what I was really um I I did the the the the king and queen moving type of things where someone came to my place and they made the boxes for me so it was like allinclusive things and I still felt it was a lot of work so um yeah yeah I I didn't have the time this year to like do all the boxers and everything so um I went uh with the luxury moving stuff I unpack my things though uh but I just didn't have the time to to box things and you know what now it's going to be really hard to like the day I'm going to move again which will probably happen you know it's life um having to do my own boxes after I had like a team of like three incredible woman they came to my place and a couple hours everything was everything were uh was in boxes and you know like very well put like for me I would have put put like a bunch of things in the box and probably broke a lot of things for them there was like like you know the real deal anyway it's not a show about moving I just wanted to Eco that yeah it's kind of like a pain in the ass but hopefully it's always for the better when you move to a new place you're just like to your new home you feel you feel you feel at home hopefully already like even if you started to unbox a little bit of things so uh yeah with that said Ryan uh first thanks again for being on the show uh actually thanks for the first time publicly being in the show uh officially because for me uh if I was at your place it would be way too early so Ryan is in Australia so it's like 800 am for him uh I feel like it's too early to do a live stream uh but it seems like it's good for you so thanks thanks for being in the show really really really appreciate that and um yeah speaking of that um I lost you a little bit right now and you're back um okay yeah the the joys of moving house and not yet having your internet hooked up I know tethering all the way this morning yeah thanks for joining uh W tering so uh folks if we lost Ryan once in a while no worries it's still going to be with us it's just like tittering um actually it's good that you can do that where I move I cannot titter like there is no signal whatsoever so if my internet goes down if I don't have internet I canot do the devil show so again thanks for doing that uh with that said Ryan for the people that don't know you tell us a little more about who you are all right uh the dreaded question um so I'll give you a little bit of personal and and a bit of professional stuff um so I you know on the personal side um I love playing music I love uh you know hanging out with friends and family I've also got a passion for motorcycles so I try and sort of balance the professional stuff with some some personal stuff um drums is my musical instrument and a few weeks ago I actually got back from a six- week tour um in Europe which has been one of my dreams to go tour um internationally and that was an absolute ball although I think I'm still sort of recovering from the beer and the the late nights and and all of that sort of stuff um so yeah music music is something that I love doing um on the professional side um I worked as a developer for about 10 years um and I still love code I still do that but what got me into devil was when I was working in teams and I sort of noticed that sometimes there's a there's a disparity between the folks that intimately know the stack and maybe have more experience and some of the junior folks on the team and often Junior folks don't necessarily have the courage to speak up and ask some you know questions to kind of let people know that maybe there's things they don't understand so that was where my sort of passion for documentation and knowledge sharing um you know came from and then that sort of naturally led to speaking at meetups to then uh teaching courses on you know iOS and web development and devops and and things like that and eventually what got me into devil was transitioning from running my own business doing that to then working in a company and essentially doing a lot of that same stuff so producing content doing webinars um just because that was I'd never done that for a job and it was just something I sort of stumbled into and I feel like with devil that's the way it goes for a lot of folks they don't necessarily set out to get a devil job or have a devil career it's just something that ends up aligning with their their passions um and and then you know they're sort of go into it from there so in terms of where I am right now um uh at the end of 22 I stopped working for my previous company and I decided to freelance to focus on you know the the favorite aspect of my job which was the the content um I'm sure a lot of if there you know other Devils listing they can relate to uh particularly when you're in an early stage startup devil is anything and everything to do with customers um it's not that I didn't enjoy that like that's also part of what I love about devil you can do customer success one moment you'd updating the docs the next you're presenting the you know the moment after that um but I really wanted to sort of dou down on my you know video presentation skills my voiceover skills and and just writing um as well so that's what I've been doing for the past um 18 months or so and that pretty much brings us to to where we are today that is uh amazing intro actually you answer like four or five question that I had about like your journey all in the intro so I loving that uh question that is not about your your career I'm just curious I didn't know that uh what kind of music are you uh are you doing so it's a it's like a blend between Hard Rock and and metal I guess I'd say um so very very Australian flavored Rock um but we're all metal heads at heart so we try and you know get a mix between you know the the heavier stuff but also the the rockier stuff because the rocky stuff sort of appeals to a wider audience um and one of my favorite things about the band it's called it's actually a bit of a weird name it's called piston fist piston is sort of like a reference to you know cars so it's you know it's music that would appeal to car heads and you know biking and and stuff like that um but yeah the the lyrics are about things that matter like um you know men's mental health um Suicide Prevention doing your best uh you know that kind of stuff so that's what I really like about music it's not just about you know banging the drums and and you know playing Heavy Music it's kind of going with that energy of putting something positive out into the world um because when it's kind of like you know presenting actually when you're playing drums and you see people get into it and they're having a great time for me like that's the that's the ultimate feeling um and I think that's in line with kind of like Dev as well when you do a video and you know that this is going to help someone do their job better U you know maybe even progress in their career like that's the thing that motivates me and what I'm thinking about when I'm doing these videos so I try and sort of make it about the audience and what they're going to get out of it uh instead of me which also helps me be you know less self-conscious when I'm you know presenting as well I love that I love that and I love that that you also use uh your passion and and creating music to like help people and share a message like not not just like get listener but like really like use that platform you have to yeah as I said share that message and like hopefully uh help people so that that's uh all in your honor uh to do something like that uh about last question about the music like if we go on uh your website Ryan london. deev uh do we have links to uh YouTube like the music YouTube channel or something if people are curious I don't actually I haven't thought of bringing those worlds worlds together um but if people uh just search for piston fist uh it's all one word uh piston fist. comom then they'll be able to find you know videos and and uh and all that sort of stuff links to Spotify all that wonderful wonderful uh you know it's it's called a Deo show but it's really like whatever Fred wants show to talk about and and I'm always I remember uh one show where we talk about Lego for a while because my guest has like those huge Lego um on the back and I was like that's amazing collection it was like yeah that's just one one small part of it and we started to talk about that it was not even developer relation but at the same time you know what it's a little bit developer relation because like developer relation is all about the human it's all about the person it's all about creating connection and we cannot create connection always and just about technology it's about the people it's about their passion it's about who they are so you know talking about like Lego talking about music talking about what is like part of people's life or the guest life I think I think it's interesting too but that's uh that's only my point of view if we go back to uh if we go back to your journey uh now you are a freelancer you are a technical content uh Creator or um at tryan bond. Dev so can you tell me a little more about exactly like what you do I've seen by the way I've seen uh some of your videos and and I think I'm I'm really bad at that thing uh but I think we connected through a coffee chat uh you scheduled a coffee chat with me and and after that I went to watch your videos and I was like man you need to be on the show I mean like I really love the quality of the content that you're making and um yeah so speaking about that this is what you're doing for a little more than a year now if I'm not wrong like close to two years how is how is the business going how how how is life and that side yeah so freelance uh always has you know its its challenges and anyone that's done that uh you know sort of knows what I'm talking about um but the benefit of freelance as well is that you can kind of go after the segment of the market and the work like that you that you want to do um and video really is my is my passion um I'm not sure why um it's just one of those things that I like working on my ability to you know communicate working on my my voiceover skills I've always enjoyed that for some reason not saying I've got great voiceover skills but you know um it's just yeah it's just a really it's a challenge that just appeals to me for for some reason um in terms of the work I do it's it's really varied and as the business goes on it gets even more varied so for instance uh I typically started out with educational Style videos uh and I must say they're they're my favorite because it's a lot easier to sort of be um you know more natural when you're just teaching someone something when you're getting into that um area where it's I mean with Deborah when you're doing it speaking to a technical audience it's at the heart it's always educational because if you come on and too strong and you're doing the marketing buzzwords and the overly emotional language you know developers see that and they they they smell marketing a mile away and they're gone so you have to find a way of educating um but you're really just trying to let the product showcase itself so you know they understand you know why why it's good um I always try and think of uh putting you know a promotional video together in the same way that you would demo something like at a conference so you're not you know giving them a Spiel or hopefully you're not just giving them Spiel you're sort of like you know you're sitting next to them and you're saying hey like let me just show you like how it works and when you're showing certain things you'll emphasize to them you know why that's a handy feature uh in case that you know they don't really know as much about the domain and the product um as you do so I think that's what I love about video as well um is if you've got a website that's got lots of copy um it's hard to create that copy in a more conversational way like it needs to be Punchy it kind of needs to be a bit mark I guess um but with video you've got that ability to sort of make that human connection and because you can demonstrate the product the language that you use to describe the product is just a lot more natural um and so yeah I kind kind of like that challenge of making develop a Content but making develop a Content that's not gross that doesn't just turn a technical audience off um and I think that's why I get the work that I get because a lot of companies or they tell me that they've gone to agencies and the agencies do their best they're very good at things like copywriting um but they struggle um explaining the more technical aspects and with my developer background that's something that's a lot easier for for me to do yeah and and and as much as I believe that at in some situation a more marketing driven or more Dy to the fact type of content makes sense I would say if you really want to connect with the developer audience you need that Human Side you need that like like connection again it's always about connection you need that connection you need to to like when you we talk about that like you you have your personality that is on the screen that is like on in the video and and I feel like it helps to like talk about different technology to help people like educate themsel about those technology so I I think it make more sense to have someone like you a developer advocate create that kind of content because it's it's I don't know I just have the the word it's less dry than than like a pure tutorial no no man face like just like images or or demo with the voice over like if you have someone if you have a face I think I think it has to the experience maybe yeah oh totally um one thing that always amazed me as well uh is at Doppler I remember one of the engineers that joined he he literally said like I applied for the job because of one of my videos um because of the enthusiasm I sort of had for the product and so I think that human connection also comes from like if you're demonstrating something and you you have to be obviously be genuinely you know excited and genuinely like the the product and what it does but it can attract all sort of people because if someone's passionate about something that sends a very positive signal to to your viewer saying well if they're this passionate about it they you know they it must be a good product or they must like working at the company um so yeah there's there's so many benefits to to to video and how how do you deal okay let me step back has a developer out because in my case I have an employer and I have one two maybe three product that I own uh it's my full-time job so it's easy for me to learn about the product product to become an expert in that product or it's easier let's say because it's those are my only focus and and really be excited hopefully I hope because I decided to work there and I'm excited about things in your case as a freelancer or having your business where you have like different contracts with different companies how do you deal with with that part where yeah you have to learn about a new product more often than I have to and you have to get excited but it's at the same time it's a contract with a limited time or limited duration or a limited like like end goal of what you have to do versus me unless like until they kick me out because I don't want to work with me anymore or I don't want I don't want to work with them anymore that's going to be my only focus so I I don't know if my question makes sense it made a lot of sense when I was thinking about it but like how how do you deal with that like transition because especially because of the genuine aspect the no [ \_\_ ] aspect of like what we do when we create content and that human connection how how do you deal with that yeah it's it's a it's a huge challenge um and it's it's the the scripting process and getting familiar with the product to the point where uh I can talk about it you know as if it's as if it's my own um is very difficult at the moment um the majority of the content I'm doing is really just like scripting for other folks and guiding them and sometimes doing voiceovers um because oftentimes you know companies don't necessarily want like me as as the face of the video but you know um but you know when it comes to writing blog posts because that's something that I do as well um for and a lot of stuff is ghostwritten for the same reason so um it is incredibly challenging to jump into a domain that you're not familiar with to get intimately familiar with the product uh in a way that you can speak to it like you've been working there for a long time uh and to do that while still you know being profitable is is a huge challenge I think it lost you Ryan and that's that's thing that is oh no we lost we lost you after you said like it's a big Challenge and and like being profitable so if you want to to to finish what you were saying right after yeah yeah so essentially um that's the most challenging part of the process so it's that it's it's yeah absorbing the information and then being able to to write about it as if you've been working at the company um so that's what I'm that's what I'm working on yeah the most awesome awesome and I assume it's someone that you know and know you already but jasen Ronda was saying like rhinos uh which mean I I assume it's your nickname got that thing that draws you in uh it's a spirit energy thoughtfulness accent and air I mean I'm jealous of I'm jealous of that like yeah I missed that part on me and um yeah I'm really jealous oh there you go thanks thanks Jason we we worked together uh a while ago probably about 14 14 years ago that's great thanks M that's yeah no that's a great statement like uh um when you have that kind of impact on someone and like this to share like those kind of things about you after all this time uh it's a good sign that like yeah you're the kind of person you want to work with which is also a good sign for like potential customer for you like seeing like uh comments like that I I think it's just nice but I think it's also like what everything Jason listed I think it's also what makes you good at what you do you know like your energy like the spirit you put in what your your accent uh I mean let's be honest like Australian accent is pretty nice compared to my like uh french-speaking Canadian guy trying to speak in English I mean like there's some some something that at least for me North America like your accent is a bit like exotic is and it it feels like more professional like you also have like it's it's it's true you do voiceovers you also have like a um um I don't know how to say that in English but like a a deep voice but not too deep like just the right level of deep if I can say that that feels that makes you feel comfortable uh it's weird I feel like I'm flirting with you right now but like I just it's true about the accent thing uh I I feel like it's great for for what what you're doing yeah it's it's interesting like obviously this is my you know natural voice but when you start on on the Journey of of video and voiceovers and I really encourage like every everyone to give this a try like even if it's not something that you ever publish um the personal journey of learning like how to present and present something that's natural but when you're you know that you're mindful of of how you speak and how you Pace what you speak and your articulation um it's just such a valuable skill that will help you in you know um in in your work uh when you're when you're you know communicating things in in any environment and uh on the voice thing like when I when I started this I was lucky to get some coaching from a media person and uh she started off just going okay just just you know Ju Just present to me and it was it was something like uh hi uh you know in this video I'm going to show you how to do this and she just she cut me off and she's like pleas please stop um you know in this day and age you're not trying to be a radio presenter you're not trying to be uh a newscaster you know maybe 10 you know 15 years ago before YouTube uh companies people sort of expected that that front um but she said it's got to be it's got to be you um and probably the most valuable thing we did like yeah we worked on technique and and things like that um but the most valuable thing is she said like we've got to figure out like who you are in order for you to work out how you're going to communicate and how you're going to speak and and how you're going to be on camera and so we kind of went through things and you know some people are really funny so they can lean into the humorous part of their personality um for me and she was sort of saying like what are your values like what do you like doing like why do you even want to do video and I said well I just at the core of it like I just love helping people because Tech is difficult um and when you've got someone that can explain something like succinctly and knows how to explain it for a particular audience whether that's someone that's very intimate with the technology or someone you know that's maybe they don't even know what kubernetes is they don't even know what Docker is so being able to explain that um is is really important and so she said okay well you're clearly passionate about education you love helping people so that's your that's your Vibe so when you jump on camera you know you're not necessarily aggressive uh you know you're not trying to be funny you're just leaning into your natural values and then that means when you start practicing and you learn some of the technical things you're blending that technique with just who you naturally are and that's the difference between when you watch someone and it just feels like it just feels completely normal like you're having a conversation versus when you see someone and they may be struggling because they're trying to be this thing that they need to be like maybe one of their favorite YouTube influencers instead of just leaning into well you know maybe I'm quiet um maybe I'm reserved and I can make that work uh so that's probably one of the most valuable things that I've learned is you've got to present in a way that just feels like you um and then there's also other things it's like when you're on camera presenting you've got to up your energy uh you just have to because uh otherwise it comes across you know it it doesn't have that punch so one thing I recommend to people when they're getting into this is when you're presenting or even when you're doing a voiceover do the craziest most high energy ridiculous over-the-top markety style voice over that you can like just so crazy that you'd never even show anyone you'll watch that back and then you'll realize that actually the energy is nowhere near um as high as what you thought then you just bring it back down maybe 10 or 20% and you find that that sweet spot um so it's really just a a lot of a lot of practice but if you if you're not comfortable you're never going to have the impact um with your video that that you want to damn there was like first thanks for Shar that like so many good advices so many good tips uh there's a lot to unpack on that I don't even know where to start uh let's let's just start by something a little bit un related to everything you just said about the fact you said like Tech is hard thanks for saying that I've been saying that all the time like technology is hard being a software developer is hard um even more now than it used to be because like there's so many Technologies out there there are so many products there like things change so fast um there there is like too many sources of information which sometimes is like too much is is is is like not enough it's not easy to be a software developer and I'm saying that as someone who is a software developer for the last 20 plus years um obviously I'm not the best out there but I I think I'm not the worst also as a developer uh and I feel it's not easy it's fun I like it um it's it's rewarding to a certain extent depending on what you do but it's not easy so uh super long answer or comment to say like thank you for sh saying that because um I talked to a lot of like Junior and unfortunately there's a lot of like senior people that say oh yeah that's [ \_\_ ] easy oh that's easy oh this is or and and I don't think it's the way to go yes maybe it's easy for you but it was not at the beginning and if it was good for you but it's not like that for most people so like showing that like even people would experience like acknowledge the fact that like Tech is it's not easy I think it's important I think we should we should do that a lot more so yeah that was just a small part of everything you said but like that really like like talked to me because I try to say this as often as I can I do not care people think that I'm a shitty developer when I say that but I think we should say that because it's true and it's important that like Junior people hear this from more senior people people that are doing tech for a longer time so they don't feel like impostor when they start a job and they're like that [ \_\_ ] is hard or I need to work a little more during the evening just to keep up with the rest of the team or like I should know how to do that like no like unless someone tell you unless you you made some mistakes unless like you find a tutorial unless you try it you try it and at some point you find the answer like there there's no ho truth right at the beginning you don't need to know everything and it's not easy so again super long um it's just because that that that that like I don't know how to say that it's just something important to me that's why I'm blabbering about that for the last 10 minutes but uh thanks for sharing that yeah I mean I just to add on to what you said um particularly for the junior folks like if if you ask a question a don't be scared to ask like you know silly questions obviously do do your research so your question is is hopefully an intelligent one but if you get a response that just confuses you even more or goes into details that that you're you know that that you don't understand and you walk away feeling like oh man I'm I'm so dumb like I have no idea what that person just said um that's not on you because a really good communicator will sort of be able to sus out from your question um and maybe they'll ask some some probing questions but they should be able to tailor like what they know to your level of awareness about what's being talked about and that's probably when people get into video um and just communication in general that's probably one thing that they don't think about so when I do a video for clients what's really important is not just you know who the target audience is it's like what's their level of awareness um like you know Doppler for example is this someone that has no idea what Secrets management even is do they just think EMV files are fine and that's enough so you really have to figure out like who am I talking to and what can I presume they know um so yeah like that's that's probably the most the most challenging part but that's one thing that video teaches you is then you be really intentional about the level of detail that you go into about the product um and you also become aware of when you're explaining something to someone for the first time they're not ready for the details they're not necessarily ready for the best practices and all that sort of stuff that comes later when you know more about it it's more like the why um this is why we have this this is the benefits this is what you get um and the overall process you know looks something like this so when someone feels like they get the big picture then you're drawing them in and they're more Curious okay well now that I understand the benefits and why I would use this when I would use it um now I kind of want to know more about the details so in the same way that that would happen in a conversation like say at a conference it's the same way with video but you're trying to anticipate the questions or the concerns or the objectives that you know your your the viewer would have yeah no I totally agree and and you know I'm I'm not a a public speaker coach or uh like like the person that helps you for voiceover but I can't EO everything you said before like just just try to be yourself because everything else not going to work um so so I I remember when I was doing uh I call this like a speaker High High doll when like those High High doll thing were popular and it was basically like a kind of like a little bit of a workshop where like firsttime speaker they were talking about whatever topic they want even if it was not technical and I had like myself another like experience speaker giving them feedback to help them improve themsel but mostly everybody were they were all trying to be funny when most of them were not and I'm not saying that to be mean it was just not natural like for me when I speak I joked all the time I I like it's part of my personality like maybe not during the show but like when I give talks like I make jokes and it's just natural because this is who I am in real life but everybody wants to be funny and as you said it's okay if you are not it's okay if your personality is different you do not need to be funny and I think it's apply for everything like just just keep trying to be yourself uh and I think this is this is how you're going to be successful obviously there is things that you can change a little bit tweak a little bit improve a little bit like you've done uh like from your voice over but um just wanted to EOD that because that the other uh really important things from like everything was amazing from what you said in the previous comment but I just wanted to EOD that because it's it's one of the tip that I give quite often too uh when I talk to people want to start public speaking like just be yourself and and don't try to copy like a speaker you like or someone else if it's not you if it's not natural because that's not going to work that that's not going to work with people you're not going to be able to connect with people and as much as as you like it or not it's all about connection I'm annoying with that today but like it's really always all about connection um we've talked to a lot I guess we could talk to a lot more I still have a question for you because we we didn't talk that much about the developer relations part um of your journey obviously I feel like what you're doing right now is still developer relation you talk to developers you create content for developer mostly your dip offs people uh but still you had the title at some point in your career like you work at source graph uh um also oh you were also Technical Training instructor but um after that you work also yeah a dubler so this is what I was missing I was looking at your LinkedIn because I have like a really bad memory for those things um would you like to share a little bit about your your specific experience as developer Advocate to those companies yeah so when I joined uh you know both of those companies it was very early days and there was only you know a handful of people um and the really challenging thing when a when it's an early stage startup and B when you're the only devil is it's very difficult for both of the company and you to figure out what you should be doing um on a given day and I think uh that can be exciting sometimes because you're doing you know so many different things um but it can be challenging to sometimes uh explain the value that you're adding because a lot of the time you're doing things like voice of the customer you're digging into the product you're understanding how the the product can better you're trying to write documentation um but then I think we lost you maybe you need to be attending conferences oh you're back uh I lost you when you were starting to talk about the fact that it was challenging like to Define your day today what you're going to do and I lost you after that yeah so the figuring out like what you meant to be doing dayto day and the biggest impact you can have on the company is really hard when it's an early stage startup because there's 20 different things as a Dev that you should be doing and even when you're a devil with a team I think there's still an aspect of that um so you've got I had to be willing to to wear many hats um I think one thing I could have definitely done better uh at those companies is Define more things in terms of projects so I'm typically someone that says yes to everything and that can be really great sometimes um but when you've got a project at least it's something that you can say right we did this thing and you know this was the the result and for a lot of you listening that might sound like well of course but when you're a devel and you're being pulled in all of these directions that's actually really hard to say uh I understand that we need to do that but if I do lots of little things it's sometimes harder to have a big uh impact um so that was one of the things I leared um and eventually in your Dev Journey you'll either be drawn to something that you really enjoy uh hopefully that's something you're also naturally good at as well um but you'll probably find yourself being drawn to like one particular area and at some point for your career progression it's probably a good idea to like lean into that strength um that you have and become more specialized in that thing um so that would sort of be my my general advice based on my experience um love that yeah and for me it was always video uh being on you know whether it's a webinar or something like that or producing videos um that was also something that I saw a lot of other devs um not doing so in terms of differentiating myself um that was also something that I wanted to to lean into um so if you're a devil person and you're watching this you absolutely can do um video and it's it's just so valuable it's so valuable for the the company um so I I just really encourage everyone to to give give it a go um and I would also be happy to answer any questions you know via email there's also a bunch of tips that I'll I'm going to share as as well um you can share with your your listeners because um yeah it's just it's a great thing that'll enhance your life enhance your career um and it's just it's something that um yeah that most everal people aren't doing but I I wish they'd get into yeah and and and as much as like a lot of things we do as a developer Advocate and derel is part public uh you know like sharing on social media writing blog article like helping and that whatever the slack Community like all those things are public and and at some point depending on a company you can share them to potential employers I I feel like what is the most amazing thing to share is videos that you created or recording of your talk because it really show you has a communicator it show you like it shows people like how you prepare for something you create uh if you use slides like what are the slides how you define or created your demo what you're presenting how you present how to react depending like if it's a let's say it's it's not just a video not not just a video but it's not a video but like it's a recording of the talk if the questions are recorded also how you interact with the people so like the visual presence that you can have in the video whether you create a video tutorial uh whether it was like as I said a recording of a talk I feel like it's what and show the most uh value the biggest part of your personality and what you can bring to the table to a potential employ so I'm not saying the rest is not good I'm just saying like I it's a personal opinion I think that videos can can show a a little bit more that would have a bigger impact in let's say potential employers next customers uh potential Partners even in your actual job as you said like um you were talking about you know people that saw your video and this is why they decided to join the company uh so it it it doesn't help just yourself and your personal brand it helps the company at different levels not just promoting the product so um I totally agree with with what you're saying and uh uh in addition to public speaking videos is probably like the things I like to do the most also uh kind to developer relation uh with that said um we always have like a demo part of the show um um I know you wanted to you you already started to do that during the discussion but I know you have like other tips and tricks you wanted uh to share with people about you know creating like great de uh technical content and I know we talked a lot about videos because like when I I think about you I think about videos but I know you said like you also do blog post and you also write like create other type of contents so um yeah feel free to share about all the type of contents you want to share about but um I would switch now to be part because as I said as much as I love talking to you um and I people are listening so I guess we're not that bad and it's interesting also like the part of the show where people can bring uh really concrete things that can help you uh that can help them uh in their day-to-day so the floor is yours my friend all right so I just click on the present button do I yep all right hopefully he's going to be good we forgot to test it before the show hopefully you're going to have the permission to do that and the internet connection's going to Green all right here we go awesome let me head this to the show all right um so yeah I'm going to break this up into into two parts I've got sort of a Google Docs here um which sort of goes through I think the most important things that I've leared in you know ever since I've been producing video obviously there's not going to be time to go through this but this is something that you know that you'll get um and so I think what I'll do is I'll just pull out the most important things here and then I'll show you some examples uh from uh what have we got why is this working uh from you know some of the projects I've worked on and the more sort of you know technical things when it comes to screen recording and that kind of stuff um so I think we've we've talked a lot about this um one of the most important things is I think when you're on camera it's really natural to just be self-conscious um what helps me is things that put me in a good mood or for instance uh someone that I know that would listen to whatever I had to say uh with great interest so for me that's that's my mom whether it's talking about music or my personal life or or business or business or whatever my mom is is such a good listener and so whatever gets you into a mode where you're presenting and you feel like what you're Pres presenting is valuable um that will help you present and the more you can make it about your audience um that also just takes the focus off you uh when you're focused on them you want to be great for them help them learn things that just helps you uh present I like that and and and it's super awkward to watch yourself on a video for the first time oh I was actually for the first couple of times or listen to you and say like yeah my voice is not as good as I thought it was because it's kind of like different hearing it when you speak like right now what I'm doing and like if I watch the recording of the show after that it's a little bit awkward so as you said like don't don't spend too much time like looking at that like you probably did a good job and you're being too hard on yourself yeah uh yeah it's it's it is it is really hard because you you it's also good not to compare yourself to others like um one of my favorite presenters is a guy called uh Maguire Brandon who used to uh be at webflow and he is just phenomenal he's so funny his comedic timing is amazing um his skills the next level like I'm I'm self-taught mostly um but when you compare yourself to others it can really kind of get you down so you know he's done probably hundreds of videos um so when you're just starting out yeah be gentle on yourself I wish I could have given myself that advice in the past and and even now um yeah yeah I agree uh Jas was saying using your mom is a bad example for most but it made a lot of sense I mean like I know you get the guest Jason but uh yeah no uh my my my mom yeah my mom never understood what I what I was doing for work but uh we we got the point I just said it was funny comment Oh either Ry is still like really laughing and not moving at all or we lost him uh folks do not not be afraid Ry just moved to a new place he doesn't have like internet connection proper internet connection yet so he is toring and you know live being live when you do a live show on your phone on the smartphone it can get you in trouble like right now so um while we wait for Ryan to come back which is usually pretty fast but not right now I think we lost him completely you know what I'm going to read like the tips that he has on his Google doc because uh it's probably pretty good uh find your style you're not a news anchor he talked about it oh no I lost the Google Doc and Ryan uh but that was a good tips uh you know like really like trying to be yourself it's what we talked about before uh I have also let me find an article that I wrote about that uh about speaking um is uh I wrote something about that recently for new uh public speak you know how to um how to speak I'm just going to share the link I'm not going to read you all that uh it's here adding a banner it's frad out they have public speaking so I have like a couple of tips about like it's mostly when it's mostly when you speak at conferences at meop but uh those are still uh great tips and on that note we have Ryan I'm I'm tethering sorry everybody but that was a that was a doozy oh okay I love that Jason R see J Jason's obviously he's got more of the humor down um all right I'll try and uh push through these in case it goes down again um really quickly on the presenting stuff if you're going to be doing more video content uh for your job reading from a teleprompter um while appearing just to speak normally is a superp power um so yeah I'll kind of leave leave the this that that for the video stuff um with voice uh sometimes when I'm on Zoom I forget to do this but smile with your voice like if you don't smile and you present uh versus when you smile it feels really unnatural at first but not only does it changes the the way your voice sounds and how you present it also relaxes you so that's probably the most important tip I can give you um for you know for your voice stuff like that you know if you if you Google you know voice warm-ups hydration um all that kind of stuff you you'll come across lots of good voiceover tips the one that I think is actually the most important um is relaxing your tongue um this is going to look ridiculous and sound ridiculous but if you essentially stick your tongue out all the way like in front of your mouth and then maybe just say like a paragraph it helps to just relax your your everything in your mouth and then it's much easier just to speak so that's probably uh one of the big the big tips and then just consistently practice um you just got to practice practice practice uh for scripting it should sound like you otherwise it's not going to sound like you so if you write something really marketing and it's good on paper you'll find that when you actually read that back or present it to camera you're like oh that's so weird I would never say that um so with video in particular in voiceovers it's got to be in your in your style um otherwise when you try to read it it's GNA sound like you're reading um that's yeah that's that's one of the hardest things when it comes to scripting I I like I I he a lot of people that say oh I don't script I I just like go like Freestyle and I'm going to do my stuff and I do this quite often to be honest but the reality is that I spend a lot more time editing my video when I don't have a script so uh it may be a little bit award at the beginning especially if you're used to like public speaking let's say at at conferences where you don't read stuff and you move to video content and having to read feel maybe unnatural at the beginning or or at least even if you don't read like try to Define like what you want to talk about and like the biggest point because yeah um you're GNA save plenty of time after but I agree with the till promter I bought one at some point in my life and I was like it's not working for me so uh yeah it's it's just easier to yeah do it l yeah another tip on that is uh yeah everyone will have their own style if you are freestyling and it's something that you'll edit like with a loom it might just be a quick demo and you pump out the loom and that's it if it is something that you're going to go back and edit uh and you are sort of freestyling it make sure that like there are clear starts and stops what I've noticed when people are getting into this is I'll say something like you know in this step we're going to do this now let's uh transition to this and what you want to be thinking about so when you want to go back and edit and maybe make things more succinct there's not a break where you can sort of you know make that edit and you know re-record maybe what you did on screen so just make sure if there's a full stop or in your mind if there's a full stop like just take a pause and it makes sense because like PE people people think that like you should not have you should not have silent moments too but like it's it's it's it's not true like it's okay if you you pose and it gave times to people to assimilate the information you're sharing so it's okay if there's like small silent moment like we we see that when we speaking like I do this uh even myself after speaking for a long time like you watch recording of my talks and you you hear me say like uh uh and making some noise to try to feel the void while I'm thinking about what I'm gonna say next and actually those are words for the it's not the end of the world but those are words for the audience and like you just like take a small PA and you start again and that's going to help you for editing I I had so many problem when I started to do videos because I was like oh I did a mistake and I was starting to talk again or I didn't have like any like small break between like the things that I was saying it was just like just the pain to it so yeah yeah um on the screen recording tips I'll just kind of you know jump in um you can get really creative with things like code Snippets um you also it's also great to work with a designer where there is uh you know transparent parts of of the screen just because you you can you know you can do stuff like this where there's you know a um you know Motion Graphics but then you've also got screen recordings as as well so you know as budget and time allows um look at other videos that people are doing and kind of get inspired and and and figure out stuff um this is something that I was kind of uh this this code thing was was really cool so when it's hard to have code demos um that animate and you know you can do things like you can have all of the code uh in a in a in a file and then you delete it all and then you reverse it and that can sort of you know that that can that can look really good um with but I wanted to I want to didn't want to have to do that so all this is is this is vs code and I took a screen recording of obviously like just you know just this because I wanted to look like an an editor right you're trying to show developers the exact environment that they would be working in um and the way this works is it just uses um I think Mac OS is it's just called Automation and so all it's doing is just sending the key commands to visual studio code um and there is a little bit of like code in there where it like pauses and things like that um but yeah just like little tricky things like that because then you don't have to worry about um you know syntax highlighting and and all of that sort of stuff so that's that's kind of like one one cool thing uh on the other thing uh for a screen recording you want to try and make things like as succinct as possible when it's a highly produced video um so a lot of like this this video for Doppler is I'm still demonstrating were you sharing like showing us something on our screen oh it's not oh no that's right I just realized that when that you have when you disconnected cuz I disconnected all right okay sorry everybody um uh for the most part I wasn't but just just then I was so let's go back select entire screen okay so I'll just really quickly recap what I was saying um so that's the that's that's the automation that's just sending the sending the the the text to visual studio code um and just [Music] about sorry oh I think I think was losing you but I I was going to say just about that like the the code where you like recorded in vs code um like so many people are like oh yeah I should life code because like you know that show my skills and [ \_\_ ] and I'm like no there like personally I think there is nothing worse than someone life coding unless like it's a small snippet because like you're prone to me no matter how good you are you're prone to mistakes and I'm not using my precious time to look at you making unless it's about like a debugging to or like it's related to what you want to show but like no what I want to see is like working code I want to see like how you went through that point so I like the idea of what you've done like recorded the code and being sure like hey that's going to be a perfect thing and there's that animation too so you still have a feeling that like you're coding even if in reality you're not during the video you've done that before you just like recorded your screen so um yeah yeah I just I just wanted to to to share that because that's a pet peeve of mine uh when you go to a talk and like the person spend like one third of the talk trying to debuging what they wanted to show like yeah it's like yeah good not good for you not good for anyone yeah exactly um and that kind of beautifully leads into my next point is you know the other reason why you want to do something like this um is the focus is on demonstrating like you know how things come together and but you need to do that as fast as possible because every second that goes by is the second that someone might drop off and stop watching your video and so I always try and balance like I never want to skip entire Parts I never want to make a process seem like oh it's just two steps when it's actually you know six steps but you always take like every opportunity to you know I I often I often speed things up um you know because yeah they don't need to see me like type in a password you know character by character so you get really good at knowing this is something where I have to show in real time this is something where I can kind of like speed through the process to demonstrate as as much as I can in a short a time period um as possible what you'll also notice too is the more that you get into this and you do try and condense things down the more editing um you have to do so that's just that's just part of the process unfortunately uh and this is for like a very a very polished video if you're just doing a tutorial about how to do something you won't need to go to this extent of editing but it was just to show folks that what kind of you know can can can look very natural um you're just like watching and you're just like oh yeah that makes sense um there's a lot of stuff kind of like going on you know in in the background um I guess uh just really quickly to on the presentation side of things you know because I I do this you know for a living now I am putting in a lot of effort in terms of you know the the video quality this is shot on a m mirrorless camera there's the standard sort of lamp in one corner the fern in you know another corner it's like oh God we really need someone on video on YouTube that's got another plant and and a lamp but it doesn't really matter all people are focused on is you and the reason that we've got things like the light in the background it's not to try and look cool it's more just that you want to separate yourself the subject from what's going on like in the background um another another good tip that I wasted so many hours probably days on this is I would see in you know Youtubers with this like super cool background and there's LEDs and there's lights and they lit up and that's dark and I tried to emulate that and it's all nice and blurry because because it's like oh yeah that's that's the look I need to go for but it wastes so much time and you really don't need like that Boker effect where you're bluring everything out that is it's just a tool all that tool is doing is that like if this was perfectly in focus it doesn't put the attention on me but when I'm in focus and everything else isn't my eyes are just naturally drawn to to this so don't worry if you're doing something and your the stuff isn't blurred in the background as long as it's not cluttered and it's not capturing the user view attention mine which is like my background is really cluttered but at the same time like as much as I like the those let's call them fancy background with with like lights and stuff and like beautiful shelves with like nice things behind people it it kind of like remove a little bit what you said it removed the focus but not the camera Focus but my focus and my attention is for a couple of seconds maybe a minute or two on the background looking at what people they have like there's a new like like I have I have ad so there's a light flashing like sometimes I'm gonna like even if I listen to you I'm not going to absorb the information because like my focus is something else uh your background right now it's professional it's I'm going to say boring but not in a negative way actually I think it's the goal the goal is so we can focus on you I mean like there's a lamp in a plan it took me one second I do not care anymore about that I care about you speaking and I I as I said as much as I love those nice background like you know they took the time to choose the right thing and it's like kind of like a professional setting background I think it remove some things from the videos but I know it's also quite popular but it's it Mak just be like a personal opinion no I think like everything that you said is is so spoton um the other thing too that I sort of you know realized is uh the way that you look on video like the general thing um is contextual so if I was doing something as a as a drummer or a musician you know maybe I would have you know like a Studio background or it would be like darker because that's for like a creative audience when you're doing something for for work and particularly if it's like educational in nature you want everything to be bright because that's how it is in a meeting like imagine if you went into like a someone's office and a sales call and it was like really really like dim lighting that would be so weird that would be so awkward so you don't you don't need to have that influencer that YouTuber influencer you know cool look just make sure that you're really well lit um it also just helps you just look better on camera um so yeah that's probably one of the the biggest tips I can give just just make it look you know just yeah well lit um that just helps the energy that's amazing uh something else I can uh really quickly show um is just Motion Graphics so uh you know when you're watching something because of social media we have a very short attention spans um and so what that means is that when I'm doing like pieces to camera um that I do that because normally there might be a point that I want to communicate and it makes sense for me to engage at the camera uh maybe it's to emphasize the importance of something I can't really demonstrate something on screen because if I'm explaining why something is important and I'm demonstrating something well this you know people's attention is now going in two different parts so a whatever your is on screen should line up with what your voice is doing um but yeah when it comes to sort of you know composing your shots it's good to have you know a little bit of um you know talking head but if this was 30 seconds that would kind of be a bit weird and so you know somewhere between you know 10 7 10 seconds um then you you know even with the screen recording then you switch to something else um then you might go to a motion graphic uh and on the motion graphic front um Motion Graphics are really good to emphasize something where you can't really demonstrate so it might be uh a visual concept like for example um this MH so you know you're showing visually like if I say you know SCM is syncing users to blah blah blah uh but when you've got a motion graphic uh it doesn't have to be crazy you don't need things animating and flying in and all that sort of stuff it's just a visual accompaniment to help the words that you're saying you know make sense uh in in the mind of the viewer um and in terms of Motion Graphics this is done in After Effects by an amazing designer um I work with um and uh now we've switched to using something called Jitter which is sort of like a a web version and it can't do all the the crazy stuff that after effects can do but it's something approachable that that anyone can start using what's the name uh it's called Jitter J T um and yeah it's a bit of a game changer because it just means you can do like for instance uh for this video um everything uh is done in Jitter so yeah you might look at that and go oh it's a bit plain but it really does for the most part um what it needs to do so you know just really subtle animations it doesn't have to be in your face because the more the animations are sort of crazy that's taking away from you know what you want people to actually be you know focusing on um I agree so much with that I'm I'm I'm big on the team uh keep it simple stupid so it's nice to have a little bit of Animation but like when it's too much it's it's exactly too much yeah um I know we've been talking for for ages um so fly through this gear is nowhere near as important as you think and what I wish I did back in the day is first invested in um lighting so this is my sort of current setup here this is um and I've got all the gear list in here so I won't go through that but it's a it's a it's a good quality light lighting is probably the most important thing along with the microphone for you to invest in if you've got good lighting and you sound good U as long as you got a recent laptop or just you know a webcam that is all you need because your voice um is the the most important thing um and this is all you need that's going to not only light up me but it's going to light up the entire room because I'm not going for that Moody sort of rembrand lighting um so yeah lighting is such an important thing to invest in uh for the microphone I'm using um just this which is a road video mic ntg it's USB so I don't have to muck around with uh audio interfaces um and the other thing is it's a it's a shotgun mic and I like to keep it out of camera because you know if I'm if I've got the the mic in the camera uh in in shot it's kind of distracting um you know where if it's down here I can't obviously I can't see my cam my camera right now but if it's out of shot it just means it's more like you know if we were having a conversation so to to each their own but that's why I always use shotgun mics because I want people just to be focusing on me and not getting distracted by you know the the logos that might be in the shot or or what microphone I'm using or or any of that kind of stuff I like that I I obviously as you can see I don't do that but it's because I need my mic to be like closed like I don't have a shotgun mic yeah and and the thing is that when I move if I want to keep like a good quality and a good Audio Level I need to move the mic so it's also a little bit of pain in the ass so and and as you said I really like that I'm I'm I'm learning too I mean like it remove the attention from me and I like to have the attention on me so maybe I should review the mic I'm using yeah I mean and some of this is all just it's very uh you know people are sort of develop their own their own thing but I guess what I'm saying is don't feel like you have to have a super expensive Dynamic mic on shot you know that that doesn't say I'm a professional what is you know and it's not even about being professional it's about I think being attractive and what I mean by that I'm not talking about Aesthetics someone just being themselves and presenting in a way where yeah like I get what that person's saying oh that makes sense oh that product sounds sounds cool um that is what is important not how crisp you look and not the blurry background and all that sort of stuff um so for those that are thinking of going down the the you know the getting like a a mirrorless camera if you're doing this as your full-time gig and you sort of want that that sort of shot where you know um like you know this sort of [Music] thing I probably do need to invest in a mirrorless camera oh no yeah I I think we the GU of it really Speedy at the end but like you don't need to invest like in a mirorless camera yeah because it's people see this and they're like oh but the mirrorless camera you know is so good it's like yeah but you've got to worry about white balance um you need to worry about depth of field there's so many things that will take your attention away from presenting from your voice from scripting and so if you want to go down this route it's a it's a long-term investment and I really recommend getting like a a camera like a videographer to help you with this they'll guide you with the gear that you need to buy um they'll help you set things up and then once you get things set up I think I've got this as a tip as well you want a predictable environment so with me even though it's daytime right now and when I took this shot obviously it was nighttime it's really easy for me just to like dial up the light here to get some sort of consistent look um that just it just makes it easier because when you sit down to film you don't want to be thinking about your lighting and where's my microphone and um you know oh what what I you just want to be sitting down and you're just thinking about your audience and you're just communicating value so don't let essentially like don't let the gear be a distraction from connecting um with your audience um and just I guess if there was something I was going to finish on in terms of someone said I like you know Ryan do you think your videoos a high quality a I don't think it's up to me to say that but for me all quality is is it's about removing the distractions and you know things that detract uh so your message about the product and what you're talking about shines through um so you know a bad bad quality audio where it's you know really echoing um or if I'm you know if I'm not really looking at the camera and I'm you know whatever those are things that the viewer is going to pick up and it's they're not going to necessarily like consciously do this but subconsciously they're sort of like distracting from what you're doing so that's all quality is in terms of video Someone watches it and they're just like oh I get what that guy is saying that makes sense I'm going to go try the product now that's a high quality video obviously there's lots of things that yeah that have to to come into that to to to help that but all you're really doing is just removing distractions so what you're saying really gets through to uh whoever's watching and Ryan I I I love that you were uh really on bow about that uh but like I believe that your videos are uh quality high quality videos and um one thing that I found wonderful is that everybody can create videos what I found a little less wonderful is that not everybody can create like great quality videos so um if you need someone to help you create great content please ask Ryan I mean like uh sometimes you know sometimes you think it's not because you can do something that you should do it uh like sometimes and actually most of the time it's worth it to pay a professional uh for their expertise about video creation so you're going to get more views you're going to get more return on investment so yes you have to spend money uh at the beginning to pay that professional to do the work but like the return on investment I can guarantee is always worth it um so think about Ryan if you if you want to have great video quality yeah I I appreciate the plug um one thing I'm starting to do more is because I also push a lot of the things that we've been talking about like that human connection that person on camera if I'm doing particularly work for a client and I don't work there I really encourage them whether it's the devoll person uh or the marketing person or the CEO it doesn't really matter who it is but it's like you work at the company it often makes much more sense for you to represent um what your you know the product as opposed to me obviously I'm always happy to do it and so part of what I'm getting into is coaching on things like presenting on the voice over um how to set up their video how to set up their lighting because ultimately I think that's a really good investment for that team um you know to to be able to produce their own content and obviously when I'm mentoring them and coaching them that just massively speeds up the the process and so while at the moment the majority of my work is producing content because I like helping people and educating I think I can see my business maybe even you know progressing to predominantly to the coaching and the education part because if I could help more devoll people Embrace video and add more value to what they're doing um yeah that would just make me super happy just for all of the reasons that we've talked about um people love video allowing you know it demonstrates the product in action and yeah in in the right context that's just fantastic I like that and and um I know we talked a lot about videos but like you create all sort of contents too so if people want to help or coaching uh they can reach out to you for other type written content too yeah absolutely awesome uh Ryan was a pleasure again talking to you I mean again because we talked before but like was a pleasure having you on the show also uh a lot of great tips and I mean uh this this is what I love with the show because I got expert in different fields and and I'm doing videos for a long time and you share a lot of tips that I'm like yeah I need to retain some of the things that I'm doing and and just because it's it's kind of like my job to do that so it's why it's it's worth the time for me to do that so everybody at home don't change everything doing uh go with small step but like obviously if it's your job if you're a developer Advocate if you produce video content um the tips that you share were super helpful so um yeah thanks a lot for sharing your expertise thanks a lot for being on the show even uh if it was uh really early for you and uh thanks everybody for watching the show people being live uh you were a little bit quiet today so uh thanks Jason for the comments that was fun and uh if you watch the recording and you have any questions whatsoever please ask um go on Ryan blend.com was it on I shared I yeah yeah I shared the link like 20 times R in the show and I cannot remember so go there uh if you have any questions if you want to work with Ryan or um comment directly on the show and I can uh relay any uh question or comment to Ryan here so um yeah thanks again for being the show any last word you want to share with the audience before we go offline um I think ju I mean nothing I haven't already said but just that doing video will help you in so many aspects in life um and developing your voice looking at your values is also just a amazing thing to do for personal growth so I hope everyone's inspired to at least give video a try for them awesome awesome I'll do I I have to release videos in like two three weeks for some of the stuff we're working on so maybe I'll ping you and it's still like okay now like destroy my [ \_\_ ] or tell me if I did something not too bad anyway thanks again thanks again for sharing your expertise uh that was really nice talking to you and thanks everybody and see you in two weeks for the next Deo show have a good rest of the day folks or good, devrelshow episode 22 - Ryan Blunden, Frédéric Harper, 01j6yj1g29hbg3abah7ttqw0nx.