AdviserTechLIVE! 2021: A new adviser mindset

Pre-recording my session

I love presenting LIVE. I love the pre-presentation nervous energy, the adrenalin buzz of standing up in front of a room of people and the networking (and having a post-event beer) with attendees after. It’s an exciting experience.

But fast-forward to 2021 and this time the event wouldn’t actually be live.

Thanks to Covid, attendees can choose one of three dates. And to make sure everyone gets a consistent experience, we were asked to pre-record our presentations.

Now you might think that pre-recording a speech is less nerve-wracking than rocking up at a live event. I certainly did. Turns out I was wrong. Very wrong!

Recording is easier, right? Wrong.

When you know you’re going out ‘live’, there’s a certain pressure to perform. So I thought pre-recorded content would be easy in comparison. I could write out my speech and NOT have to worry about learning it off my heart. I wouldn’t have to worry about a pointer and whether to stand still or walk around on stage (or worry about falling off stage for that matter).

Turns out, pre-recording just creates more pressure. After all when you’re live, there’s an expectation that it may not be perfect. Plus, you get real-time feedback from the audience. So if your speech is sending people to sleep, you know about it!

But pre-recording? Well it would have to be word perfect. It would have to be even more engaging than usual since no-one’s going to know if the audience is asleep on their sofa (and I can’t just SHOUT TO WAKE THEM UP!) Not to mention all the technical implications of holding up a speech whilst getting the right image to pop up on screen and remembering to look at the camera. Since this was our first foray into the world of pre-recorded content, it’s safe to say I was pretty nervous.

But I had my team behind me (literally!) and it was such a great opportunity to get our brand out there, I decided I had to get over it.

I also took inspiration from our amazing client Russell Heritage, a golf coach who has amassed over £100k followers in 18 months using YouTube. Embracing this type of pre-recorded content back in 2018 enabled Russell to survive the pandemic on virtual lessons alone. So, as a lover of golf and purveyor of branding with balls, I realised pre-recorded content was probably par for the course!

And if you’re wondering how it went? You can watch the video below!

Proper planning and preparation prevents poor peformance

It was incredibly nerve-wracking but I also learnt a lot. In the end, like any successful event, it all came down to planning, planning and more planning.

When you’re presenting live, you can play bounce off what’s going around you. When you’re getting live feedback, tangents are your friend. But when content is pre-recorded, there’s no audience you motivate and inspire (or heckle, if you’re unlucky!). Every single word is critical. So there’s no time for tangents.

I’ve also learnt that it feels rather strange to look at myself for 10 minutes straight. I obviously haven’t spent enough time practicing speeches in the mirror!

On a serious note, it was a privilege to be invited to talk to advisers about the importance of branding. And this was a chance for us to build our brand in a different way too.  With so much ‘noise’ on the internet, being able to craft a succinct and visually impactful piece of content, that people can watch again and again was an opportunity not to be missed. And proof that effective branding really is so much more than the mask of an organisation. But the life-line helping it to survive.