if you've been preparing to make a
course you probably have some idea of
what you'll say once you turn the camera
on or maybe you're not sure but you'll
just wing it or maybe you'll sound like
you're reading a news report making
videos may seem difficult for the
average person but what if I told you
that even a chimp could do it
we'll have this story and more after the
weather report Ben okay maybe you're
feeling a little uncertain about how
you're going to take all of your great
course material and deliver it to your
students in this video we're going to
get into some tips for making a
fantastic spread that will keep your
students engaged and excited to take
your course let's get into it
[Music]
hello creators I'm bent Olson from podía
where we empower creators like you to
make a living doing what you love before
we get started it's super important that
you take the time to outline your
material if you haven't done that yet
you can start by watching this video
where we go in-depth on making a great
course outline once that's done we're
ready to get into making our script a
fair question to ask when starting out
is should I script or should I just
improvise each approach has its own
strengths and weaknesses now if you're a
master you may be able to improvise
while still sounding very polished or
you may be able to go scripted while
still sounding like you're just going
off the cuff but we're going to assume
you're like most of us and don't have
ten thousand hours of experience talking
to a camera delivering from a script is
the easiest way to make sure you don't
forget any of your material and that you
say exactly what you intend to say it
also leads to a minimal amount of
editing because you're less likely to
stumble over your words on the downside
it can come across stiff and inauthentic
improvising can be much more natural and
authentic but it can be a nightmare to
edit if you're doing several different
takes each time you record a new section
authenticity is your biggest ally when
it comes to gaining your students trust
so it's really important to sound
natural when talking to the camera but
you also don't want the editing process
to be so overwhelming that you give up
before your course ever sees the light
of day what if you could have the best
of both worlds entrepreneur and author
sean mccabe talks about a concept
the hybrid voice it's a form of writing
and speaking that combines the
authenticity of improvising with the
polish of scripting you can achieve a
hybrid voice over time through a
consistent writing practice that follows
a pattern like this one
write your script to record yourself
reading what you wrote three listen back
and edit to make it sound more natural
repeat steps two and three until you're
satisfied developing a consistent
writing practice can take years but you
can apply this method today to make your
scripts sound more natural even if you
haven't already developed a writing
habit if you feel comfortable invite
somebody to come and listen as you
deliver your script and provide feedback
on how natural you sound this method can
do wonders for helping you sound more
natural even if you're only using it for
the first time the first step for
writing your script is to write a rough
draft when writing a rough draft it's
really important that you not edit as
you go in fact rip out your backspace
key go ahead I'm just kidding but
seriously this is not the time to edit
if you make a mistake or can't think of
the best way to say something that's
okay just keep your fingers moving if
you need to add specific instructions or
other information that you need to
research before writing make a quick
note and move on you can always go back
later and put it in your goal in this
step is to get into a flow state where
you're allowing your thoughts to pour
onto the page without judging them if
you have trouble writing without editing
you may find it easier to dictate your
rough draft for this method you can
record yourself going over the course
material using the audio recording app
on your phone or you can use an app that
will create a transcription of your
audio there are a few free dictation
tools like Apple dictation the built-in
recording feature for iOS or Windows 10
speech recognition and Google Docs voice
typing these can work but tend to be
less accurate if you're willing to
invest you can get just press record on
iOS for $4.99 it can record and
transcribe your audio this app also has
an Apple watch component so you can
actually record onto your Apple watch
and then transcribe it later on your
phone for this app and
free options you do have to speak
punctuation and formatting or you'll end
up with a string of unstructured words a
more advanced option is a web-based app
called dis script the script has a few
different plants to choose from but the
most popular is $20 per month and gives
you up to four hours each month of
transcribed audio it automatically adds
punctuation and basic formatting and it
also has a feature that allows you to
edit video by directly editing the text
in the transcript you can then export a
Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro project
including the edits welcome to the
future after you've gotten all your
thoughts out it's time to edit your
rough draft this is where you can make
corrections check for natural speech and
make performance notes depending on how
you plan to present your course content
you can put performance notes in
brackets so they're easier to notice as
you're delivering your script some
examples of how you might use this
include the following words or phrases
that need greater emphasis notes about
something you're demonstrating places
you might want to ad-lib speaking of
which you may want to allow for
opportunities here and there to go
off-the-cuff in your script going
off-the-cuff every once in a while can
increase the authenticity of your
delivery and help you stay loose on the
scripted parts a final and important
step in scripting your course is to prep
your script for delivery before we get
into this step you'll want to save two
copies of your script one without any
formatting and one that you'll add
formatting to later let's start with the
formatted one in this version of your
script you can add structure by using
titles or building or italicizing text
this will help you get a sense of the
overall structure of your script this
type of script is especially helpful if
you're doing voiceover only you can also
share this version with your students in
the form of a web article or PDF and
increase the value of your course the
unformatted version is for a
teleprompter some teleprompter apps will
automatically remove formatting but it's
a good idea to have a clean transcript
just in case an important note for both
types be sure to break the text up into
easy to consume chunks it's hard to read
a wall of text but it's even harder to
deliver your course while reading a wall
of text rather than three to five cents
our graphs break it down into 1/3
sentence sections this will make it easy
to track where you are in the script
whether you're just doing voiceover or
delivering on camera and that's it now
you're ready to perform your script like
a pro what kind of writer are you do you
prefer to dictate type on a computer
write in a journal ink pen and parchment
let me know in the comments if you found
this video useful and want more relevant
content like this click the subscribe
button and hit the notification bell so
you can be the first to know when we
post a new video thank you for watching
and I'll see you next time
[Music]