Leveraging Videos for Your End User Training

Leveraging Videos for Your End User Training

Are you looking to deploy software to a lot of geographically dispersed users and wondering how you are going to do it? Have you considered using videos?

Videos will save you time and money. Videos will make you highly scalable, because when new people join your organization, you don’t have to train them. They can watch your video, saving you hours of time! I coach clients to leverage videos, so here are some tips to make you successful.

1. Outline your video and script out the various sections.
2. Give your session live via webinar or in person two or three times. This will allow people to ask questions, which you will want to incorporate into the video.
3. Invest in an easy to use editing software like Camtasia Studio. Make sure the software will allow you to index your video so people can jump to the sections they need.
4. Make it personal by recording the introduction of you or someone on your team with an iPhone. Camtasia allows you to drag and drop videos from your iPhone 5 into your project. If you are going to use an iPhone to record, I recommend you invest in a lavaliere microphone and an iPhone adapter. You also might want to use an LED light, teleprompter and tripod. You can get a teleprompter app for you iPad on iTunes.
5. When you record your PowerPoint deck and actual software demonstration, you will want to make sure you are in a place with limited background noise and get yourself a good desk microphone. I use a Snowball.
6. When you record, make sure you are silent during slide transitions. This will make editing a lot easier.
7. When you screw up (and you will), leave a long silence and start that section over. That way, you can find the screw up easily during editing. It’s also easier to edit if you leave silent pauses periodically.
8. Make sure when you edit the video, that you click Audio and enable volume leveling and enable noise removal, for a clear consistent sound.

HERE’S WHAT I USE:

1. Camtasia Studio ($300) More than a simple screen recorder, Camtasia Studio helps you create professional videos easily. Use Camtasia Studio to record on-screen activity, customize and edit content, add interactive elements or import media, and share your videos with anyone, on nearly any device. http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

2. Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone ($65) This is a USB microphone that gives you great sound when recording with a laptop. I even use it for VOIP calls. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Snowball-Microphone-
Aluminum/dp/B002OO333Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1402256208&sr=1-4

3. Audio-Technica Pro 70 Cardioid Lavalier Microphone by Audio-Technica ($120) This lapel microphone gives you good sound quality for shooting videos with your iPhone. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006UGE54/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

4. iPhone MIC Adapter: XLR Jack to iPhone, iPad2, iPod Touch and Other Compatible Devices ($30) If you are going to record with an iPhone, I strongly recommend using a lapel microphone. You will need an adapter to plug the microphone into the iPhone jack. The adapter is for XLR microphones to be plugged In to the iPhone for professional recording, with a 3.5mm mini jack for headphones. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Z97CQW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

5. Bower VLSMLED The iSpotlite Smartphone LED Light ($25) Brighten your shots with this powerful LED light that gives you crisp and vivid videos. Its iPhone 4/4S/5/5S snap-on adaptor fits on top or on its side and its standard headphone jack adaptor allows secure mounting to any smartphone on the market.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DO79NA4/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6. Teleprompt+ for iPad ($15) This is a great little App that allow your iPad to be your teleprompter by Bombing Brain Interactive. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teleprompt+-3/id859980419?mt=8

7. Targus 7″ Tripod with Smartphone Mount ($13) Tripod- You might want a full size and a desktop tripod. But you will need the smartphone mount to hold your phone. I went through a couple iPhone holders that connect to a tripod and still haven’t found a great one. But so far, my favorite one is a Targus 7″ Tripod with smartphone mount that I picked up at Radio Shack. If you buy this model, you can remove the smartphone mount and put it on your full size tripod.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=27259226

I hope this information helps you look like a rock star. Time to get Heatherized!

© 2104 Lodestar Business Institute

Brendon Burchard: How Incredibly Successful People THINK

Quotable from this video: “Successful people take their current limitation and put it on their agenda as a job to do, as a thing to figure out and make happen.” – @BrendonBurchard

This is Brendon filmed unscripted, in a single take, without a prompter or notes.

Brendon Burchard is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE MILLIONAIRE MESSENGER, THE CHARGE, and LIFE’S GOLDEN TICKET. Larry King named him “one of the top motivation and marketing trainers in the world.”

“The Charged Life” is now a weekly YouTube show full of #motivation and #inspiration with Brendon Burchard. It’s also been the #1 Podcast in all of iTunes.

*This free book offer details: $26 book is free with our compliments, but you have to pay shipping and handling to receive it.

Tony Robbins: Why We Do What We Do

Tony Robbins, in this TEDTalks video, discusses the “invisible forces” that make us do what we do — and high-fives Al Gore in the front row.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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Co-Active Coaching Changing Business, Transforming Lives

‘Co-Active Coaching Changing Business, Transforming Lives’ by Henry Kimsey-House, Karen Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahi, Laura Whitworth

Heather’s Recommended Audience:
Everyone who consults, advises manages and/or mentors others to accomplish goals.

Heather’s Review

This was a fabulous book for anyone that works with consultants externally or internally. The ideas presented are the Co-Active Coaching model which is an experience of personal and professional development unlike other kinds of coaching. It begins by holding the coachee as naturally creative, resourceful and whole, and completely capable of finding their own answers to whatever challenges they face. The job of a Co-Active Coach® is to ask powerful questions, listen and empower to elicit the skills and creativity a client already possesses, rather than instruct or advise.

The book provides great examples. It focuses more on life coaching but the concepts are easily applicable to Business Analytics Consulting internally and externally.

Leaders Eat Last – By Simon Sinek

‘Leaders Eat Last’ By Simon Sinek
Publisher :Portfolio Hardcover (January 7, 2014)

Heather’s Recommended Audience:
MUST READ for everyone that leads, manages, mentors, consults and wants to inspire others.

Heather’s Review

Simon Sinek is one of my favorite authors and with this new book he does not disappoint. He weaves a tale for insightful stories with science to make us realize how we are wired as humans.
Sinek begins with biology, outlining the roles of chemicals – specifically endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. He describes how evolution has dictated why we generate them and how we respond to them.
1. Endorphins mask pain and help give you a `runner’s high’ or the intense satisfaction after a tough work out.
2. Dopamine generates good feelings’ upon accomplishing a goal whether that is bringing home dinner while evading sabre-toothed tigers or doing a bang-up job on a major presentation. Think of endorphins and dopamine as the `individual achievement’ chemicals. We need them to excel at what we do.
3. Serotonin is what gives you a feeling of gratitude and affection for the persons who supported you in your endeavors and the good feeling as they applaud you.
4. Oxytocin is the`love’ chemical. It gives you the warm fuzzies you get when you hug someone or have a deep meaningful conversation. Think of serotonin and oxytocin as the `social’ chemicals.

Humans need both the individual achievement and social chemicals to progress. Society now focuses on achievement chemicals more than social chemicals losing the sense of community within the organization.
If we create a trusting environment, we can focus on doing the best we can and this greatly benefits both the company and individuals. This feeling of `belonging’ is what has disappeared from the corporate workplace to a large extent. It has been replaced by an ethos of `everyone for himself and the Devil take the hindmost’
“Leaders Eat Last” conveys that to be effective as a leader, you must earn the trust of your followers. You can be given responsibilities or duties, but you must earn authority. In this book, Mr. Sinek provides specific action items you should take to create a Circle of Safety within your organization.
As I reflect on his messaging, it becomes clear that his principles must be applied to all major project teams deploying solutions.

Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last

In this in-depth talk, ethnographer and leadership expert Simon Sinek reveals the hidden dynamics that inspire leadership and trust. In biological terms, leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils, but at a cost. When danger is present, the group expects the leader to mitigate all threats even at the expense of their personal well-being. Understanding this deep-seated expectation is the key difference between someone who is just an “authority” versus a true “leader.”
For more on this topic, check out Sinek’s latest book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t now available for pre-order.


About Simon Sinek

A trained ethnographer and the author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek has held a life-long curiosity for why people and organizations do the things they do. Studying the leaders and companies that make the greatest impact in the world and achieve a more lasting success than others, he discovered the formula that explains how they do it.
Sinek’s amazingly simple idea, The Golden Circle, is grounded in the biology of human decision-making and is changing how leaders and companies think and act.
His innovative views on business and leadership have earned him invitations to meet with an array of leaders and organizations, including Microsoft, Dell, SAP, Intel, Chanel, Members of the United States Congress, and the Ambassadors of Bahrain and Iraq.
Sinek recently became an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation, one of the most highly regarded think tanks in the world. He also works with the non-profit Education for Employment Foundation to help create opportunities for young men and women in the Middle East region. He lives in New York, where he teaches graduate level strategic communications at Columbia University.

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