Speaker Demo Tapes and How to Do Them

Unless a potential client can see you “do your thing” at someone else’s event, you’ll need a great video demo to get booked as a speaker. A lot of speakers think that they need to make the videos really fancy to be effective. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Anyone who books speakers is interested in how good a speaker you are, NOT in how fancy you can make your video.

Here are some important tips to doing a great video demo:

1. Record video of every speech that you do. Good video recorders are now extremely small and portable. Even if you are doing a very short speech to a very small group, make sure and record EVERYTHING. You never know when you’ll be able to capture what I like to call a “magic moment.” That’s when the stars line up perfectly and you say something that’s brilliant and the audience responds with a huge laugh line or thunderous applause.

2. Create a website that centers around your video demo. Speakers like to have one site for everything that they do. This is a bad idea and will not help to get you booked. I prefer to see you have a few sites. My example is this. I have my main site, www.FredGleeck.com. Then I have a LOT of other sites that concentrate on getting people to do just ONE thing. Every speaker should have a site that concentrates on getting speaking engagements ONLY.

3. Make sure that you have someone decent manning the camera. There is nothing worse than giving a great speech that you luckily have had recorded, only to get back to the office and found the video is useless. Cameras these days are so good that it is rarely their fault. The fault is almost always with the camera operator. You need to get someone who knows what they are doing to operate your camera. If you don’t have anyone you know who will be at your speech, ask your client for help. They will probably have a talented videographer in their group somewhere. Make sure to bring a tripod and tell the person
working the camera what you’re trying to do.

4. Shoot head and shoulders. Too many videos I’ve seen are shot where the speaker looks like an ant on the stage. Make sure when doing the video you shoot a relatively “tight” shot of the speaker (you in this case). In the video business they call it a head and shoulders or 3/4 shot. This will allow the people who eventually watch the video to get a much closer view of you and how you work the audience.

5. Shoot everything. Edit later. Don’t try and be selective while you are shooting (or having someone else) shoot your speech. Shoot the entire speech, soup to nuts and then go back and edit later. Don’t try and do your editing at the time your are shooting the video. It’ never works out.

6. Hire a PRO for a Really Big Event. If you have a really big event that you feel would be a crown jewel in your speaking demo video, hire a professional team to do the video. Yes, it may cost some money, but it will be well worth it. I know a lot of people in the video business, so feel free to email me with my recommendations for people in your area.

7. Keep it Short and Keep It Moving. We all live in an MTV era. That being the case, people will need to see a video which is fun and interesting to watch. Don’t go longer than 10-12 minutes max. Also, make sure that each segment that you use doesn’t go on for too long either. I would generally keep the segments less than a minute and in some cases, around 30 seconds.

8. Rollercoaster the Emotions. As you put the video together, make sure that you bring the viewer up and then sweep them down. You’ll want to show your audience laughing AND crying. There is nothing better than a video that will swing your viewers emotions both up and down. Think of a great movie, they do the same.

9 Show Multiple Venues. A lot of speakers put together videos that are all shot in one place. If you have to, you have to. If you don’t, make sure that your video contains bits and pieces of you speaking in all different places. Show yourself with a big audience and a small one. If you have more than one topic you speak on, include pieces from each speech if at all possible. A meeting planner will be more impressed if it looks like you have a LOT of video and that you’ve done this PLENTY
of times before.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to producing a great video. One of the keys to getting yourself booked as a speaker!