We provide WordPress video courses to help you with building you’re own business websites. Sometimes things don’t always go as planned when creating video, especially when working from my home office and in the company of our two two dogs.
Some Mistakes Are Meant to Happen
Embrace the Unexpected and Unplanned
I want to share the following Blooper video as an example of how unplanned events can create a memorable piece of viral content that resonates with your audience and customers. I was inspired to write this after reading Chris Brogan’s article here.
It also shrinks the divide between provider and consumer and can have a lasting effect on the real connections made with your visitors. After all, we are all human. No one person is better than the next.
Perfectionism Can Stifle Progress
It also serves another purpose for those of you who are ultra-perfectionists. I’m speaking from personal experience and can attest to the fact that over-thinking, and over-producing your content will be a path to eventual failure.
If you are focusing too much on “the perfect” way to deliver your content you will get lost in the details and end up treading water instead of moving forward, even an inch. Learning the technical details of whatever you’re trying to achieve is one thing, but always remember to get back to the high level overview of what you’re trying to accomplish.
What Went “Wrong”
When creating the very first video of our Setup for Success WordPress website building course, I must have started and stopped recording at least a dozen times due to stammering words, going off on tangents that became too in-depth for the subject matter, saying “uh” too often, and various other so-called imperfections. It was my intention to keep it as concise and as straightforward as possible.
Once I had finally felt comfortable in my speaking style, I was powering through and delivering the content very well.
That’s when the “trouble” started. And by trouble I mean our two dogs decided to start doing what dog’s do and that is to play. Just when I thought I would get through this video perfectly! The playing started and I tried to continue concentrating but soon the volume of their wrestling became distracting.
Go with It and Have Fun!
In the WordPress video course clip below, you’ll find that rather than getting upset at the interruption, I decided to go with it and have fun. I hope it brings you a smile and serves as an example of focusing less on being perfect and more on embracing imperfections and using them to communicate to your audience that you are no better or different than they are.
Or watch on YouTube here.
If you’d like to see the course in full, feel free to register for free here.
Meet the Noisy Culprits
The Brown One Sounds Like a Wookie
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About Adam W. Warner
Thanks for the chuckle. I once bombed so badly during a presentation because I was obsessed with the slides being perfect. My slides *were* perfect, but I spent so much time working on them that I neglected practicing my speech. End result? Total and complete failure. BIG lesson learned.
Hi Ileenie,
You’re welcome for the chuckle:) As luck (or serendipity) would have it, your comment is just as timely as Chris Brogan’s article that inspired me to post this blooper video.
You see I’m speaking at WordCamp Miami in just a few days and I was starting to obsess over my Keynote just a few days ago. You’ve confirmed what I told myself yesterday…”you know the material like the back of your hand, be yourself and just practice your delivery style.”
I think I’ve got it;)
Break a leg!
Geez, I hope not…although that would probably be a video that would go viral;)
Thanks! I’ll be posting the slides and/or video of the presentation here in the next week or so…
Love this man! Congrats for just rolling with it…this is hilarious, because ANYONE who’s tried shooting vids in a home office knows exactly what this is like
Ah, thanks Christian! I’m starting to wonder now why I ever thought I shouldn’t post it…
I feel your “pain” Adam. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve finally got rolling on a video and a neighbor will fire up a lawn mower, a train will come by the crossing nearby, or a helicopter from the local military base will fly over (following the train tracks), or the phone will ring, etc.
Most of those noises I don’t even notice when I’m not shooting video. Well, except for the phone. I usually notice that.
Hi Chris,
I can guarantee that my four-legged kids will be willing to interrupt again and again;)
And I forgot to mention, your pups put a much bigger smile on my face than any of my own off camera noise makers ever have. Thanks for sharing!
RT @chrisbrogan: You HAVE to watch this video. I laughed my head off. Oh wow. A blooper. : ) – http://ow.ly/46KNP
I woke up to Chris Brogan’s tweet about this and have to say that having watched it first thing, it has put a smile on my face that I’m sure will last the whole day.
Hi Louise,
My apologies for the late reply, but I wanted to make sure I said “thank you” for visiting and commenting! I’m delighted I could help spread some laughter, but the real thanks goes to Derby and Zoey:)
I have just been doing some recording myself for an upcoming video course and the number of times I have been stopping and starting.
Usually I like to use a script to read from to make it easier for me but these blunders happen.
Incidentally I also got a course about screen recording and it shows some techniques about how to do the recording and to carry on recording and not stopping and deal with it all in the final editing.
Will have to see how that pans out.
Hi Adam,
That was hilarious! You and your dogs had me cracking up… I was laughing like a wookie!
Good message on embracing imperfections and going with it.
Thanks for sharing,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thanks, and can you believe I almost didn’t make that public? Throw away the worries and imperfections and focus only on the positive in any situation and you’ll always end up with something good:)