203. How do you livestream? (f. Anika Aggarwal)
Curious about live streaming? 🎥 Our guest today teaches you how! Hosts Phil and Lauren meet with Anika Aggarwal, a small business owner and livestreaming extraordinaire who has been livestreaming for two years. She shares her recommendations on getting started, buying tech, planning your show, being your authentic self, and what to do if something goes wrong.
Episode transcription
Lauren
Ever thought about tapping into the power of live streaming?
Phil
Wondering how to engage with your audience in real time?
Lauren
Curious about how to turn those free show jitters into authentic connections?
Phil
Then you won't want to miss this episode with Anika Agarwal. Anika is an Adobe Express Global Ambassador like me and an expert in live streaming and community building.
Lauren
Trust us, you'll want to jot down all the golden nuggets she has to offer.
Phil
Let's dive right in. Anika, welcome. Normally, I'll do a little jingle before I hit record. But I really liked the one I came up with today. Listen, I don't know if you know this, but I sing a lot and mostly do an audience of one. Her name is Lauren. Today, my audience has two plus you because Anika is here. Anika is my friend. She's a small business owner. She's an amazing designer. She's up there in Toronto. And we haven't met yet in real life. But we've met virtually many times. Because we create live video content together. We did live stream recently. And it was so much fun. And it gave me the idea for this episode. Because I just think one, I think you're really good at live streaming. So I think you have some tips for our audience. But I also just I'm curious to hear how it's gone integrating this into your content workflow. So welcome to Brand Therapy.
Anika
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm really excited. I think when I think about live streaming, it's about finding the why for it. And when I started live streaming, I never really thought about it. I'm just like asking myself here about why it is feed. But when I thought about live streaming, it was about that Simon Sinek TED talk, I don't know if you've ever heard it, but finding the real reason of why you want to do something. So I think he compared Apple and Samsung and compared why Apple performs better than Samsung. And it was the why of the core reason why you do something. And it applies to any kind of content. So if you're building content and online community on Instagram, for instance, or making something on LinkedIn, the real reason of you doing something for me when it comes to live streaming, and is the expertise or the fact that I want to give back to the community.
So the way that I learned because I'm an engineer by training, and so I have a technical background. And I learned by all the creators on the internet, and I wanted to be the one to fill the gap or be the bridge between the person who was an engineer and now wants to do something creative. And I want to be the bridge like, Hey, I am a technical person. But I don't know anything about creativity. But I do know something, which is finding the reason why you should do. So I think that's what live streaming is for me and always has been.
Lauren
Amazing. Now, do you remember your first live stream ever? And how nervous you were?
Anika
I'm glad you asked, I was actually really nervous. It was a new tool, I was experimenting, I've always been that person who would find a new tool or something new in the market to just get with the times and learn something new, while also upskilling myself. And I was learning Adobe dimension that time, which is 3d software. And I had never used it before. I just started learning like a week ago, and I was just experimenting with live streaming. So now I decided to livestream on Behance, which is Adobe's channel or a social media platform where they share their live streams. And also like the platform where everyone can share their creative work. And I'm there I have the betta access to the live streaming banner. And I'm live streaming I don't know anyone. I'm super nervous. So the thing that makes me nervous is having jewels in my jet. And that was my first ever live experience. But thankfully, I had no trolls.
Lauren
Yeah, trolls would be pretty terrifying. Especially because when it's live, you can't exactly like act or delete it or block them very easily without other people seeing it,
Phil
You're already kind of on edge. Because I've never had to multitask, like I do in a live stream, you are trying to coherently explain what you're thinking or what you're doing while sharing your screen and doing something even though your computer is moving slower than normal, because it's you know, it takes a lot of power to transmit, you know, video and a screen share. And then you've got to manage the comments. And if there's a troll in there, you just, I mean, for me, I typically need a host I need someone that's there to kind of provide that support. Otherwise, you know, a human can only do so many things.
Anika
Yeah, I guess that's what it is about live streaming as well. I guess I've been live streaming for about two years now. And with that comes the experience of not paying attention to things that are not important. So think about the encoder that you're using for instance. I use OBS studio but there are many other platforms on the internet that you can use. There's ECAM, there is OBS, there's also I think stream yard stream based.
Phil
ECAM is my gets my vote.
Anika
Yeah, I think I should use it more to get my word to. But I feel like those things, just like really get those things out of the picture is important when you first live streaming, having the technical know how, and and also you did a video on your YouTube. So I think that's a good start there.
Phil
Thank you for noticing I posted recently on my YouTube channel, a little beginner's guide on how to start with live streaming. The reason I did that was because I think there's this notion that live streaming is just for like video gamers and people on Twitch. And I one of my little projects this year is to increase the awareness. Do you know what I mean? Increase this idea of live streaming for small business owners. I think there's so much value in taking the time to do this and to incorporate this into what you do, right?
Anika
Yeah, I feel like we have this notion because of the platforms that existed before the creative platforms. So before people started live streaming on YouTube, everyone only ever live streamed on Twitch. And that was just video games. And that notion has just carried forward. It's 2023. Everyone live streams. And I feel like it is so important to engage with your audience, just finding that common element that keeps them coming back. So it's not what you create. It's why you create it and your unique perspective, how you approach things, what your brand does, and what's important to you. So thinking about your personal brand values, and if that aligns with your audience, that's definitely targeting your niche. And live streaming is just, it's like it's more authentic. It is live, and it's just you. So I think that's why it's more important. In today's scenario.
Lauren
If someone's going to be going live for the very first time, what should they do? And how should they prepare?
Anika
That's an interesting question. I think, if you're going live for the first time, think about the content that you want to cover in that segment. Think about the duration of the live stream, think about where you're gonna live stream, having all the technical things in check. And I think that's it just be you, when you're live streaming, just being you. I think that's the best step that I can ever give someone.
Lauren
That's really good advice, lowers the stakes a bit. Because if you're being yourself, then you're not, you're not really losing in any sense, a sense if you're if you're being who you are, for the technical things that you need to get in check. What does that mean, when like for you, for example, what are those technical components?
Anika
So the technical components for me would be a working computer that helps me share my video, share my audio, I use an external microphone, but if you're just starting out, and if you guys doing for the first time, it is not a mandatory thing, you can have it good if you have it, but if not, you can just use your internal mic or just headphones, your FaceTime camera or your webcam, which is inbuilt here, desktop is also great. And then just screenshare. So having all of these in check, and then the software, which is essentially OBS EGM live or stream yard. So either of those.
Phil
The point that you just made that for someone just getting started, you don't need all the bells and whistles. If I had $1 for every client that gets hung up on the tech, I'm like, can we not worry about that? And can you do a really crappy first version with whatever you have now to just make sure that this is something you want to do long term before spending hundreds of dollars on equipment. You know, like we it's not totally necessary. I'd say if anything, it's a good idea. Yes, to have a microphone, I actually travel with my condenser microphone and a little case, a little portable stand because that's the one thing that people aren't willing to skimp on. If it's hard to hear you, I'm going to change the channel find a different video, because it's blue, just we're not going to strain. Also think of like those conference calls. Right? When someone has really crappy audio. It's like you get tortured, frustrated. Yeah. So that is the one thing I think if you were to buy a microphone, if you don't have a good one yet, then that's a good investment for not just live streaming. But for anything. However, camera, you don't need something fancy at least to start, I would challenge you to live stream once a week for a month, or it could be once a month for a quarter. Because then you prove to yourself that this is something you enjoy and something you want to build. That's my perspective.
Anika
I agree with that. It's about think of it as branding. So it's the first iteration, the first round of logos, you're doing something for the first time, and you don't know where it's gonna go. Yeah, and think of it as wireframes and seeing if that's really the direction you want to go in. And it's funny you bring up the camera because I still use my laptop's inbuilt camera which is just a MacBook FaceTime camera and I just use a good light. So you don't have to invest in the camera at all times. I mean, it's always better to invest in it by The year and a half, two. And I just have like a streamlined right here. I have one right here, which is turned off right now. But I usually have two lights. And just having those two right helps me. I don't need a physical camera for that.
Phil
Amen. Don't get hung up on the tech. If it's something you know, that's the desert, you got to get there first he got to get through the meal. I love streaming with you on Adobe live, you and I did this a little while back. But I gave you feedback. I was like, I just loved your pace. I loved your natural pace is how I would describe it. It's really easy to listen to you, you have a calm kind of energy. And maybe now knowing a little bit more about your why that seems to make sense. But advice for people that are nervous. i By the way, I probably don't get as nervous on my own channels. But when I'm on someone else's channel when I'm getting paid to livestream somewhere else, that's still a bit nerve wracking because I just don't want anything to go wrong because then they're not going to invite me back. I like that pressure. But I do get nervous. What's your advice for people that are nervous?
Anika
Just thinking about what you have to say is important and not caring. I think nervousness is important because it shows that you care. And it's great that you brought that up because every single time I go on Adobe live, I'm nervous. Even though I've done this so many times, every single day of the first one minute of the stream, I say something wrong, and it's okay because like I said it is authentic and it's okay, and it's okay to cut yourself some slack. And it's alright, it's okay to make mistakes. And that is why it is so much more authentic to livestream than to have 20,000 edits and rerecord things in an edited video.
Lauren
Is there ever a circumstance where you should stop your live stream and then start it again? Or if something's going wrong? Should you just bring your audience along for the ride?
Anika
I think you have to just stick with it. If you stop and start again, there's a risk of losing the audience because in the content heavy world we live, then it is really important to keep them engaged and finding why they're sticking around. So take them in for the right take them and for why you're doing it how you're solving the problems in real time. And that's what it is all about. For me. There have been times where I've been stuck in the live stream. Maybe I've practiced how to do this particular technique that I want to show my audience and when I'm live, it goes wrong. And I tell my audience, hey, I know this brass, we are professional, but I'm just live. And I've just forgotten how to do this right now. And everybody enjoys and appreciates that. And it's about the authenticity again where people relate to Rwanda and and they've probably faced the same thing when they're doing something for their clients, or her creative. I feel like everybody gets stuck and finding that common ground is important. And just taking them along for the ride is just really fun.
Phil
Yeah, I love a good idea. Just call out the moment say I actually love the idea of even saying I forget how to do this in the moment. It could be because I'm live, of course, how inconvenient you know, like, have a bit of a laugh joke about the moment because that's human. That's not our instinct, or most of us. That's not our instinct, our instinct is to panic a little bit and not show that insecurity or that vulnerability, but I think it's really relatable. So it is a good move.
Lauren
Now, how important is it to be engaging with the live comments during your live stream? Especially for you where you're demoing something, what is that balance between acknowledging comments and actually doing what you came on the live to do?
Anika
So typically, the run of the show is important. And it's important to think about how often you want to read the comments, and what kind of comments to read. So I would say if you're hosting your own show, and you're also demoing at the same time, it is really important to engage with the audience. Even if you have five people in chat, those five people should feel included, because they're there for a reason. And if they are not being engaged with, they will sign out, they will tune out, they will not still be there. Thinking about reading the comments before you read them out loud is also important. Because sometimes there are questions that you may not understand in the first time. And if you read them beforehand, reading out loud, it's important to see if those questions are really worded right and how you want to present it in your live content. Because remember, this live content is going to be stored on the internet forever.
Phil
Good reminder, any best practices that you can give us any things that you have any little rituals or things that you've learned always do in the broadcast.
Anika
Okay, I have two things. I have sticky notes right in front of me and one of them says smile because you're in front of the camera and the other one says, this is how you do it. So for right now with the podcast, I have some notes here it says personal development. That's what live streaming does. It builds confidence, but just finding what you're going to cover in the live stream is important to have like a sticky note around you just in case you forget. Just as a reminder, think of it as visual identity where you rehydrate and get the brand elements in the branding itself. And just throw it away to your audience and just bring it around so that everybody just remembers everything. And nobody ever forgets why you're there, what the content is, and why live streaming. So think of it as that by just for you.
Phil
I think that's one of your secret weapons. I commented or complimented you on always being so organized and being so coherent with your thoughts and what you're teaching and how you communicate. And I think you just gave away your secret, which I love. I don't know, it's sticky notes. I don't even know that it's what's written. Anika, on the sticky note, I actually think what's written there is less important than you taking the time to gather your thoughts before something like I'll admit, I have never sat and jotted notes down before going on a podcast interview. But you better believe that something I should be doing, I get a little too confident in what I know and how I explain it. I love just the intentionality around that actually sitting in going, huh, what are the main things I want to cover? In this episode that maybe I haven't talked about before? Maybe I want to elaborate on that is genius.
Anika
I think that brings up a great point where I think for anyone live streaming for the first time, if you're going live for the duration, say one hour, you should think about the content in advance and have the content prepared in the sense of the time duration, because especially if this is the first time you're doing it, you don't know how much time it's going to take to engage with the audience answer questions from the chat. So it's important to really divide the hour into segments, say 15 minutes and have the content ready for those. So let's say collaborating with a brand, and it's a branded live stream. And you don't want to be in a situation where there's 15 minutes left over and you don't have any content to serve that time. So I think it's better to be over prepared than underprepared. And I think sticky notes is my secret.
Phil
Yes it's better to be over prepared. In my experience. It'll be interesting. If we have listeners to try this out and and give us feedback. I'd love to know, I think in most cases, people don't get through the material or all the material they have prepared. And that's because yes, it's hard to anticipate how long it takes to introduce yourself how long it takes to answer questions, or interact with people that are there live, sometimes to explain things to an audience that you know, hasn't had the experience you do or the familiarity with what you're doing, it'll take a little bit longer than when you go to prepare. I've all I love that that breaking every hour and 15 minutes is absolutely genius. I always find three to five things, you have time for three to five activities or three to five points that you want to make. And five, it's you, you know, you got to move fast trees probably more realistic. But it's much easier to drop things on the fly than it is to like come up with things without preparation as almost impossible. And I think it's almost impossible to make it interesting if you're scrambling.
Anika
Yeah, it takes the pressure off, overbearing takes the pressure off, I usually always have five things to do. And I usually always almost only do four things.
Phil
There you go over. So we're like totally in sync with our little numbers.
Anika
Absolutely. I think live streaming also brings that factor of increase engagement with your audience. So like the online community that you have already built, it's not necessary that everyone engages with your audience. It's not necessary that everyone engages with your content. So if you're live streaming, they don't have a choice. Of course, there are people who don't ever comment. But there are people who want to learn from you. For me, for instance, I'm a designer, and I also create content for brands. And it has led for me to generate more leads. And it has only happened because I was okay to put myself out there and use a bad camera or use bad mic for my first ever live stream. But then I learned from my mistakes. And I realized that oh, the audio is terrible here and I probably need to fix that. So just not being afraid when you live streaming and not being afraid of what anyone's gonna think of you or your brand. It's okay, you can archive it. I did say that everything on the internet lives forever. And it does, but you can hide it and unlist it so don't worry about that.
Phil
Love it. Fantastic. Anika, you've given us so much in this conversation. Maybe there's one more thing we should mention in case people are on the fence or maybe they're nervous. Hopefully you're not nervous. Hopefully we've calmed your nerves. There is so much benefit to creating video content in this format, at least in my experience, because you can download a stream and cut it up as a real you can add it to your website easily as a blog post. There's so much you can do in a way that I think traditionally takes a little bit less time. Yes, it takes time to prepare But you don't fuss in the process of creating a live stream, you don't fuss over the details like you might if you're recording a video from scratch, that is certainly my experience. Oh, let's do another take. No, you can't you can't when your video is live. And there's beauty in that there's efficiency in that. And that is, you know, I guess another merit besides SEO would be presentation skills. I think in part why I compliment you on your presentation is because you've had two years of practice in front of an audience. And it's clear, I guess, do you have any thoughts on that on some of those other those benefits of doing this instead of something else, as a form of content creation,
Anika
You bring up a great point, I think repurposing is definitely a buzzword for me for 2023, where I'm creating live content. And I just want to repurpose an ad cut down for Instagram reels for tick tock for YouTube shots, which is definitely the up and coming channel. And also various other platforms say LinkedIn, if I have some education content, I want to cut it down. And it just generates better leads and helps me with the SEO as well. My website is now the top result on Google or My name is you look it up. It is the top result just because I do so much content, which is live. And that's what you that's what comes up with images with videos. I don't even know where they're getting it, but they are.
Phil
Genius. We've made such a compelling case for why not just video gamers, but small business owners entrepreneurs, content creators should really think about creating live video. Yeah, I knew you would be the best person to talk to about this. Because you also are someone in that same position that has just done exceptionally well at this. We really appreciate you sharing your ideas on brand therapy. How can people connect with you after this?
Anika
I have an Instagram which is just my name Anika and then agg at the end. It's a mouthful, but I'm sure you can find me. annikaagg
Phil
Amazing! We will find you we will also link to in the show notes as mentioned. We appreciate you Anika thanks for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy.
Anika
Thank you Phil for having me. And Thanks Lauren. This was really fun. I think I want to end by saying one last thing is that if you live stream it also helps you identify who you are and know your purpose. So hey, live stream and understanding yourself.
Phil
Done, I’m doing it. you Yes, go and do great advice from Anika. That was really enjoyable chat and still listening back to that I have all kinds of ideas on things I need to do in my business. I think live streaming is just such a great way to create content efficiently. More coming on that in the coming episodes and videos that I release. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode with Anika leave us a review five star five star that helps other people discover this podcast and we work hard to grade for you and you know how it works. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with us right here on Brand Therapy. See you then.
