I Did Not Prep For This One

I did not prep for this episode. We had a topic we said we were not going to cover, and we covered it anyway. That is the part I want to cut up.

Ten years of shooting photos and video. A lot of clients. Today I work with fitness and wellness businesses that already have the proof sitting inside the business. Real testimonials. Real results. We turn that into content so they can make more money. So when I sit down to record, I am not there to perform. I am there to walk out with usable material.

0:33

“We turn that into content so they can make more money.”

Make them say who they are in thirty seconds

The first answer I got was the mission. What she wants people to know, what she is working toward. Good answer. Wrong answer for the opening of an episode.

So I asked again. Who are you in thirty seconds, because someone watching is sitting there going, what is this. The second answer was concrete. Practicing physical therapist, pelvic health, yoga teacher trainer, her own practice. That is the one a stranger can hold onto.

1:05

“Now tell us, who you are in 30 seconds.”

Ask the question you are embarrassed to ask

I am a guy. I did not know if pelvic health was a woman thing or a man thing. I said excuse me for my questions and I asked it anyway. I also admitted what I thought it was, something about not being able to stretch. Wrong. But honest.

3:03

“Excuse me for my questions, is it something just for a woman or a man?”

Every answer after that got better, because nobody in the room was pretending to already know. I was asking on behalf of every guy who has never asked.

The unplanned part is the good part

We said we were not planning to talk about sexual health. Then we talked about pain, tension, what happens when a partner is carrying trauma. I told a story from my own life that I have not told on camera before. And then I said the quiet part out loud in the middle of the recording.

22:54

“I'm sure these are great clips.”

I also caught myself saying I want to put that in the clip. Not afterward in the edit. During. When you record with distribution already in your head, you hear the line land and you mark it in the room.

The small things that cost you the shot

I talk with my hands. I only figured out what that does by watching the footage back. One hand goes straight up into the lens and covers the camera. So now I use the other one. Tiny fix. It saves the shot every time.

27:08

“I can't use this hand, because I cover the camera.”

The space is part of what you offer

She drives an hour and a half to get here. We joked about the long list of people waiting outside. The real thing is that we have room. She runs pelvic floor yoga teacher trainings, sometimes two or three hours, sometimes longer, and I told her we can run one here. We have a ton of space.

I said it twice while we were still rolling. I like this conversation much better. No prep, no plan, a question I was embarrassed to ask, and a whole episode of proof to cut from.