Imagine Your Reality

Earlier this week , I taught for the first time, a webinar on social media marketing. I’d never used a webinar before so I realized upfront that I needed to plan for that by offering a second date for the class. And while I already knew the material and was comfortable with it, I also knew that because I was presenting it for the first time, it was better to do what I call a dry run, where I’d simply do the class without putting pressure on myself to record it.

I did get asked by participants if I was going to record the webinar, and as I told them, I’d record the one on Wednesday, but not Monday. And I was glad I didn’t record it, because there was one or two technical issues that I had to deal with, which I didn’t really want recorded. So now, I know these issues, and I’m more prepared with presenting the class, because I’ve done it once. Now I can record the class, because I have a better idea of what will happen.

A dry run of a class, basically just doing the class for the sake of seeing what will happen is always essential, in my opinion, for making the class successful. It allows you to see what is working without worrying about what others beyond the attendees will say if they happen to see the information. It can also give you some good perspectives on what to improve for the next time you teach the class. I do a dry run really to help me improve myself.

To be fair, having a recording can be useful also. You can listen or see yourself and from that learn what mistakes you made. Some people will benefit from doing a recording, if they especially want to focus on the talk itself. In this case, because I was dealing with technology, I decided I wanted to go without the recording and focus on making sure I had a good handle on the technology, before taking that next step and recording the talk.

Regardless of what you do, if you’re going to use something you’ve recorded for commercial purposes, make sure you only do so after you have done a few trial run and feel comfortable with the product you’ll be providing to people.