The good news? You don’t need a fancy studio setup to sound pro. Here are 5 easy (and cheap) ways to level up your audio: 1️⃣ Quiet the room. Blankets, pillows, or even that pile of laundry you keep meaning to fold can absorb echo. Soft stuff = better sound. 2️⃣ Use Krisp.ai. App that cancels out background noise on your laptop. Kids, dogs, coffee shop chaos. It’s like a mute button for your environment. 3️⃣ Mic hack. If you don’t have a mic, your earbuds probably have a better one than your laptop. Plug those in and call it an upgrade. 4️⃣ Podcast.adobe.com. Works like magic with a night and day difference in sound. Upload your recording and it will clean, crisp, and improve your audio like you’re in a studio. 5️⃣ Stay close. Don’t record across the room. Get that mic (or phone) 6–12 inches from your mouth. Close = clear. Remember: people might forgive bad lighting, but they’ll bounce fast if your audio is trash.

The good news? You don’t need to drop a paycheck on studio gear to look like you actually know what you’re doing. Here are 5 simple, budget-friendly ways to step up your lighting game: 1️⃣ Face the window. Your best (and free) light source is the sun. Just don’t sit with it behind you unless you want to look like a witness in a crime documentary. 2️⃣ Bounce it. If the light feels too harsh, grab a white poster board or even a piece of foam core. Acts as an instant light diffuser. 3️⃣ Add a lamp (strategically). Take that sad desk lamp in the corner and aim it toward your face at an angle. Warm bulbs beat the “I live in a basement” look. (Fun fact, sometimes I borrow my son's Super Mario lamp from his room) 4️⃣ Get rid of overhead shadows. Overhead lighting makes everyone look like they’re telling ghost stories. Kill it with a lamp or ring light at eye level. 5️⃣ Consistency is key. Mixing daylight and five different lamp shades makes you look like a patchwork quilt. Pick one type of light and stick with it. You don’t need much to look good on camera. A little creativity, a few tweaks, and you're good to go.

The ones people remember are the ones they actually experience. Here are fivee ways to make your video content 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡: 1. Add clickable elements or buttons. Give viewers something to do inside or right under your video like branded call-to-action buttons that make it easy to reply, book, or learn more. 2. Use animation and storytelling. Animated words, objects, sound effects, and music pull people in. Metaphors and storytelling spark emotion and help your message stick long after the video ends. 3. Go live. Live video creates real-time connection. Take questions verbally or in the chat and make them part of the experience. 4. Add music to the background of your video that showcases your brand personality and/or adds energy to the video. 5. Add tangible value they can walk away with that helps them or their business improve (a guide, a how-to-video, a resource link, the first chapter of your book or course, etc.) They will connect the value added experience to you and the video you sent. The goal isn’t just to get someone to watch your video. It’s to make them feel something, do something, and remember it.

1. 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚- On YouTube, you’ll find average watch time in YouTube Studio. On LinkedIn, check “View Duration” under video analytics. This tells you if people are sticking with you or bailing early. 2. 𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙚- Want to know where people drop off? YouTube shows you audience retention graphs, so you can see the exact second viewers lose interest. If you’re posting on social, tools like Facebook Insights and Instagram Reels analytics show similar drop-off points. 3. 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 & 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨- On LinkedIn, click “View analytics” under your post. It shows how many times your video was shared and by who. Pair that with comments to see if your video is sparking real conversations. 4. 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨- If your video links to a page (like “Book a Call” or “Learn More”), use a unique link. An easy way: copy your webpage link into Google’s Campaign URL Builder and it will generate a special tracking link for you. Post that link under your video. Then, check Google Analytics to see how many people visited and took action after clicking. 5. 𝙑𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙁𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 insights- This makes it super simple. With VideoFluent Studio, you’ll see if the exact person you sent a video to actually pressed play, date and time they watched, and how much of it they viewed. Every video also includes clickable CTA buttons, so you know if they went from watching to taking action. 👉🏽 The point is, don’t just measure video by “views.” Measure by behavior because behavior tells you what’s working.

That means instead of boring people while they wait for you to start the meeting, they could be watching your digital one-pager video (one of the 5 video moves smart entrepreneurs use for growth). It could be: - You talking - A cinematic-style video with voiceover - An animated video (my animated stunt double holds it down for me You can also add video backgrounds to Zoom. They have some inside Zoom you can choose from like the cool ocean scene with the subtle moves of the waves or the one with the palm trees slightly blowing with the breeze. Or...you can have one that actually gives you more brand presence and increases leads. One of my clients saw a 30% revenue increase just from an animated Zoom background we added to his marketing stack. Yep… your Zoom background can double as marketing . Check out the video showing how to level up your Zoom waiting room with video.