Like so many of us, I don’t love being on camera.
And yet it helps create trust and it’s algorithm friendly - generally a video will be pushed to more people.
Being on camera makes it more likely I will get the things I want, such as making WOW Studio Live a successful TikTok agency or Bloody Bens Bloody Mary Mix being in thousands of pubs (including Young’s!) or building Best Before or just generally doing more fun projects and meeting more fun people along the way.
So, I started doing little videos each week to preview my latest Sunday Service Substack posts.
The first one I was almost too shy to speak and there were quite a few takes.
I’ve done around 10 now and you can sense I’m more confident although I will still do them early in the morning to avoid anyone in the street overhearing me talk to camera as I walk Alfie the dog.
But I’ve realised I find it hard to monologue to camera.
It’s just not a current strength.
That got me thinking, how could I do more on camera?
I realised I’m better in a conversation.
So how could I find a solution, with the least friction, that would allow me to practise.
And then it occurred to me.
Claude could help.
It could ask me questions about my latest Substack, to get under the skin of whatever I was writing and ask questions that hopefully some readers were pondering or to give the post a bit more depth.
The sort of thing I just can’t seem to access on a monologue to camera.
So here we are.
And yes it feels pretty self indulgent.
Answer AI generated questions about your own post.
And talking to camera still feels cringe.
But what I know from building in public for the last couple of years is that the things you want are on the other side of cringe.
I’ve done three episodes now and actually it’s been kinda fun and I found myself looking forward to doing this fourth ep.
So here it is!
Oh and for reference, Claude is asking me about this Sunday Service post,
And as revealed in the video, I have gained enough confidence to reach out to my old pal, James Hickson.
We’re going to do a show, not calling it a podcast, around food and drink, marketing and business, with the idea of making it fun.
It’s called Basket Cases and we’re trying it out on Weds 5th Aug 12pm BST and we’re doing it as a Substack live.
If you haven’t already, subscribe and then you’ll receive a reminder as we go live.
Ps, if you want to try Cups Full Coffee - you can get some here.
