AP 0616: What Tools Do You Use in Your Whiteboard Videos?

AskPat 616 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey what up everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 616 and the last day of May, awe. But, almost the first day of June, yay summer. Well we have a great question today from somebody with an awesome name, his name is Pat, just like me, and before we get to Pat's question I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is ZipRecruiter.com.

With ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100 plus job sites including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter all with a single click. You can find candidates in any city, industry nationwide. Just post once and watch your qualified candidates roll into ZipRecruiter's easy to use interface there is no juggling of emails our calls to your office or any of that stuff. You can quickly screen candidates right then and hire them fast. Now find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by over 800,000 businesses and right now listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free by going to ziprecruiter.com/pat. That's ziprecruiter.com/pat. One more time to try it for free go to ziprecruiter.com/pat.

Right, now here's today's question from Pat.

Pat: Hi wanted to find out little bit more about the software you use when you're drawing out those explainer videos or when you're doing your little webcasts or something and you're drawing. You have your—looks like a PowerPoint or something—and then you're drawing with your mouse and it's white. Text and arrows and lines and flowcharts and stuff, what software do you use? Thanks.

Pat Flynn: Hey Pat what's up. What you're asking about is what I like to call my electronic whiteboard video setup. I love doing these, I need to do more of these actually because when you draw on the screen and people are watching this in a YouTube video or in a live webcast or wherever, it's very engaging. People, I don't know, maybe they're taken back to the times they were in school and they were paying attention to the teacher because they didn't want to get in trouble, or I don't know, it just works really, really well. So, here's how I make this work.

There's a few different ways to go about it but the number one thing you need is something other than a mouse to write with because when you try to write, especially when it's text or arrows or things that you need to be somewhat precise, using your mouse to draw it's not going to be very precise or accurate at all. So, you need to get what's called a pen and tablet and there's many different kinds out there all of them will work, or most of them will.

For number of years I use what's called a WACOM, that's the brand, bamboo tablet. There's a bunch of different kinds you can get one that works within your budget and one that fits your desk size and all this stuff. I used one called the bamboo fund tablet but I don't believe they make that one anymore.

There's all different kinds now but you can just look it up on Amazon and try to find one that works for you. WACOM is the brand and that allows you to convert your cursor from your mouse to a pen and some of them are pressure sensitive, which is really cool so if you use certain programs like Adobe Photoshop you can it's very much like a pen you push down harder it becomes a darker line and all that kind of stuff, which is really cool.

Now in terms of recording myself I'm recording myself sometimes in Photoshop so I'll create a backdrop that's the same size typically 1280 by 720 because that's the size I record videos for YouTube HD. And I'll create a backdrop that's branded, it has my logo, maybe the same colors, and then I'll use that as my whiteboard to draw on and I'm recording using Screenflow, which records my entire computer screen or you can use Camtasia Studios if you're on a PC. So Screenflow for Mac or Camtasia Studios for PC and that allows you to record what happening on your screen. Sometimes I'll record in a PowerPoint presentation.

Sometimes I'll record in PowerPoint if I'm doing some sort of slideshow, for example, and I need to point out specific things on multiple slides and images. Other times I'm actually on a website.

Now if you're on a website and you need to circle things and point things out you can't use Photoshop. And the way you would do it is by actually using a tool (And this is for Mac only I believe. There might a tool that's the equivalent on PC, but I don't know what that is but you might want to find it.). You can look up Omnidazzle.

Omnidazzle is a tool that has a number of different tools within it, but the one that I use is the pen tool and that allows you to—at any moment in time on your screen—press a few hotkeys on your keyboard and it changes it to a pen and you can literally draw on your screen. And if you have Screenflow open or Camtasia you can record yourself doing that.

So, sometimes I'll do website tutorials or design tutorials on YouTube and I like to share different websites and point out specific things and so instead of just saying, “Hey that button over there,” I can just click a hotkey and it turns it into a red pen you can change the colors if you'd like and circle that button instead, so it really draws people's attention, see what I did there? To that particular area of the video.

So, WACOM tablet and pen, then Screenflow or Camtasia Studios to record, and you're either in Photoshop or some other program that allows you to draw on the screen if you want to create a backdrop and just create a whiteboard, but if you are recording anything else that's on your screen that you want to circle and highlight, maybe it's a piece of software and you want to teach a person how to use it you can use Omnidazzle or the PC equivalent, which again I don't know what that would be right now. But you can just look up Omnidazzle for PC. That will typically bring you some results and you could give those things a trial run. That's how you would record what's on your screen.

So hopefully that answers your question Pat. Thank you so much and again this is a great strategy. Takes a little bit of practice to get used to drawing and talking and recording all at the same time but once you do it a few times it becomes natural. Best of luck to you thank you all so much for your attention and, Pat, thank you for your question. Because of your question were going to send you an Ask Pat t-shirt and it will be kind of cool for you because your name is Pat so that will make more sense then most of the other people who have been here on the show without the explanation of, “Oh I listen to this show called Ask Pat.”

Now if you have a question for those of you listening that you'd like potentially featured here on the show just head on over to AskPat.com and ask your question right there on that page. Thank you so much.

I also want to give a shout out to Freshbooks. Freshbooks is another sponsor that we have here on the show, I just want to mention them really quick they are awesome. They make invoicing really easy. They save so much time more than anything so if you are currently managing your books for your business you know your income, your expenses your invoicing by hand or by Excel you're doing yourself a disservice, you're wasting time. If you want to save time go to freshbooks.com/askpat and make sure you put “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section to get access to a 30-day free trial. Again that's freshbooks.com/askpat and enter “Ask Pat.”

Thanks so much I appreciate you all for listening in today and spending time with me and here's a quote to finish off the day by Stuart H. Britt, “For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does.”

Cheers take care and I'll see you in the next episode of Ask Pat. Bye.