One of my goals for 2019 was to work on my public speaking skills by doing monthly speaking events. But finding speaking events is not necessarily straightforward, so to reduce dependencies, I decided to take it upon myself to host a webinar (an online talk) each month for the whole year, with a different topic each month.
Advantages
The thing with having a webinar, unlike hosting an in-person event, is that there’s no pressure for a certain number of people to come. Whoever wants to come can come! And if they don’t, that’s okay too. Takes some of the pressure off, so I could focus on my speaking part.
First Webinar
I just hosted my first webinar last weekend and the topic was: Making Your Dreams Com True in 2019! I was very happy with how it went. There was 10 of us and we had guided reflection time so we could write / plan out our goals and also talk about them too. It was really great connecting with like-minded folks and being able to share openly about struggles and also tips for chasing our dreams. I can’t wait for the next one!!
Which Technology to Use?
I had to do some research to figure out what technology to use for the webinar. I wanted a low or no-cost option because this is really an experiment, so I had to rule out the platforms that had monthly fees.
- GoToWebinar is a popular platform that I’ve seen a bunch of online entrepreneurs use, but when I checked out the pricing, I was like hmmm no, too expensive for me now – it was $90/mo for the cheapest plan. I wouldn’t use it frequently enough for it to remotely pay off.
- YouTube Live is another option by just livestreaming on your YouTube channel. It didn’t feel as intimate though, feels more out in the public (which could matter for the participants of the webinar), so I didn’t go with this option. This is a free option, but you just have to meet certain eligibility requirements before livestream is enabled for your channel. Meaning, I don’t think it’s available for brand new channels.
- Instagram Live and Facebook Live are also options, but again they don’t feel as intimate. I think people also tend to causally drop in and drop off on those live feeds, if they happen to be scrolling in the app at that time.
- Zoom is something I’ve used quite a few times already for video conference calls in groups. They have a free plan, but they also have a paid plan if you want more features (see pricing). They also have a paid plan of $40/mo for “Zoom webinars” with some fancy features to moderate the group and stuff. It would probably make more sense when your business is at a bigger scale.
Picking Zoom
So after all that, I decided to go with a Zoom call. It’s not exactly like a webinar format with a host and participants, but it’s more like a group conference call. It actually worked out quite well for our group size. People could turn on their video and microphone and chime in.
A Zoom call does have limitations though. The free version limits your group calls to 40 minutes. We did end up signing off the call, and then signing back in at the 40 minute mark lol. A tiny hassle. And there is a limit to 100 people per call too.
For your purposes, it’ll depend on what your needs are, what audience size you have, and what type of engagement you want with them. If you’re starting off, I would test out the waters with some free options first.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Pick a date and time for your webinar. Put it into your calendar so you don’t flake out.
- Create an image to promote the webinar (refer to my tutorial on creating graphics with Canva).
- Announce it on social media, your newsletter, and to friends & family. I mentioned that the webinar login instructions would be sent out to my mailing list, so I directed people towards signing up for that.
- I created a new “meeting” within Zoom, and gave it a title and time.
- A Zoom web link will be provided, or people can dial in with their phone as well. These instructions are located in the Zoom meeting description page, when you click on the “Copy the Invitation” link.
- I sent out the webinar instructions to people on my mailing list so they could have access.
- I started prepping the content – first with an outline, then with practicing it and creating slides. I used Google Slides to make a simple presentation.
- I did a webinar dry-run to test out the technology. I gave the link to my fiance and he hopped on the call so we could test it out: test out sharing the screen, playing my presentation, the audio and my computer microphone, the group chat feature, etc..
- I did some more reminder social media posts and a reminder to my mailing list again.
- Then I did the webinar!! Woohoo!
Backup Plan
Technology doesn’t always work when we want it to, and I know other people have had technical difficulties with their webinars (on much larger scale with more complicated technology, but still). So having a backup plan is always good. I had a backup plan of using YouTube live in case the Zoom call didn’t work. But luckily I didn’t need it!
All went smoothly with the Zoom call and I’m looking forward to the next one in February!! Hope you can join me for that one! You can also join my mailing list so you don’t miss out. I’ll be announcing the next topic soon!