Behind the scenes in the studio

Last week, I was in the studio filming a video for my upcoming online course (more on that soon). A friend and former trainee was there, too, and while we were working hard, we were also having some fun.

He took this video with his phone of me playing with the clapperboard. It'll give you some behind the scenes look at the McGill TeleStudio, the world class set-up I get to use for recording my upcoming digital course.

What you might not guess from that video is that I actually had a cold that day. I was tired and my voice was hoarse--until we turned on the camera, and then it sounded pretty good.

It's because I was prepared and excited by the subject I was talking about: in this particular video: preparing for your dissertation defense.

And that's the takeaway. Sometimes we don't feel our best before a presentation. We're tired, we're anxious, maybe we even have a cold. But when we've practiced and we know we have all the tools we need to present better, we can power through those bad feelings and still give a great talk.

Jason giving his TEDxMcGill talk in 2023.

Who's behind the camera?

That's Jason Dellatolla. Here he is on the right, mid-presentation. In another blog post, I explained his story and how we got to know each other, and I also linked to his full TED talk: Jason's journey to the TEDx stage, and beyond.

I'd encourage you to go watch it. Jason models so many of the behaviours that make us better presenters.

Actually, maybe Jason should be the one giving lessons, not me...

More behind-the-scenes fun

Here's a few more BTS photos from last week's shoot:

Can you guess what Legos and presenting better have to do with each other?

Participants in my upcoming course will find out.

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