Have you ever considered using a teleprompter in your podcasting
workflow?
Here are some ways it could benefit you even if you only podcast
in audio. Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
Teleprompters aren't only for newscasters and politicians.
They can be great for podcasting even if you podcast in only
audio.
So just to make sure we're all on the same page, what is a
teleprompter?
It is the thing that reflects a surface so that you can look the
idea is generally directly at a camera or you can look through
the teleprompter to something that's behind it, but you are
seeing what's being shown on the teleprompter.
This is also like a heads up display where you're able to then
have your head up looking straight through, maybe even looking
directly at a camera, and there can be things displayed in front
of you on it.
There is a specific teleprompter that I've used for now a couple
of years that I do recommend.
I do have some issues with it, but I'll talk more about the model
specifically throughout this episode.
But it's the Elgato Prompter.
They also have the Elgato Prompter XL, and Elgato is not paying
me.
I am currently not sponsored by anyone, so I don't get paid to
simply talk about anything right now.
There are affiliate links in this episode.
So if you do decide to purchase 1 of these teleprompters or some
others that I'll have links to in the notes for this episode, I
will get a commission from that if you purchase through my links.
But I recommend things I truly believe in regardless of earnings,
I'm not currently sponsored by anyone.
So even though you're going to hear me talk about a specific
teleprompter from a specific company throughout this episode,
they are not paying me.
So if you'd like to follow along in the notes for this episode
and get the links to some of the teleprompters that I recommend,
They are a simple tap or swipe away, look at the chapters, or go
to the audacity to podcast.com/teleprompter.
Number 1 benefit here, make eye contact with your audience.
This is really what teleprompters are designed to do.
There are lots of different styles of video that you'll see.
We're typically used to seeing people talk from a third person
perspective, where it's like we're getting to sit in on someone
else being interviewed by someone else.
Or, of course, movies and TV shows are recorded this where you're
not actually the person being spoken to, but you're getting to
see the characters speak to other characters.
So you have this third person perspective. Yes.
That is a technique, certainly, and it has its places, especially
in interview style podcasts that fits very well or any kind of
interview style video.
Even if you don't get to hear the interviewer and you're seeing
only the interviewee, still that sort of third person perspective
is totally okay in those cases.
But podcasting tends to be a bit more intimate, And this is
thanks to the audio method of podcasting primarily, I think,
where audio podcasting allows people to take your episode with
them theoretically anywhere, and they can listen to your voice
directly in their ears through earbuds or headphones.
Some people, yes, listen to podcasts through speakers, but I
would suspect that most podcast consumption happens through some
kind of headphone or earbud.
And that provides a rather intimate experience, especially as
people can take your voice with them to places where they
wouldn't welcome other voices or wouldn't be able to have other
conversations, like doing chores, mowing the yard, driving on an
airplane, all of these different places.
Then take that same intimate experience and that connection that
you get with your audience through audio.
And I think the best way to do that through video is making eye
contact with your audience.
This is something I learned very early on when I first started
public speaking in my teenage years is make eye contact with your
audience.
That helps them feel seen, but also it helps you to see their
reactions. I do this with kids. I do this with adults.
When I tell a joke, I wanna see, are people actually laughing?
When I'm explaining a concept, I'm looking to see, do people look
like they're understanding it, or do they have a confused look on
their faces?
Now you're not actually making eye contact with an audience when
you're looking into a camera, but it will feel that way to your
audience.
And a teleprompter allows you to do that because this is the core
design of a teleprompter is for newscasters and politicians and
others to be able to see something while looking directly into
the camera.
And whatever that thing is that they're seeing, it might be their
notes, their script, their video, the person that they're talking
to. It could be anything, really.
But then that enables them to look at that thing while not having
to take their eyes off the camera.
There are plenty of times that it is okay for you to look away
from the camera, and it won't really hurt that intimate
experience with your audience.
Like, if you're reading from a chat room or if you're reading a
comment, an email, you're looking up something on the web, you're
talking to someone else.
Those are times when I think not only okay, but maybe even
expected that you might look away from the camera to do those
things.
It might be kind of weird if I'm talking to you, and then
suddenly I'm talking to my cohost, but I'm still looking directly
at you, or at least that's the way you feel I'm doing it.
Or I'm looking directly at you as I'm looking up things on the
Internet.
That can feel a little weird and a little creepy to do something
like that or maybe even robotic in some ways where I'm looking
directly at you as I'm then citing information from the Internet.
That can be weird.
Those are times it's totally okay to look away from the camera
and people will be okay with that.
I think it helps make it even human.
Even though I am recording and I look directly into the camera
when I'm speaking, there are still times that I look away from
the camera just for a brief moment for a thought or just looking
at something.
It's just something that people do where we're not always
directly glued to each other's eyes and nothing ever takes our
eyes off of it in a normal conversation.
There are times we look away. We glance at things.
We glance at what's around us. We're aware of our surroundings.
We look at something that someone is pointing out to us.
We're sometimes even just looking at our hands as we're making
gestures and sort of telling a visual story that we might pretend
that we're holding something.
Even though our hands are empty, we pretend we're holding
something and we're looking at it in our hands.
And that helps our audience relate to that because they can kind
of imagine that with us.
But a teleprompter, bringing it back to this, allows you to make
the eye contact with your audience for those times that you want
to do that and you want to be able to see something.
Now what is that thing that you might want to see?
That goes on to number 2.
You can use a teleprompter to display your notes or script.
Typically, you see people read a whole script from a
teleprompter.
That's what the newscasters are doing, and politicians are
reading from the teleprompter.
And it does take some skill to get good at that.
The best thing to do is get really good at writing and get really
good at speaking.
Get to the point where you can write like you speak and speak
like you write, and they are both good communication.
And I've worked on that for many years, and I think I've gotten
mostly to that point where I generally speak like I write, and I
generally write like I speak.
So that if I write my own script, it's very easy for me to read
it and sound natural.
I see other people who need some more practice with that, and
that might be where you are, that you just need some more
practice.
But you don't have to use a teleprompter for a whole script.
You could use a teleprompter for just your notes.
In fact, that's what I'm doing right now.
I'm not reading from a script.
I do have my notes in front of me, a multiple point outline in
front of me.
So I see those points, and I can read those to know where I am,
to know what's coming, and to read those points exactly as I want
them.
But they're on the teleprompter screen, so I can still look
directly into the camera as I'm looking at my outline.
This can make you look really knowledgeable and experienced with
what you're talking about.
I remember back many years ago when I recorded the SEO for
Podcasters course, which was the first training of its kind, by
the way. And I think it was in maybe 2011 or 2012. I had an iPad.
I had a DSLR camera. I did not have a teleprompter.
So my notes for that session and teaching that, I was sitting
down at my desk with my computer and workstation behind me, and I
would look at the camera, and I wanted to make eye contact with
my audience, and I had my notes on my iPad.
So if I wanted to remember what my next point was because I
didn't have the whole thing memorized, I would have to look down
at my notes, and then look back up at the camera.
And I didn't like that. And it might even look kind of weird.
And you can display your notes in different places and it might
be okay.
Even if you do something like you have your laptop in front of
you, especially if you're sitting at a table or a desk where
there's a surface and you can have your laptop in front of you or
slightly off to the side.
I think that's more okay and doesn't look so weird if you glance
at that for your notes. But in my case, my notes were in my lap.
I had no table in front of me or desk or anything like that.
So I had to look completely all the way down at my lap to see the
notes because I wasn't gonna hold the iPad in front of me the
whole time. I just didn't like the way that looked.
So it made for a lot of edit points because all I needed was just
to remind myself what the next point was.
I wasn't reading a script.
I just needed to follow my outline, and having a teleprompter
would have made that a whole lot easier because I could put the
notes on the teleprompter, have them directly in front of me, and
advance them as I needed to, while I'm advancing it in a moment.
And then I could keep eye contact with the camera while I'm
reading my notes.
And if you're doing any kind of live streaming presentation, then
this can make you look really knowledgeable because people will
see you not breaking eye contact or not breaking eye contact very
much, but still being able to present the information that you
want to share. And they might even think, woah.
She's not even using notes. That's pretty cool.
And even if they know that you're using notes, then still, you're
able to do that while maintaining eye contact with them.
That's pretty cool.
And I think that really enhances that experience.
So you can display your notes or your script in front of you.
And that's great for video.
Whether you're recording video, you're doing some kind of live
streaming, even if you're simply in a call with someone, like
you're interviewing a guest to have the questions that you want
to ask the guest up there on the screen, maybe as you work
through that.
Or maybe it's even you are being interviewed and you want a
couple of statistics in front of you, so you have those
available.
But you don't want to have to look away from the camera.
You want to make it sound like you're able to recite those
statistics.
Maybe it's even just you wanna make sure that you get the number
exactly right. It's 335, not 336.
You wanna make sure you have that number in front of you.
A teleprompter can be great for that.
But even if you don't do video, a teleprompter can still be
really helpful because of the tools that a teleprompter is
designed around.
And that is displaying text very cleanly and flowing, and
allowing you to focus on just the piece of text that you want in
that moment.
The way that most teleprompters do this is that you can scroll
through either manually or at an automatic pace where it's
scrolling, and then you're reading along that as it's moving
across the screen.
But typically, you'll see the middle line or the middle few lines
will be highlighted or bold or a brighter text color or something
like that.
And then the text that you are not reading will be faded out in
some way or maybe even completely disappear.
That way you're not being overwhelmed.
It's a lot easier to keep your place in your notes or your script
if all you see is exactly where you're supposed to be in your
notes or script, and that's right there in front of you.
So even if there's no camera attached, simply the software in a
teleprompter can be really helpful.
And you can run some of this teleprompter software through an
iPad or even your computer.
In fact, when I inducted Dave Jackson into the Podcast Hall of
Fame, and then later when I was inducted to the Hall of Fame, I
used my iPad and a teleprompter app on my iPad to read what I
wanted to share.
And the teleprompter made it easy for me so I didn't lose my
place. It kept scrolling for me automatically.
So when I looked down, the place where I looked was exactly where
I needed to be in my script or in my notes.
And you can do that with your audio podcast too.
Even if you're using simply teleprompter software, it provides a
very clean experience designed to be read very clearly, very
cleanly.
You don't have to worry about zooming in or increasing the font
size or trying to remove items from the interface to make it less
confusing and less distracting or notifications or anything like
that. It provides you a very clean interface.
And as far as how to advance through it, you can do those things
where you're manually advancing line by line or section by
section, or it can automatically scroll at a particular speed.
And you can use different devices or tools or keyboard shortcuts
to speed up or slow down that pace.
But I also love that some of these tools and way back when I
first started using a teleprompter on my iPad, I used the app
Promp Smart Pro that had this feature and it's paid feature for
it. So it's 1 of the reasons why I bought the app back then.
And I love this feature is that some of these teleprompter tools
can listen to you and move your scripts.
We can put that in quotation marks because it might simply be on
outline, but it can move your script along as it hears you
reading those things. So consider this.
Maybe you do have a complete script, and you are reading your
script verbatim.
But at 1 point, you decide you wanna go off script, and you want
to share some extra anecdote, or you want to say something a
little bit differently.
When you do that and when the script software is listening to
you, it will pause scrolling until it hears you reading the
script again, and then it continues scrolling.
Apply that same thing to your outline too.
Even if you simply have your bullet points in front of you, like
I'm doing right now as I'm looking directly into a camera and my
notes, simple bullet point list of my notes, not an entire
script, just my bullet points are in front of me.
I'm able to read them very easily, and I can advance them a point
at a time.
Or if I was using the speech recognition software, then it would
advance for me.
So it wouldn't bump down to number 3 until I said number 3, and
then it would move down there.
So it's a nice way to keep my place in my notes or script even if
you have no camera attached or behind the teleprompter.
It can be really helpful for audio podcasters as well.
And if you're going to read something from a teleprompter, I
highly recommend that you make sure it is not too visually large
to you.
Though the larger it is visually to you, then the more that your
eye movement will be visible to the camera.
In general, the best way to reduce eye movement is have the
camera farther away and thus the teleprompter farther away as
well, so then your eyes don't have to move very much.
And the reason why I emphasize the visual size of it is because
it's not necessarily the physical size.
Like, the teleprompter from Elgato is a 9 inch display, and it's
great for having the teleprompter about an arm's length away from
you. They also make a 15 inch display.
I think if you were to use that an arm's length away from you,
that might be a little bit too big because if you were reading
from it, then your eye movement would be a lot more obvious.
But you could also change the margins on it so that your eyes
don't have to move very far across the screen.
So keep that in mind if you do decide to use a teleprompter and
read from that teleprompter, even if it's simply your outline.
But if you're recording that video, then try to keep your eye
movement as small as possible.
And 1 of the ways that you could do this is many of these
teleprompter tools allow you to place some kind of target, a
crosshair, a bull's eye, or something like that so you can know
exactly where the camera lens is.
And you look at that point and try not to read word by word by
word by word across the screen.
If you can, glance at the entire line instead of 1 word at a time
where your eye is definitely scanning back and forth like the old
typewriters used to be.
But if you can grasp an entire line in just a glance, then you
don't have to have your eyes moving back and forth so much.
You'll see this sometimes where people will have their
teleprompter much too big, or they are obviously reading from a
script and they're looking away from the camera, but you see
their eyes moving back and forth as they're reading from the
script.
And then sometimes that gives that impression of, if you're just
gonna read from a script, why don't you just provide me with the
script instead of reading it to me?
But if you can display that script or your notes in a way that
allows you to make eye contact with your audience, then that's
much better.
Before I had a teleprompter, I tried to work around this in
different ways by putting my webcam on a mic stand actually, like
the Heil p l 2 t, which is a overhead boom arm, but that allowed
me to position the webcam exactly where I wanted it.
And I would position it in the middle of my 27 inch iMac.
So it covered part of the screen, but it made it easier for me to
look directly into the camera for certain things.
But I tried to position my notes right above or right below the
camera depending on which way I mounted it, and I've tried
different ways of mounting, like mounting it from the top,
mounting it from the bottom.
But the point was to try and get what I was looking at as close
to the camera as possible so that it would look like I was making
eye contact with the camera even though I had some notes or maybe
the person I was talking to on the screen behind the camera.
But that didn't always work because the camera would get in the
way of things or even simply the arm that was positioning the
camera there would get in the way of stuff and I'd have to do
some weird trying to peek over or move things around to try and
see things. And that just got frustrating.
It is so much easier to have a teleprompter.
So my notes are in front of me and I can look directly at the
camera as I'm looking at my notes or my script if you want to
read a script.
Number 3, with the teleprompter, you can see yourself as the
camera sees you.
If you've ever gotten into trying to adjust camera settings, you
probably know this frustration where you want to make sure the
lighting is correct, especially like the lighting and shadows on
your nose or your glasses.
You have to look at the camera, but you also have to look at your
screen.
So you do this weird thing where your your nose is pointed at the
camera, but you're looking out of the corner of your eye at the
screen as you're trying to adjust the settings and trying to make
sure that you look right because your screen where you can see
the what the camera sees is off to the side.
Well, that's a lot easier to do if you just position your video
right there on the teleprompter.
And you can do that where it's mirrored so that when you raise
your left hand, you see it oriented correctly in the video that
you're looking at just as if you're looking at a mirror.
It's not actually recording that way. I hope it's not.
But it looks that way to you.
So then you can adjust your lighting, your exposure, your
clothing, your hair, your backdrop, all of that stuff looking
directly into the camera just like you will be doing when you're
recording, but you can also be doing that while you're adjusting
any of those settings.
And related to that, number 4, using a teleprompter allows you to
look at the people you're talking to.
Even if you don't publish your own video, like you're not doing a
video podcast, you're not doing anything on YouTube, you're not
live streaming, I think as podcasters, we still need to be ready
to be on video.
Because even if we don't do video ourselves, a lot of other
people do, and those other people might want to interview us.
So that's a good reason to make sure that you can be camera ready
to some degree.
And having a teleprompter really enhances that experience.
Because even if the person interviewing you is not on camera, or
maybe you are interviewing them, and even if you're not going to
publish the video, the conversation feels so much different if
you can look at the person you're talking to.
And a teleprompter enables you to do that, where you can put your
Zoom, your Descript, your Riverside, whatever tool you're using.
You can put that on the teleprompter screen so you are seeing the
person you're talking to, and you are looking directly at them
while you're talking. They see you looking directly at them.
So it feels more intimate in that conversation.
It feels more natural to them instead of their seeing you looking
off to the side, and they're looking at you from the side.
And if they have a teleprompter too, then you're not looking at
them from the side either.
But you can be sort of looking directly at each other, making eye
contact with each other.
And that helps so much in the conversation because a lot of our
communication is nonverbal.
It's the slight cues, the even just active listening, like the
nodding of the head, the weird expressions, or the certain things
where you can tell someone wants to say something because you see
their mouth opening up, or they're raising their hand, or they
were holding up a finger saying, hold on. I wanna make a point.
Or hold on. Wait. I've got something.
You can see that if you're making eye contact with them, even if
you're not actually publishing the video.
Being able to see the person you're talking to can help that
conversation flow a whole lot better.
Whether that's a cohost, a guest, or you're the guest and you're
being interviewed, you can then look at the person you're talking
to and it makes it flow so much better, I think.
Fewer interruptions, better communication even, because you can
start to pick up on those things by seeing if they're maybe
confused or if they have a question or maybe if they're starting
to disagree with something, and you can anticipate some of those
things and guide what you say or what you ask based on some of
that nonverbal communication.
And number 5, depending on the teleprompter you're using or even
just some of the ideas from this, you can use a teleprompter as
an external display.
There are many times when an external display can be really
helpful. I remember my first job.
I was a presentation designer working at an organization, and I
had 3 monitors at 1 point. And I used all 3 of them.
And I felt really cool like I was at some command station.
I would have something in 1 monitor, an old version of something
that I was redesigning, and all my toolbars were in another
monitor.
So that way I could focus on what I was doing on the 1 center
screen and my other stuff was off to the side.
Well, a teleprompter, especially something like the Elgato
Prompter can function as an external display.
Even simply an iPad can function as an external display.
And doing so allows you to put that low priority information off
to that external monitor.
Even if it's a small 1, it doesn't have to be another 27 inch
monitor, another 30 inch monitor, whatever size screen that you
normally look at.
It could be a smaller 1, and there's a good place for that.
Like, for example, I use the ARC browser, and like several other
browsers, it has a picture in picture option where when you're
playing a video in 1 tab and then you switch tabs, it will move
that video into a picture in picture sort of thing.
So it moves then to 1 of the corners of your overall display so
that you can still see the video while you're doing something
else.
And I don't know about you, but it seems like it's Murphy's Law.
But when I am watching slash listening to a video while I'm doing
some kind of work, it seems like that picture in picture display
is always in the way.
So I sometimes have to fight with it, move it around, and then
that starts distracting me and makes me get frustrated.
And so I decide, I'm just gonna pause this because I want to be
able to listen, but this thing is in the way, and I don't wanna
fiddle with this too much.
Or if you have an external display, even a small 1, you could
move that video to that external display.
Or you could move notes there or that chat room or your social
feed or your stock or crypto portfolio or anything like that to
that external display, really enhancing your workflow.
Not necessarily making it a primary spot that you do work in, but
just that extra stuff that you want to be able to have on the
screen while you're working, but it's not taking up space on your
normal screen distracting you or getting in the way of things.
And that can be a huge workflow booster.
That's something I really like about the Elgato Prompter is that
it functions as an external display.
So anything you can do with an external display, you can do with
it.
Even when the camera's not on, you can still look at the
teleprompter to see the stuff that is on that external monitor.
And the Elgato Prompter comes in 2 sizes, the 9 inch, and these
are diagonal sizes, 9 inch and about 15 and a half inches.
So you can pick 1 that works best for your space and your needs.
I use the 9 inch. I think it's just the perfect size for me.
And I can use that sometimes as an external display.
Like if I'm doing some programming, maybe I move my terminal, my
command line over into that window while I'm doing my main work
in a window. Or my browser, I move my browser over there.
So whenever I make changes, when I'm looking at code, it live
refreshes in the browser, or it's a social feed or a chat room or
something else I'm listening to passively or watching passively
off to the side.
It can be a great workflow booster even just to have that small
extra display.
So these are 5 things that I think can really benefit a
podcasting workflow if you get a teleprompter.
Number 1, make eye contact with your audience.
Number 2, display your notes or script.
Number 3, see yourself as the camera sees you.
Number 4, look at the people you're talking to even if you do
only audio. And number 5, use it as an external display.
My recommendation, if you haven't already picked up on it
throughout this episode, is the Elgato Prompter and Prompter XL.
This episode is not sponsored by Elgato.
I have some issues with them sometimes.
I'm not currently sponsored by anybody to simply talk about
something.
I do have affiliate links in the notes for this episode.
So if you purchase through my affiliate links, I do get a
commission from that. But I recommend things I truly believe in.
And I'll be honest with you.
I've had some frustrations with the Elgato Prompter before, and
you can see every now and then on social that I might voice some
of those frustrations to Elgato.
Their software isn't always that great, but their hardware, I
think, is great and really useful.
And I love that the way that they've designed this is that it
functions as an external display.
So as opposed to in the past where I've had a teleprompter where
I would put my iPad in it, and I have to get the iPad ready and
all of that stuff.
And if I wanted to do something on the iPad, I would have to
actually reach up in front of the camera to be able to touch the
iPad and try and work it in different ways and trying to work it
through a mirror too.
And that mess could get frustrating a lot of times.
But when you're using something like the Elgato Prompter, then
you're controlling it from your computer.
It is just an external display from your computer and you have
the software that can control that too.
And then you add that with other accessories, keyboard shortcuts,
and stuff to be able to control the teleprompter in different
ways.
So that could be helping your scrolling speed or moving through
points or switching windows or anything like that, allowing you
to use that as really a productivity tool, not just a video tool.
So I really like the Elgato Prompter.
It goes on sale sometimes for as low as in the 100 to $200
depending on current inflation and certain things like that.
But I've seen it as low as, I believe, a $120 for the Elgato
Prompter, the 9 inch model. And the XL is 15 and a half inches.
So if you need that larger size, watch out for a deal for that
because it's a little more pricey, but maybe that would be worth
it to you, especially when you consider the productivity
enhancement or if you need that larger screen because you need to
position the Prompter farther away from you.
But I've got those links in the chapters for this episode as well
as in the notes over at the audacitytopodcast.com/teleprompter.
Special thanks to Dreb Scott for streaming 310 Satoshis to The
Audacity to Podcast from the last episode.
I really appreciate that.
And if you value The Audacity to Podcast, consider whatever is
worth to you and consider giving that back through either a
podcasting 2 system like the streaming Satoshis or Boostagram, or
a simple gift through the audacitytopodcast.com/giveback.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of
the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own
podcast for passion and profit. I'm Daniel J.
Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com. Thanks for listening.