#11: Essential Tools for Your Author Appearances: From Podcasts to In-Person Events, and from Zoom to Stage

learn how to show up as your best self with confidence. Host Allison Lane shares insider tips and tools for preparing for podcasts, Zoom interviews, digital appearances, and in-person events. Key advice covers camera readiness, audio equipment, lighting, and essential grooming tips that no one else will tell you. Also mentioned is the buzzworthy book recommendation for enhancing productivity: The 15-Minute Method: the Surprisingly Simple Act of Getting It Done by Samantha Bennett. Don't miss these valuable insights for ensuring your expertise and perspectives shine through in every opportunity.

Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction: Show Up as Your Best Self

00:32 Prepping for Digital and In-Person Appearances

01:03 Camera-Ready Tips and Equipment Recommendations

02:42 Lighting Tips for Perfect Visibility

04:15 Essential Tools No One Talks About

05:32 Nude Lip Liner: A Must-Have for On-Camera

07:43 Nose Hair Trimmer: The Unexpected Essential

09:55 Buzzworthy Book of the Week

11:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• Lights, Audio, Action free guide: https://lanelit.com/appearance-guide
• The 15-Minute Method: the Surprisingly Simple Act of Getting It Done by Samantha Bennett: https://bookshop.org/a/55773/9781608689064
• Nose Hair Trimmer: Norelco $12 at Target.
• Nipple Covers: Cakes https://www.instagram.com/cakesbody/ 
• Nude Lip Liner: NYX Cosmetics $5 nyxcosmetics.com

Transcript:

 You're going to be  showing up as your very best self. And I want you to do it in a way where you're confident and your badassery comes across.

Today, I'm going to share with you how to prep for podcasts, zoom interviews, digital appearances, and in person appearances with a couple of tools and tricks that I use that no one else is going to tell you about. If you're an author, you're a subject matter expert, you're a storyteller, you need to be equipped with tools and techniques to make sure that your opportunities showcase your expertise and your perspectives and not. leave people wanting more or thinking, gosh, does she live in a cave?

Because you don't.

number one, even when you're recording a podcast or a zoom interview, some videos may be used in social media promotions. So you've got to be camera ready, no matter what, we don't care what you're wearing, but if you wear something that's strapless, you're going to look like you're buck naked.

Make sure that from the, nipples up you look like you're clothed.

When it comes to equipment, here are a few of my recommendations you can use to nail your mic drop moments.

Number one, make sure your audio sounds fantastic. Get an external microphone. I'm going to give you two options right now. One is the Logitech USB headset H390. I Got it with the noise canceling microphone. It's 25 bucks on Amazon. Go ahead And get it, I'm going to give you the link. It's in the show notes in a downloadable guide. Second, instead of using an external mic that's on this headset, you can use a higher end Audio Technica ATR2100 and that's this microphone I use now. This starts around 100. What you don't need is to spend 400 on a microphone.

There are some out there that, people love because they look fancy. The Blue Yeti looks fancy, but you don't need to spend that kind of money. You just need something that's separate. Make sure your headphones or your noise cancelling Microphone are in your wheelhouse so that you're not getting that dreaded echo in the conversation because your microphone will pick up the sound from your computer and that's just the kiss of death for any of your interview.

It just won't pick up. the podcast interviewer, they just won't air it because of the echo. It's really turns people off.

For lighting, the simpler is better. A ring light on a tripod is versatile and it moves around so you don't need to spend much money. This is what I'm sharing with you is the Sensign 12 inch ring light.

It comes with a stand and a selfie ring light. And I just put it in front of me. Behind my screen so that when I'm talking to you, you can see it. It has three different lighting shades for different times of the day, because if you have ambient light coming in from windows and you turn on a different color light, it'll look really fake.

We want to see both sides of your face, so it's not okay to just put a lamp over on the left, because then it looks like you're shaded over on the right, like you're in a Hitchcock movie. And, he's making a point about the contrast between truth and lies.

This is the, Main light. I'm showing the blue light, this is the yellow light, and this is the white light. If you go to YouTube, you can see these three things look different. Also, you need to have some overhead lighting. If I didn't have the overhead lighting on right now, it would look like I was in a cave and doing some confessional.

We need things to be lit so we can see you. For best results, you might want to plug into an ethernet using a cable instead of using wifi. It's much faster and more reliable for streaming audio and videos. I don't use that, but I know people who do, and they swear by it.

Now I'm going to share with you the three tools that no one else will tell you about, but I'm telling you because you need to know. everyone else gets embarrassed. I'm over that.

The number one tool you need in your arsenal, whether you're showing up on video and you've got like a medium body shot or you're in person, you need nipple covers.

That's right. One, two, three eyes on me. That's the whole point. We want people looking at you, not taking in some sort of unfortunate nurple situation. Especially after breastfeeding, nipples can be on high alert always. And the thought of full body contouring for me was giving me hives. I

it felt like a Lycra prison, you don't need to think too hard about this. The ones that are at Target are sticky. And they stay in place. So you don't need to worry about them. My favorite though is cakes,

cakes are grippy. They're not sticky and they're reusable forever. All of the other ones outlive their usefulness. Then you have to buy more. So the grippy part. They even grip to your, I'm just putting them on my arm., so it's not adhesive and they last forever. And they come in different colors and different sizes, depending on what your girls have going on.

This is the next step I want to give you. Nude lip liner. We want to be able to see your face and your features on stage on screen. Your features get drowned out with lights and distance, especially your eyes and your mouth.

Use nude lip liner before lipstick. It's it makes a moat around your lips. To make sure that it stays in place, especially because you're as we age, we get laugh lines and smile lines, and we don't want your lipstick traveling. We want to keep it all in one place and make sure it doesn't bleed into your face.

Avoid looking like Miranda Sings. If you've, if you don't know who that is, Google her. It's a nightmare. Here are two lip liners that I like. My favorite is NYX. It's five bucks. It is literally called natural. There are two or three other shades that are also natural, whatever works for you.

The other one that I like is from Mac, and I think it was 20 bucks. It's called Whirl, and, it's for fairer skin. And there's another natural shade that they have that is for, darker skin, I'm pretty fair. So I went with this. I'm going to show you the difference right now because it's important.

Okay. Most of my face is just the same color, but I'm going to show you, this is a live demo. And the key is do not put the lip liner into the corners of your mouth. Cause that makes a It like ages you and don't do it on the outside of your lip on the bottom. We want it just inside the lip line and then on top a little bit outside, but again, not all the way to the corners.

Let me show you one side versus the other side.

And if you want, you can do the entire lip in lip liner. Cause the whole point is that we get to see you. So this is with lip liner and this is without. With and without. And then whatever your fancy is. I keep, whatever I've got around here.

, this is Neutrogena Hydro Boost. It's not much, but it's just, this is with. This is without. It's just a little bit, but it keeps everything in place and that's what we like about it.

The third tip I have for you and I'm telling you're gonna need this is a nose hair trimmer Your facial hair is visible to everyone, but you That menopause mustache, and yes, nose hair.

It's a fact, and only you can take care of it. No one is actually going to take you aside. We've all been conditioned to tell you have spinach in your teeth. But I'm not going to tell you that you have a caterpillar growing out of your nose. What I want you to do is take care of it, but avoid the pink tax.

Do not search for women's facial hair groomer, because you will end up paying, 15 to 20 percent more. Instead, this regular one will do the trick. It is a Phillips Norelco. It's 12 at on Amazon at Target. wherever. I'm going to put the link in the show notes and it just zip. You just put it in here.

It doesn't hurt. But if you have a nose that like mine goes up or where like you can see in the nostril from the side, then. You're going to need this.

Also trim up your eyebrows. This Norelco comes with an eyebrow trimmer. We don't want you to look like Wilford Brimley and. Or have, caterpillars growing out of your ears, this is something a weekly that you're going to take care of, whether you think you need it or not, just take care of it. And yes.

Men, you do need nipple covers. You're probably manscaping and you're used to wearing a t shirt underneath your button down or whatever, but if you're going on stage or on TV, we don't want to see any nipplage.

It's just a lot and it's distracting. ,

this is all in the name of helping and I know that you're going to be out there. You're going to be showing up as your very best self. And I want you to do it in a way where you're confident and your badassery comes across.

Make sure you sound good, that you can hear what you're saying and that you look good with minimal work. Your tech has to work. We want to focus on you and not any bodily situation that takes us away from   📍 📍 you.

Now this week's buzzworthy book is the 15 minute method. The surprisingly simple art of getting it done by Samantha Bennett. Who is, a, Creative productivity expert. She helps people get their thing done, whether it's. Go through your. Dearly departed moms. Um, box of treasures, my mom passed five years ago and I still have two boxes that I look at and I take things out and I smell. Because it still smells like her house. But I haven't done anything with them yet.

I'm sure if Sam was here, she would help me spend 15 minutes. And just take stock because everything is easier 15 minutes at a time is so chock-full of goodness. Arielle Ford, who's the author of the Soulmate Secret said "like a talk with an old friend, Sam Bennett's book is wise, wide reaching and filled with hilarious asides. And unlike so many self-help books, this one is actually helpful. Sam Bennett is wise and hilarious.

And. The deliverer of many belly laughs and she's really good at helping the overwhelmed, the procrastinating and procrasti-learning. That's a term I learned from Miriam Schulman. Who wrote Artpreneur , she knows how to plow the way. That's why I love this book. And I highly recommend it.

I will put the link to 📍 it in the show notes.