How to be a great presenter by Susan Weinschenk

This article is part of a series where Grumo students share their experience creating and promoting their own online courses after taking Miguel’s course on How To Create An Awesome Online Course.

Susan Weinschenk from Weinschenk Institute tells us how was her experience creating her online course on delivering presentations after taking Grumo’s How to Create an Awesome Online Course on Udemy:

Why did you decide to create an online course?
I have been an instructor for many years. I believe that online video courses are the way to go right now — growth time for this medium. I wanted to try it out. Then I took your course and I said, “That’s it! No more waiting!”

How did you choose the topic of the course?
I had a list of 19 different courses I wanted to do! So it was hard to pick the first one. I wanted the first one to be something that I was very confident with, but honestly, I waited a while to do How To Be A Great Presenter. I believe this Presenter course will be very popular. I wanted to experiment with a few other courses first until I felt I had the right equipment, process, etc. ready.

What is the purpose of this course?
To show people the science and art of how to craft and deliver great presentations. The course is based on the science of what we know about people — what motivates them, grabs their attention, how they learn, and decide. It teaches people to improve their skills in crafting a presentation to fit their audience as well as the basics of body language, voice, and gestures so they will be an effective presenter.

How did you find time to produce it?
I took chunks of time — a week where I was in the video studio; a week where I was editing. I scheduled time on my calendar to work on it, in large chunks. I find I need to concentrate on it rather than just an hour here or there.

How long did it take you to put together?
I estimate that it took me a total of 140 hours altogether, but it occurred over a 5 month period.

What was the hardest thing to do?
Editing the videos. I take videos with a Canon camera and then use Screenflow to build in the slides. That takes time.

What was the simplest thing to do?
The actual recording was fairly simple.

How did you determine the price of the course?
My Director of Business Development and I analyzed the courses on Udemy. We looked at courses with a similar audience, and then ran a regression analysis that is based on number of lessons and hours of course time. Based on that analysis we now have a formula that tells us what the course fee should be!
(Miguel: ok, this is pretty awesome..)

What is your marketing strategy to promote it?
I have the promo video up at youtube. I tweet and blog about it. I talk about when I give speeches. I am just now reaching out to other people to see about getting affiliates. I’ve not done much of that before.

What software did you use?
Screenflow (just like you taught me!)

What hardware did you use? (camera, microphone, lights, etc.)
Canon T camera, I have a lapel mike, I have several fluorescent lights — two light up the wall behind me so I have a white background (and then words and images appear there via Screenflow) and two lighting structures light me up. It took a while to learn about lighting. I found someone who knows about lighting and they helped me. I use a mac for editing.

What was the part the Grumo course help you the most with?
oh, wow, so many things… I like the way you structured your course and I followed that (promo video, about the instructor, about the course, then sections and short videos in each section. Learning Screenflow (I used to use camtasia, but screenflow is much better once you showed us). But really, the most important part was your passion and encouragement. You said, “You can do this!” and that inspired me.

What other resources have you used to make your course?
I create slides in keynote and export them as jpgs and put them in screenflow.
Please add anything else you’d think it would be cool for people to know about you and your course.

I love the medium. I’m still experimenting with online video training. But I’m very committed. I have written several books and the courses complement my books. It’s fun to look at the camera and know that ultimately I am talking to real people.

If you are interested on taking Susan’s course she made available a special 50% discount coupon link.
Here it is: www.udemy.com/be-a-great-presenter/?couponCode=grumo*

And if you would like to learn how to create your awesome online courses too here is Grumo’s own 50% discount link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-create-an-awesome-online-course/?couponCode=LOVE2TEACH

Susan Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology and over 30 years of experience as a behavioral psychologist. She applies research in psychology to predict, understand, and explain what motivates people and how they behave. Her work includes training, presenting, and consulting in communications, customer experience, user experience, and usability. She is a consultant and keynote speaker for Fortune 1000 companies, start-ups, non-profit agencies, educational institutions, and conferences. Her clients include Walmart, Disney, The Mayo Clinic, Charles Schwab, and Best Buy.

(*Note most Udemy coupons are bound to a quantity limit or expiry date so they may not work by the time you read this article. If they don’t let me know and I always can ask the instructor to extend it or create a new one for you!)