 Hello and welcome to the live streamer backstage podcast today It is my great pleasure to be talking to none other than JP high-tech JP is a global branding expert speaker and media professional as the CEO of perfect zone productions JP has embedded his mark as an influential leader in the personal branding and creative space JP has redefined the term brand to reach beyond business helping individuals organizations and small business owners discover and embody their personal trademarked identity a Multitalented cinematographer software developer and technology solutionist He is the president of reveal TV network and the founder and host of content creators university Indeed it was through the content creators university that I first got to know JP I've learned so much from all of the guests that he's had on his show And I've been very honored to have been a guest there myself One of the things that immediately struck me about JP was his attention to detail his company perfect zone Productions is very aptly named because if you watch any of his shows or see any of his content You'll immediately see that the production quality is frankly just on another level. It's not just the design aesthetic It's everything from the guest onboarding process to his run of show to the promotional segments throughout the show And of course all of the graphics that go along with it What can I say the man has immense talents? So who better than to kick off this first full episode of the live streamer backstage podcast We can all learn a lot from this man So without further ado, let me say a big welcome JP is absolutely wonderful to have you here with me today Hey, hey, hey, yeah, I like what's going on family? I'm excited to be here. Thanks for the invite So so so happy that you've launched this new podcast and looking forward to Connected and sharing some expertise as well here. How you doing today? I'm doing great Thanks. Thanks so much for being here as I say you've been a big inspiration and yeah I've tried to try to aim for some of your production qualities that you have in your shows It's really really awesome. And I mean I titled the the episode of this podcast Brand, you know live streaming for brand awareness And I'm sure you're gonna have some great insights into how people can use live streaming as a tool to build brand awareness But we're not just going to be limited to that topic Of course, I mentioned in the intro that your content always looks amazing So a little bit later. I'm also looking forward to you sharing any tips You've got in how people can look their best on camera and level up their screen presence And of course what conversation between two live streamers wouldn't be complete without talking a little bit about the tech So we'll be taking a look at you live streaming as well Absolutely, but first though, I'm just always interested in to hear about people's sort of origin stories How they got into live streaming so perhaps you can give us a little bit about your background How did you first get into a live streaming? Oh nice nice great question Actually live stream As all right, we're in 2022. So it is about eight years now that I actually started doing live stream live stream Because I've been I've been you know producing for a long time. My background is this in my geography graphic design web design then you know Video production Software development and things like that. So when I started with cinematography, that was the focus right creating You know story and and publishing that and then helping clients tell the story in a unique way As they're trying to push their brands. All right, and then their businesses create that awareness around that So that was my focus and then at the same time while I was growing my company I was also on youtube right since 2015. So I was um, you know, I had different youtube channels And so as I was growing those youtube channels, of course my community once you reach 50 000 subscribers Back then they were asking more of me. So the idea behind it was okay Why will be the best engagement tool that I could use right to connect with my followers in my community? And I was like, you know, I let me just be going live So that brought in going live into uh, the whole content creation thing that I was doing But on the professional, you know, uh sphere, um, I was you know, I have a tv broadcast background. So, um You know, I'm the president of a tv network called reveal tv network That, you know owns five tv stations and there we broadcast 24 seven So right there, you know, we use different softwares. They're like wirecast and different solutions to go live So that I started doing that right professionally Um, and then that transition to the youtube using the youtube solutions and other, you know tools to go live And you know a couple of years ago, um that you know that journey brought me all the way to ecam Because I was searching for the best solution because that's who I am, right? I'm always trying to look for what can be The best way to do what I'm doing not just the best way But one of the easiest ways that I could do it right like without losing quality Maintaining the high end production but without having to jump through too many hoops and um came across ecam lab joined the community Downloaded the software and I can tell you I'm a fan. I've been using ever since so that is my Called on core background and story how I got into live streaming Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm a huge fan of ecam as well It's uh, yes, it really is uh, it's been an an abler for me You know, it sort of allows me to do what I'm doing in there in live streaming too. So How have you seen that um these sort of live streaming space has changed over all those years that you've been Doing this what would you say is uh sort of different now or how would you feel it's sort of changed in that time? Well, hey live streaming has drastically changed right like I mentioned earlier I do have a broadcasted background So I've seen the days where uh to do what we're doing right now You have to spend a whole lot of money and I'm not talking 10,000 20,000 dollars I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars and not only that you will be requiring a team to help you Accomplish half of the stuff that we're able to do today, right? Just out of push button using, you know, tools like stream deck, which we can talk about that in this live But stuff like stream deck, um, you know Just allows you to do amazing stuff and having a software like this where technology has gone so far today Where today all you need is download and install an encoder onto your computer, right and having the Destinations that you know, you want to broadcast to and simply link an account and hit go live Simply amazing and also talking about The easy way of going live There is also a way where you can simply go live using your phone Phones now have quality That are decent enough broadcasted in 1080p where you can simply grab your iPhone, right? Have a nice light setup put it maybe on a phone tripod or anything and you can still do a good quality live stream Back then we didn't have that right 20 30 years ago We didn't have all of this and even if we had we had the ability capability of doing so Like I said, it will be breaking the bank. So one thing that I love about How live streaming has grown is how accessible it is to the everyday joke, right? Um, literally anybody can grow their brand By going live, yeah, they're spending an arm and a leg. So that's something that I truly appreciate I'm excited for the future of live streaming I think it's uh It's interesting when you come from a background like you've got where you actually know how much this sort of stuff used to cost Then you've got a really a deep appreciation for it And it's often funny to me when you see people who have you know, maybe you've got zero experience whatsoever And just starting and then maybe sometimes complaining about little things that they can or can't do and you think Do you actually realize how much you cannot already do and like how amazing This this stuff is it's funny you talk about. Yeah The yeah, I was gonna interject Yeah, I was gonna interject because that made me think about one thing right when I was in college university of texas harlington Um, and we were in their tv studio where I was a student and I used to love this stuff Right. I'm a tech and people call me the tech nerd right because I'm all about tech Yeah, hence the name jp high tech folks if you didn't know that So, um, I was in tv studio, you know, those big cameras, right that they have in traditional tv studios They're heavy So I was learning, you know the different tools how to you know I how to point and have a close shot and and full body shot interview and all those amazing stuff You do in tv production and I asked my professor. I was like, hey How much do you will do say camera like this because I mean it looks expensive. I was like, how much do you think this costs So my professor, uh, he smiled and said You know jp, uh Isn't the ballpark of $60,000 and more i'm like, whoa That's crazy. Yeah, you know like and then we they had like four Right, we have four in the studio Uh, and I asked him if this was required. He said well again that this was a long time ago, right? He said yes, it was required in the studio to have a certain image quality And also to have certain ports, right? Because uh, if you know anything about professional broadcasting You want the sdr ports? You want everything in order to have the full length Fino full-level production for a tv broadcast So not every camera can do that even still today the mirrorless cameras or you know, the uh, SLR cameras and those small cameras that we use the one i'm using right now Doesn't have all those ports, but it doesn't cost $60,000 A lot more accessible Exactly. So yeah, there you go, man. I'm really excited about that and yeah, we've we live in a different world today where Literally, you can really make a huge impact if you know exactly what to do the tools to buy how to put it together And being touched a lot about your brand man, you can really kill it today. Yeah I noticed just was it yesterday or the day before uh, yolo who make the Yolo box and yolo pro which are kind of an all-in-one little streaming device They've just released a new product which is basically built for vertical So um, you can stream to tiktok and instagram directly from the device which is Really interesting because i know a lot of people want to stream to instagram from some of these desktop clients and it's not quite possible at the moment because of the the The terms of service basically for instagram Whereas this because it comes across as a mobile device. You can basically still just stream to it. So it's really interesting how Yeah, just all of these platforms are are developing and growing in this way Yeah, yeah, I mean I saw that and I was I was impressed how a yolo They just had it and had a broadcasting camera Linked it into the other hdmi of the camera and that little device literally Works as a phone, but it is a dedicated, you know encoder for you so you literally connect into your Instagram account and that replaces your phone like you said right because Not like other destinations that give you the rtmp Destinations that you can use while according to instagram terms of service They do not want you to do that even though they're Yolo duck and other folks that are using to do that according to instagram Don't do it if you don't want to risk to lose your account So I love that they have a device like that and that goes again to what we're talking about right the ease of use or the How reachable it is yes, yeah do stuff like that And if you know anything about the yellow box is not that expensive either you buy it and Except there's something called IRL you know stream which means In real live streaming so if you know anything about that that's a different type of streaming word For example, there's a game Football game or you know, I don't know something that away from the studio You need IRL solutions in order to go live and that yellow box is an IRL solution That will allow you to literally you can The traditional studio set and still maintain high quality And be able to you know show people High quality content audio and video so beautiful stuff man. Yes So why don't we have a little chat then about how you've used Live streaming for your brand But then also how you recommend people using it for theirs And I know that you've worked with a number of live streamers, you know as clients But obviously you're working with people who aren't just live streamers you work with everybody But how how do you see people sort of from a live streaming point of view using this and as a tool and and what sort of Advice have you got for people who are thinking about that kind of thing? Great question, man. Great question. So um in my career for the folks that do not know, um, you know I help, you know individuals entities small or large corporations Make an impact by creating premium brand and we leverage one of the tools that we leverage Is live string to do that, right? So one thing that I've learned is that Live stream is pretty much one of the secret You know solutions or tools that you can use to grow your brand Rapidly right now you can definitely use traditional videos and content creation and and stuff like that to bring that brand awareness Through all the tools we have today. We have so many platforms today to help Put your brand out there promote the name of your business and you know pretty much show what you do But live stream creates a different, you know way allowing people to have a unique experience So literally when you understand the power of live stream live stream allows you to tell your story in the time You choose to tell it literally we're going live right now And we chose that time you chose the time to go live Which means that you're literally holding the conversation in a time that you are controlling So you're bringing the traffic, which is called intentional targeted traffic You're bringing that into a specific time, right where you want to gather Like-minded people that will have a unique experience like we already know Live video, right can be consumed later as an on-demand content, right? But whenever is live Now is allowing you the viewer to have a one-on-one interaction, right per se with the broadcaster So that allows you to be part of something that's bigger than you knowing that there's a whole you know List of people a lot of people connecting as a community coming together under one cause Same way, right whenever we're watching tv we have Live tv on different channels cnn and all of that a whole lot of people watch those things even though they can You know get the information later. There's something unique about the time In which they're getting that information, right people want the information when it's taking place now So if you want to get that now and tap into the now of the information that has been released Then live is the only way to do that. And so when we're talking about businesses Businesses can now evolve in a unique way where they can now demonstrate because branding is the ability to show people What you do Right How right the how of what you do so not just what you do But how do you do it people want to know the backstage the back story of the great things you're doing So as your your business owner and you're leveraging live now you can hold unique conversations Where now you can target that Engagement where people come in and they're asking questions about the brand that they want to consume and they want to understand How is it you're doing that? Why is the beauty of this a certain questions some people will never ask Unless they're the live with you right and that is the beauty of it because that allows you now To tap into some conversations that you never have and if we understand anything about engagement Companies are spending millions of dollars Just to purchase data For engagement and try to leverage that in order to reach their communities because It's all about what the consumer wants while the consumer is thinking And what they're trying to do with your product that you're releasing So once you can get that private insight from them. Well, guess what you have a head You know once they've had a competition. So that is how Live stream has helped me right that's the angle that I look at it And to be honest with you is helped me grow tremendously like my business has grown a lot Just by going live and there's a community of people that I will have never been able to connect with grow with and you know Serve because that's what we do right when you have a product or service You're looking to serve and so there's certain questions certain feedback and certain conversations that I will have never been able to Hold if I wasn't going live. So live did that for me and I'm grateful that we have the ability today To tap into it in order to grow our businesses It's really interesting you mentioned the thing about like the there's something special about being live And I know from like a viewer's point of view when you see that something is live You do get that that sort of FOMO if you feel like you're not going to be there on the actual live stream It's even though, you know, you can go back and watch it later It does have that sort of that that pool to draw people in And yeah, certainly sort of bridging that gap, you know between just advertising people becoming aware of you but then getting to Getting to getting to know you really more sort of as you say This all behind the scenes and getting to know the people behind, you know Who they're going to be potentially interacting with from a from a business point of view And also one thing that is uh, I believe I didn't mean to cut you But one thing that I believe is very important that we should mention when it comes out to live is that It's not overcrowded yet As you know, a lot of folks talk about oh man, can I start youtube? Can I start content creation or you know full-time and doing stuff like that? And we know people have been doing that for years, right? There are billions of videos that are released, you know, uh every single week on youtube Well, we're not getting billions of live streamers going live every single week, right? So if we're going to talk about the benefit, right? One benefit is you can cut through, you know the competition cut through the crowd Just by going live versus pre-recorded video So that is very very important to think about because if you're decided to go live Then that means that you have a strategy of impact. I call it right you have a strategy and That is a strategy that you're using to be discovered faster because you really want to be discovered There's a lot of competition out there So how is it that you can really put your best foot forward and have your brand been discovered And drawing the traffic towards you that you can leverage that and convert that into clientele live stream does that for you, right and just like how My man Alex says all the time if you didn't know and I know that Is less work Because a lot of folks talk about oh, you got to you know, go back later edit the video and and try to You know post-produce one thing that Alec loves is one take like literally Is done published and we're good But honestly there we have softwares now like he can live that allows you to really organize Before you go live you organize your production and as you organize everything You have literally have the ability to go live And make it look like it was already edited and once you're done you publish the video So that saves you a lot of time Right because if you think about it most people today don't have time They're looking for what tool can I use that can complement my life and make my life easier That would allow me to do things Quicker faster with a better turnaround time. Well, guess what live stream allows you to do that, right? So it allows you to take less time to produce the things that you're producing and guys The ability to repurpose your content is the last thing I'm going to give you right Repurposing your content not just is a live stream But now you have a pre-recorded video that you can use now Repurpose that to start new conversations and to reach new audiences and to grow your income So think about that. That's one thing that you know, a lot of folks don't think about and I love that about live Frame it really allows us to do a lot You mentioned a couple of platforms them just curious to know like when you're working with a client How do you talk with them about you know different platforms and what where do you see these? It's sort of differentiation there between You know, obviously we've got we're live now to LinkedIn and amazon, but then there's youtube twitch Instagram that we've mentioned already places like that Where do you see that and I also was Interested when when I first became aware of you the fact that you are Repurposing it and you know, obviously with your TV channels. You are broadcasting to other different platforms there so I'm interested in in First of all, how you how how you go about doing that and how how you decide where to put different types of content Absolutely my great question man. You're laying amazing questions on me today. That's really really awesome Hey, let's do it man. Let's do it. Awesome. So one thing that we need to understand In life is that ownership is everything right ownership is what allows you to hold certain conversation if you really want to Establish your mark in this world. You got to be able to own your own real estate So a lot of times I've realized that a lot of content creators do not think about the ownership aspect of their content creation journey All the most people want to think about is simply broadcasting Well, here's the reality whenever you broadcast to places like youtube facebook You know instagram and all of that you don't own anything because they Own the platform. They're just giving you You know the ability to broadcast there even if you have 10 million subscribers You do not own anything many they can decide to take all everything you've done Right your work at everything you put in for years and years and years you can destroy that in one day They can delete it and they've done to multiple multiple people and I'm one of them Right, you so I have a channel. I lost it when it reached 120 something that was subscribers in youtube So now that changed the philosophy. So whenever I'm working with a client I laid the honest foundation down to let them know This is something you need to care about because you're here. You're about to spend a lot of money A lot of time you're about to invest a lot of a lot of things into Growing your brand with live You need to think about ownership. That's why I love real estate or investing right because it does grow me money I own it right nobody can take it away from me is me and not only after you own it There's something called your brand net worth, right? What's the net worth of your brand because we understand a brand will have a value when it starts But as you're growing as you're building those assets as you're acquiring those different assets, right for your Brand now you will have a brand net worth and that's what will separate you from a starter Somebody that's starting today and you have been doing it for 10 20 plus years and what we're talking about content creators I do get brand deals, right? But I don't struggle to get those brand deals like some fellows amazing creators of mine that I know Struggle to get them and that is because of the value the net worth that you have because whenever people are looking at What exactly do you have to offer? Right? What is the value of all the things you have? Well Depending on the assets that you own and that's just it works across any business anything that you do Depending on the assets that you own the value is attached to it, right? so now Talking about ownership one way of owning your thing is by being on tv Right quickly understood that because I've learned the hard way by losing my platform and having to come back and reinvent myself, right? So Now i'm on tv I have my roku tv application and I have my fire tv application now I'm using a solution called rtn streams, right and you guys can go to the website is rtn streams.com That allows me now to tap into ownership that I didn't have before so now whenever i'm going live on all those Amazing platform youtube social media and all of that Well, I am redirecting the traffic right my community knows about that and i'm redirecting the traffic to a platform that I own I control and I make the rules there Which means that there will be certain things that i'll be able to do on tv or my roku tv application That I i'm not allowed to do on youtube because youtube has their own guidelines instagram have their own policy and all those problems have their own policies, right? So if anything were to happen to any of my platform all the work that I have I will I will have put in for the past two three four five years will not be lost because I own something So my community my followers know where to go to find me Versus losing everything having to start back from scratch, which is crucial Not only that though you want to also look at because just for the folks that are listening or watching this My app name is jp high tech tv. Okay jp high tech tv hig hdk tv both on fire tv Roku tv and also have my mobile application go to your iphone downloaded right there's free One thing that I love about this is talking about brand net worth Now whenever you're searching for the brand name called jp high tech Now you're gonna find me on all those platforms You're gonna find me on roku on you know fire tv and all those platforms and when you search my competition So as we're searching for competition, that is something that That we want to think about because Okay, I'm back All right, so that's something that we want to think about because as we're thinking about competition Competition is there whether we like it or not. It will always be there, right? So how is it that you can come ahead of your competition? What are the things that you put in place to beat your competition? That's very important So as a brand comes to you as a brand, you know sponsor comes to you They don't want to really sponsor you If you tell them just like most content creators that yeah, I have my youtube channel I'm on social media and all of that. Well, guess what not even Creators, you know influences to talking to have the same thing but you know Well, I've done own applications So they don't have ownership Of the things that they're supposed to have so by you presenting the ownership It taps into a different conversation and it allows you to charge more For the you know the deal that you're about to have and that's the beauty of everything that I'm talking about here About building your brand and going live that it's such a smart move And I'm It's something I need to look into myself because I was on my my youtube channel There was a video that I posted. I didn't realize it had crossed any guidelines or anything like that But then the youtube took it down and I got like a little a little Cross next to my my channel name thinking like oh well I've only got two more of these or three more of these whatever it is and it makes you feel instantly like oh Hang on a minute these I'm under the control of somebody else here. So yeah, I mean that was one of the things that When I first found the content creators university It was the fact that it was You know also on tv channels as well as the the regular Streaming platforms that was something that I found really really interesting. So thanks for thanks for sharing all that I just want to check in with with amazon actually. We've got quite a few people on the amazon side Saying absolutely But before we do that I just want to take a moment to talk about ecum live because ecum live is the software that we are using to Livestream and record this podcast It is live streaming and live production software for the mac and in my estimation It is hands down the best software on the market for this job It is so easy to use it is so intuitive and what does it do? Well, it allows you to create multiple different scenes with different layouts So you might have different camera angles that you want to be able to flick back and forth between in your live stream Or in your videos You can incorporate guests obviously as we're doing now So it has an interview feature built in where you can bring in multiple different guests and incorporate their camera feeds onto the screen It also allows you to do screen sharing as well So the majority of my videos on my youtube channel. Well, they're all actually tutorial style videos So it allows me to do all of those sharing different parts of the screen Zooming in on different areas that I want to highlight and all that that kind of thing And so I would say that actually without a doubt ecum live has enabled my take one tech youtube channel because As the name might suggest the take one is that they're all done in a single take Rather than any editing involved So I just literally sit down hit the record button and then go through the tutorial whatever it is I want to demonstrate and then at the end when I hit the end button I've got a video all ready to upload to youtube and indeed it's the same with this We've got the podcast all ready to go at the end once we've once we've finished One of the great things about ecum specifically for podcasts is as well as all the great video aspects To it. It's also got the possibility to record isolated audio tracks So it means that at the end of the recording We're going to have a separate track for myself the guests and also for any other audio that was played throughout it So for any podcasters out there It's also a great tool and a great way to actually record your interview style podcasts as well I highly recommend it. You can get a free trial by going to take one tech i o slash ecum You will not regret giving it a go. I tried all of the other options There are some other software options that sit on your computer. There's obviously web based options as well But hands down for me the quality of production that you can create with ecum is just on another level to all of those So I highly recommend as I say checking out take one tech dot i o slash ecum So let's just get back to the amazon side and we've got a few good questions coming in So hi to everyone over there. Hi l hi john as well live is the way live is where it's all at So obviously we've got lots of live streamer friends in here. Nicole. How are you from california? It draws the viewer back as well. So that is another point about live You know when you feel like you're you're actually building a community and part of the thing that that I find about being on on viewing live streams is There's kind of like a whole series of a whole whole side of sort of banter if you like or back chat That's going on like in the in the chat as well where you know You it's kind of like hanging out with friends watching your favorite creator So there's that aspect aspect to it as well Absolutely. Yep, and it's all about making your mark else says and somebody's saying about Is it okay to start with a usb mic? Well come on to um onto Gear a little bit later, but um Yeah, it'll be interesting to know like when you started out How did you you know, what did you use? Did you did you got and build out a dream studio from the outset? Or was it something that sort of built up over time? I think this is a bit of a leading question because I kind of I think I know right Great question when I started of course, I did start with everything that I have right now in my studio My first as a matter of fact talking about microphone My first microphone was a usb my microphone. It was a blue Yeti that I you know, I purchased and of course being you know, the quote unquote perfection is that I am I didn't like it like I really didn't I was like no this is I was looking for But I was trying to save money and I purchased that and also, you know with a usb microphone I got into a whole lot of trouble that you get with a usb microphone If you didn't know that because it's usb then is overloading the ports that you have right on on your on your computer And once that usb port is overloaded you might have something called, you know down, you know Losing audio so you have some downframes if you're doing video and audio you'll be losing Input so if we go in and out or the sound quality will decrease Because it's just overheating or it's just you know, the the processor on your computer is affecting it I had to learn that the hard way and I decided no more. I didn't want to Do any usb microphone. So I started using xlr microphones, right? And so when talking about xlr microphones, I've gone the route of what a lot of folks. I appreciate which is road, right? road microphone Was fantastic for me and even in the studio right now. I do have that We'll talk about I'll show you guys in a little bit what I have in here But that changed everything. But of course when we're talking about xlr microphones, you do need a audio interface to do that Today, of course, I'm using the road but I started with the m audio right m audio, which is about 100 or some dollars You know with the pod mic, which is also about 100 bucks didn't break the bank for me and that gave me crystal clear Audio quality that I was looking for I was able to tweak that in which is crucial because when it comes out to audio Audio is even more important than you the quality of your camera The first thing you want to think about is your audio first Right and then upgrade the the lens or the camera that you have people will be comfortable with you having an okay You know video With an amazing audio, but they will not be happy with you having an amazing video with a terrible audio Because remember they want to be able to hear you so if they're having a hard time hearing you They're not going to stay on your stream. They're just going to keep moving And and go find somebody else that they can actually listen to and hear what they're saying so that You know that was my experience there and you know I started adding more and more to my studio because of course everybody got a starting point But I embraced their journey and I was able to learn a whole lot of different things and then today You know, I help other people I build their we help build their studio with my company personal productions We built their studios and helped them have an amazing setup But not every setup is for everyone. I always say that right Is not everything that I have that will be good for you and it's not the stuff that you have that will be good for me So it's always good to um understand work with a professional right that will help you understand the use And the power of every single tech that you purchase a pretty good studio What's the strength and what are the weaknesses of this and how can that Compliment me my business the type of you know production that I want to put together, you know And some people they have multi camera setup, right? I don't necessarily do multi camera setup I have played several cameras But I was like, uh, I don't see the need of it If I want to show a product or anything like that I might go ahead and do that But it's not for what I usually do, right? I don't really need that So it's all about you know understanding the tech What it can do for you how you can use it, you know and maximize your investment Um and then take advantage of it. So yes, sir That is how I was able to you know accumulate the things that I have today and and get to this quality of production that I have And when you're working with clients then and helping them with their studio setup Where would you suggest somebody somebody would start with something like that? Or how do you go about assessing the the needs of somebody in that respect? Good question. The way I do it is first of all understanding their business needs, right? What type of business do you have? What are your needs through live video, right? What are you trying to accomplish with the live video? We need to determine that and then with that that allows me to help you build the studio that will work with For you, right? Of course, we're going to talk about like I just said, uh, what type of production Are we trying to put together? Are you going to be uh one head talking head? Are you going to have like a guest with you every time you're doing your podcast? Or do you want like an audio podcast feel are you going to be saving that extracting the audio to be you know producing the audio podcast? What exactly are you going to be doing now from there that allows me to tell you specifically what type of gear will work the best for you now? Of course, I always present, um businesses with decent not basic setup but decent meaning medium to high because those are businesses and when we're talking about businesses They've been in business for a while already. They're not starting up They have a clientele and so they're usually more than likely trying to elevate when they come to be right Because most clients that I get they already know that they can do basic live shoot with their Phone or with a tablet and all those big stuff. They don't come to jp to learn the basic stuff They come to jp to truly elevate so when they come to me my company helps them actually elevate make them look premium Right because one thing they understood is yes is good like I would say it's good to start With what you have but it is not good to stay With what you have we should all aspire to improve You cannot start today Right in a certain way seven years later. You are the same level No growth no improvement. That's terrible, right? Terrible you need to aspire to grow so that is one thing that I say and when it comes out to business I always tell them that okay The way you present yourself Will determine how people react with your brand That is very very important. If you're looking for people to spend, uh, you know, your average sale, for example, is like $700 to you know, 5,000 That's a lot of money if you have products you're selling and the minimum Price somebody can spend in your store is $700 You probably want to spend some decent amount of money in your live stream So that when you're speaking to people they can see that you've invested in yourself Because if I have to spend a lot of money buying your product and you're doing a live stream and I'm looking at you It looks terrible. I'm like, um, you're not taking yourself seriously. I'm not gonna go ahead and I'm not even gonna listen to you That's very important, right? So those things you want to also Leverage that and understand that we are in the market where there's competition, right? So as we have competition We have ways to try to overcome the competition And one way that you can really overcome the competition is by having a stellar production Whenever you have a stellar top of the line production The skeptical I would say Or halfway there Like there might be skeptical but they will wait Yep And they will try to listen to what you're talking about because I'm like, you know what this production is really good Uh, let me listen to what you know, you have to say And if what you're saying is good because you got to do the rest, right? You really got to Hold that attention, right? Retention is big on youtube. So if you can grab their attention, guess what? There will be a client or at least they'll start following you and once they're sold they'll spend money with you So that's the whole you know concept there and One of the things you talk there about you know looking good on on camera and we're talking about gear as well But there's one thing where a lot of people will have, you know A great quality camera or setup and things like that But they're not actually getting the best out of the gear that they've already got And I know that one of the things that you do is provide lots so be interested to know exactly Explain what those are and how those work But there's something I've noticed about people who have come to you for their lots Then when I see them on screen like the before and after I think oh, they've got that that jp shine to it Where it just looks so polished and uh, it it it really sort of transforms what they've even already got in their studio So perhaps you can talk a little bit to that and you know, what is a lot and and how does it work and and how do you go Back to providing that kind of thing Well, great question man a lot for the folks that do not know Is used in cinematography and lot stands for lookup table, right? So that is what you apply to videos in post-production to Do color correction to it. It's literally a color correction Whenever you're doing, you know, you're going into your software and your color correction Your footage for it to look amazing for it to pop on the camera You, you know, you apply that in professionals in in cinema have their own custom lutz like they'll create that lutz and save it so that they can have a Constant look every single time they produce something. So when we're talking about branding It is important to look similar and I have a consistent look every single time you go live regardless of where you are, right? That is important and also understanding that a lutz has to do with a lot of different things He has to do with the primary colors the secondary colors You know the dominant colors in your studio the skin tone that you have is it indoors? Is it outdoor all of that matters? It will affect your lutz now. I always recommend Anybody that's trying to do this professional live streaming to think about having a lutz because if you're just depending on the Colors in the camera you are not going to look All the way there you look decent, but it's not going to be all all the way there So for example, I have a lutz on right now. My lutz is on 90 percent I'm about to go ahead and remove my lutz pay attention on my video right now So this is what I look like, right? So I'm about to slowly remove my lutz, right? So look at the colors right now. This is these are the colors on my camera, right? It looks decent But it's not popping Right. I have a good camera a good lens, but it's not popping. It looks kind of dull, right? Whenever I bring the lutz pay attention as the lutz comes back You will see that now I will start popping. Look at that. I'm back to live So the lutz transform and brings you back to live it makes you pop from the background and ultimately It makes you look very very good on camera, right? Because it brings out the true tone the blacks are going to be true black Your skin tone the colors of your lighting the reds the blue and all of that that you have those amazing colors Are going to stop popping. So that's what we do for people and we allow them You know, we create custom lutz for a whole lot of creators, right? And you're right every single time they add their custom lutz I say custom because you can get standard lutz Out there online. So somebody asked me one time jp Why can I just go and purchase a standard lutz out there that they're selling online for 30 40 bucks and I applied on my video The question is that lutz that you're buying was not created with you in mind It was created with somebody else in mind. It was probably maybe created For when you're shooting under the heavy harsh sun. So if you apply that to your image Heavy harsh sun. So that will cause problem With the things that you're doing. So that is very important. So think about Well, and also about your skin tone that lutz wasn't created with you and money They didn't take your specific skin tone your specific lighting scenario your specific setup and tweak the colors To you know, create the mood that you're looking for whenever you're creating a lutz you can create different mood You can create dramatic You can create, you know Romantic you can create corporate feel you can create a whole lot of different fields whenever you're creating the lutz Right. It's all about the story that you're trying to tell why mood are you trying to push out when people are watching you Right. So that's what we do like we take the time and create that specific mood and ultimately Help you really impact people in a unique way as to look at you you want people to be like wow This is amazing. So that's what a lutz does for you. And yeah, that's what we do for the folks that are looking to get a lutz They can always just go to my website jpi tick.com For such custom lutz and they'll be able to get that. So here's the website on the top right there If you go to booking You'll be able to see that. Um, yeah, I'm booking right there There will be a drop down whenever you you know try to click on it and then it will allow you to You know go and get your custom lutz or you can go directly to the you know URL jpi tick.com for such custom lutz and it will allow you to get that and the beauty is it doesn't break the bank Only about 40 some dollars. You have your own custom lutz. How beautiful is that? So That's amazing. But yeah, there you go man. I hope I answered your question Yeah, thank you so much and and you can always tell when somebody's been and had their luck done with you Made for them because it's just Seen the the difference there that you could show so for audio listeners if you can Check out the replay or maybe I'll drop a picture in of the sort of before and after because the the the transformation there is really just Wait, it's just it is a transformation So thanks. Exactly. Thanks for sharing that. I'll be interesting to dive into your studio setup now though a little bit because I always like to talk about the tech and the gear so Bring up a little picture. So I'll leave this in the show notes for those that are watching on the Or listening rather in the in the audio I've left a link to this this image, but perhaps you can just kind of talk through What you're using now and maybe a little bit about the sort of evolution of it as well Absolutely. So If you're watching it, well, welcome because that you take a look at my setup and it might set up here The number one thing that I want to talk about are lighting lighting does literally if you understand lighting You don't really have to spend money on super expensive cameras If you can't understand the mastery of your lighting, you will be able to do a whole lot of stuff. So right there I have an amaran 100 on the left I have another amaran 200 on the top and I have an slw 60 on the right hand side now You'll notice that I'm using soft boxes, right? Why am I not using? Anything else by soft boxes? Well, remember I'm a cinematographer So I understand that whenever you want to have a soft skin, right? You don't want your delight to hit you harsh and you want to look smooth and very nice on camera You want to use a soft box and the size of the type of soft box that you get Will determine, you know, how smooth your skin is. So that's what I have You know, I have a 32 inch soft box on the amaran 100 on the top I have another 34 inch and on the right hand side. I have A 42 or 45 inch right there. That's a go w that allows me to really illuminate my scene very clearly because If you notice if you're watching this show, you notice that my background right in my studio is darker than my foreground So that allows me to separate myself Clearly from my background and also create that move because I have a lot of colors happening You see red you see blue shining on on my head, right? And then you have Other colors on my background on the shelves there So what I wanted to do is have that unique solid color on my face And still having those colors pop in the background and the way you can achieve that The best way you can achieve that is to lighting and lighting. Here's the deal. Here's here's the cheat sheet folks The better you can adjust and the better you can you will look right? Of course you can overcast it but In general when you have enough lighting You can really have a great setup But when you don't have enough lighting now you're dealing with harsh shadows, right? grainy footage and different things That will be hard to tweak So I always say make sure you have enough lighting in the room that you're in And it's always better to use A controlled light a light that you can control not necessarily a window, right? So the best way to do is shut down any window that you may have any Uncontrolled light the sun and all that you can control that right you can control the intensity Whenever you want to But this light I can control them with my sorry about folks. I like Stop, right? I can control that with it, which is beautiful. I can also control it with my phone Which is amazing. So that makes my life a whole lot easier depending on the time of day I can tweak it down. I can dim it down a little bit I can increase it and all of that and that allows me to have a consistent look Every single time so that is one reasons why I have those now another thing that I will show you guys That I have in my studio here. So let me go ahead and put a live camera up in my studio So I can show you so right here you see in my studio that I have one thing that I love is My audio system right here and this is my road You know castor pro and this is the one right? I love this device Of course, I used to have the m audio like I was telling you guys But the road castor pro gives me some base gain and some tweaks additional tweaks A mix of minus on the audio point that I can really tweak in exactly what I'm looking for and paired with this microphone that I'm using And this is my shore sm7b now with this sm7b I get the best, you know combination that you can think of because now I have the amount of bass that I want I have the amount of treble that I want and I can truly dial in exactly Whenever, you know, I'm I'm here. I'm not talking loud. You can hear me clearly I don't have to be you know Moving or try to position the microphone in front of me directly or anything like that This allows me to do that and also it allows me to control the environment, you know Audio sound offstage, right? So if anybody's walking right next to me because of how I set it up Immutes that it doesn't bring that into the microphone whenever I start speaking You're not going to hear anything check this out As you can see when I stop clear silence, right? Even though there are people that are walking in the room right next door right next to me You won't be able to hear that I wouldn't I was not able to you know tweak it and get a specific thing With that my other um audio system So it is very important for me to get that why because I am also extracting the audio As an audio podcast whenever I'm doing my broadcast every week So if you're you know, you really want to have a crystal clear audio This is something that I'll highly recommend the roadcaster pro now Let's talk about more stuff that I have in my studio here One thing that I'll tell you is of course my camera right there In front of me is my sony a6100 paired with a 16 millimeter f 1.4 You know lens that I have right here and the reason why I chose a 16 millimeter is because it allows me I'm really at a you know arms length if you're watching this you notice that I can touch my lens just by You know raising my hand there I'll put it up straight But it doesn't feel that I'm that close to the lens and something there's something called bokeh effect So if you want to have the bokeh effect bokeh effect is literally Being able to have um, you know blurry or some some type of blurry background, right? Being able to have that and it allows you to separate yourself from the background is crucial So if if you're watching this again, I want to encourage you if you listen to podcasts to come and check out the video So you can see me clearly, right? And you can still see my background but you notice that my background is a little blurry Compared to the foreground the foreground is a perfect sharpness But my background is a little blurry. That is what I'm able to achieve by using This lens right paired with my sony camera now a lot of folks will ask me Why not a different camera? Why this specific camera? One thing that I'll tell you is as long as your camera has a clean hdmi You should be able to use that for live streaming. What do I mean by clean hdmi? Well, clean hdmi is a camera that does that allows you whenever you connect to hdmi That allows you to remove all the information that you will have on the traditional camera screen, right? So it's clean. You don't have any writings or anything on the you know screen Of the camera whenever you connect to be hdmi So not every single camera does have that clean hdmi So you want to have that and this is one of the cameras that have that now the beauty of it is with the clean hdmi Now you can do a whole lot of other stuff. You can use it for tv production. Just like i'm doing right now, right? So i'm using that however One thing that I personally prefer about the sony camera versus any other cameras or let's say two cameras are sony canon Those are you know two very popular brands Canon has more of a matte finish to their, you know, uh, their image quality I personally prefer using canon cinema cameras for my company, whatever we're doing broadcast work Cinema work. We use that because it gives you that cinematic You know matte finish, you know with the log files See the log that you can use in post-production and get tweaking that whatever you're doing your color correction to get Exactly what you're looking for but when it comes up to live video Live video is all about popping on camera, especially i'm talking about indie producers indie mini small producers independent producers like us You and me That is an aspect of things that you want to think about if you want to have the all the pop as possible Of course you can get you know tweak that on the canon camera to get us very close to this But it will be more work So the easiest way to get close to this will be using a sony camera because there are more of a sharp Pop color finish to it right even though you have sony cameras that will give you luck files that can dial in Whenever you're going to traditional, you know color profiles It allows you to pop easily easily compared to the canon or other cameras that are out there I also used to broadcast on a gh You know panasonic gh5 that I have and even though I dial in all the colors It wasn't giving me something called true colors true colors or something that are crucial when it comes out to videography Now you want your black to be true black red to be true red because whenever you have the true colors Things will really pop and why am I seeing pop? Well, hey pop in the meaning You look amazing on camera, right? It's only because everything is true color that you'll be able to pop the best on camera And I've noticed based on my experience and again, I've been doing this for 15 years using cameras I've learned that sony allows me to do that So that's why I personally prefer sony But again, you can go live with any other camera that you have that has clean as she am I it's Great points there and one thing I wanted to just add as well is about the thing you were talking about lighting and the importance of lighting because A lot of people will spend a lot of time on their camera Trying to get other settings or right in there, but it's actually the lighting that is letting them down almost And and the lighting can really transform, you know, even a you know A sort of lower-end camera to a great extent When I started I started with my canon eos 60d a 10 year old camera and I'm still using it because It's I've got an upgrade plan But it was originally the zv e 10 and then they had that out of stock issue But it's really the sort of lighting that has you know made this This look better and this is like, you know a 10 year old thing So coming back to a question that somebody asked in the the amazon live earlier about, you know Is you know this bit of gear okay or that bit of gear? Then you know, if you have got something that you've already got Then it's it's interesting to sort of look at how you could start with what you've got and then sort of build up from From there forward, but it's like you said if you're still Stuck where you are and not not growing as well Then I always have that sort of growth path in mind and those are those extra steps that you can take to upgrade And I mean my studio will be that I wanted to add to it There's one thing that I wanted to add to what you're saying in regards to lighting Let me go back to my setup here One thing that I wanted to show the folks here is if you pay attention, you will notice that my table is white Now anybody can guess what white does It reflects the light right so This is a is like a trick that you can use if you do not have a whole lot of light in your studio It means that the surface that's in front of you can reflect the light back to you So that allows you to have more light than you ever have and also the opposite also stands true Right like if you didn't want to have too much light on your face Then if you choose a different color than white then it will allow you to have less light on your face So I really wanted to have a lot of light in my studio. So I was very intentional about the white So as I'm positioning my light On top of my head here, right as I'm positioning that why that allows me to do is have that reflection Right directly popping up right here on my face. And this is um, you know, very very important So as you can see pops up, right? And it pops up right in front of me and what that does as you can see that's right on top is coming down, right? So that light is shining directly down to my head. So Why one thing you want to think about is that there's like hard shadows that you can have whenever you have this type of setup Lighting setup, you can have hard shadows Under your eye, right? So how can you eliminate the hard shadows that you can potentially have under your eye? Well, folks the only way or one of the easiest way to eliminate that is by having a reflector, right? And using your table as a reflector will allow you to eliminate those hard shadows I know those things simply because I am a producer. I'm a cinematographer. I'm a photographer as well And so we use that with reflectors in our studio in order to remove the hard shadows from talent's neck Under the eye and especially when the work glasses, right? Let me go back to my fellas that were glasses It is important to know, you know, the different tweaks that you need to Do in your studio in order to eliminate those You know hard shadows from your eyes. So if you take a look at my face right now You will notice that I do not have hard shadows on my face And the way I was able to do this and you can clearly see through my glasses If you're watching the podcast right now, you can see I'm clear right here. You can clearly see my face I don't have hard shadows all over the place and the table was able to help me So this was a trick that I just wanted to share with everyone I like so they can use it and that can help them as well You know for the folks that were glasses or you know, they have Issues with hard shadows under their neck their eye line and stuff like that That is a way that I was able to combat that in my studio And the one about the glasses I know that's always a common question is where people have got the Basically the lighting position just wrong So they get in the the reflection of the light directly in the glasses and So yeah, it's great to see the sort of positioning that you've got in your in your lighting set up there and You always look amazing on screen Well, thanks JP. I mean you've really just shared like a wealth of knowledge for everyone here I wonder if you could just maybe finish up with Like what is the the one bit of advice that you'd give for somebody who's starting out and in live streaming and like, you know, what? What is uh, what what is your kind of like tip? Maybe something that you wish you would you would learnt right at the beginning or being told at the beginning Your computer I'ma say it again. If you're going to do live stream and I wish I had known that when I started The type of computer you have Will allow you to do certain things or not allow you to do them So the processor on your computer Right now I am using my m1 16, you know gigabyte ram That I have right here all my decks right and this Is I saved my life the m1 mac mini 16 gigabyte ram If you're looking to purchase right Any computer dedicated to your live stream? I'm a highly highly encourage you to get the m1. Why because It doesn't break the bank But it does the job I again remember I Help a whole lot of other companies doing their remote broadcasting, right Sometimes we have multi camera setup now the eight gigabyte based on experience, right Works just fine If you're using one camera Now whenever you start having three four guests It starts doing Uh, uh, you know what I've talked about it starts freezing and and you don't want that so I will tell you Future proof your investment And you know, you're gonna need that in the future If you can afford it get a good computer that has at least 16 gigabyte ram With m1 right or if you use an intel I have intel based max here Make sure you have At least 32 gigabyte ram. This is based on my experience so that you can avoid a whole lot of headache That's one thing that I wish I had known when I was starting out to eliminate a whole lot of issues that I was having Um, and that saved my life. So that will be my one advice for the folks that are starting out And really wanted to you know jump and uh, you know really save their lives on certain things That's the headache. You don't want to have trust me Oh, that is such great advice and talking about like future proofing it because I think we get into these things thinking about what we want to do now And then when you start doing it you realize, you know, all these other things that you can potentially do like, you know Having guests on and things like that and that will tax the computer even more and live streaming is really one of the Hardest things your computer will will be able to do so really sound advice there jp Absolutely. Yes, sir. Well, thank you so much as I say you've shared a wealth of knowledge I'm sure it's going to be super useful for everyone and I've certainly learned a lot as well And I just want to say again a big thank you for being here. You've been an inspiration to me and uh, I can't thank you enough for for coming on Listen, I like it's been an honor. I want to thank you again for inviting me here And you know, I love me to share some of my expertise with your community And of course for anybody that uh, I know we've gone to the end. I just looked up while you were talking I'm like, oh snap. Uh, we've got to the end of the show. Time has gone by so fast, right? But no, I I just want to let you guys know um, I love Like uh, you know, we showed and we talked about earlier my website is jp high tech com jp High tech.com if you're listening to it. It's jp. H i g h t e k dot come is my website connect with me I'm more than happy to see how me and my team can you know help you grow or If you just want to follow me on social media as jp high tech I am in all social media Especially i'm on youtube as well jp high tech reviews come join the country careers university and let's grow together You know, it's got the careers and business over so there you go. I like thanks again. I appreciate it I highly recommend the content creators university. You'll learn a lot there as well I've left links in the show notes to everywhere that you can find jp as well And I'll also leave links to the obviously the video replay of this and then also the the pictures of jp studio So if you just want to have a little reference to what we've been talking about you'll find those all in the show notes as well Thanks. Once again jp and uh, I look forward to speaking to you again soon Like wise in the next episode We're going to be talking with dr Efrain Lopez or dr Elo as we know him and he has got a really strong work ethic in my opinion Because of the way that he has a limited amount of time to spend on his content creation Juggling that with full-time work and family life and yet he's very consistent about it And it's not just a case of the actual content creation itself But it's the follow-up in terms of repurposing content and putting that out onto other platforms and creating micro content from it It's something that if i'm totally honest, I've been a little bit lax at myself It's always been on my list, but i've never quite got into the habit of doing it consistently And it's something that I want to improve on so i'm hoping that i'll be able to learn a few things from Dr. Elo and looking forward to sharing those with you as well So that is the next episode with dr. Elo. So until then have a wonderful week