Use these 10 Steps to make videos on your smartphone effortlessly:

1. Enable the “Do Not Disturb” mode on your phone so that you don’t get a phone call in the middle of shooting.
2.  Go to the light. You literally want to walk around with your phone in selfie mode until you find a spot, I recommend natural light coming in through a window, where your face is evenly and well lit which leads to….
3. (Optional for Android users) I recommend the Android app called “Open.” It’s a great camera app because it has a face detection mode that you can turn on that will automatically adjust the exposure so that your face is well lit. If you have an iPhone 6 or later there are already great options for exposure built right into those cameras.
4.  Get your phone into a holder. I recommend this smartphone holder because it has a classic tripod thread that you can just screw right into any standard tripod and the phone goes right in here. This is the tripod that I’m using it’s under $30 and I’ll put a link to it in the notes. What’s really important is that you put your phone in sideways and also make sure that the lens, wherever it is is at eye level. Very Important! Also for a professional-looking video you want to make sure that the background is not distracting and looks professional and reflects your brand and what your brand promises.
5.  Enable the grid mode on your camera. This way you can place yourself in the left or right third a frame so that you can have a bit more of a pro look and it also allows for captions if you decide to use those.
6. You want to plug in your secret weapon: the lav mic. This is so important because bad audio can kill a video. Now there are some phones that have great built-in microphones but if yours doesn’t, it’s a really good idea to invest in one of these.
7. You want to place your notes as close to the lens as you possibly can. That way if you forget something all you have to do is pretend that you’re thinking and just grab the next bullet point and then reconnect with that lens. And speaking of lens ….
8.  You want to make sure that you clean your lens. I recommend that you use the cloth that comes with your eyeglasses. Wipe it up because often with smart phones we get smudges. Our fingerprints are on there and you don’t want to have a cloudy looking video.
9.  Locate that lens. Take your finger and go around until you see your figure get kind of big and then that’s where your lenses because the number one mistake that I see newbee video makers make is that when they’re using their camera in selfie mode they’re looking at their own image instead of connecting to the viewers through the lens. Or doing this because we want to become known liked and trusted and for our viewers to emotionally connect with us we need to make sure that we connect to them through that lens.
10. Imagine you’re speaking to your best friend at a café. When you go on camera you really want to have that intimate warm relationship going and so you can even think or imagine that your favorite client has just called begging you desperate for the information that you’re about to give on a video and then hit record.

Those are my 10 easy steps to help you make videos with your smartphone!