Yeah, so we took some of the presentations that we're going to be in this recent fundraising event we did. And we just pulled out 15 second snippets to encourage signups. And we did about five different videos for it. And that got a lot of engagement and interest. So on social media, and then they also, they also used it on email. – Michelle Alvarado

Figuring out the flow of your event is sometimes tricky. And when you'r running your show online it can feel overwhleming to figure out all the video elements you'll need. Michelle Alvarado of Wahoo Films is here to talk today about the power of comgining live and pre-recorded video. Not just for the day of your event, but so you can promote ahead of time AND follow up afterwards.

In this episode you'll learn:

→ the power of combining live and pre-recorded videos
→ how to get started before you start recording or enlist a production team.
→ how to use video to follow up with attendees and raise more money.
→ about getting guest speakers that you wouldn't have been able to with an inperson event.
→ what questions to ask a production team before you hire them, and what you should ask yourself.

Want to skip ahead?  Here are some key takeaways:

[6:29] Record as much as you can ahead of time. This will allow you to control more of the event and have less tech worries. You can set up your videos to look live so people don't notice it's not live as much during your run of show.
[8:50] When it comes to planning get started early. The earlier the better (at least 4 months). Involve a production team early as well if that's something you'll do. Creating the run of show first will also help with the things you'll need to have a successful event.
[16:10] It does help to have quality behind your videos. Take a look at the type of event you're having and make sure your production value matches up with what your goals are. Audio tends to be the biggest issue when people try and do it themselves on a phone for example. You want the online event to be engaging and for people not to focus on things that can be distracting.
[17:50] Using the video you have after the event is also a great way to get more donations. The follow up with donors that maybe didn't give during the event or were so inspired afterwards that they want to give again can be super helpful.
[21:33] With virtual events you have more of an opportuity to bring in guest speakers from all over the country (or the world). These can help draw a cround to your online event. And with recorded video they don't even have to show up live. This can help you with driving attendance.
[30:21] When you go to hire a production company come prepped with a rough outline of what you want your run of show to be so they can understand the scope of the project. You'll also want to ask them to share a show they've done and ask them to run through what their specific responsibilities were so you can understand how they provide support for the event.

Resources

Online Fundraising Virtual Summit

Full Transcript

[INTRO] Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm Sami your host, and today we're talking about how to create video for your live online virtual fundraising event. So, pre recorded versus recorded versus just some different things to think about when it comes to the production of your event and how it all comes together. And to do that, I'm joined by Michelle Alvarado of wahoo films.

It's rare that someone finds her passion at such a young age and follows it doggedly unwilling to be diverted by adolescent winds. But just like her images, Michelle stayed focused. She went to USC cinema and landed jobs at National Geographic Monterey Bay Aquarium and Showtime. In 2005, Michelle founded wahoo films to help organizations better connect with their audience, her genuine passion for her customers is evident in the video marketing campaigns she produces for them to create a positive impact for our environment and communities.

This is a super fun and engaging conversation. And just a different way to think about how you run your event, right? We don't want to just duplicate our gala online, that's not going to be something that converts well or engages well, and then just a fun different way to think about how we create video for our events and how we repurpose that video as we go. And that's what we're going to talk about today. I think you'll really enjoy it. And I would love to hear from you how you're using video to promote your event during your event and to follow up with your donors after the event has happened.

Before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by our online fundraising virtual summit. So this kicks off on Monday, you guys may 17 is a free five day event. Michelle will be there speaking about how you can use your video to promote your event and fill up your seats. And but it's a five day event all geared towards helping you set up fill up and follow up from your online fundraising virtual event. So I hope you'll join us it all kicks off may 17. You can head on over to onlinefundraisingsummit.com to get your free ticket, share it with all your friends. It is jam packed with live q&a, live panels and pre recorded sessions to kind of keep you guys moving forward at whatever level you're at with your online fundraising event. Okay, so again, onlinefundraisingsummit.com. I hope you'll check it out. And I look forward to seeing you there. Let's get into the episode.

[CANNED INTRODUCTION] You're listening to the Digital Marketing Therapy Podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. And each week, I bring you tips from myself and other experts, as well as hot seats with small business owners and entrepreneurs to demystify digital marketing and get you on your way to generating more leads and growing your business.You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. And each week, I bring you tips from myself and other experts, as well as hot seats with small business owners and entrepreneurs to demystify digital marketing, and get you on your way to generating more leads and growing your business.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Hey, everyone, please join me in welcoming Michelle Alvarado from wahoo films. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, thanks for having me.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] I am so excited to talk about video and live events. Because I think it's something that people get nervous about and stressed out about and the tech overwhelms them. So I think you're going to do a great job at kind of calming their nerves. But before we kind of jump into those topics, how did you start creating some of these amazing video pieces and get involved in video production for nonprofits?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, well, as a young lady, around 13, I started I swam and surfed a lot. And I was lucky enough to have somebody let me use their underwater camera. And then I edited the video together. And it just felt really natural for me. And then I started doing it for my school, high school. And it just really, I thought, like, bring people together. But I was always enjoyed watching documentaries, especially about wildlife. And the just the power, that video has to move people to take them places. It just really just captured me and I love the technology and painting a picture with a camera and sound and music and you know, the emotions you can bring. So it just it's a very dynamic medium. And it just it just connected with me.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Well, and I had to say, Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] But yeah, so as far as the nonprofits, I mean, having that passion for nature and people just was a really good connection to be working with nonprofits.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] No, it's so good. And I always have to say whenever I work with a video production team, or a videographer or cinematographer, whatever the title might be, right, I'm always so impressed. Because I don't have the skill set to see the whole thing. Come together. You're doing all these like bits and pieces. But just the ability to kind of see the whole story as you're shooting and then the final product is incredible to me.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate that. It's, it's really fun to visualize stories and, and really to tell them visually, right that's, that's really quite, quite fun to do so and yeah, we're doing that before video was the thing.

Yeah, yeah, it's Yeah, it was all tapes and old big giant cameras. So yeah, so I've been doing a long, long time. And I feel fortunate that now you can put stuff online and anyone from anywhere can can see it and learn about our organization. So it's, it's really exciting medium, but it's also a very busy medium. There's a lot of information out there. So. So now our real focus is how do you swerve enough to really catch people's attention with the stories and content you're telling? And also, you know, potentially have you, you have to put some money behind it or, you know, what are some tricks you can do to rise above?

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Yeah, for sure. It is a noisy world out there. So today, we're talking about online events, and how you know, you can really make them impactful and engaging and less stressful for your team. And one of the ways is to not do everything live. And some people might say, well, that's crazy. Like, if we're not doing it live, how are we engaging? And I know that you have some great thoughts behind how to incorporate kind of that combination of live in and pre recorded.  What's a great way for people to kind of start thinking about that process?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, yeah. So whenever you run a live event, you know, the the technology is, certainly, you're kind of at the whim of it, right. And when you have internet issues on either side, either somebody speaking or somebody streaming out, you know, you can get pretty nerve racking. And so having the opportunity to record as much as you can, is always a good approach.

Obviously, there's some things that need to be live. But if you if it can be recorded, and you can do it in a way that feels live, if you want to then that will help reduce the amount of technical issues you'll have in your event. And so I usually say, start out by laying out a run of show and really looking at it and seeing, you know, what, what could we do record it? And then where do we need to run it live.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] I used to run a big gala, for a previous employer. And one of my like shining moments was when we did ours, it was like a two hour event with, you know, live auction and all of that. And we ended our run of show two minutes late, like two minutes. And I was so proud of myself for that. Because one of the other things is, you know, you have board members that are speaking or advocates that are speaking and you can't control if it's recorded, then you can control that timing and make sure that everything still stays on track as well.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Right? Yeah, that does help, I would say in shifting from a live event, for in person event to a live stream event, you would want to have a shorter event. Because there isn't as much movement or they're not eating or you know, there's sort of so having having a bit of a shorter event would also be a good a good start. And yeah, you do get a little more control on on that as well on the link.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So when it comes to technology, I'd love it if maybe you could share, you know, if we're gearing up to hiring a production company, which is ultimately going to produce the least amount of stress. What are some ways when it gets started that you can kind of manage that run of show? If you don't have a strong tech background?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, definitely partnering with somebody is helpful. And in the production group. If you do not all Video Productions do run live virtual events, online events. So I would I would say definitely bring them in early and then determine what kind of show you want. So do you want an auction? That would influence obviously, what software you're going to use as well as the flow of the show? Do you want to have a q&a, you know, is give us a main speaker? And then you want to have a question and answer at the end. That would be so yeah, so I think really determining what obviously, what is your goal and what kind of show Do you want to have? And who is your audience?

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So okay, so then when it comes to planning for your event, and like how far in advance when you're working with clients, like how far in advance Are you building out that run up show so that you can then pre record that content to get everything ready and then kind of the next phase of that which I know you're very passionate about then being able to use that pre recorded content to promote your event before it even starts. Right?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Bingo. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, ideally, if you could start four months ahead of time would be a great number. depending on the complexity and size of your show, and how many people are involved. You know, that would be a minimum, we have run shows in two months, and then everyone's going crazy, crazy, and you don't have as much time to, you don't have as much material to promote it, which I think is, is really valuable.

So I would say, if you could have four months to start planning your run a show, then the material you create, for the show can be repurposed into little teasers that can then promote people to sign up and get them going. And, yeah, and we love also being involved in the like, the emails that go out, or you may even if you send out a print out, you know, having some of the materials in there, some of the visuals can really grab people and get them excited about attending your event.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So I mean, I think if you're doing printed things with QR codes, it's so easy now that people don't have to have apps to open them. And if it pops up in a video right away, that's super engaging from Yeah.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, so we took some of the presentations that we're going to be in this recent fundraising event we did. And we just pulled out 15 second snippets to encourage signups. And we did about five different videos for it. And that got a lot of engagement and interest. So on social media, and then they also, they also used it on email.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So yeah, so then when it comes to so you touched a little bit on obviously, like a two hour gala is going to be different than an online event because of the you know, social interaction, eating food, yada, yada. Um, so do you have any recommendations for folks, when it comes to kind of little snippets and video pieces, how long they should be, in order to keep people engaged with the movement of the event?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, that would be another thing that would be different from an in person event is you want things a bit shorter, we would suggest and move them along. So you know, everyone's taste is different. Our recommendation is you have some sort of high energy short segments, and then potentially a longer reflective segment potentially, perhaps while you want them to, to work on picking items from the auction or a paddle raise. But the best shows, I feel that that we've been involved with are the ones that have short video snippets, let's say 30 seconds to two a minute, that highlight different aspects of the organization, what they do, and then they're just sort of peppered through the show.

So for example, one might talk about like the kids involvement, and how they bring kids out to grow in some way. And it's about the one minute and then then you have maybe the board of directors share a poem or something like that. And then the auctioneer comes on and asks to for some fundraising effort. And then they show another one minute video about the environmental impact that they're having on the community. And and then maybe it's you go to a performer for a little bit you know, spreading out the value of your organization and little different pieces throughout the video, the the event and I feel like those hit people in different ways. And just really helped to,to really show your value but not all in one five minute video like we used to do. Now it's more a little more spread out. And I would recommend the segment's be shorter, you know, maybe 30 seconds to three minutes before you change up kind of like a I say, like, kind of like a TV show or new show thing where things change a lot.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Yeah, well, and I like what you said about how each little snippet is maybe hitting different people in a different way. Because when you're in a big live in person event, you might have people that are there for various reasons, right? They might be there because they really care. They might be a table host and they might have dragged some people along that have no idea about what your organization is. So by having some of those short little snippets here, kind of maybe hitting people where they are. So that then you can continue to do that follow up afterwards.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, yeah, that's a great point that you have some time some new people with you And so yeah, not assuming they already know all the great things about you and, and I felt like spreading it out a little bit to it just like oh, they do this and they do this and then it just kind of built it up throughout the whole show. And also on an auction, you know, it sort of inspired different reasons for paddle raising.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Yeah, that's, that's a great point. If we are a new organization, or not a new organization, but we're new to doing this online thing, we're finally doing video production for the first time. Do you feel like, you know, even if it's just getting started with your team that you have, and like an iPhone camera that people are just kind of starting to create is okay. I mean, they don't have to go straight to full on production. Immediately, right? It's just a matter of capturing the right stories.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, yeah, yes, um, you know, I think it depends on what part it is. So, um, you know, if you're taking people to a place and you want to highlight a place, then having some quality behind, it does help, you know, working with a production company, but if, like, for example, we encouraged all the board board, director, board members to come on and like, say, a message, so recite a poem is what they came up with. And that worked just fine as a zoom meeting, but you know, the audio was all over the place, and the quality was sort of, but it, it was okay, because people understood, you know, we're, we need to do, it's online, you know, people can't come all to a single place. And it got, and we got to meet all the board members through this sort of creative effort. So, I think, you know, audio tends to be the biggest problem, yeah, we'll have when we resume or with, you know, using their own phone. And so that's probably where it gets tricky.

So you know, doing it in a room where there's no wind or no distractions, that kind of stuff can really work well. So, yes, I think, so what we tend to do is we partner with the nonprofit and we say, Okay, this part will take care of, and you take care of this part, just to try to keep it to be cost effective for them. And, and, you know, we've even lent out our mics, and he helped in that way, just to help that along. Because, yeah, ultimately, we want to see them make money and not put it all in the event.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Right. So yeah, so I think some things, yes, some things you can do on your own, some things are worth getting somebody professional to do it. Well, and I feel like too, when you work with a professional company, you end up with more content than you need for the event, which can then lead to more content that you can use later on. Right.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, and we've talked about this where, you know, actually asking for additional donations afterwards is really effective. And you can use some of that content for a follow up afterwards. People who maybe were just busy at that time and or something came up, right? Or, yeah, so you can still grab some of that audience or people who had to sleep on it, you know, right, right. Right. Yeah, and you can use it for like later down the line when, you know, maybe around the holidays or so that's one great thing about online shows now, because they are so video heavy, you can actually take a lot of that material and use it later on in a year.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Because most people aren't really charging for the online ticket or they're charging much less than they would for like a dinner because you're not having to pay for the ballroom and you're not having to pay for the meal. Right? So if you're not charging as much for the ticket, you don't feel as bad about repurposing that content and using it again, like oh, we it should be exclusive to the people that paid to be there to see it. And so I think everything that you do investment you make in creating high quality video can be used over multiple times over the course of the year.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah. And you know, and we will find creative ways to make it look a little different and people's memories are right, you know, they're not gonna remember it so well that if you change it up a little bit new music, maybe different order than it feels new again. So yeah, it's really how do you maximize all this effort you're putting in and and reuse it? As as much as you can. And but yeah, kind of creatively come up with some new ways.

I do want to just say really quick that, you know, technology is it can be there are a lot of choices out there different software platforms you can use. They've come a long way this year. Obviously, there's so much more demand that they've they've, I mean, we're so grateful that they they're much more than if you've heard a few horror stories. It's very likely that those things kinks have been fixed because there's been so much money being thrown into, into the running these these online events. So, but yeah, I think any partner you work with can help give some some ideas. But there are a lot of software choices out there. And so, but but the ones we've been working with lately have been pretty chunky, but it does depend on what kind of it you want.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So yeah, I think that's really critically important. If you start down the tech rabbit hole first, you're going to get overwhelmed, as opposed to just saying, okay, we want our event to look like this, this is what we're going to do. And I'm curious, because, you know, one of the things that got brought up last week, in our podcast episode with Daryl Hatton was, um, if you just take your existing event and try to duplicate it online, that experience doesn't really translate. And so you do kind of need to rethink what so it might just be that as replacing your gala, or replacing your run, walk or whatever. But um, you know, have you seen any creative ways that organizations have maybe tweaked and refined some of their events that they've had to then just take online?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Hmm. Um, well, I think what's really exciting about online events is you can, you can really bring in people from anywhere, and we've had a few events that have brought in artist or speakers from other areas outside that really have something to add. That couldn't have been couldn't have come to the live of that. So you really get to expand your thinking we had a live piano out in the desert playing outside. Wow. Pretty neat. Yeah, pretty unique. And, you know, we did one for where we had a, we had a camera with the the fox, you know, with the gray fox, and you know, that type of thing you wouldn't be able to see. So it is neat, because you do now you're not limited to your just your community.

So and that goes also for your donor opportunity, too, is now you have an opportunity to reach out to people outside, which is, you know, will take some time to grow and develop. But yeah, I know where I live. There's people who love to visit here. And so that's a potential list you could connect with, for sure.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Well, and I'm in Phoenix as we're recording this. And so I'm also thinking like, I used to live down here, when I was doing fundraising special events, we jam packed them all into like a five month period, because that's when people were here. And now everybody's getting ready to leave for the summer. And so what does that do for opening up the opportunities to host a summer event online, when you're not quite quite as crazy with everything else in your life in person things and still be able to include your regular donors?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, absolutely. And there is a lot of talk going on right now about hybrid events, as things are opening up. So maybe that's the future podcast.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Yeah, hybrid events are? Oh, yeah. Well, I know I think about that with teachers right now, the poor teachers that are having to teach in person and still provide the online experience for those students. And it's just like, that's what the hybrid, right, yeah, anyway, but it's incredible. And I think an opportunity to be able, like you said, to build on your base, and continue to grow outside of your network. Because speaking of schools, like my kids used to go to a private school, and their grandparents would happily give money to the school, they're never going to attend an event in person because they don't live in the same location we are. But if there wasn't a hybrid opportunity, and we you know, said, Hey, grandparents, could you join and learn more about the school your grandkids are going to, they might be able to get a bigger gift from them.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, yeah. I like that. I would also say that maybe one shift from in person because it part of it in person is is mingling too, right. And, and so, one, you know, you could consider like breakout meet you bring outs to have people mingle. There is software that allows you to do that.You know, you have to think about how you can creatively have a reason for them to mingle, but there's that idea. Um, you know, I would recommend on an because online. That was, the online event is a different type of event. So I will say that in the attendance that we've seen the best is typically somebody who draws people to your event. So, you know, before it may be more, it is still about your cause and the value of supporting organization, but I will say, with an online event, if you want, especially want to get new people having a speaker or a musician or something that bit of a headline that has had pretty significant impacts that sometimes cost money.

So I understand that's not always easy, but just something to consider is if you want to really have the opportunity to draw people in because it's, you can pick grab somebody from anywhere, right? You know that that expands your your connections, if someone has a connected to somebody famous or somebody that can really draw a lot of people want to that end. That's another beauty of being able to have a pre recorded piece because it is virtual. So it's not like a video of somebody playing at a stage where the audience is live, right? People don't necessarily see the difference if that is recorded and done, right. They don't even have to necessarily show up live at that time, which also opens up more opportunity to engage and bring in people in that kind of situation.

Yeah, yeah, yes. And even if Yeah, even if they're at a distance, having them recorded on their own or even recording, even if it's going to be on zoom, we still recorded as much as we possibly could, with some tricks to make it feel live, which I'll talk about in the summit coming up. And so, now, I'm realizing I'm dating it. Yeah. But yeah, I think the that is, yeah, recording that ahead of time would be really, really valuable.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN]  So yeah, I cuz I used to work for Boys and Girls Club. And I know, that was one of the things was like bringing in alumni that have been really successful. And a lot of times they wanted to come speak at our events. But, you know, due to scheduling, they couldn't. So you know, you kind of pack that one two punch of like, here's an alumni that's come through our program, look at how well they're doing. Plus, there's somebody famous that people will want to, to see. So yeah, really brilliant idea and kind of having that keynote speaker.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah. And that's where, you know, planning ahead of time before maybe even five months ahead of time is because you can do a lot of it pre recorded. Being able to have that time to get people doing their making their videos, making sure they're, they're going to work and whatnot. Sometimes people have stuff already recorded that they can share and put in the show. Yeah, that does help a lot and makes it easier for us. And they can do it on their own schedule. So all of those things really helped to make make an event more In fact, we've, we recently had one that was fully recorded, and it just ran as a YouTube premiere. So it premiere would make it seem like it was a live show. But it was all all pre recorded and it went out. It was perfect. No, technically, it's actually more affordable, too, because you don't have to have a Live Crew switching between everything, the live person and the pre recorded and the slides.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] And yeah, and then was their team just live in the chat during that time.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yep, yeah, they had the team live in the chat. And then they did have the software was taking the paddle and auction and raising that and so they could bring up on the website. They could have messages about how their how their fundraising is going and stuff like that. So it was like they ran their paddle and their live auction pre recorded. With the video running pre recorded. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So it's all on one page. And then you could click click a new page to tab and kind of side by side. Yeah. Yeah. So I do think having a live auction there is kind of a bit more fun energy. And so if you if you have the budget to do it, I would say that is a lot more fun, especially because they can even call out names of who's donating or Yeah, it's just, it's it is more fun. Yeah.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN]  Michelle you give it a lot of really great tips before we wrap up I do want to touch on if somebody never hired a production team before or even done like taking that next step. What kinds of things might they either a want to be prepped before they go to hire a video production team or want to make sure they ask 1uestions about that they may not, you know, think about like, you know, the terminology that we all use within our own industries that they, you know, they might not know what a run of show is, or, you know, some of the questions around, like, how many videos do you want? How long do you want them to be, which are all going to kind of go into the cost of a production company, like what might be some of the things they might want to think about before they start to interview companies and figure out how they're going to move forward in that process?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] So that's a great question. First, I would qualify the production company that you're working with. And to do that, I would ask them to share a sample of a show they've done and walk you through what they've what they did on those shows that will help you understand what their role was, and their experience. And if it's a good match, if they can handle all the aspects you want them to handle, it also will give you a lot of information on how a show is run.

And then I would say to be able to fit it. Yeah, they will likely need a run of show at least a pretty draft, good draft of one. And that'll help we typically give a range just to wait and really make sure we know what we have involved in the show.

And I would say you know, if they also encourage, to work with you in the way you want to work with. So perhaps they, you know, they if you want to know like what part you should take on and what part they'll take on. But I would say one part that probably people often overlook is just the sort of the management of the show. And really like making sure you hit deadlines, somebody to always be able to communicate with to know where things are at having a shared folder. So, you know, potentially check their references and whatnot. But yeah, just sort of making sure because it is a deadline, just really making sure that they're going to hit those that they like, making schedules and have dates to earlier, you know, four months, roughly being able to plan is only going to allow you to have the best quality possible. So the more time you give it, the better quality you're going to have.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN]  I mean, you can rush everything all day, but that's when errors happen. And then you don't end up with something that you want to use over and over again.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Right. So you don't want to invest in that money if it can't be repurposed. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really it's a it is important to, I mean, especially if it's a fundraising event, too. Do it right. So, yeah, yeah. Yeah. If anyone has questions, we're happy to chat and help help guide them along.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] Well, what um, what are you know, as we wrap this up, like, what are the things that maybe are last minute kind of touch of wisdom as people are maybe trying to navigate into going into more video and feeling overwhelmed? Like, what would your advice be about getting them to just get going and just get started?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, I would say, I love brainstorms. And so just take a piece of paper and write out all ideas of what feel, what type of show you want it to be, and then all of the things that you could include in in it. So it's kind of I get excited about the fact that there's more opportunity in the sense of, you know, you can add people from any location. Certainly getting a few other colleagues around to brainstorm is also really fun. To see what connections they have for who you want in your show. I'd say that would be a good start. And yeah, don't get too caught up in searching for your technology, because that that can be overwhelming. And then talk to a few other production companies that run live stream. Or, you know, if you have somebody who runs your event, that can be a great start as well. And yeah, so hopefully that helps.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] That's great. Michelle, if people want to learn more about you and wha wha hoo films, how do they find you guys?

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, it's a wahoo. It's wahoofilms.com. And you can contact us there or our office is 541-585-3456. And we love working with nonprofits we do all over the US and what's really nice about having it being online is you can work with anyone, anywhere.

We also support students. So we have a really experienced crew that also works with some students to get them further along in their skill set. And so we really give, try to give back to the community as well.

And we also have our own nonprofit, you know, discount rates and, and gifts we give out as well. So yeah, so it's full circle.

[SAMI BEDELL-MULHERN] So great. I love it. practice what you preach so much. Yeah, thank you for joining us, Michelle. I really, really appreciate it.

[MICHELLE ALVARADO] Yeah, same. Thanks for having me, and I look forward to continue the conversation.

[CLOSING] Big thanks to Michelle. Again, if you want to check out all the links that she shared, you can head on over to thefirstclick.net/podcast. Check out the show notes. There's also a link there so you can grab your free spot in the online fundraising virtual summit, where Michelle will also be a speaker. But I thank you so much for listening. I hope you'll head on over to wherever you listen and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. We come to you every single Tuesday. And if you happen to be on Apple Apple podcasts, make sure you leave us a little review so that more people can find us and we can continue to support more nonprofits in growing and reaching their missions and supporting their communities. For now, I'll see in the next one