10 Lessons Learned from Delivering 100+ Webinars in 10 Weeks

FIRST, the CONTEXT...

Last June 16, I delivered my 100th webinar in 10 weeks (and still counting). 

In my 27 years in public speaking, corporate training and consulting, I’ve never done a webinar before. Sure, I’ve heard of it several years back. 

But I didn’t need it. My 15-year old training consultancy business - Learning Just Made Better, Inc. (LJMB) - was excelling with the traditional model of in-person, onsite training. We have a yearly average of 40+ corporate clients 70% of which give repeat or long-term business, and we've grown rapidly in the last 5 years as I invested in expanding the team.

Last year, if I told my client I am shifting to pure webinar delivery, I will lose clients for sure. Even outside of the Philippines, training participants and L&D decision makers value the face-to-face in-person interaction between trainer and learners.

Then COVID-19 came. Back in March 16 – the first Monday after the lockdown – all of our 50 training days booked in March-April-May got postponed. During that time, I am unsure of what to do so I checked if fellow speakers and training firms are doing webinars. I didn't see many webinars at the start of the lockdown so I asked, “should I make the plunge?”.

I have 16 other employees whose livelihood depends on the business. Yes we have some savings but back in March it was uncertain how long the crisis will last. I needed to do something to generate revenue.

Last March 27, I posted in my Facebook account (was not active in LinkedIn back then) if people will attend if I deliver a webinar. I got overwhelmed with the response.

The next 4 days – Saturday to Tuesday – my Team was working. We released Facebook posts on a Sunday. Tested platforms on a Monday. Attended to registered participants on a Wednesday.

Last April 1, 2020 I delivered our 1st webinar classes “Leading Teams Through This COVID-19 Crisis” across 3 time slots. The combined attendance that day was almost 1k. There were even participants based in Japan, Italy and UAE. Here's a photo of that April 1 webinar.

I did it every working day in April and in May, even averaging around 3-4 webinars per day on certain weeks. I had a very supportive, very agile team who handled the tech troubleshooting, real-time tech support and event hosting.  

Last June 16, I delivered the 100th. More than half of these were FREE webinars. Some were open to the public, some conducted for LJMB loyal clients. Some companies who didn’t know about us before just saw our FB post and requested sessions too! In a time of crisis, business takes a backseat to helping others. Despite the lockdown, learning and development initiatives, providing information and inspiration to people when they need it most should not be locked down. I jumped to webinars to earn revenue for my team and ended up giving more free sessions than paid ones.

In a time of crisis, business takes a backseat to helping others. Despite the lockdown, learning and development initiatives, providing information and inspiration to people when they need it most should not be locked down. I jumped to webinars to earn revenue for my team and ended up giving more free sessions than paid ones.

NOW the TAKE-AWAYS!

Let’s first discuss a ‘webinar’ or a ‘web seminar’. It is often a 1-hour long session with the primary goal of providing information to attendees. It’s more trainer-centered, generally with less participation from the audience. Virtual classes are generally longer than 1 hour and allow learners to interact not just with the trainer but with each other. As early as first week of May, as organizations wanted more than just the hour-long webinars, I started to deliver virtual classes (3-4 hours long as I integrated more activities including skills practice sessions).

Here are the first 5 of "My Top 10 Lessons from 100 Webinars in 10 Weeks" (the next 5 to be released tomorrow, June 28).

Lesson 1: There is life beyond Zoom – but I’d still go for Zoom any given day. 

I got exposed to 8 platforms! I started using WebinarJam in April 1. It’s a stable platform for webinars with less lags in showing/ moving slides. It has poll features and the standard chat room aside from an “Offers” Page where you can post announcements. It provided me greater control of the class as those who want to speak need to request for access so sessions are not disrupted by people accidentally turning their microphones on. Some of our clients prefer Zoom and Google Meet. Some have IT security constraints and prefer either MS Teams, Cisco Webex, Skype for Business. We even discovered that Alibaba Group of Companies have their own – DingTalk! There is also RingCentral! My top preference is Zoom – easier to connect, easier to use. I love the lay-out and the poll feature that complements the chat room for interaction (others love the changeable background.) I frequently encountered issues using MS Teams from slides turning black or white for some viewers to me getting logged out while speaking (though I generally have strong and stable internet at home). But having used all of these platforms, I am ready to hop on to my next webinar regardless of client preference.

Lesson 2: Time is Gold. Do you want to give content or spark conversations? 

The shorter the time, the less activities you can include. A 1 hour webinar may be tight if you have a lot of content to give. Think of the audience – are they attending to get new content then log-out, or are they attending to participate, ask questions and be heard? If it’s the former, an hour will do (with 5-10 mins allotted for questions through chat). If it’s the latter, you can reduce your content for the 1-hour session and allow for 20-30 mins interaction. Better if time can be extended to 1.5 to 2 hours – you can deliver your content in a well-paced manner and still have 20-30 mins for Q&A. In that case, your webinar now becomes a live virtual class where learners can interact with and speak to each other. If a live virtual class extends beyond 2 hours (in one case we had a 3-hour virtual class), you may need to call for a quick break (5-10 mins).

Lesson 3:  Yes, virtual classes are the next best available thing to in-person, face-to-face training… through ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’ and ‘Speak’ Features! 

My first 9 webinars were 1-hour classes where I shared a lot content from start-to-end. When I know I can only allot 5-10 mins for Q&A, at the start of the webinar, I encourage everyone to post in the chatroom questions, reactions, feelings, ideas, suggestions. The attendees didn't’ disappoint! I got questions as I go along. Some post additional input that I acknowledge on the spot. Some post “Relate!”, “Agree”, “Sana All”, some send emojis! I read comments on the spot - senders appreciate them and make them participate more. Imagine the chatroom bustling with activity while I delivered my prepared content!  

To ensure that I get consistent participation across sessions, I plan my questions, inject a question or topic every 10-15 minutes and cue them for a “Chat with Louie”. So even if I chanced upon a less participative audience, there are 4-6 reflection questions within a 1-hour session that make them think and react. Here's a sample slide with a cue for participants to "Chat with Louie".

The poll feature is great because it’s a break from just typing answers in the chatroom, the participant’s answer is reported anonymously and the bar charts that move up and down, left to right add to the task variety and hence the engagement of the ‘class’.  

However, polling is built-in only in WebinarJam and Zoom. With the other platforms, I used Mentimeter as a second app. Learners need to have 2 gadgets open – possibly a laptop/ desktop for the slide sharing and a phone or tablet for Mentimeter.  I also invited learners to speak – either reserving questions/ participation in the end or asking learners to share insights on-the-spot while we are on a certain topic. I used the latter technique for smaller classes that we delivered exclusively to companies. This technique made learners really listen attentively as they know they may be called anytime. 

For longer virtual classes (1.5 to 2 hours), I incorporated them all – Structured Chats based on my planned questions, Spontaneous Chats based on learner reactions, Poll Questions, calling people on-the-spot to provide brief answers, facilitating Q&A based on questions in the chatroom or allowing learners to speak and either ask or reply to questions. The positive feedback from learners affirms that yes indeed, virtual classes can match the impact of in-person classes!

Lesson 4.    What you do gets magnified as everyone may see you ‘up close’! 

It felt surreal delivering my first 3 webinars last April 1. I was the only person in the room – my bedroom where I was broadcasting. Yet my voice was at performance level. Even if WebinarJam showed just a very small video frame enough to capture my face like a 1x1 photo, I was delivering with gestures all the way until the end. I really loved Zoom and the other platforms as they enabled a wider camera view that allowed the audience to better appreciate my posture and gestures. 

What I like about video calls is that I am able to see myself, monitor my body language and appearance and make adjustments (even if it’s as minor as fixing my collar). I realized that while I am looking at and flashing my slides, the learner has the option to view me instead of the presentation. When they prefer to do that, everything that I do, every micro expression on my face, every change in my body language is amplified and may add to their engagement with or distraction from my key message.

Lesson 5.  Speaking faster than usual worked for me and engaged my audiences better. 

I have the tendency to speak fast, more so when I am extremely passionate about the subject. Because of the added pressure of covering everything within 45-50 mins before the Q&A, I spoke faster than usual (yes, enough to be understood). Fortunately, a friend from the Toastmasters Community (a champion speaker who won in several speaking contests) attended one of my webinars. He initially thought I was speaking fast but the positive impact is that he “listened more intently not wanting to miss any word”.  One of my LJMB teammates also said that “a 2-3 second pause” (which happened when I got distracted by one chat message from someone having connection issues) “was very noticeable” (not unless it’s a ‘pregnant pause’ after your key message that leaves everyone reflecting). I became more conscious of fillers (my Toastmasters training have helped me eliminate them over the years), my pacing and my vocal variety – the unpredictable but appropriate combination of volume, speed, tone and inflection. A predictable way of speaking means ‘monotony’. When your audience depend more on your voice when they are focused on the slide, vocal variety is critical.

Watch out for the 5 other tips tomorrow!