Welcome to The Leveraged Expert, my new twice-weekly video series.

I’m really excited to talk about today’s topic because I get asked this question so often:

“Should I do a live or an on-demand webinar?”

You’ve finally been convinced by the nine hundred emails I’ve sent you about having a webinar for your online business. You’re ready to jump in and start working. Before you even decide if you’re going to use PowerPoint or Keynote or Google Slides, you need to decide whether you should do a live webinar or an on-demand webinar.

When people ask me which they should do, I’m always tempted to say: “Yes, you should do a live webinar . . . AND an on-demand webinar.”

It’s not whether you do either type of webinar – it’s which do you pick to do first.

When people start thinking about a live webinar they think, “oh my gosh, I have to wash the dog. I have to make sure that the kids are away. I have to make sure I’m not getting any packages and it’s not garbage day. Or they think they don’t know when people will be available to attend a live webinar and panic about no one showing up and then they give up on the entire webinar idea.” There are lots of excuses and there are lots of things that are going to try to keep you from going for it.

Mostly though, that is just imposter syndrome getting in your way.

The difference between Live and On-Demand

A live webinar converts better, so it should always be on the table. Don’t let your schedule or your comfort level with video – or a dirty dog – stop you! I can tell you as someone who has never been comfortable with video, that practice is the only thing that will get you over the hump and create comfort with something new.

Still, if it’s too much to think about doing a live webinar, I get it. And I have good news! An on-demand webinar is shorter, more to the point and it will still establish your eminence in your field.

The analogy I like to use is that cooking on a grill obviously gives superior results, but eating food out of the crock-pot is still significantly better than not eating. Something on the grill is going to be more delicious and more exciting. A crock-pot takes 90 seconds of prep and then you don’t have to think about it. Magically your dinner is cooked, it’s edible, and it’s better than not having dinner.

Where my clients start

I usually start my clients with an on-demand webinar. We have tools to make the process easier. Rather than having to sit down and record a webinar in one take they can record one slide at a time.

Why? When they sit down with a beautiful new slide deck and a script all written and excitedly press record – midway through recording the doorbell will ring. The dogs go nuts at a squirrel. The phone rings. Flustered by the interruption, they might start tripping over words and think they have to start over again to get a perfect recording.

But creating a webinar should not be as challenging as learning how to edit videos! So when I am walking people through creating a webinar for their own digital products, I tend to stick with an on-demand webinar. But that beautiful new on-demand slide deck can also be used for a live webinar with a few simple swaps. A new title, an expiring bonus and suddenly your new live webinar is ready.

Whatever you choose to do, do it authentically, because you want to make sure that you are being honest with your people.

There is no need to trick them into thinking, ”Oh my goodness. The webinar starts in eight minutes!” and add in fake interactivity, where you say hello to Sally from Albany. You don’t want to have to trick people into working with you.

Your stuff is too good for that.

On-demand is significantly easier. You don’t need any of those fancy automated webinar solutions that cost hundreds a month. All you need is a gated page where they can watch as soon as they sign up.

So, final answer: do an on-demand webinar first to prove to yourself it’s not that hard. Once you’ve gotten the on-demand done you are 95% done with a live webinar.

Want to check out my on-demand webinar? Just enter your name and email in the form below!
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